Strong

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

[Harry]

"This is absolute bullshit." Liam grumbles as he pulls his shirt over his head and chucks it on the floor. He hops onto his bed across the room from me.

"Y'know, it's not nice to talk about yourself like that." I chuckle at my lame comment and continue staring at my phone screen, texting a couple of my old friends that now live in New Jersey.

"You're so funny aren't you?" Liam rolls his eyes dramatically and I fight the urge to burst out laughing. Yeah, at first I was infuriated with Liam and the fact that we were going to be roommates, but now it's fucking funny to piss him off.

"Of course I am."

"Well, I'm not the one with a mentally insane sister. My father is a successful doctor. He's saved three lives this year. I'm sure he could get some of his buddies and set up some therapy for her." Liam brags.

I quickly stand up from my bed and face him.

"How the fuck did you know that?"

"You left your mum's letter to you just sitting out while you were showering, so I decided it was story time." he smirks. "You miss your sisters, huh? I would too, if one of them was just put in a mental hospital."

My eyes widen and I am taken aback by all of his bullshit. "The mental hospital?" I question. No, that can't be possible, my mum promised she wouldn't put Quinn in that place. We made a promise that we would wait and see if she got better, and she did, for the most part.

"You must not have read the whole thing." Liam comments, picking at his nails with an uninterested expression like the little prick he is.

"My life is none of your fucking business Liam, so I suggest you shut the hell up before I-"

"Before you what? Threaten to punch me in the face? You've done that before, Harry. We just met today and you've said it, what, five times? You aren't going to hit me and you know it." Liam says.

I know if I walk out, he'll win this fight, but fighting the urge to actually punch him in the face is becoming too hard. It's not that I'm a wimp or don't want to punch him in the face; trust me, I want to. I'm just trying to restart here, be a better person for my family, and getting in trouble for pounding a kid's face in would not help at all.

I walk out of the room, though, because I'm on the verge of breaking some shit and honestly, I need air from the tension in there.

I walk into the bathroom and look in the mirror. I lean against the sink and have a staring contest with myself. This is the person I hate the most, maybe even more than Liam. I hate myself for being a shit excuse of a living thing for the past 20 years of my life.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a boy walk in. I turn to glance at him for a brief moment. He's wearing black jeans and a grey shirt with a jean jacket overtop.

I feel him looking at me and I wonder if this boy is familiar. I look in the mirror to get a better look at his reflection, and notice he's the boy from my English class that I borrowed a pencil from. "Hey, you're Louis, right?" I ask as he turns to look at me.

[Louis]

"Harry." I almost whisper under my breath, but it's barely audible. I freeze as soon as I spot him in the bathroom. He turns around. "Hey, you're Louis, right?"

"Yeah. Harry, was it?" I ask, clearing my throat. "Yeah, we have the same English class." he replies with a deep, slow voice. He has an accent like me, something I didn't notice during our first encounter. "You're from England?" I ask.

"Yeah, I lived there with my mum until I was 18, then I came here, to New York." he explains. "Oh. Me and my girlfriend, Eleanor, we moved here a couple of weeks ago." I explain.

He nods in understanding and looks back into the mirror.

"You seem angry." I point out.

"Yeah, I am." he replies.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because my shit excuse of a roommate." he tells me.

"What did he do?" I curiously question.

"He was fucking talking shit about my family. He doesn't understand my situation, no one does." Harry says.

"Oh. Who is it?" I want to know more about this intriguing boy, but I'm scared to ask any more questions.

"I don't want to talk about it. Not here at least."

"I can keep a secret." I say.

"I'm sure you can, but I'm not telling you anything about me. I'm too damn complicated." he sighs.

"We all have a secret part of our life that we don't want anyone to know about." I tell him.

"Exactly, I don't want anyone to know about it." he replies with a slight annoyance in his voice.

"Then how about a secret for a secret? Or I'll tell you something about me, then you tell me something about you." I suggest to him.

"Maybe I would consider that, but not here." he says, looking around.

"We could go to my room if that's alright with you..?" I offer.

Harry shrugs and mumbles, "I guess that's fine."

**

"Sorry, it's a bit messy, I've just got my things in." I apologize before turning the key in the door and walking in.

Niall looks at us and smiles. "Hey Louis." he greets.

"Hey Niall, this is Harry." I introduce the two boys.

"Hi." they both say at the same time.

"Okay, I'm going to go grab lunch with a friend, I'll see ya later Louis. Harry." Niall says as he exits the room and closes the door behind him.

"Um, so do you wanna go for lunch too or something?" I ask nervously. Harry gives a small smile and shakes his head and it seems like some of the anger has subsided. "Maybe later."

"Okay...well, I'll tell you something about me, then you tell me something about you."

"I'm from Doncaster."

"I'm from Holmes Chapel." Harry says.

"My parents separated when I was a younger boy." I tell him.

"My mum got remarried a couple of years ago." he says.

"I have four sisters...Lottie, Felicite, Daisy and Pheobe." I say.

"I have two sisters. Gemma and Quinn."

"My major is English."

"Mine is too."

"My favorite book is The Great Gatsby." I tell him with pride.

"Really? That's a really good one. I think it's my favorite too." he says.

"I have a question," Harry asks, "Why did you come to New York?"

I shrug. "New York just seemed like the ideal place for me to start new."

"I have another question," he says, "What's your girlfriend like? Is she worth starting a new life with?"

I nod without another thought. "Of course. I love her more than anything." I tell him.

Harry scratches his chin and nods in understanding and sits up.

"How about that lunch then?" he asks me, standing up now.