Adventures Of Super Boy and His Girlfriend who is Neither a Girl nor his Friend.

Part 4

By Monday Harry's almost used to it...almost. He's still broken his bedroom door and pretty much destroyed his bathroom, but he just chalks it up to needing more practice and he's good, he feels good and nothing's going to stop him.

"I still don't like you, but Nick has a meeting so I'm sitting here." Harry says, slamming his tray down harder than necessary and sitting down. Louis' finished with The Stranger, Harry suspects, because now he's on to Paradiso.

"I still find it sad that he's your only friend, but I'm not going to go into detail because my head has been hurting like a mother and I have no idea why." Louis mumbles, not looking up from his book and Harry wonders if Louis' secretly glad that Harry's sitting with him, because Louis never seems to have a lunch except when Harry's there, his sandwich Louis' for the taking. That's a weird thought, Harry decides, to be worried whether Louis' eating enough, when he shouldn't even care. Harry opens his mouth, not yet knowing what to insult yet, when two boys with lettermen jackets and buzz cuts walk past, one messing up Louis' hair while the other grabs the book, tearing the cover off with a mock frown before dropping them a few feet away on the floor.

"Have a nice lunch, twink." He calls over his shoulder, the other boy laughing as he trails behind heading to their own table, "see you in gym". Louis slides out of his seat to pick up the book, keeping his eyes downcast so he can't look at Harry and they sit in silence for a while, whatever Harry was going to say before drowned in his throat.

"So what are..."

"Why do they do that?" Harry blurts out, interrupting whatever small talk Louis was going to force and okay, maybe he didn't mean to do that but now that it's out he's on the edge of his seat, staring at Louis wide eyed across the table where Louis' figiting with his fingers.

"What do you mean-why? They're them, they do what they do because they're uneducated ignorant rude pricks." Louis answers into his lap but Harry's shaking his head.

"No, I mean they've always been kind of mean to you, but then suddenly two years ago it got so much worse, something must have happened for them to suddenly target you like this." Harry says, his hands gripping the edges of the table and why should he even care, he doesn't even like Louis, why should he care about...this?

"Did you know," Louis finally answers, staring down at his lap but still sitting with perfect posture, as if to show Harry that he's not affected by all this, that he's still strong and proud and him, "that calling someone a twink isn't exactly rude? I mean depending on the context it could be a bit but it's not like, say, calling someone a fag or something."

"That still doesn't make it any better, the way they're doing..."

"I know," Louis interrupts, looking back up at Harry like everything's normal and it must be for Louis, Harry thinks, because he gets this every day, way more than Harry ever witnesses, so this must be normal, and Harry's not sure why he's feeling so sad about that, "I'm just telling you." He reaches across and takes half of Harry's sandwich like usual whenever Harry sits with him, biting on the end as he glances around the cafeteria before looking back at an expectant Harry.

"I, uh," Louis starts, sighing because he's not sure why he's even telling Harry this, he's not even his friend, "I slept with one of them..."

"Who!?" Harry asks, loud enough to get a few glances from nearby tables but he doesn't care.

"It doesn't matter, what matters is I thought he liked me, hell I liked him, but afterwards he regretted it and told me not to tell anyone and I promised I wouldn't, hell I promised, but he was paranoid I guess because he might have...started a campaign against me to take away my credibility or something? So now even if I did say anything no one would believe me?" Louis phrases the last part like a question and Harry's heart breaks because Louis says it so casually, and Harry suddenly has an overwhelming urge to hurt someone (preferably the dick that hurt Louis).