Unbelievers

Chapter 5

The weekend passed quickly. Harry found himself actually sleeping the night through without problems. His parents sent him pictures of the London Eye and dinner at a fancy restaurant, though, and it made him slightly jealous. He was certain he wouldn't have enjoyed going away with just the two of them, but it seemed so freeing, to be able to go away for a weekend, leaving everything behind.

Ultimately, he shouldn't have been surprised when they came home on Sunday evening, fuming. His mum was snapping out words briskly, and his dad was barely able to control his anger, just muttering random words here and there. Harry supposed he was trying not to yell, but the way he was faring didn't look any better. Harry ignored them, hiking up to his room and turning in for the night.

On Monday, Harry woke up to the noise of yelling. He grunted into his pillow, squeezing his eyes shut. He briefly wondered what was going on, but then began to understand that it was his parents. They were fighting. Clearly, they hadn't finished yesterday.

He glanced at his phone. It was almost seven o'clock. If he wanted to make it to the first class by eight, he would need to leave bed and get ready soon. He didn't move, though. He stayed where he was, duvet cocooned around him until he couldn't hear anything anymore. When Harry slowly dragged his feet downstairs, it was ten past eight. Both of his parents' cars were gone, and he supposed they had left for work. He sighed in relief, and sluggishly made a protein shake for breakfast. He pulled on some tapered sweats and a hoodie after his shower, and then began making his way to school.

Annoyed thoughts bristled somewhere within his mind, but as he neared school they slowly faded and fell back to Louis, something they seemed to always do. It was obvious that his text message on Friday hadn't been a complete misfire. Louis had walked straight into his room, laid down on his bed, and stayed. Thanks to that, Harry now knew two things. The first was that Louis had no intention to share their business. The second was that, yes, Louis was certainly interested in this. If not in Harry personally, then in them, naked together. Harry undoubtedly had an interest in that, too.

Each time it happened, he would find himself lost and drowning in the moment. Before and after, Louis was an enormous grievance, but right then... in the middle of it... Louis did everything right.

Furthermore, Harry didn't like being an anxious person. Those brief moments of heat were often followed by the feeling of reprieve for some reason. Perhaps everyone felt that, after having sex, but Harry could tell there was something helpful there.

He had texted Zayn after Louis left, sending him several thumbs-ups. Zayn, grinning and nodding approvingly, met him outside school when he arrived. "My boy," he said. "Got himself a lad."

"I don't have a lad," disagreed Harry, but Zayn kept smirking as though a proud older brother.

As if Zayn's eagerness and the questions that followed weren't enough, girls and sex seemed to be a running theme of conversation throughout the day. There was a rumour about someone receiving a blow job in one of the bathroom stalls, which made Zayn joke that Harry wasn't the only one fucking about at school. Then after lunch, it came forth that the goalkeeper of the football team, Liam, had gotten himself a girlfriend. Harry wasn't certain how it had unravelled, but all of a sudden it was all the lads were chatting about.

Harry knew who the girl was. Her name was Sophia, and she was in his science and maths classes. She seemed very clever and relaxed, much like Liam. They were both fairly popular, but didn't seem to care about that sort of thing. Harry thought it was nice.

When it was time for practice that afternoon, Harry entered the locker room along with Jonny, who seemed to be high on the gossip. When he saw Stan inside the room, the two of them instantly started laughing. It was dumb, but Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the two of them retelling the story of how they'd walked around the back of the gym to have a cigarette, only to catch Liam and Sophia snogging there. The rest of the team was slowly gathering, and when Liam finally got there, they were all cheering and chanting childishly.