From the Wrong Side of Town l.s.

Chapter 6: Louis

A/N I apologize in advance for the emotional pain 

 The look in his eyes was one of pure exhaustion. The previous night had been anything but good for him. He'd called me as soon as he'd gotten home and had spent most of the night crying until he'd fallen asleep.

"Hi," he sleepily said, sitting down on the chair and dropping his bag on the ground. He sleepily crossed his arms, placing them on the table and placing his head on top of his arms.

"Hi baby," I whisper, running a hand gently through his hair. His cheeks flushed brightly as he hid his face in his arms to hide the blush creeping onto his cheeks. "You like it when I call you that, hmm," I muse, as he turns his head to look at me once again. At the action, I stilled my fingers, awaiting a response from him.

"I'm choosing to ignore that and am instead asking you to continue playing with my hair," he says, gazing up at me.

"Alright, baby," I respond, tugging his chair closer to mine. "Move closer please," I ask when he stays where he was. He moved over so his head was laying on the table more in front of where I was sitting than where he was. I resume running my fingers through his hair when Mr.Nicholson finally makes an appearance.

"Good morning, class," Mr.Nicholson monotonically greets. Harry doesn't even look up from where he was resting. "Today, we will be working with more of the chemicals," he paused, glazing over to where Harry and I were sitting, "but since some of you can't handle yourselves properly with two of you, there will be four of you in a group today. And no, you don't get to pick. Taylor and Eleanore, you will be joining Harry and Louis," he says pointing to the table where Harry and I were seated. At the mention of his name, Harry lifts his head up to inspect what was happening, before ultimately deciding just to lay his head back down. The two girls sat down across from Harry and I and listened to what Mr.Nicholson was saying adamantly.

"I'm Taylor," the taller of the two introduced herself. She nudged her shorter counter-part when she said nothing, and instead stood there staring at Harry. "This is Eleanore," Taylor finally said when she realized that Eleanore had no interest in introducing herself. Despite having been in class with these girls for nearly five months, I had never really seen their faces, nor known their names.

"I'm Louis," I tell them. Their eyes fell upon where I was still running my fingers through Harry's hair. "This Harry and my guess is despite him being quite intelligent, he's not going to be much help today," I inform them. He glanced up at the girls, smiling at Taylor.

"Hey, H," she greeted.

"Hey Tay," he said, smiling back at her. "She lives across the street from me," he tells me, laying back down on his arms. I nod, as Mr.Nicholson gives us four sheets of paper, which more than likely were the assignment.

"He okay," he asks, gesturing to Harry.

"He had a rough night and didn't get much sleep," I tell him. It was one of the few times that I saw Mr.Nicholson care about someone and act like an actual human being. He came to the other side of Harry a knelt down and got Harry's attention.

"Harry, everything okay," he gently asked. Harry glanced up at him and shook his head, denying that everything was okay. "Let's go talk, yeah? Louis can come with if you want," he offers. Harry nods, getting up from his seat and following Mr.Nicholson out into the hallway.

"So are you and Harry like together," Taylor asked once they had disappeared into the hall. Together? I had no idea what the right answer was. We'd kissed and he'd had me giving him physical attention for the better half of half an hour.

"Uh, something like that. We haven't really defined anything," I tell her.

"Oh my god, you guys would be so cute together," she gushes. Eleanore, however, looks far less impressed. "Is he okay," she cautiously asked when we noticed Mr.Nicholson appearing back in the door frame. Concern was all I felt when I finally noticed that Harry wasn't with him.

"Louis," he asks, approaching me. "Would you come with me," he asks in a manner that seems a bit urgent. When we reached the staff bathrooms, he pushed the door open, revealing Harry who was curled in on himself, crying. "Haz, I'm leaving you with Louis, alright," he asked him. Harry nodded, uncurling himself a little. Mr.Nicholson left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

"Why don't they love me," he asked, looking over at me with puffy red eyes. He looked broken. "Why am I not good enough," he questions after a moment.

"Baby, you are," I whisper, taking him into my arms. He clutched onto me like a baby should hold onto their mother, but something told me that he and his mum were never like that. Something told me she never truly cared about him. "You are more than enough, and they are just daft if they don't realize the incredible human being sitting before them, okay," I ask, running a hand down his back.

"I just want to be able to go home to a household that loves and supports me," he says, choking on his tears. He turned towards me, laying his head on my shoulder. "I just want to be happy."