Until they tear us apart. | l.s.

5

The week after Harry's grounding was suspended he received a surprise he had never thought he would when he walked through the hallways of the school and entered the cafeteria. When he approached the table where his friends were sitting already they all went quiet and looked up at him expectantly.

"Is everything okay?" Harry asked worried, already expecting the worst and that they'd kick him out of their friends group because he was still incredibly quiet whenever they hung out and thought they had enough of him.

They always included him in their conversations and made sure to keep him updated on what was going on in school, who was in a relationship with whom and who was fighting with their best friend at the moment- just all the gossip they heard about in the hallways. They also gave their best to get to know Harry, asking him questions on how he grew up and how his family was, how he was getting along with Louis and all that, what gave him the feeling of being a part of the group although he always felt a bit strange because he never talked about his family to anyone before. And he always instantly feared they could drop him for whatever reason because he didn't know better.

"We thought of something." Savannah grinned.

"Oh god, you don't want to be friends with me anymore, right?" Harry blurted out panicked and his hands started shaking uncontrolled.

"What? No!" Robbie said quickly and chuckled. "Sit down already, Harry." He tugged on his sleeve and Harry sighed relieved and sat down with a heavy weight lifted off his shoulders.

"O-okay, what is it then?" He asked when they made no attempt to talk further.

"We wanted to ask you if you want to hang out after school? You know, to get to know each other better." Savannah shrugged.

Harry looked around the table and saw that her, Robbie and Tyron were grinning widely while Jacky was a little more reserved and just shot him a small smile what was strange for her seeing as she was really open and bubbly usually.

"Yes, sure. Sounds good." He said, happy that they actually wanted to spend time with him outside of school- that was a first- and his heart skipped a beat in excitement.

"And we thought we could go to yours. You know, because we all know each other already and we can get to know you more this way." Robbie suggested and Harry's eyes grew wide.

"Uhm, I have to ask my mum first." He said suddenly nervous.

What if they didn't like his home, or his room? Did he even tidy up? Would his mum allow it or would she say 'no' and they'd be angry with him then and drop him?

"Sure, no problem." Tyron smiled and brought Harry out of his thoughts that turned into plain fear.

"Okay, I ask her real quick." Harry looked at them again if they were really serious and when they all nodded happily he took out his phone with clammy hands and sent his mum a text. Shortly after she texted back that it was fine and if she should prepare some snacks for them to which he agreed, sighing relieved. "Alright, my mum agreed. But we need to take the bus because my brother is already off for the day."

"No worries, Harry." Jacky smiled.

"Will he also be home?" Savannah asked randomly and pursed her glossy lips picking on her cupcake.

"Uh, I don't know. Will it be a problem if so?" Harry asked worried.

"No, of course not!" Robbie immediately said.

"Oh, okay. Good." Harry sighed contently. He didn't get that Jacky shot him a worried look and she just sighed and shook her head slightly when she saw Harry's happy face.