Damaged Goods. (A Harry Styles Fanic)

Chapter Two

Lola was completing her nightly ritual of cleaning the kitchen, something she’s never directly ordered to do but if she didn’t, the house would be in a disgusting state. Her Mum had text earlier during Maths to tell her she wouldn’t be home, not suprisingly. She’s never often home when she finds a new man. Which meant Lola was frequently stuck babysitting her six year old brother Jake all evening, cooking him dinner, helping with his homework and putting him to bed.

Just as she was finishing washing the dishes, she heard a key turning the lock and the front door opening. The sound of heels clonking against the laminate flooring reached the kitchen when her Mum walked in. Her Mum Christina, was quite young looking, at the age of 36, she had a head of styled golden blonde hair and an admirably slim figure. Her skin was a little more aged due to heavy smoking, but she wore her make up well, her face a warm peachy colour and lips slicked with red colour. She was wearing a black pencil skirt and a sheer black blouse, having obviously been out for dinner with her new man. She sounds and looks like a classy woman, but Lola would put her far from that category.

“Oh Lola, Lola Lola Lola” her Mum jeered, slinging an arm around her daughers shoulders and pinching one of her cheeks. Lola could smell her strong perfume mixed with the smell of stale smoke. She could also detect the alcohol in her breath and guessed right away that she was drunk. Her Mum was never this friendly if she hadn’t got a drink down her.

“Lola Lola” she repeated, almost singing her name like a rhyme. She put her hands on Lola’s shoulders, looking at her and smiling, a happy twinkle in her eye “If only you knew what it’s like to find someone like John” she sighed happily

“Oh let me guess, you’re in love with ‘John’ this week”

“Oh don’t be so sarcastic” she snapped “You haven’t even met him”

“Let’s prolong that as long as possible then yeah?” she said, turning back to clean up some plates with a towel. She’d had enough brief encounters with her many boyfriends of the past and tried to get to know them. They never liked kids usually and often paid her some ‘pocket money’ to ‘go off and play’ so he could have her Mum to himself.

“No, you’ll be meeting him sometime within the next few days young lady, so i’d get rid of that attitude if I were you”

“Sorry…..so what’s he like?” Lola sighed, not really interested but knowing her Mum could talk about him for England. She collapsed into the chair, looking dreamy as she obviously pictured him in her mind.

“He’s lovely. Such a gentlemen and wonderful to me, I really think he’s ‘the one’, Lo”

“Oh…”

“Yeah he’s got these distinct green eyes, and short brown hair, needs a little bit of a shave but that’s no problem with me. Great body too, he’s a little bit older than me, about 10 years but you don’t notice it at all, and not to mention a great paid job. Enough to spoil his kids that’s for sure” she babbled on, not stopping for breath.

‘Hmm unlike some people who just treat themselves’ Lola thought to herself, mentally referring to the obvious

It’s not as if her Mum was in an underpaid job. They had more than a sufficient amount of money and could probably afford the odd treat but that never crossed her Mums mind. She was selfish, extremely selfish and only ever thought about herself and her men. She just wanted people to treat her, take her on dates and buy her expensive jewellry. Lola was lucky that her Gran gave her pocket money every couple of weeks to get by.

Lola was only sixteen but her Mum treated her like she was atleast eighteen. She assumed Lola was old and mature enough to fend for herself, which meant she could be take some responsibility for Jake off her hands. Lola was mature, but she often wished she could have a better relationship with her Mum. More than that, she wished she could live with her Dad.

Lola remembered how much she loved spending time with her Dad as a child. But when she was five, he just left one day. No reasons why, nothing left behind. She never knew why he went, but spend every day since wondering. As a child she used to wait by the window, waiting to see him walk up the driveway and come home. He never did.
His mother, Lola’s grandmother, still lived in the same town. Lola visited her occasionally but was never told where her Dad lived now. Only that it was somewhere along the coast around 30 miles away. Aside from that, everything was like a secret. Something she eventually wanted to find out.

****

The next day at school, Lola’s best friend Jackie came running towards her outside the gate, looking excited as if she had some news.

“Lola! Guess what?!” she said, stopping right in front of her and grinning.

“What?”

“Sarah is having another party tomorrow night! It was so good last time and you didn’t go! So…! You’re coming this time, whether you like it or not” Jackie grabbed her friends hand and pulled her along, towards the school gates. “It’s gonna be wicked, a lot more people are going tomorrow and I asked my Mum and she said you can stay round”

“Er-“

“-So, come around seven or something. We’ll arrange it all tomorrow”

Lola didn’t really get the chance to respond but Jackie knew she would say no. The people in their year weren’t exactly Lola’s favourite people.

“No, I don’t wanna go to a party with everyone from our year there”

Jackie groaned “Lolaaaaaaaaa, you never want to go” she stomped her feet childishly.

