Note To Self (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Twenty Three.

The following day, Harry skipped lunch at school to head to the library because he'd been falling behind on his schoolwork and was in desperate need of the extra time. He was struggling more than ever trying to stay on top of everything, but senior year was nearing it's end and his classes were demanding more and more of his time. Classwork was getting more difficult, homework was building up to seemingly never ending piles, and he was beginning to feel overwhelmed by it all.

He had his books open and spent time taking notes from them, having a hard time paying attention to his work because of his rumbling stomach. He was hungry, but he didn't have time to be hungry. He needed to work.

Silently, so much so he wouldn't have even noticed if he hadn't caught sight of movement from his peripheral vision, Aubry sat down in the chair across from him. He looked up to make sure it was her before he dropped his attention back to the book in front of him.

She was silent for a few moments, watching him scribble words into his notebook before she spoke. "I talked to Liam, he said you'd be here." He hummed in acknowledgment, but didn't reply. He couldn't break his focus. "I brought you food."

She placed the ham and cheese sandwich she'd bought specifically for him in the cafeteria on the table, just in front of his text book. "Thank you," he said. "And no offense, but I really, really can't talk. I have to get this done."

"None taken," she assured, opening up her own bag to reach inside. "I found something in my old school stuff that used to help me when I was younger and I think it could help you too."

He peeked up at her as he reached for the sandwich on the table. He couldn't resist, he was starving. He raised his eyebrows questioningly at her as he unwrapped it from the saran wrap. She pulled out a small slip of paper that looked much like a bookmark and placed it on the table in front of him. He stared at it. "... What is it?"

Aubry picked it up and pulled his book closer so she could reach it before she placed it across the words on the pages. It had two thick sides of paper, while in the middle was a strip of transparent blue film that allowed only one line of the text to show through. "It blocks out the other lines so you can focus on reading only one at a time, I figured it might help you mix up words less. I used to use it when I was learning to read because I had a problem with losing my place when I switched lines."

He placed his fingers on the simple device and adjusted it to be on the like he'd just been reading. It was helpful, it prevented him from mixing up full sentences which helped him comprehend better. He smiled at the thoughtful gesture. "Thank you."

"No problem," she said, closing up her bag again. "I'll leave you alone now, I was just checking in on you." Hearing that made him feel cared for. She got up to leave, but before she disappeared behind the many shelves of books, she turned around to tell him, "Eat your sandwich, you can't learn on an empty stomach."

He listened to her.

After school was the last time they had to work on their project before it was due, but not much was left to be done other than gluing slips of paper with information on them to the poaster board and a few final decorative touches that Aubry made. Her work was so nice and neat it always impressed Harry, but also made him a little scared to do any of his own in fear of ruining it. He didn't have as good of an eye for detail as she did. It was finished rather quickly, only a half hour and it was done.

Harry sat on the floor with his back leaning against the couch, legs sprawled out in front of him as he sat and watched Aubry look over their work one last time. She set it aside, presumably satisfied with the finished product. "What now?" she asked as she looked over at him.