Save Myself // Larry Stylinson

Chapter 10

Chapter 10: X

Summary:

Progress.
Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

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Louis waited until he heard the door to Niall's bedroom slam before he opened his eyes. He saw Harry straight away, and the guilt on his face was quite obvious as he flopped back onto the couch next to Louis.

"You heard that, didn't you?"

Louis nodded once.

"Louis, I'm so sorry," started Harry.

Louis shook his head once, "its true, you know. I did get kicked out of school for that,"

The guilt didn't leave Harry's eyes, "Matt?" He asked tentatively.

Harry was officially he first person who had ever jumped to that conclusion. Matt had been expelled from every other school in town. The one where he and Louis had met was quite literally his last ditch. Up until that point, the trouble he and Matt had gotten into had mostly been petty. For some reason, it had made more sense to Louis to lock the drugs in his locker so he could save Matt's ass. It was really the first serious amount of trouble Louis had taken for him, but it hadn't been the last.

What was really amazing, though, was that Harry had seen through it. Instead of making the assumption that they were Louis' drugs, like everyone else in the world had, Harry had picked up on the real issue.

"That's not really relevant. It still happened. Your friends still think it was me,"

"You could tell people the truth,"

"It was a long time ago, Harry,"

Harry was quiet then, staring at his hands, fiddling with his rings. Louis pushed the blanket off of himself then.

"I should get going," Louis meant it. He'd well overstated his welcome. He'd been blissfully unaware of the fact that fifty percent of the household was completely against him even being there.

"You don't have to leave, Lou,"

Louis nodded slowly, "I do,"

Louis hated the sadness he saw shimmering in Louis' eyes. He hated that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop putting it there. He stood up, though, despite how guilty he felt for upsetting Harry. It didn't make any sense.

Harry followed him silently to the front door.

"Please come back tonight," Harry practically begged.

Louis shook his head, "I can't,"

"You can," insisted Harry, "I invited you. I want you here,"

"I'm sorry," said Louis softly, trying to avoid Harry's gaze, "I'll come see you at work tomorrow if you want,"

"I want that and I want you to keep me company tonight,"

Louis sighed softly, "I can't Harry. Tomorrow. I promise,"

When Louis got back down to his car, his head was spinning. Surprisingly, even to him, he wasn't really thinking much about what Niall had said. He was mostly going over and over the way Harry had looked at him before he left. Harry had seemed genuine in his sadness, and that was strange. He was able to find less and less excuses for it as time went on. He couldn't really understand why Harry wanted him around, or why he seemed so upset when he wasn't. It didn't make any sense, especially given that Louis had admitted Niall hadn't been wrong. Shouldn't Harry have learned to heed people's warnings by now? Harry didn't make sense. None of his motivations were obvious to Louis and it made it so much harder for him to find his way through whatever was happening.