Forever Roses {Harry Styles AU}

Chapter 5: Toby

Chapter 5: Toby – October 8, 2011

I may spend a lot of my time with April now, but lunch is an exception. Males and females have no problem socializing anywhere else, hanging out, whatever, but lunch? No way, apparently. Hence, the cafeteria is divided by gender; hence, girls and boys exit pretty separately at the bell; hence, April and I do not walk from lunch to class afterwards; hence, we aren’t together when Toby asks her out.

But, as I’m walking out of the lunchroom, this is what I hear in the midst of the guy crowd:

“I heard Toby was going to ask out April.”

“Pst, all the guys are supposed to go watch Toby ask out April!”

“What’s going on by the language department again?”

“Toby’s asking out April right now!”

“C’mon, man, we’ve gotta go watch Toby ask the chick out!”

Naturally, I follow the boys and head towards the language department where, sure enough, Toby is standing. The boys leave the cafeteria first as we’re closer to the doors, so I’m guessing Toby is waiting for April to pass by. It’s on the way to most classes anyway, at least from the lunchroom.

And as soon as April enters this hallway, I turn. I kind of feel her presence because, let’s face it at this point, I’m obsessed with her. Her face is radiating happiness; her body is glowing like an angel’s. But then, her face crinkles in slight confusion because it does look like a crowd has gathered to watch something. I feel separated from this crowd. I’m not part of it. I’m here for April, not her cruel spectacle. Even though I know my intentions, I’m just adding another body to the mob of people who are attempting to look casual.

April, the kind of girl she is, walks right past all of the people.

Toby runs after her and grabs her hand.

She turns back, baffled.

He’s still holding her hand, but he does more: he starts to sing.

“You know you love me, you know you care. Just shout whenever, and I’ll be there. You are my love, you are my heart, and we will never ever ever be apart.”

What’s so rude about the whole thing is that anyone can tell he doesn’t mean a word of it. He’s just trying to bring attention to the both of them, but the humiliating kind of attention to her.

At least April can see the obvious. So she yanks her hand out from his. Her cheeks are beet-red. She’s so embarrassed. I’ve always thought Toby was kind of a dick, and now I’ve got proof.

“Are we an item? Girl quit playing. We’re just friends, what are you saying? Say there’s another and look right in my eyes. My first love broke my heart for the first time, and I was like…”

Toby keeps singing – horribly, I might add – and barely runs after her in the halls. But I do run after her, and I end up following her all the way to a bathroom at the corner of the school. It’s a girls’ bathroom, obviously, but I know that like, no one ever goes in it, so I don’t think twice about going in. I’m doing it just for April, anyway.

April is at the sink splashing her face with water, but when she hears running footsteps, she whips her head behind her to see who it is. When she sees me, relief spreads across her face.

“Harry,” she wails quietly. “Did you see that? That was humiliating.”

“Yeah, I saw,” I tell her without agreeing that yes, that was pretty humiliating.

“What am I supposed to do? It’s bad enough that they’re asking me out just to fool around, but to make it public?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t. They’re boys, though. I know if I was doing something stupid I’d get tired of doing it if nothing came of it. Just ignore them, and they’ll go away.”

“It’s still horrible,” April says.

“I know. But at least three out of the five actually wanted to go out with you instead of playing games,” I try comforting her, but the words come out as if they taste like five-day-old broccoli. I don’t know if it’s from jealousy over the first three or disgust over the last two.

“But –”

I don’t give April a chance to argue yet because I feel myself getting on a roll. My tongue keeps coming up with more things to say that might make her feel better. “So over half of them actually like you –”

“No, Ha–”

“– which means that –”

“Harry!”

I stop. She obviously has something to say.

“There aren’t five of them. There have been about four others between Brandon and Toby, Harry. That makes nine. Three real, six fake. Six boys so far have tried to fool me, really.”

I stand there.

Silence.

“What?” I finally ask. I did not know of these other four boys.

“You just weren’t there for the other four,” April tells me.

Which makes me feel low, like I should have been there for her all of these times when this happened.

“Who were they?” My voice is deeper than usual. I almost sound scary.

April doesn’t flinch at my tone. She just names the boys.

I know they’re trying to fool her like she says because nobody knows that April is aware of what they’re doing. They aren’t just trying to make her life annoying by a constant stream of suitors; they’re trying to trick her. And what if she said yes to one of them? What would they do? Would they go along with it and pretend they like her while they date her like little backstabbing bastards? Or would they just laugh at her face and tell her right there they didn’t mean it?

Suddenly I’m glad April is so picky. She may not say yes to me if I don’t qualify for her, if she doesn’t like me, but I’d take rejection any day over one of those idiots playing her like she's some marionette. 

"Hey, April, it's okay. It'll blow over. Just don't let it bother you," I tell her, placing a fallen strand of hair behind her ear instead of letting it stick to her wet face. 

She gives me a weak smile before grabbing a paper towel to dry her dripping face with. Wiping it and throwing the brown paper in the trash, April hugs me.

"Thank you, Harry. So much," April mumbles into my shoulder, still hugging me. "I'm really glad we became such good friends this year. I really am."

And that, my friend, is one thing I have been dreaming of for quite some time.

~.~

A/N: 

*Not Edited because I suck at life and I'm sorry I SWEAR. I'll edit it soon but really who cares except me* AND OMG THE SPACING IS FUNKY IDK WHY WHAT IS GOING ON AAAAH i hate technology everybody wait i think i fixed it 

AAAH I almost forgot to post but hey I remembered! It's like 10pm in my zone though :) 

Nothing on the external link this time but when we introduce a new character or two there will be! But until then I like food and votes and sleep and comments cough cough cough cough good night -Stephanie.:)