Achilles' Heel (Haylor ll Prequel to Windows To The Soul & Ashes)

Chapter Three.

The sunbeams shone through the leaves, my breath was heavy and fast as I ran.

P.E was my favourite lesson, and the only one I attended by the way.  I heard people whimpering behind me, I rolled my eyes, it was just running.

The teacher made me stop when he saw me.

“Styles, you have to go to the principal’s office.”

I shrugged. “Okay.”

Going to the principal’s office was something usual, I spent more time there than in class.

I took a small bottle of water out of my bag and drank it while heading to the principal’s office. The corridors were empty when I saw her sitting on the stairs.

She looked exhausted.

“Hey,” I greeted, getting closer to her.

She looked up at me. “Oh, hi,” she greeted back.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m taking a break from P.E, I’m exhausted.” She let out a tired laugh.

“So you were having P.E too.”

She nodded and smiled.

“Where are you going? The bell hasn’t rang yet.”

“I’m heading to the principal’s office.” I said.

 She didn’t look surprised.

“Good luck.” She said as she got up from the stairs.

I watched her as she walked away. I remember the date we had a few days ago, nothing came out of it but we got a little bit closer. It was weird because I wasn’t used to be around someone so innocent and pure and, well, naïve.

I sighed as I came in the office, the old man with white hair and white moustache was sitting behind his desk, with his fingers clasped over it.

“Hello Harry.”

I raised my head a little bit greeting him, before sitting down in a chair in front of him, dropping my bag.

“I guess you already know why I called you over.” He said.

I didn’t say a thing; the less I talked the faster I’d get out of there.

“You’re missing almost every class this year which is making your grades drop.” He explained. “This is not secondary anymore; you’re here to be prepared for university.”

University? Hell no. I was here because my parents forced me to, the only reason I kept going after I moved out of their house was because the year was going to end and it was my last year, so I wouldn’t have to go there anymore.

The man was wasting my time talking about university and blah, blah, blah. I didn’t really pay attention.

The bell rang and I got out of there, thank god it was summer already, there were only a few days left to leave. I knew I wasn’t going to make it to university or whatever, but I didn’t want to anyway.

When I was about to greet my mates a dark, big car stopped in front of me, the window rolled down and I could see a man who was wearing a black jacket and sunglasses.

“Your mother has sent me over to pick you up and take you back to your house.” The man said, his voice was low.

I laughed. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

The man opened the door and got out of the car, and after him, another man got out of it.

“What the fuck? Who are you? Men in black?” I raised an eyebrow.

They were tall and looked like a pair of gorillas. The second man grabbed me by my arm and practically dragged me to get in the car.

I huffed and reluctantly threw the bag inside the car.

 It was something typical from my mother, she lived inside a fucking film and she thought she was the director and could make me act however the fuck she wanted me to. I used to be like that, I used to want her to feel proud of me, but not anymore. I am my own person. I understand she didn’t like the fact that my father was always travelling and stuff, but that didn’t give her the right to be a bitch.

I took out my phone and texted my mates telling them to go without me, damn, we were going to start writing new songs, I needed to go. I’d make sure to make my mother cut the bullshit and then I’d get out of there.

We finally arrived and I was really tempted to steal the car keys from that man and get the fuck out of there, but it’d be funnier to smoke a cigarette in front of my mother and just make her go nuts.

I laughed to myself at the image of my mother losing it, yelling what a bad son I am or some shit like that, that I imagined in my head.

I walked in the house, escorted by the two men.

“Harold, dear!” A pretentious voice yelled, trying to sound sweet.

It was my mother.

I rolled my eyes when she attempted to hug me, and took a step back from her.

“We have to talk, honey.” She said. “Follow me.”

I followed her to the living room, taking one of my cigarettes up to my mouth and lighting it.

“Harold! You can’t smoke, it’ll kill you!”

She sounded disgusted, that’s why I threw the smoke at her.

“We’re all going to die someday, mother.” I defended.

She rolled her eyes. “Another stupid decision.”

Shut the fuck up.

“Whatever.”

She sat down and looked at me. “I know things haven’t worked out between us, Harold. But if you come back home and start forgetting about music and your stupid decisions, this will be for you.” She explained.

She snapped her fingers and a tall, thin, blonde haired girl came in the room. At first sight I thought it was Taylor, but she didn’t look like Taylor at all.

“She’s Brittany.” My mother said as she got up and stood next to the girl.

Of course, she was a Brittany, blonde hair, green eyes and pink skirt…Ugh.

“She’ll be your friend if you stay and behave like a good boy.” She smiled at me.

“What the fuck is this, mother? You’re trying to make me settle down and with…this?” I asked pointing to the girl, who looked slightly offended.

“Harold, I’m just tryin-“

“No, I’m tired of this, I’m not your puppet mother, I will do whatever the fuck I want to and you can do nothing. Accept it, you can’t change who I am.” I said angrily.

 She narrowed her eyes and got closer to me.

“Don’t dare to talk to your mother that way, young man!” She scolded me.

My blood was boiling.

“You know what? I’m fucking done with this shit, bye.” I said, grabbing my bag.

“Sometimes I wish you weren’t born!” She yelled.

I turned around and saw that she was covering her mouth with her hands, she was totally faking her regret, I knew it, I could see it in her eyes that she wasn’t regretting it.

“Then you shouldn’t have been so quick to open your legs.” I spat and she widened her eyes.

I clenched my jaw and got out of there.

I didn’t know where I was going, or what to do, or how to feel, but I knew who to call.