be there for you

fourteen .

"Lux, stop! That picture is so bad- delete it."

"But you look so fucking funny."

"Callum, please."

"We haven't taken a picture together in ages!"

"I would've if you just asked, not coming up behind me and going 'smile' before randomly taking a picture."

Harry quietly walks to the door of the kitchen, not wanting to interrupt whatever the two are doing. Tobi has their hands secured on Lux's arm, tugging on it weakly, as the other giggles to himself and taps his phone a bit.

"Can I just send it to Ethan? Then I'll delete it, promise." Lux says.

Tobi rolls their eyes, letting go of his arm and sighing. "Fine, dickhead, but only this time."

Lux grins, tapping on his phone again before setting his phone down on the table. He looks over at the doorway. Harry smiles at him, and the elder smiles back brightly. "Harry! Come here." He says, waving him towards the pair.

He takes a few steps forward, getting pulled into a hug by Lux. "It's so weird seeing you without Simon. How are you feeling?" He asks softly, and Harry can tell he's treading carefully with his words.

Harry manages to push away his own thoughts for a bit, letting Lux hug him tightly. "I'm good. A little tired, but good." He answers honestly, and the taller male hugs him a bit tighter.

Harry catches sight of Tobi's fond smile in his peripheral vision, but he also hears two voices join the room, Jj's whining disrupting the peace.

"Vikk, there was no reason for you to force me out of bed, you know." He whines again while making his way over to Tobi. Harry can practically hear the pout in his voice, and he laughs into Lux's shoulder.

"It's after twelve, and you can't stay in bed all day," Vikk nags from the other side of the room. Jj groans, and his arms wrap around Tobi's waist, pulling the shorter into a back hug and resting his chin on their shoulder.

Harry pulls himself away from Lux, remembering his own phone in his pocket. He takes it out and immediately goes to his messages, frowning when he sees no texts from Simon.

Instead, he's met with dozens of other random notifications, ranging from Instagram to Youtube to news to whatever. He even has a lot of messages from his friends, but he ignores them, just the thought of opening those makes his heart rate pick up drastically.

"Has Simon texted?" Tobi asks, trying but failing to remove themself from Jj's grip to peek at Harry's phone.

The youngest says nothing, shoving his phone back into his pocket. He would text Simon first, but he's probably with family, and Harry's supposed to be in class. He notes that that's probably why Simon hasn't texted, but it still does nothing to ease his worries.

Someone says something to him, but his brain completely shuts it out. He feels stupid. He can't even last a day without Simon, he feels pathetic. How is he ever going to survive in the real world? How would he survive without Simon? His breathing picks up, and he blinks rapidly.

Lux tries to touch his shoulder, but he flinches so hard that it causes the elder himself to jump. "Harry?" He asks quietly, voice as soft as possible.

He can't breathe. There are four pairs of eyes on him, and he feels like he's suffocating. He can't breathe. How childish of him, how immature, to freak out like this because he's spent not even twenty four hours without Simon. Everyone's looking at him, watching him, and he can't breathe, everyone is staring, they're judging, his chest hurts.