“Sorry Jackie, you can still go. I just know a lot of people I don’t like will be there, and I don’t wanna have to talk to them. Especially Harry if he’s there”

Jackie knew that Harry and Lola didn’t get along. Which was kinda true but she didn’t know the full extent of it. She didn’t know about the constant bullying, verbal abuse, taunting, humiliation and name calling that happened every time they saw each other. It was like a secret. She was scared that Jackie wouldn’t take her seriously if she told her the truth about what Harry did. She just saw him as everyone else did; popular, funny and hot.

It wasn’t always like this though. Up until around Year 10, Harry was quite nice to Lola, and treated her the same as everyone else. They didn’t speak as much back then or have their classes together, but if they did cross paths, he smiled at her and seemed like a fairly decent boy.

But then he started to get a little more cocky and arrogant. He got taller and broader over the summer before year 10, his shorter hair had grew out into a mop of messy brown curls. His voice gradually became deeper and huskier, and he flirted with anyone in sight. Basically, puberty really kicked in at 14 for him, and girls loved it.

He got more noticed and had several girlfriends over the school year, a new one each month. He was on the football team and also sang in a 3 person band called White Eskimo with two other lads. Harry became quite popular and that’s when Lola saw the change. She never really understood why Harry targeted his abuse at her inparticular, or what she’d done to cause it. What had happened to him, or made him so angry that he had all this hate and he used it all to hurt her?

At lunch the sun was beating down heavily over the school playing field. Lola was relieved that she wore tights instead of school trousers as a light breeze cooled down her warm legs. Her and Jackie approached a patch of dry grass to eat their lunch

“It’s so hot today, I think i’m sweating. Violently” Jackie exaggerated, pulling her school jumper over her head and throwing it to the side. “Do you think I could take my tights off without anyone noticing?”

“Yeah, I think I will too. But make sure you have them back on before English with Mr Ward, he’ll have a fit” Lola warned, holding down her school skirt as she pulled her thin tights off, breathing a sigh of relief as the breeze washed over her skin.

“Mm, little hottie warming up over there” Jackie observed a bench further over the field, seeing a bunch of kids eating lunch, one of them being Zayn Malik. He was doing kick-ups with a football, his school top unbuttoned at the top.

“He’s so hot” she breathed, spooning a forkful of pasta into her mouth.

“Yeah…well, maybe he’ll be there tomorrow night”

“Does that mean you’re c-” Jackie’s excited tone was suddenly cut off as something caught her eye. Lola looked at her, waiting for the rest of the sentence and noticed Jackie’s eyes locked on her thigh. She glanced down at her milky skin, spotting the harsh red scars and quickly covering them with her hand, blood rushing to her cheeks.

“Lola……you said you wouldn’t do that anymore..” Jackie muttered quietly in a serious tone of voice. Lola gulped and began pulling her tights back on, noticing that she hadn’t fully mended the tear Harry made in them yesterday. Lola hated people seeing her scars, thinking she was a sad case, depressed and miserable. Labelling her for an action caused by upset and frustration, not because she was an ‘emo’ or whatever else they would call her.

She didn’t cut often, only when she was really feeling down and worthless. The last time was about a month ago. Lola tried to recall the reason why, and it traced back to the obvious usual reasons. Her Mum had been neglecting her, she’d failed four of her mock exams and Harry had made her feel like a piece of shit on the bottom of his shoe. It was a day when he was in a particularly bad mood, and he took it out on Lola as usual. Telling her that she’s a disgusting whore, that nobody would ever love or want her, and that there’s no point even being alive. A lot of the time, she could just block out his comments but sometimes they really caused a pain in her chest. Particularly anything about her being worthless and ugly.

Harry could really make her feel like all those things were true. And the sad thing was that he knew it, and that’s what made him keep doing it. Knowing that Lola would take his comments to heart. It made him feel powerful. Like there was something in his life he had control over.

“It’s old scars Jack, don’t worry. I’m not cutting” Lola said

“Promise?”

“Promise”

Jackie narrowed her eyes hesitantly for a moment before nodding “Okay, let’s go canteen before next lesson. I need a drink”

They pulled themselves up from the grass and swung their bags over their shoulders before heading to the canteen. The sun was hot on Lola’s skin, she could almost feel it turning a light shade of pink as it burnt.

The canteen was refreshingly cool, and student chatter filled the air as kids sat around tables in their social groups. Jackie grabbed a bottle of cold water and took it to the til, waiting in the queue patiently. Lola hung around, humming to herself as she waited for her friend. The canteen was fairly busy and she had to dodge people moving in and out of her path.

