The Baker Boy (Harry Styles) Book 1

Chapter 22

It had been a week since that first video and true to his word, each day I’d wake up to a new video. The school was absolutely buzzing. If I had thought Harry was popular before, now he was being treated like a god. Girls were throwing themselves at him, hoping he’d sing a song for them. I smile slightly to myself as I hear someone walk by humming the melody to Breakeven by the Script, Harry’s most recent song. I think the whole school was waiting to see what song came next. Harry wasn’t the only one that was getting more attention however. People had been watching me a lot closer, actually talking to me now and then, trying to figure out what about me had Harry so attached. Frankly I was just as curious as they were.

“Hey” I say, sitting down at the table across from Harry. He looks up with a half smile, his eyes scanning mine to see if I’d seen today’s video. I nod slightly, not saying anything and he gives a small nod back before returning to his food. We hadn’t mentioned the videos. He knew I was watching them, and I knew that he knew so there was no need to say anything. At least not until I decided what to do about them. As much as I wanted to forgive him, as easy as it would be, I just couldn’t. He had broken my trust. It was hard for me to trust people to begin with, to forgive them for something like this was nearly impossible.

“Are you going to visit Caellum after school today because I was thinking maybe I’d join you if that’s alright?” Harry asks nervously shaking me from my thoughts.

“Actually Haley invited me over” I say, watching as his face goes from shock to disappointment. I’d fallen into a habit of going to visit Caellum after school for an hour or two, sitting by his bed and watching the videos of Harry singing, praying he’d wake up even though he never did.

“Who’s Haley?” he asks after a moment, glancing up with a look of confusion.

“She’s a girl in one of my classes” I say glancing over my shoulder, searching the cafeteria for her. My eyes settle on her and she looks over and smiles, giving me a wave when she sees me looking at her. I give a half smile, waving back before turning back to Harry. She’s the one who told me about the videos, I add silently to myself.

“What are you two going to do?” he asks. I shrug. I didn’t know. I never really had that many girl friends back in Ireland. Honestly I didn’t really have many friends in general.  The few I did have were just as into school as I was so we mainly did homework together.

“I dunno, whatever girls normally do when they hang out?” I say questioningly.

“Well if you have any underwear pillow fights tape it for me ok?” he says jokingly causing me to crack a grin.

“Sure, whatever you say Haz” I say slipping back into his old nickname. His face lights up hearing me call him that and I knew what he was thinking. That things were returning to normal. I freeze, scolding myself for letting down my guard so easily. I couldn’t go back to the way things were. That only led to pain.

“I have to go,” I say standing up and grabbing my tray, seeing hurt flash across his face. I quickly look away, avoiding his eyes as I gather my things. “I have, uh, I have a project, a paper, in erm, in history that is due on Monday that I have to get to work on.” I say mumbling an excuse before hurrying out of the cafeteria, dumping my tray in the garbage on the way out. I sigh and lean against the wall outside the door. That was a close one. I had to be more careful. I glance back through the window, seeing Harry hunched over his tray, holding his head in his hands, looking so vulnerable, so alone. It would be so easy to go back. To sit down at the table and pretend like everything was fine. That nothing ever happened. I shake the thoughts away. I couldn’t. I watch as Luke gets up from his table and walks over, putting an arm around Harry. After a few moments of talking, he convinces Harry to join them at their table. I have to admit, I was surprised when I’d found out that Harry and Luke had made up. Even more surprised to find out that he’d been helping with the videos. And while he hadn’t gone out of his way to be nice, he’d at least made an attempt to be courteous in the halls. For that I was thankful. We’d never be friends but it was nice to know I didn’t have to watch my back now.