Chapter Twenty Three

Harry Styles plodded into the sixth form common room with a lazy smile on his face. He had had another refreshing lunchtime with Zayn, and he had to admit, the more lunches that they both had, the brighter the day seemed for him. An hour with Zayn Malik a day in their tiny little art closet really could refresh his mind, Harry guessed that that was one reason why he kept going back to hang out with Zayn.

Those big brown eyes full of innocence reminded Harry that not everything in this world was screwed up or messed up, and it wasn’t all bad. There was still something precious, something to look forward too. Harry supposed that that was one of the main things he admired most about Zayn, that pure innocence that he carried with him, it was almost enough to make Harry wish that he could see the world through the other boy’s eyes, too. But then he realised how truly fragile the boy was, and quickly thanked whoever was listening up high that he was born as he was. 

His green eyes quickly made contact with Louis and Andy first. The two boys were sat on a couple of sofa chairs in the corner of the common room. Those chairs in particular were basically known as their little group’s chairs, and they always sat there together. The boys were sprawled out messily across the small space, their bags half open on the floor and spewing their contents of books and pens across the rough carpet of the common room.

A smirk was slapped onto Louis’ face, as his blue-grey eyes were hooked onto the mobile phone in his hands. Some new girl was on the scene for either Andy or himself, and the two were reading the texts messages that had been exchanged. They had a habit of doing that, comparing ‘notes’ as such, boasting against each other on who had scored the most. Andy was sat watching Louis excitedly, even though his eyes kept scanning across to the third person sat on the small sofas.

Liam Payne would be sat with a face like thunder. His dusty brown hair was perched above his head framing his perfect yet miserable face. His brown eyes looked misted with annoyance, and Harry couldn’t help but smile. Liam’s mood swings were fairly laugh worthy at times, especially when they were over something silly.

Hearing the boy curse and moan after losing a piece of work or his phone deciding to not co-operate really was something that made Harry chuckle, but only behind closed doors. The last time he had laughed at one of Liam’s ‘baby tantrums’, as they called them, he had ended up being shunned for a week. A very long, awkward week.

The first to look up and see Harry coming over was Andy. He flashed a grin in Harry’s direction, before looking back at Louis. Harry flung his bag down and flopped down onto the small sofa with a sigh. Louis looked up at him with a cheeky smirk, passing the phone in his hands back to Andy.

“Hazz!” Louis greeted, and Harry smiled back, before two cold brown eyes suddenly torpedoed into his own, and the curly haired boy looked up to be met with the cold look that Liam Payne was sending him.

“You alright?” Harry greeted them all, looking away from his moody best friend and towards Andy and Louis instead. Liam would stay quiet, and Louis leaned forward.

“Yeah, but we’ve been trying to track you down all lunch! Liam,” Louis started, and Harry slowly glanced over to Liam, as the boy finally spoke up. Brown eyes flashed a hint of mischief, and Harry wondered what exactly he had missed when he had been in the art closet with Zayn, avoiding the rest of the world as much as possible.

“Made you lunch. But we all forgot that you were in Business revision, and you kind of went AWOL for a bit.” Liam chuckled, and suddenly his harsh facial features melted into a soft smile. As Andy and Louis chuckled a little too, Harry couldn’t help but wonder why one minute Liam looked like a broke kid in a sweet shop, and then a rich kid in a sweet shop the next.

“You made me lunch?” Harry’s voice left his mouth, his words wrapped quietly in guilt. He’d been so busy making lunch for him and Zayn’s secret little meetings, he hadn’t realised that maybe Liam had wanted to hang out with him too…

“Yeah. I know how hard you’ve been studying lately with your business studies so I figured I’d make us lunch, I put a bench under the tree on the playing fields an everything, but, you never showed up.” Liam explained. His two brown eyes slowly looked away from Harry, as he reached into his bag and pulled out a small book. Harry’s green eyes caught the title and recognised it as one of Liam’s favourites that they’d both read once before.

Harry couldn’t say anything, he was too caught up on the pile of words that were sat in his mouth, like a horse’s bit. He’d never felt so guilty; that caused him to scoff. He felt ten times more guilty when he was sat next to the precious body of Zayn Malik then he was a few metres away from Liam Payne. But, nevertheless, he still felt guilty. From his own lies of his whereabouts, Liam had tried to be kind, which Harry had ended up missing out on. His heart hung heavily as his conscience rumbled a ironic laugh to the boy.

“I’m sorry…” Harry mumbled quietly, before he looked up from his big hands and up at Liam again, his conscience eating him alive. His green eyes met Liam’s eyes, and a smug smile was on Liam’s face, causing the younger boy to be confused.

