More Than a Best Friend

Chapter Two

Harry hid his wrists that day. Yesterday his teacher shouted at his class how useless they were and as usual Harry took each and every word and imprinted them in his head. When he got home he tried to shake it off. It was just a pissed off teacher and a few meaningless angry comments. What kind of influence did that have over him? Apparently every.

He took the razor and pulled straight lines from left to right on his wrist. There were six new cuts amongst the older and newer scars. He wanted to stop after the first one, then the second one, but then he no longer cared. It was easier than worrying how useless he actually was.

And so today, he covered the scars with a whole bunch of bracelets, it was wrong that he collected them for the sole purpose of hiding his scars.

When he got out he snuck a look at his wrist to see were the scars showing. They weren’t and he smiled.

That was when he heard a familiar voice in the next door house, that he hasn’t bothered to look at for three years, mostly because he couldn’t in a way. It was a one he hasn’t heard in three years, but still remembered it clearly. It was Jay.

“I’m sorry Danny is gone, but look, you have a new start here, Boo.”, Jay instructed. Harry didn’t need longer than two or three seconds to realise she was talking to Louis. It was the ‘Boo’ that gave her out. Harry smiled. She still called him Boo-bear. He knew Niall and Zayn were waiting for him, but Louis was back. And Louis always got his full attention no matter the other worries. Because, that was Louis. There was no other explanation. It was the boy that was there since day one whenever Harry needed him, it was the boy that tried to help him the best he could. It was the boy that even made him question his sexuality after he left for Doncaster. It was literally the boy that changed his life, and not many things changed Harry’s life.

Harry didn’t quite catch anything Jay said after the first sentence. His mind was too excited to see Louis.

It was rather awkward, the way he stumbled into his neighbour’s yard, like nothing’s changed, and like there wasn’t a three year gap since he last time walked on the yard in front of that house.

“Hi”, Harry somehow managed to breathe through half closed lips.

Louis caught himself staring at the 17 year old boy. The last time Louis saw Harry, Harry was 14, with a short mop of curly hair, skinny, but with a bit of a chub. Now, Louis was staring at a tall guy with longer, looser curls and biceps. And obvious toned chest and abs through his white V-neck. It was fairly obvious it’s been a moment or two, or quite certainly more, of the awkward silence since Louis started staring at the younger boy’s biceps, at his body, at his curls, at his eyes, and at his lips and the smile they made.

Louis changed quite a bit too. Got biceps of his own. His hair was now a playful, sexy mess instead of the straightened, sleek and simple style. And he looked older, hotter. The sight made Harry swallow a lump in his throat. Louis was sitting on the stairs of his their porch and he was smiling at him and Harry could’ve swore it slowly killed him.

And so the boys stared at each other, both with significant loss of words.

“Oh, wow, is that really you, Harry?”, Jay dropped the bag she was carrying and walked over to Harry and gave him a big, tight hug. She was his ‘mummy Jay’. Sometimes it seemed ridiculous how close the boys were, cute, but ridiculous.

Louis’ head appeared behind Jay, and the boys seemed to just stare at each other’s eyes.

Harry hated Louis. Everything about him. The way he looked at him, the way he smiled at him, the way his hand felt when it brushed against his own. And Louis just really wanted to hate Harry, but he couldn’t bring himself to even think about it.