when we were eighteen - book one ✔️

Chapter Two

HARRY // OCTOBER 2016
Song of the Chapter: Thinking of You by Katy Perry

Harry wasn't hungry, and he was ALWAYS hungry.

But seeing that the boy he was in love with when he was eighteen was sitting across from him made him feel uneasy. Harry knew that that Louis wasn't expecting to see him seven-and-half months pregnant, but he wasn't expecting to see Louis at his mum's dining table.

Louis looked completely different, but he was still beyond attractive. His facial hair made him look older than twenty-four and his hair was still long, but just swept to his right side.

His eyes no longer held that blue sparkle, but now where hollow and dark like he was sad. His mouth was a permanent straight line, only stretching into weak, forced smiles when necessary.

Harry wondered what happened to his happy Lou? The Louis before him bared no resemblance. He started to think that maybe it was linked to why he had stopped all communication with Harry five years prior.

It was sudden, seeing that the pair were online-long distance dating for almost year after Louis left. Harry had noticed whenever they would Skype that the boy wasn't happy, but Louis would shut down if asked what was wrong.

Then it started to happen. His messages weren't being returned. His Skype calls declined. Then he was blocked, blocked from any access of Louis Tomlinson via the Internet. Harry's heart broke all over again, only this time was worse because they were broken up. No possibility of a future. It had killed Harry.

Harry twisted the pasta around on his fork and his little girl kicked him from within. He smiled to himself, and forced himself to eat for her. Everything he did these days were for her and he didn't mind it one bit.

He finished his plate and saw that his mum made cherry pie. He was instantly ravenous at the sight of it, regardless of the meal he just ate. During his whole pregnancy, he beyond craved anything cherry flavored. It was to the point of obsession.

"How far along are you?" Louis asked, questioning him for the first time this evening.

Harry instantly knew he was upset. Besides the tattooed and rough exteriors that had hardened and changed throughout the years, his vocal fluctuations when he was emotional did not. But what could he be upset about? He's the one who blocked him all on forms of social media and disappeared from Harry's life like a ghost.

"Seven-and-half months," Harry answered.

All Louis did was nod and drink from his wine glass that was refilled for the third time. Harry noticed the blush of alcohol staining his cheeks and he knew that Louis could be a sloppy drunk, but he was no place anymore to speak up. Not since Louis cut him out five years ago.

"Have all of you stayed in contact?" Harry asked as his mum placed a giant slice of cherry pie before him.

"No," Gemma answered. "Louis reached out to Mum for the first time in, what, five years? He let her know that he was moving back and that he wanted to meet up."

Harry nodded, eating his pie in peace. Baby girl twirled within him, pleased to have her part of the cherry craving as well. But, the pregnant boy wondered why Louis reached out to his mother and not him.

"Where are you staying, Louis?" Anne asked.

"I'm staying at a hotel near the airport with my friends who came along with me. They have a rental that'll be ready in a few days and I'll stay with them until I get myself a job and a place of my own."