“It’s fine, babe. Like I said, you were at revision. I even came up at one point to see if you were there, and you were. You were just sat there with your apple and your eyes stuck on the textbook. You work so hard, I’m sure you’re grades will benefit so much from so much revision.” Liam went on, the smug smile still on his face as his brown eyes slowly sucked in each word from the book in his hand.

Harry’s heart suddenly jumped out of place and gripped onto his ribcage as if clinging for dear life. Had Liam just said what he thought he had? Harry had sworn that Liam had seen him in revision, which would be true and very plausible if it was true. But Harry wasn’t in revision, and as far as he knew, there wasn’t even such a thing as business studies revision. His heart kept on beating against his ribcage.

Why on Earth would Liam say that? Harry’s eyes widened a little. At this point, Louis and Andy had given up with listening to Liam and Harry, and were back to sending each other random photos of each other, pulling strange faces. It was just Harry and Liam involved in the conversation now, even though Harry wanted to pull out too. Liam knew something Harry didn’t, and Harry needed to find out.

“Very, very cute when you revise.” Liam spoke once again, piercing Harry from his bubble of fear. Harry quickly looked up to see that Liam was shutting his reading book with a smug smile. Andy was looking at Liam, chuckling a little.

“Will you guys buttfuck already? Jeez, pansies.” Andy jeered playfully, before leaning forward and letting out a loud laugh.

This caused Louis to burst out laughing, and Liam rolled his eyes as the school bell rang out, signalling the sixth formers to attend their fourth lesson if they had one. Harry could only blush and stare at Liam with wide green eyes, as the boy stood up and shoved his schoolbag over his shoulder. Liam walked around the sofa, ruffling up Louis’ hair as he walked around before he stopped next to Harry with a smug smile.

“Meet you after fifth lesson? You owe me, after all.” Liam spoke softly, even though his words were still thick with control. Harry quickly nodded before watching Liam smirk and walk off to his lesson, before getting up from the soft sofa in readiness for his own lesson. Liam James Payne knew something, and that set Harry trembling in his shoes in fear of just what he knew.

Harry Styles stood by the wall outside the school changing rooms.  Liam had just had double P.E, and since Harry had only had double business, the irony of having that lesson making him crumple a little inside, he had figured he would stand outside of the gym changing rooms and wait for Liam. The loud shouts and jeers of the boys that were changing inside were echoing through the walls, which would have normally made Harry smirk and laugh a little, especially when he heard Andy Samuels at the head of it all, but there was a strange grinding feeling at the bottom of his stomach as he awaited Liam.

He gave a slight groan at the thought of the oncoming conversation with Liam. Liam wouldn’t have just said that he had seen Harry revising in class for no reason. It was obvious to both boys that Liam had obviously caught Harry out of revision, but whether Liam had actually seen where he was instead was the real question.

The last thing Harry needed right now was for Liam to blurt out that he had seen Harry with Zayn. Harry really didn’t want that; because that would go on to cause a lot of explanation. Harry could already hear the why’s and what’s that would leave Liam’s lips start to circle around his head. He sighed and ruffled up his hair, closing his eyes for a moment as he leaned against the wall.

A few small groups of the other sixth formers that did the A Level P.E course bounded out of the P.E changing rooms like sweaty, but excitable puppies, and Harry watched them go with envious jade eyes. He wished that he could just sprint off and never have to deal with the questions that he knew he was about to face from Liam, but of course, his curiousity was already too much and he kind of did want to know what Liam had exactly seen. That’s one reason he was sticking around to meet Liam, to find out the truth.

Eventually, the door to the changing rooms slowly opened, and a glowing Liam walked through the door. His school uniform was still smart, even after he had had to get changed in and out of it, and his once small quiff was now lazily laid out on his forehead, making the boy look cute, Harry had to admit.

“You remembered!” Liam spoke happily, before he skipped over to Harry and kissed his cheek. Harry weakly smiled, his mind still in utter turmoil, and not just because of the oncoming questions that he figured he was about to face. Liam looked extremely cute, and Harry felt himself start to doubt his sexuality once more.

“Yeah…well, you wanted to meet, after all.” Harry spoke up, his voice was more quieter than he had originally intended it to be.

Liam smiled a little as the two boys started to walk away from the P.E changing rooms. Liam quickly started to talk about how he needed to ditch his P.E kit in his locker and grab his school bag, which was located back in the sixth form building, and Harry had to grit his teeth into his bottom lip. The grinding feeling in his stomach continued as Liam’s voice filled his ears, both boys walking to the sixth form, he just felt like Liam was really dragging it out. Dragging something out, atleast, whatever that was.

