Under Coloured Trees || Larry Stylinson

14

"S-Stan?" he stutters, struggling to get the words out.

"The one and only," the guy says, motioning his hands up and down his own body. He says it chuckling, and the mere sound makes Louis' insides churn and a shiver travels his body, from his lower back all the way to his head. It's a horrible sound. A repulsive one. An arrogant one.

"I-I-" he can't speak, he can't move, he can feel Harry next to him, and even though he wishes the boy wasn't there to witness it, he still feels safer with someone, anyone, by his side right now.

"The cat got your tongue?" Stan laughs, and it's even worse than the aforementioned chuckle. "Well, I suppose this is unexpected," he says shrugging, his hands in his pockets. "You go to school here?" He eyes Harry with a suspicious look before setting his stare back on Louis, who nods.

"Ye-yeah, emm... I go to the arts uni" he sounds terrified and he absolutely hates it, but he can't control anything he does because his body has gone into autopilot mode.

"Not surprising" Stan smirks. "Well, guess what? I got a football scholarship to Leeds! Remember when you used to tell me how cool that would be? Well, I guess dreams do come true... for some people" Louis is on the verge of running away to the nearest building and jumping off the window.

"I- I guess..." he feels Harry taking a step ahead.

"Well, I'm very sorry to interrupt but we need to get to work, so" the boy next to him speaks up, and when Louis looks at him, he sees a hard expression on his face and a bright fire in his eyes. Like he's furious but he's trying to keep his composure.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm talking to Lou Lou here" Louis really wants to throw up at the name, he feels like he needs to throw up. But that would be humiliating, so he tries his best to keep it all in. "So, how's the family, huh?" and he says it with the evilest smirk Louis has ever seen on anyone, and he wonders how the fuck he could think Harry was evil at the beginning when there's someone out there able to wear that freaking smirk on their face.

"The-they're fine..."

"All of them?" Louis can't take this anymore. He physically can't.

"Okay, we really need to go now," Harry says again. His face doesn't look like he's trying to keep it cool anymore, he looks genuinely about to combust, fists clenched at his sides, stepping a bit in front of Louis.

"Listen, mate. If you wanna go, go. We're talking, so beat it" Stan condescendingly says, looking at Harry with a bored expression. "And? Louis..? " the boy looks at him, with that horrible smirk and Louis looks him in the eye and sees a devilish spark and just like that, he knows what Stan is going to say next.

"Are you still a faggot?"

There it is. The so long waited word. Even though he's finding it hard to react, the word slaps Louis in the face with so much strength he visibly flinches. Now that he thinks about it, he hadn't heard it in so long, but everything was building up to that. Louis could feel Stan's brain getting ready to say it in the most hateful way possible. The moment the word leaves Stan's mouth, Harry's eyes widen furiously and he takes one more step forward.

Stan snorts and looks mockingly at Harry, motioning his head towards him. "Actually, no need to answer, this proves everything I needed to kno-" Stan doesn't finish the sentence. He doesn't finish because next thing Louis knows, Stan is on the floor pressing his hands to his nose, whining like a little kid. Louis looks at Harry and sees him shaking his hand in pain, his knuckles already getting a bit swollen and bloody. When he turns back to Stan, he sees blood coming out of his nose and a bruise already forming just under his eye.