Chapter Eleven

Liam Payne and Harry Styles walked down the high street after their small, yet deep conversation on the bench. The subject matter was past gone now, and they were both back to simply talking about anything that came to mind, whether it was Andy and Louis’ daily schemes and charades, or simply an annoyed conversation about a certain teacher that was being an arsehole at that particular time. Liam and Harry always had something to talk about.

They strolled down the street, dropping into Costa to grab a couple of drinks before continuing their walk through town. Cars and buses were continuously bombing around streets. Every so often, there would be a slight car horn, of a stubborn driver that seemed to think that the streets belonged to them. There were the cyclists that seemed to bike around the cars as they all stopped in a line at a red light, using the jams like some sort of obstacle course like they were getting some sort of pure enjoyment from it. Some of the cars stopped only for zebra crossings, which had small gatherings of school children with high backpacks and long school skirts waiting patiently to cross the hectic roads of Bradford.

Harry couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at the slight helplessness of the lower years. There was something about the lower years that seemed so innocent. Whether it was the way that they seemed to scurry down the school corridors in fright that they would be told off for being late to lessons, or whether it was just the fact they seemed to live in this bubble where all they saw was the big bad people of the world. In a busy school corridor qt the change of lessons, the lower years eyes would scan the crowds and spot out the loud bullies first, or the tall teachers that bellowed and screamed at the students who were wearing their uniform wrong, or being too loud as they made their way around the school.

As Harry took his green eyes away from the crossing, he couldn’t help but feel his mind go back to the image of Zayn Malik. Whenever Harry and Zayn were locked up in that little art closet, Harry always felt like some busy driver, the experienced out of the two, the one who had somewhere to go, something to do with his life. He offered the bag of Doritos over to Zayn, like a driver would stop and let a schoolchild walk across the road at a crossing.

Of course, Zayn was like those small school children. Big brown eyes that were full of wonder, yet at the same time, they were full of hurt. It was obvious that things had happened to him over the years to turn him into the person he was today, along with some other factors, Harry supposed, but even though his eyes seemed upset, the small innocent smile on his face was almost refreshing.

Zayn’s eyes were like a rich chocolate brown colour, but dark cracks of a deeper brown colour seemed to go through them, like the cracks to reflect on his past. Harry knew that if it wasn’t for the constant guilt he found around Zayn, or this certain feeling of protectiveness, that Zayn’s eyes would be the reason that Harry kept going back to hang out with him. Those perfectly cracked eyes kept him running back. Every single time.

“Earth to Harry!” Liam called, pulling him out of the way of a cyclist that was heading down the path. Harry stumbled a little, leaning on Liam’s side, before he found his balance and shook his head to bring himself from his deep cloud of thought.

“Sorry, dude, don’t know what the hell came over me.” Harry chuckled, once he had regained his balance. A wide grin spread across his cheeks, forcing both of his dimples to pop from his cheeks as if to say their own thanks to Liam. Liam simply rolled his eyes, even though the smile on his face told Harry that he was only being playful.

“Don’t worry, lots of people seem to start day dreaming about me while they’re in my presence. Was it the long beach walk this time, or maybe the wedding? The wedding one is always popular,” Harry quickly cut off Liam’s ego with a shove into the ribs. Liam yelped, before sending a frown in Harry’s direction.

“Hey, pull up your bottom lip before you trip on it.” Harry teased, nudging his friend once more but more playfully this time. Liam simply laughed before he pushed his face towards Harry’s with a wide, cheesy smile, almost tripping the boy over slightly. Harry pushed him off with a laugh, before they continued their stroll through the high streets.

“I fancy some more food…let’s go buy some chocolate or something from Poundland.” Liam suggested with a slight shrug, and suddenly the pound that had been in Harry’s pocket started to burn.

“Sounds good to me! Let’s go!” Harry replied, before the two boys started to head towards the shop. It was only a few metres away, and Harry fished the pound out from his pockets as they walked towards the entrance.

“Liam! LiLi!” the shout from behind came loudly, and Harry smiled at the recognition of the voice, but Liam’s eyes rolled around his lids before he let out a tight sigh, when he realised that his brother was once again calling for him. The two boys turned around, to see that Niall was indeed behind them, and was smiling and waving madly at them, while dragging his and Liam’s Mum behind him excitedly. Niall’s hand left his Mum’s and the fourteen year old torpedoed into Liam. Niall’s small face lit up as he wrapped his arms around Liam’s middle, his small eyes closed but his smile wide.

“Niall, put the poor boy down.” Their Mother told them when she reached them, before she sent a warm smile in the direction of both Harry and her eldest son. Niall seemed to do what his Mum said, and let go of Liam, but turned to Harry and engulfed him into a hug. Harry simply chuckled and gave the short boy hug, before ruffling up his hair. Niall nuzzled into Harry’s big hands like some sort of kitten.

“What are you two up too, then? No good, I suppose.” Their Mother laughed, as she looked fondly at Niall, who was now giggling away as Harry ruffled up his hair.

“Just getting some food.” Liam replied, rather blankly, as he looked at his Mum and itched the back of his head with a small smile.

“Filling yourself up on sugar so that you don’t eat the good things you need when you get home.” Liam’s Mother chuckled, and Liam smiled more, but more bashfully.

“I love the good things you make, Mum!” Niall quickly jumped in, before he let go of Harry and turned towards his Mum with a wide smile. She chuckled a little and nodded, as she reached out to her youngest son to take his hand.

