More Than a Best Friend

Chapter Three

Danny. Louis closed his eyes. He wanted the nightmares to stop, because they tortured him even more than he tortured himself. He blamed himself. He felt like a murderer. Even if the only thing Louis was really capable of killing was a spider, and that when forced to by his sisters or his mum,  and here he was, dealing with the blame for another person’s death. Actually, he wasn’t even the one to push him towards that direction. He wasn’t even nearly the one to blame. It was Danny who had issues, big ones, and refused to tell anyone outside of the magical circle that was him, his girlfriend and Louis, and neither of them actually knew how to help the situation. They tried. But it was Danny who came to school that day with a bottle of pills and it was Danny who made an excuse to go to the loo when it became too much, and too smothering, and it was Danny who took them all then and there. It was just Louis who found him.

The reason Lou blamed himself was because he knew.

He knew all about Danny, everything he did to himself, everything he felt about himself. And he failed in any attempt to help him stop it. Maybe there was no way to stop it, but Louis knew he’ll never know now. He felt as if it was already too late to help when he first found out.

The three lads were just hanging out. Danny, Liam and Louis. It was when Liam had left that Louis noticed a scars spread across Danny’s wrists. Louis tried asking about it, but Danny refused to talk about it, and Louis let it go, like he did once before.

It all flashed back to Harry. Harry and the scars on his wrist. Danny gave him no vague reasons he could accept as loose truth. But, still somehow, Harry’s scars and the muttered excuses were more of an issue. Until Danny got worse.

What Louis hadn’t realised was that Harry got worse, too. And in that case, he was one of the reasons.

~

The two boys gave their best to catch up in the shortest time possible. For the older boy, it should’ve been juggling friendships in between college classes and football practices, but somehow, it just changed onto juggling college classes and football practices in between spending time with Harry. And as for Harry, days just turned brighter, lighter. Louis just brought back the part of him that was missing, and it almost felt as if everything was just good.

“…they’re nice lads, except Liam tended to guide me like his puppy. He wanted me to fit in so badly. Hanging out with his friends. He even set me up on dates.”, Louis finished off his story. It seemed almost as if the boys finally lost any subject to talk about each other, or so they chose to let each other believe, so they covered families, old mutual friends, and so were onto new friends.

“Remember when I set you up on a date?”, Harry chuckled, reminding Louis of what he later referred to as ‘Harry’s worst mistake’.

Louis gave Harry one of those warning glares. “Don’t remind me. That girl from your class that fancied me?”, the night should’ve been a part of Louis’ story. His first blind date. But it turned into more of a Harry and Louis story once Louis chose to run away early.

“She wasn’t that ba–”

Louis slammed his hand against Harry’s lips, covering his mouth, making the younger boy mutter the rest of the sentence into his hand. “I dare you to complete that sentence out loud.”, he gave a slight warning as he removed his hand. “She knew my whole biography.”

“So you just got your bum away from her.”, Harry made a snarky comment at Louis, judging him. “To me.”, the muttered, whispered, two-worded sentence came out of Harry’s lips a bit too suddenly for Louis to fully grasp it, but he was fully aware of it. It was accompanied by a soft smirk from Harry’s side. And Louis just smiled widely at him, staring straight into his eyes, and looking away before the stare became too long.