New Boy || [ Harry Styles au ] ✔️

08

Art was completely amazing, aside from Lorcan's horrendous jokes. He managed to put a smile on my face and I was grateful. However, when I realised it was time for our second lunch break, my mood slightly dampened. God, this was going to be a disaster.

I entered the cafeteria with Lorcan following behind. A lot of questioning eyes followed us the whole time as we walked towards the line.

"Zara it's fine, I promise. You can go sit with your friends." Lorcan smiled, pointing towards a group of people. My eyes narrowed when I saw Noah, Louis and Zayn sitting in the same table as Harry, Olivia, the jocks and the cheerleaders.

"Oh hell no." I muttered, fire building up in my eyes. Lorcan was quick to notice as he grabbed my shoulders gently. "You're acting a bit fidgety. Are you okay?"

I calmed myself down, before looking him in the eyes. "I'm fine Lorcan. And no, I want you to sit with me. Please? I can't go through that without you."

"You make me sound so important, gosh darn it." He playfully sighed, causing another grin to arise on my face. "That's because you are babe." I cooed, pinching his cheeks as we grabbed our trays and made our way to the crowded table.

Noah spotted me and a guilty look came over her face. She mouthed 'I'll tell you later' to me as I pulled up a chair. Lorcan sat in the chair next to mine, causing all eyes on the table and cafeteria to look at him.

"Guys, this is Lorcan." I plastered a smile as I introduced them. "Um, hey." He greeted feebly and once again, I felt like a shit friend as I realised that he didn't like being surrounded by people.

I whispered softly to him, "We can go if you want." He visibly relaxed, sending me a big smile as he shook his head. "I'm good."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Zayn and Harry eyeing him. Everyone greeted him with simple 'hellos' before going back to their conversations.

While Noah, Lorcan and I were talking, a shriek from Olivia made us turn our heads in an instant. "Are you okay?" Harry asked, worry visible in his eyes which made me frown slightly. I felt a warm hand squeezing mine and looked up at Lorcan. I mouthed a thank you to him before focusing back on Olivia.

"Oh my gosh!" Her mouth dropped open. "Is that a hickey Lon!?" Her shrill voice got everyone on the table's attention as their eyes analysed every bit of Lorcan, stopping on the bruise I gave him on his jaw. Did she just call him Lon? The nerve of her.

He continued to eat, not realising they thought his name was 'Lon'. When it dawned that every single eye was on him, he gulped down his food before a blush appeared on his pale cheeks. "Uh, it's Lorcan... And no, Zara just mistakenly did that."

Practically everyone's eyes bulged out and I almost cursed him to hell and back for his shītty wording. "Wait, you gave him that?" Harry's stone cold glare fixated on me.

"What, no! I elbowed him on the jaw!" I explained in my defence earning a proud look from Zayn. "Hell yeah you did! That's my sister."

I rolled my eyes, hands reaching up to massage my temple. "It was an accident Zayn."

Olivia's smirk was still on her face as she studied the both of us. "You guys would be a cute couple. The tan, dark haired goddess and the pale, platinum haired king." She raised her hands up for emphasis.

It was silent for a second, until Lorcan and I burst out into laughter. I laughed and laughed until I felt water in my eyes, leaning my head backwards to catch my breath. People looked at us like we had gone mad but honestly, I was living.

"Wow Olivia," I mused, getting ready to stand up. "You should write a book." Winking at the wide-eyed blonde, I grabbed Lorcan's hand and walked out of the cafeteria; not caring that everyone's eyes were on us and definitely not giving a shit that a certain brown haired guy was glaring holes in our backs.

❁

"So what's up with you and that curly headed guy?" Lorcan casually asked, leaning on the locker besides mine.

I sighed, knowing that this was coming. "Well..." I started off, grabbing the books from my locker and stuffing them in my bag. "I mistook his friendly advances as romantic gestures and basically got myself fūcked." I looked down in shame.

I peered up from my lashes and saw Lorcan deep in thought; his forehead lines creased together as he studied me with a hard glint in his eyes.

"It's not your fault."

A simple statement that was spoke with such confirmation made me raise my head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

The lines on his forehead smoothed out as an easy smile fell on his lips. "Maybe his advances weren't meant to be friendly."

I was still lost, staring at him like he was trying to explain math to me. "I know friendly approaches and if anything, he wanted you to think of him that way. I've seen him get possessive over you."

My eyes widened. Lorcan might be right...
If all Harry wanted to be was friends, he wouldn't have flirted that openly, neither would he have held me the way he did or call me those heart fluttering pet names. I wasn't wrong.

A big grin came over my face and attacked Lorcan with a hug. Startled, he stumbled a bit but then wrapped his arm around me.

"Thank you." I mumbled in his chest.

"You're welcome Zar."

❁

I would ship Zara and Lorcanj but then I also want him as her like advisor/ older brother figure but she already got 2 of those so 👀👀

& there's a reason I named him Lorcan.

Lorcan means Little; fierce. (That's what google said ok )

And the phrase "though she be little, she is fierce" popped up and I was like aight let's do this

[update: Lorcan's name before was Xavier, but I changed it. So if you see Xavier anywhere, please give me a heads up]

-perfectzjm xx