The Hanging Tree (Zianourry)

Chapter Five

I hated sunshowers. I mean I loved rain, the smell will always be alluring to me, yet it's the most confusing and deceitful thing ever. Hell to some people it's downright evil, which I guess it is if you're a person who doesn't check the weather like me.

I was walking to the arts hall through the center of campus and out of nowhere it started to rain. Now here I am, sitting drenched in class, my bangs now hanging well pass my eyes. My shirt was threatening to become one with my skin. Shivers ran down my spine as the cool air escaped from the vents, taunting me with the fear of catching pneumonia afterwards.

Everyone in the class chatted about random things, all the noise combined making it sound like a set of wild animals in the jungle. The noise ceased once another student came in, snickering instead replacing the talking.

He was a tall lanky fella, probably close to 2 meters (6 feet) in height. He had curly hair that he attempted to tie back with a hair band, making him look like one of those old Renaissance painters. It didn't help that he wore this long trench coat. This was our musical lesson and with long fingers like his I immediately pegged him for a piano player. I mean I played piano but not without difficulty. His deep green eyes looked towards my area, the piano, and he walked over. His strides were long, probably natural for his long legs. He sat on the edge of the piano stool, glanced at me quickly, then looked down at the black and white keys.

"I'm not that good." He whispered shyly. 

"It's okay." I whispered back. "I just came here because there was nobody here." 

"I came here because you didn't look at me like I was weird." He told me. 

"Why do they do that?" I asked him.

"It's because I trip a lot. I'm like the clumsiest person in the school." He told me. "Literally I think I grew so fast I lost all control over my body." I snuffed out a laugh I had, looking away from him as I did so.

The teacher laid a two page piano duet out on our musical stand. The notes were written underneath each other with the Primo, my part, on the top and the Secondo, Harry's part, on the bottom. "Short song today boys but lets see how well you two can work together." He whispered in this musical voice. The teacher was beyond handsome with these mysterious grey eyes. He was what Niall and I called a baiter. Someone who any gay guy would probably fond over. It makes sense that he would be a handsome music teacher. I mean who doesn't like a hot guy who can play an instrument?

"So I have the high notes and Harry has the low ones right?" I asked just to make sure.

"Yes unless you want to switch?" He suggested to which neither of us budged. "Good, lets see how easy it'll be for you two to mess up." He chuckled. Damn, even that was alluring.

"I'll school Harry at being terrible." I told them both. He just smile and nodded, walking away as he continued to hand out sheet music to the others.

I smiled at the easy music, a couple of repeated A's, C's, D's and G's. There were a couple of sharps but mostly just repeated eight notes and sixteenth notes that were hooked together in this ridiculous melody. Needless to say Harry had pretty much the same thing except his notes were lower.

Once everyone started to play I let my hands take over. They glided across the keyboard, gently pressing down on the keys but never resting for too long. No, they were always in motion, becoming an elegant blur as I swayed my head side to side, letting the music fill me up like tap water filling up a cup. It was the most precious thing to me at the moment. Music was always a way to deal with everything, to deal with the anger or sadness of a situation.

That's when I felt it. A wet spot on one of the keys. I hadn't realized that I was crying. This song was familiar to me. It was something that my mum listened to. She was always into old classical music, she said it helped you think. I guess she was right because my brain was thinking about home. Thinking about how the girls were and how my mum was coping with us being gone. She honestly meant the world to me and I'm sure she was stressing out. We were only allowed two phone calls over the weekend, one Saturday and one Sunday. I made sure my sisters knew that I was going to phone them on Saturday and my mum knew she'd get to hear my voice on Sunday. The only thing was that it was only Wednesday. We still had such a long wait.

"Are you alright?" Harry whispered. I quickly wiped away the tears and held my head up as I clenched my jaw and kept playing. I nodded to him and finished the rest of the class without letting a single tear fall.

"So, you're not as bad as you said you were." Harry said as we straightened up the sheet music on the stand.

"Well, I never said I couldn't play." I told him. "Besides you are actually better than you think." I told him, placing my hand on his shoulder.

His eyes grew from that simple motion, reminding me of where I was. He opened his mouth and I removed my hand and quickly got up and walked out, cursing myself for being so careless. That was way too friendly of a gesture. My hand was probably on there for way too long, or I probably squeezed his shoulder. Who could know, I was always too friendly. Lottie teased me for being hands on with everyone I met. I had totally forgotten how that could've looked to anyone else. I was just praying that Harry didn't think anything of it.

I had an hour before my next class so I walked to my dorm, opening the door to see Niall sitting cross legged on the floor, eating a bag of chips as he read this book. I closed the door and locked it, looking at my roommate with panic filled eyes.

"I fucked up!" I whispered. His eyes immediately flew up and then there was a knock on the door. Niall jumped up and grabbed my hand, forcing me down and under his bed. I crawled underneath until I was against the wall and Niall arranged his covers, which were actually too large for the bed to begin with, to hang over the edges to cover me up.

Niall walked over to the door and opened it and I held my hand over my mouth, clenching my eyes tightly. They were here for me. I was going to die. I just hoped whatever happened would be quick. I hoped they didn't take Niall for being an accomplice and hiding me. Please be safe Niall. Please go away whoever you are.

"Hi, can I help you?" Niall asked in his thick accent.

"Yes, is Louis Tomlinson here?" The voice asked.

**A/N: So what do you think? SO SO SO SORRY IT'S BEEN A WHILE! PLEASE DON'T HATE ME! WELL YOU MIGHT BECAUSE OF THAT CLIFF HANGER!!**