fighting love » l.s.

two - friends

The week flew by. Harry sat with the boys every day at lunch. He was starting to get a handle on his schedule without Niall dragging him down the hall in the right direction. He felt himself starting to open up to the other boys, too. He was very uncomfortable when they started talking about girls, but they didn't seem to notice that he shut down when they started on that topic. Harry still avoided touching at all costs, but Niall was always there to join him when Louis and Liam started tackling each other. Somehow, he never felt like an outcast when he was with them.

On Friday after school, Harry was dreading going home. His mum usually worked late during the week, but she stayed at home during the day on Fridays because she had to leave for business trips on the weekends.

When Harry came out, his mum threatened to kick him out of the house. She came around eventually, but he knows that she is embarrassed of him. Especially since she knows what happened to him last year. She drinks a lot and blames him for it, saying it's a coping mechanism. As though she has to deal with the terrible burden of her son being gay.

They haven't gotten on well since she found out. Harry makes himself scarce when she's home and she goes out with her work friends during the time she has off. It's not the best situation, but Harry can survive it for another year before he moves out.

"What are you doing now, Haz? Heading home?" Niall asked, jogging to catch up with the taller boy as the two walked out of the school building.

"Yeah, I guess," Harry replied, trying to keep the sadness from my voice.

Niall, surprisingly observant, immediately noticed the other boy's reluctance. "The boys aren't coming over until later, but you can come hang with me at my house now if you want," he offered.

Harry's mood brightened immediately at the thought of not having to face his mother. "Really? I don't want to bother you," he said, worried.

"It's no bother," Niall exclaimed, grabbing Harry's arm and dragging him towards the car. Harry couldn't keep the wide grin from his face. After such a short amount of time, Niall was already the best friend he'd ever had.

During the drive, Niall blasted Ed Sheeran. "What kind of music do you listen to?" he asked, speaking loudly to be heard over the radio.

"A bit of everything," Harry replied honestly. "But I love Ed Sheeran."

"Me too!" Niall exclaimed excitedly before smiling sheepishly and adding, "I mean, obviously."

Harry couldn't help himself from laughing at his enthusiasm. The two boys joked around for the rest of the ride back to his house, but Harry found himself suddenly speechless when Niall pulled into the driveway. The huge, white house in front of them was a mansion compared to his mother's small house.

"You live here?" Harry said, mouth hanging open.

"Yeah," Niall replied uncomfortably as he turned the car off. They sat there for a moment in silence as he let Harry process his giant home before he finally broke the silence, saying, "My parents travel a lot, so I'm alone here most of the time. It's nice but it gets lonely."

Although Harry felt terrible for him and hated seeing the sadness that crept into his normally crinkled eyes, he couldn't help but wish that they could trade places. "I'm sorry, mate," he replied. For a second, he wanted to squeeze his arm to comfort him, but he quickly remembered the terrible sensation that comes from physical contact. "Well, let's go inside and I'll make you a bit less lonely, yeah?"

His face lit up again, as though all of his sadness had been forgotten. They headed into the house and Niall showed Harry around the first floor. "Wanna play some video games before the boys get here? They'll probably want to watch a movie."

"Sure," Harry replied, sitting down on the couch beside him. "But I don't really know how to play any games," he admitted.

Niall shot the curly haired boy a shocked look. "You don't play any video games? How come?"

"I don't have any," Harry shrugged. He left out the fact that he spent most of his time hiding in his room, trying to avoid his mother.

"Well, you're about to learn," Niall said, turning his attention back to the game.

It turned out that Harry was absolutely terrible at every single game we tried. Thankfully, Niall was very patient with him as he failed to learn to use the controllers. Before they knew it, the front door swung open and Liam and Louis walked in, filling the room with loud conversation and laughter.

"Harry! What's going on, mate?" Liam called, crossing the room and plopping down beside Harry. Louis followed and sat on the other side of Niall. Harry tried to ignore the burning sensation that suddenly crept onto his cheeks.

"I'm playing games," Harry told him proudly, grinning widely.

"He's trying to play games," Niall corrected him with a loud laugh. "He's the worst I've ever seen, lads."

"How rude!" Harry exclaimed. Still, he laughed along with the other boys, finding that even Niall's joking insult didn't feel the same as other jokes that people had made about him.

"Let's play, then," Louis spoke up. He reached across the other two boys and took the controller from Harry's hand. His finger brushed lightly against the other boy's and Louis's blue eyes locked with Harry's green ones, eyebrows raised slightly. Harry blushed, ducking his head.

"Me and you, Lou?" Niall challenged, and then they were off. Liam and Harry made easy conversation and Harry found that he was just as sweet as Niall, if not more. Liam seemed very concerned when Harry told him that he didn't have any video games at his house, and promised to go out with him to buy some. Harry heard himself agreeing with Liam before he knew what he was saying. Liam just made him feel very safe and comfortable.

"Alright, that's it, Tommo," Niall groaned, dropping his controller to the floor. Louis raised his arms in a cheer as he won once again. "Let's watch a movie," he grumbled, standing from the couch and sulking off to the other room.

The boys followed him down the stairs to the basement and, for the second time that day, Harry found himself completely speechless. "You have a theater in your house?" he gaped as they entered the dark room. There were just two couches and a large screen, but he was still amazed.

All three boys laughed. "You'll get used to the surprises," Liam teased. He wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulders and he tensed against Liam's body, but worked hard to relax himself and shoot the other boy a forced smile. Liam frowned at him for a moment but seemed to forget about it a second later.

Liam guided Harry over to one of the couches, plopping him down before heading to the front of the room to put in a movie. Niall sat on the other couch. Louis's eyes flicked between Niall and Harry before he strode across the room and sat down beside the curly haired boy. Harry's stomach flipped but he kept a cool exterior. He just had to keep telling himself: he's straight, he's straight, he's straight.

Liam put it some action movie and then grabbed two blankets, tossing one to Louis and Harry and keeping one for himself and Niall. Louis looked at the other boy and raised his eyebrows questioningly before handing him one end of the blanket. Realizing suddenly how cold he was, Harry gratefully took it and pulled it onto his lap.

The four boys all sat in comfortable silence as the world crashed and burned on the screen. Every so often, Louis pulled on the blanket as he adjusted it against his lap. Harry kept his eyes trained on the screen, but he could have sworn that he felt the heavy weight of Louis's eyes on him a few times during the movie.

Once that movie was over, Liam put in another one. Harry knew it was getting late, but he really didn't want to go home. He willed my eyes to stay open, but eventually, he felt his head fall against the side of the couch and everything faded to black.