The Styles Triplets

Chapter 24

"Suspended?!" I exclaimed.

Louis barely reacted, like he was already tired of repeating it. "Yeah. Isn't that what I just said?"

I stared at him, trying to process it. "After what? What happened?"

He exhaled, leaning back slightly as if replaying it in his head. "They pulled him off John—"

"John?" I cut in immediately. "What happened with John?"

Louis hesitated for a second, then continued. "I don't really know how it started. Something John said set him off. Harry lost it. Completely."

My stomach dropped a little at his tone.

"He beat the shit out of him," Louis said plainly. "Like... really bad."

I went still.

"The two officers tried to pull him off, but it wasn't working," he added. "Zayn had to help."

"Zayn?!"

Louis nodded. "Yeah. He helped them get Harry off John."

A strange silence settled between us as I tried to picture it—Harry, Zayn, cops... all of it colliding in one moment.

Louis shifted his weight. "And after they got Harry to the office, Zayn... kind of snapped too. Pushed John around, told him if he ever pulled something like that again, he'd make sure it ended a lot worse than Harry did."

I blinked. "Zayn said that?"

"He did." Lou confirmed, "It was really scary actually."

I didn't respond right away. My mind was stuck on Harry. On what it would take to make him lose control like that. And on what John must have said to push him there.

"I can imagine." I nodded, "Where's Zayn?"

Louis shrugged, "Hell if I know. That's last I saw him."

I followed his gaze instinctively, scanning the hallway. Nothing. No Zayn. No Harry. Just a normal school day that suddenly didn't feel normal at all.

"Alex."

I turned.

Marcel was suddenly there, slipping an arm around my waist and pressing a quick kiss to my cheek like nothing in the world was wrong.

"What are you doing?" I asked automatically. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

He smirked. "Shouldn't you?" Before I could answer, he added, "The whole school is freaking out. Something about John getting beat up. Honestly, I bet he deserved it."

He doesn't know.
"Marce," I said carefully.

The change in my tone made him pause. His smile faded slightly as he looked at me more closely. "What? Are you okay?"

I hesitated. "Harry's the one who did it."

That landed immediately.

"Harry?" Marcel repeated. "Wait—Harry did that? What happened? Is he okay?"

"Harry's suspended," Niall said as he joined us, slipping into the space beside Louis.

Marcel blinked. "Oh." He looked between all of us, processing. "So what did John even do?"

"No one really knows," Louis said. "But it must've been bad. It took multiple people to stop Harry. The cops—"

"And me," a voice added.

Zayn appeared behind us like he'd been there the whole time.

I turned toward him immediately. "Zayn. What happened?"