Shattered l.s

Chapter 10

The air stills between them and it feels as if the world has stopped spinning, like everything in the universe is frozen in motion. "I don't believe you." Louis whispers, looking him in the eye. Harry can see a tiny shred of hope but what he sees most is sadness.

He doesn't say anything. Only settles down beside him, turns away and goes silent.

"When do you want me to leave?"

It stays silent long enough for Louis to almost forget his question, but Harry speaks up, "When you want to, I guess."

Again. Silence.

Louis closes his eyes and just imagines what it would feel like to wake up and have Harry's arm wrapped around his waist, face buried in the back of his neck, shielding his face from the early morning sun. Keeping him protected from all the bad things in the world.

But the vision goes dark when his mind brings up that Harry is one of those bad things. That he has fucked up so many good opportunities for him and other people. Memories of Harry yelling and choking him fill in behind his eyelids, forcing air to escape his lungs in a gasp.

He must have fallen asleep.

"Are you ok?" Harry asks. Louis glances over to see that his eyebrows are furrowed but looks away before he stares too long.

"I'm fine. Just nodded off I guess and had a scare."

"What was it?"

"It was nothing Harry."

"I just want to know, so tell me."

Louis shakes his head, "You don't want to know."

He looks over at Harry to see that his eyebrows are raised and head tilted. He's not going to stop asking, so Louis tells him.

"Ok, alright," He takes a deep breath. "It was just about the last time I was in this room." He whispers, and he doesn't need to say more. Harry knows exactly what he's talking about. Without a word Harry gets up from the bed making more of a mess with the sheets than what they were before.

He's silent as he walks to the bathroom and shuts the door gently behind him.

Once he's inside the tiny room, he's inside his own mind as well. Harry stands there in front of the hollow sink with a short faucet, looking down. He's so caught up in his thoughts that he doesn't hear the shuffling of feet and the sound of his bedroom door clicking shut.

When Harry finally exits the bathroom ready to have a civilized conversation with Louis he finds that he's gone.

-----

The school bell rings before Louis has the chance to get the books he needs out of his locker. People brush against his back too hard shoving him roughly into his open locker. It isn't until the rush of students have passed he's able to grab his books and scurry to his first class.

He walks into Algebra and goes to his seat up in the front to the right of the teachers desk. He doesn't dare look behind him to look for Harry or to even see if he decided to show up this morning.

He knows he does though when twenty minutes after the bell, the door is pushed open with a heavy force and he hears black boots hitting the floor.

"You're late once again Harry." There are no other words spoken.

Louis flinches at the scrapping of the desk against the floor and the sudden thud of a backpack hitting the bland tiles. He doesn't dare look over his shoulder like he did the first day which was a huge mistake on his part.

If someone were to ask him what his biggest regret was he'd tell them about that one moment on his first day at a new school. Looking over his shoulder just to catch a glimpse at the strange boy who made a scene and wears black and some denim. For the rest of the hour Louis feels green eyes staring at the back of his head and has a twisting feeling in his stomach that something horrendous is starting to form.