Don't You Remember? ~Larry Stylinson

32. Coping with the pain

“Um, here’s your lighter back Zayn,” We had just finished our second game of Fifa and I had only just realized that I still had Zayn’s cigarette lighter in my pocket from earlier.

“Oh, erm, ok,” Zayn said, taking the lighter from my outstretched hand. “Wait, Harry. Were you smoking?”

“Well, yeah,” I replied. Zayn raised his eyebrows, looking at me with a concerned expression. “And I don’t need another lecture from you; Liam already gave me a good talking to.” I smirked at him hoping that it would ease the tension that had suddenly falling on us. “Anyways, you can’t talk, you smoke all the time?”

To that, Zayn nodded in what I hoped to be understanding. He looked me in the eye, still looking a little unsure, and asked, “Why?”

I shrugged, looking down to the floor, “I guess I just wanted to relieve some stress.” I told him.

Zayn sighed, bringing his fingers beneath my chin and tilting my head so that I was looking at him. “Look,” he began, “I’m not going to give you some big speech about how smoking is bad and all of that. I understand why you did it and all that, but seriously; don’t make this a regular thing. You don’t know how easy it is to get hooked, and then how hard it is to stop. Just, come and talk to me or any of the other boys and we can help you out.”

I nodded. “Yep,” said smirking at him cheekily, “That was pretty much what Liam just said. Are you sure you’re not slowly turning into him?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Hey!” Zayn protested, “I’m not turning into Liam, I still know how to have fun!” I laughed along with him; of course we all loved Liam, but sometimes it was good to just make jokes and have a laugh with your friends.

“But seriously mate,” Zayn regained my attention. “Have you spoken to Louis yet?” he asked.

“No, he obviously doesn’t want to be near me, so why would I want to go and talk to him?” I replied, eyebrows raised.

“I talked to him when he came, in… and he told me his side of the story.” Zayn explained and I just frowned.

“What do you mean ‘his side of the story?” I asked; did Zayn know what was going on here? “We went to the shop, he started ignoring me, and as soon as we got a little bit of hate thrown at us, he wouldn’t even look me in the eye. There’s no more to it,” I told him, getting a little agitated. If Louis had something to say or apologise to me, he would have done it by now.

“Look Harry, I think it would be best if you went and spoke to him, it’s not what you think. But I think it would be better if you heard it from him rather than me,” Zayn suggested and I groaned. Hasn’t everyone learnt by now that I don’t like people keeping things from me?

“Why can’t he come and talk to me; why do I have to go to him? I’m not the one that has some explaining to do,” I reasoned. If Louis wanted to say something to me, he would have to come and speak to me, not the other way around.

“He doesn’t want to bother you if you don’t want to talk to him.” Zayn explained, but I wasn’t satisfied. “It’s like when you first found out about you and him being together,” Zayn continued and I nodded. “He didn’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position by forcing you to talk to him. He likes to think of your feelings like that…”

“Yeah, he was totally thinking of my feelings when he was treating me like his boyfriend one moment then like a worthless piece of trash the next,” I scoffed

Zayn sighed, running his hands over his face once. “Look Harry…” he began, then paused and sighed again. “You’re not going to go and talk to him?” he questioned.