The Forgotten [Larry Stylinson]

14

They always had money for drugs or alcohol, but never for the essentials. Harry's shoes were falling apart, his clothes had holes in them and were sizes too small, but they were never replaced. The only thing ever bought were joints, liquor, and cigarettes. As his mother said every time she'd get high when he and Gemma had an empty stomach, "the world doesn't always work out the way we thought it would." Isn't' that the truth of his lifetime?

-

"How are you doing today, Harry?"

It was a simple question his therapist always asked him during their weekly sessions—a question Harry never knew how to answer.

"Good," he replied. It was what he always told her.

He had therapy mapped down to cold hard facts. Mia Twain would ask him how he was, what'd been up to, progress he thought he mad and he'd answer with simple sentences. After two months she didn't expect more from him. Harry figured it was because she knew he wasn't capable of delivering anything else.

"How have you been doing this week?" Mia asked.

"Alright." Harry shrugged—the usual.

Mia nodded and checked off a box on her form. She was constantly writing things down and although Harry knew it was her job, he didn't like feeling like he was nothing more than a case file.

"How did you spend your weekend? Did you go hiking with Louis again?" Mia asked.

Harry was hesitant to answer. There were no words to describe what happened in his weekend. How did he tell her that Zayn was so caught up in him fucking his own sister without giving her insight on the stories he longed to bury? The answer: he couldn't.

"Yeah. His friends went, too," Harry said. "We camped out overnight."

Mia hummed. "Oh? And how did that go?"

Harry shrugged. "It was alright."

"How many people were with you and Louis?" she asked.

"Three," Harry answered. "Zayn, Niall, and Liam."

Mia nodded and wrote something down. "How does meeting new people make you feel? Anxious? Excited?"

"I guess—I guess a bit of both," Harry replied honestly. "It was fun at first in a nerve wracking way to meet new people. Liam introduced me to tons of awesome music, Niall was an interesting person to be around. It's just Zayn that I can't get along with. He's the one I'm apprehensive about."

He had never spoken so much in one answer, and he could tell by the small smile on Mia's lips that this was a good thing. He thought of what Louis told him about opening up, and for the first time, he was actually considering letting Mia Twain do her job properly.