Chapter 1
"Harry! pass me the ball!" Marcel shouted from across the field. We were the only two on the field. Mum let us ride our bikes to the park sometimes. Other times, she said we were too young. Which, in her defense, We were at the time. Only eight years old. Eight years ago. "no!" I maneuvered around him and kicked it hard, watching it hit the net of the goal. "And Harry Styles gets the point, and the crowd goes wild, ladies everywhere, shouting, Ahhhhh!" I gloated, waving my arms in the air. "that was a good shot" Marcel's hand slapped against mine as we initiated our secret handshake. "one day, Harry. I'll get a shot on you and the imaginary crowd in your mind that screams your name will be screaming mine" He smiled at me. "maybe one of these days" I wrapped my arm around his neck and rustled his hair. "Harry, quit! It's them" I dropped him and turned, to see Acassia and Jessica, these two best friends who went to our school. Marcel and I thought they were so cute. They were riding their bikes together. "Acassia is so pretty" Marcel swooned. Both of the girls were cute, but we were too young to do anything about girls We just liked to look and imagine that one day, we would both would find a nice, beautiful girl to settle down with. "Harry, what time is it?" I looked at my watch and realized that we were going to be late. "Marcel, we have to go, mums going to kill us" "We gotta cycle fast I guess" he laughed. We ran to our bikes and hustled to get back home before mum put her cooking spoon upside our heads. We locked up our bikes indie the garage and scurried through the front door into the flat. "Mum! We're home! Don't kill us!" I elbowed Marcel in the side. "shhh, don't say that!" We ran into the kitchen to see Mum and Gemma cooking. "boys, what time were you supposed to be back?" Mum looked up at us and glared at us. Marcel started his stutter again. He never had a stutter around me, but the second we got near anyone, and i mean anyone, else, he started to stutter again. "We, We we're sup, supposed to b,be back by 6" He replied in general anxiety. "and what time is it?" She looked to me for a response this time. "It's 6:15" "you know the rules boys, if you don't follow them, you get grounded. No football for a week, and you both go to bed without dinner" "what? that's not fair mum!" I objected. I still think that punishment was unfair to this day. "I don't care about fair! you know the rules, and you broke them. Now go upstairs and get ready for bed" I heard Gemma snicker under her breath. "shut up Gemma" "Harry! Don't be unkind to your sister because you broke the rules! Now march!" I huffed my way upstairs with Marcel lingering behind me. I slammed the door and slumped down on my bed. Marcel and I shared a very large room, with two twin beds separated by a night stand. Marcel sat next to me and threw his arm around my shoulder. "It's okay Harry" "Thanks Marcel, I just hate it that Gemma acts likes she's better than us because she was born two years before us." "I know, but everything will be okay, it's just Gemma being Gemma. One day she'll be different, I'm sure" Marcel was right. She changed with age for the better. I put my arms around my brother. "I love you Marcel" "I love you too Harry" we both released each other and Marcel went to the closet, stripping down to his tidy whities and changing into his jams. I followed along a few moments after and both of us crawled into our beds. "good night Harry" "good night Marcel" I pulled the light string and it shut off, leaving us both to drift off in the darkness.
I think back to the nights of my childhood as I laid in my bed, alone and exhausted. Finals for this semester were putting such a strain on me and I just wanted a good night sleep. I began to feel my eyes flutter shut, as the door to the room opened. I squinted tmy eyes to see Marcel walk in, a large stack of books in arms, and rushing to his desk. "where have you been Marcel?" I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "sorry, I was at the library and I lost my bike, so I had to walk home" "how did you lose your bike? and why didn't you call me? I would have given you a ride?" He turned to reply, but he didn't need to say anything else. His lip was busted and bleeding and his glasses had a crack in the lens. "Which one of them did it?" I felt my face turn red. "Harry, It's fine," "No, its not. Marcel, they can't keep doing this to you. It's not fair and It's downright cruel. You're too good of a person to deal with that bull shit they give you" He starte to cry. "please Marcel, let me help you" "Harry, I know you love me, but I can't have you getting into fights because I get hassled sometimes. You remember how mad mum go last time you got into a fight with one of those jerks?" "I know, I don't care. You're my brother and I won't let you be bullied." I heard him sobbing while reading his psychology textbook. I wrapped my arms around him from behind. "I love you Marcel" "I love you too Harry"