The feeling of the conversation being dragged out continued as the two boys finally reached the sixth form. Harry was just waiting, eagerly. He wanted to know what Liam had seen, had he seen anything? He just wanted to know why Liam suddenly had an aura around him that he knew something, and why was he covering for Harry? That’s when the unexpected idea formed in Harry’s mind.

Had Liam covered for him, to be nice? Had he seen Harry with the mute boy, and after the conversations that they had had about how confused Harry was, he had guessed that maybe Harry and Zayn shared something they wished to keep private and Liam was just being a good friend?

Harry looked sideward at his best friend, and watched as the slightly tanned boy talked on about hurdles, or high jumps, or something to do with his afternoon, and started to wonder if he had maybe jumped to conclusions and pinned the worst on his best friend. He’d experienced so much of Liam’s bad moods lately that he had forgotten that he was one of the nicest boy’s he’d ever met, and one of the only boy’s that understood him inside and out.

Harry smiled a little, and the grinding feeling in his stomach slowly died down. Even after not showing up to a surprise lunch with Liam, and after Liam had obviously seen something, he was still being the best friend that Harry loved.

The two boy’s reached Liam’s locker, and the dusty brown haired boy started to dig into his school trouser pockets for his locker key, before pulling it out and unlocking the door to his locker. He quickly made the exchange between his P.E bag and his school bag, hoisting his school bag over his shoulder and locking the P.E bag away, before shutting his locker with a triumphant sigh.

Liam went to open his mouth to talk again, before Harry leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Liam’s torso. Liam squeaked a little in shock at first, which made Harry laugh, but relaxed into Harry’s hold and ruffled up Harry’s curls for a moment, before they both started to walk back the way they came.

“So, shall we go to your house, tonight? I’ve been craving your Mum’s chips and dip for ages…you know that salsa she makes?” Liam started to ask, and Harry smiled a little and finally paid attention to his best friend’s words, going along with Liam and making plans for Liam to come to his for a few hours.

Harry looked forward to it, with the grinding in his stomach slowly fizzing into air, and all the fear that he had had slowly dissolving with it, he started to relax once more as he and Liam chatted nonchalantly. When Liam’s hand slipped into his, he barely questioned it. It felt nice, and it was almost like a reminder of the good friend that Liam truly was deep down, which made Harry squeeze his hand a little happily.

Liam had been telling Harry about how he had to text his Mum to say where he was, when one of the art room doors opened and Zayn Malik slowly emerged from it, his sketchbooks bundled into his skinny little arms, and his glasses placed carefully over the bridge of his nose, the bottom of the frames looking like they were perched on the boy’s God-like cheekbones.

Harry’s green eyes had been stuck into the boy’s precious face, and suddenly he was very aware that his hand was being held inside of Liam’s. Zayn’s brown eyes had quickly assessed this, Harry could tell, they never seemed to miss anything, but he just hoped that Zayn wouldn’t think anything of the worst of this situation.

Harry wanted nothing more than to slip his hand out of his best friend’s and smile in Zayn’s way, but, Liam’s grip seemed to tighten, and Harry felt his lanky body be pulled towards Liam’s. Liam leaned his mouth towards Harry’s ear as they slowly approached Zayn.

“Trip him up, I dare you.” Liam whispered, his voice suddenly gruff and demanding, and suddenly, the grinding came back. Harry suddenly realised, Liam had seen. Liam was using it against Harry to get what he wanted; Harry. Harry gulped and went to shake his head, before Liam’s warm breathe fluttered onto his earlobe again.

“Trip the retard up.” Liam hissed into his ear, and Harry grimaced a little. Without a second thought, he closed his eyes and threw his hand out, his large, flat hand pushing the sketchbooks out of Zayn’s hands and onto the floor, causing the silent boy to dive down after the books that had fallen.

“Whoops.” Harry spoke softly, half hoping that Zayn would hear and get the wrong impression from it. He hoped that the boy that he had spent so long trying to protect would take it as an honest mistake on Harry’s part.

A small squeak left Zayn’s perfect mouth, piercing Harry’s heart like a javelin as a reminder of what he had just done, even though Liam’s hand had snaked around his waist. Liam couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You’re too easy, babe.” Liam purred into Harry’s ear, before placing a soft kiss onto his cheek and guiding him away from the boy on the floor, disappearing into the distance as he collected up unseen drawings of bright green eyes that were scattered across the sixth form floor.