“I know, and I love it when you wash up the dishes afterwards. Now, we better get going.” Their Mother spoke once more, and Harry couldn’t help but chuckle, before turning to Liam and calling him lazy, which made Niall laugh loudly.

“We’re off to get him some more school shoes, I don’t know what it is, but your brother gets through them so easily and I just don’t get it.” She spoke once again, before giving Niall a wide grin and a pat to the back of his hand. Niall quickly turned in excitement towards Harry and Liam.

“We’re getting new shoes! Do you guys want to come? I want some shoes like Liam’s, I always pick out ones like LiLi’s shoes, cause he always looks cool!” Niall started once again, before leaping forward and jumping inbetween Harry and Liam. Niall slid his hands into the two boys, which made Harry chuckle, even though Liam shrugged off his younger brother’s hold on him.

“Liam is a pretty cool guy.” Harry chuckled, which made Niall nod ecstatically, as he tried to keep Liam’s hand in his. Niall was a pretty cuddly and tactile guy, Harry still remembered when he had gone to Liam’s house for the first time when the rest of their family were there.

Normally Liam only invited Harry around when his house was free, so that the two boys could be home alone, but Harry had gone to Liam’s so that they could both walk to town together one Saturday morning. That morning, the minute that Harry had knocked on the door, young Niall had come running up to the door and greeted him with a loud voice but a huge smile. Ever since then, Niall had always been happy around Harry.

“Niall, we don’t want to walk around and buy shoes with you, Mum’s buying you some.” Liam spoke, before he pulled Niall away from Harry and towards their Mother, like some sort of toddler rather than the fourteen year old that Niall was. 

“Liam.” His Mother told him, in a testing way, with one of her eyebrows raised slightly above the other.

“What?” Liam asked, flinging his arms around like he had done nothing wrong, before his hands slipped into his trouser pockets like the moody teenager that he was. Niall was stood quietly next to his Mother, his arms wrapped around hers as the boy clung onto her, his bright blue eyes full of sadness. Harry decided that he should step in.

“We can’t hang out tonight, buddy, but we should totally pick you out some new shoes another time. Me and Liam can bring you into town on the bus and we can get some food and shopping done, yeah? How’s that?” Harry offered with a wide smile. Niall looked up from the floor and into Harry’s eyes, full of wonder.

“Really? Could we go to Nandos? Have you ever been to Nandos, Harry? We always go on my birthday, and we’re going again this year!” Niall spoke excitedly, which caused his Mum to chuckle a little and pat his hand once again.

“Your birthday isn’t until September, Niall.” Liam spoke bluntly, which made him receive another look from his Mother.

“So, would you want to come into town with me and Liam some time, Niall?” Harry quickly asked again, looking from Niall and his Mum to make sure that it was okay. She smiled gratefully at him, before turning to Niall with a smile.

“Yes!” Niall yelled excitedly, before he gave Harry another big hug, which made Liam roll his eyes.

“Cool, I’ll text Liam to arrange some sort of date, yeah? And Nandos sounds awesome, I’ve never been so you’ll have to teach me what the best thing is on the menu.” Harry smiled, even though it was a slight lie. He had been to Nandos once or twice before, but Harry just wanted to make the small kid happy.

“I’ll teach you everything, Harry! I’m so excited! Mum, me, Harry and Liam are going to go to Nandos and buy shopping!” Niall yelled excitedly, bouncing back over to his Mum and hugging her. She chuckled to herself and shushed him a little.

“I know, I heard. Now, say goodbye to the boys, and we’ll go get your shoes.” Their Mum spoke again, before she looked up at Liam as Niall waved excitedly at Harry.

“Do you need any shoes, darling?” She asked Liam, and Liam shook his head, barely giving a voiced response. She nodded and smiled, and Harry couldn’t help but look at Liam with a slight frown for treating his family like this.

“Right, we’ll be off then. See you boys later!” Their Mother smiled, before waving at them both and pulling Niall along, who was yelling goodbyes and waving down the high street as they headed towards wherever his Mum wanted to buy school shoes. They watched them go before Liam rolled his eyes and pulled Harry into Poundland so that they could get their food.

“I don’t get how I’m related to him sometimes, honestly.” Liam grumbled, as they walked into the shop door and was greeted by the air conditioning blowing cool air onto them.

“Li, he’s your younger brother.” Harry quickly scolded him, a frown settling on his face as he looked over his best friend. Liam quickly looked up at him with a frown.

“Try living with him, he looks cute when he’s shouting at you in the street but wait until you see his tantrums. A fourteen year old having a tantrum because he hasn’t slept enough over the night really is fucking annoying.” Liam quickly snapped, and Harry tilted his head with a frown.

“Liam, he can’t help how he is.” Harry spoke sternly, which seemed to hit Liam somehow. Liam let out a short huff of air before he turned away from Harry and started to march off, and so Harry slipped his hands into his pockets and followed Liam, knowing that he would be in some kind of bad books for this. Well, for a while atleast, but Harry just didn’t get what Liam had when it came to Niall. Niall couldn’t help how he was, just like Zayn couldn’t. But, while they were trying to figure out the world around them, the world was trying to figure out them in just the same way.

A/N: Sorry about the long updates! I was on my holiday, or vacation, but I'm back and everything is back to normal. :) Thanks for your patience! Love always <3