A group of the people there included Harry and a few of his friends. One his friends was Zayn, the lad Jackie had a thing for. Harry spotted Lola moving out of everyones way, waiting for her Jackie.

He unscrewed the top of his milkshake bottle and stood right behind Lola, waiting for her to turn around. He glanced to the till where Jackie was paying for her water, before she began to walk over to join Lola. A smirk twitched on Harry’s lips as he saw his plan evolving in his mind.

Lola turned around to walk, colliding hard with someone and sending their drink flying to the ground. The top was loose and fell off, causing the milkshake inside to leak out into a puddle around their feet.

“Shit, i’m so sorry” Lola gushed, stepping out of the liquid. She quickly looked up to see who she was apologising to.

Her stomach dropped a little when she saw the turquoise green eyes, dark eyebrows and head of chocolate brown curls, Harry was looking down at her, raising his eyebrow. He was amused that his plan worked as he saw fear cloud over her innocent blue eyes.

“That’s okay Lola, could you just do me a favour and pick it up for me?” Harry asked, giving her his signature heart melting grin, a dimple appearing on the left side of his mouth. The smile he used on a girl when he was trying to pull her; it always worked. He knew it would trick her. Lola was confused as to why he didn’t yell at her, or curse at her, or call her a name. He was being…polite?

“Sure, sorry Harry” she muttered, bending down to grab the almost empty bottle.

Just then she felt a large foot knock hard against her inner ankle, causing the flat soles of her shoes to slip on the wet floor and send her to the ground with a harsh bump. She landed on her bum, sitting in a puddle of strawberry milkshake, her skirt and tights saturated and a dull pain shooting through her spine.

She hissed at the collision and heard crowds of laughter coming from around her. Her cheeks began to warm up, blood rushing to them and her vision began to wobble. She looked down and saw her ripped tights were on show, quickly covering them so no-one saw her scarred skin

“God Lola, you’re so fucking clumsy!” Jackie muttered harshly, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear, embarassed as everyone looked over. Typical. No-one saw Harry purposely trip her and she was stupid enough to fall for his ‘playing nice’ act.

Harry was never nice when it came to Lola.

She looked up at him, a sour look on her face and saw him offer his hand out to her. A cruel smirk played across his lips and she felt like kicking him in the crotch right at that moment, which would probably be a blessing if she did it hard enough. No-one in their right mind would want Harry’s babies.

His long fingers separated, his palm slightly rough looking and a wrist covered in bands. She ignored it, wiping her hands on some tissues Jackie gave her. The sound of the bell rang through the room and people started to move from their seats.

Harry crouched down close in front of her, making her heart beat speed up, thumping against her chest. She could smell him again, that same scent she smelt every Maths lesson. He made her feel sick. He looked at her, his dark green eyes glimmering and slightly wet lips set in a straight line. He wasn’t smiling though now.

He took her hand in his, making it look like he was helping her, but nobody else could see the way his strong fingertips dug roughly into her palm.

“Sort yourself out, you look a mess” his said quietly for only her to hear

Lola clenched her jaw, refraining from giving him a comeback or insulting him, knowing she’d regret it in days to come.

She simply glanced around her, seeing some people still watching and shot Harry a very fake sugary sweet smile. She yanked her hand away from his grasp and heaved herself up from the ground, wiping down all the sticky liquid that had absorped into her clothing.

“Whoah, Lola you really need to be more careful, come on, we’re late” she said, getting some more tissues before leaving the canteen where everyone else was headed. Lola tried not to talk because either her anger would get the better of her or the opposite would happen and she’d get frustrated and upset.

“So you going to come to Sarahs party tomorrow then?” Jackie asked, the wind blowing her fringe back slightly. “Here” she handed Lola another tissue to help get the drink out of her skirt. “You’re such a clutz Lo” she chuckled

“Erm…” Lola started, registering the question. “I don’t think so Jackie”

“Lola pleeeeease!” she whined “You have to come! I will keep begging you if you don’t, I will text and ring you non stop tomorrow, i’ll come to your house, I will send a messenger pigeon to your bedroom window. I’ll set up a tent in your back garden, i’ll throw rocks at your window until you agree to come, i’ll-“

“Fine! God, why are you so desperate for me to come with you?”

“Because you’re my best friend and I want you there that’s why, so you’ll definitely come?!” she asked, clapping her hands together

“Fine i’ll come” Lola moaned, knowing she wasn’t going to enjoy this one bit. As far she was was aware, Sarah had briefly been dating Harry. Or just shagging him; same thing. But for the sake of her best friends constant whining, she’d just have to steer clear of him, and hope he didn’t find out she was there.

THIS IS NOT MY STORY. It is avalible on xxfan1direction.tumblr.com She is the writer and ALL credit goes to her. She is also on ondirectionfanfiction.tumblr.com as MegenX