fighting love » l.s.

nineteen - another party

And the first couple of weeks were good. Not great, at least for Harry, but they were good. Harry's heart still swelled just from hearing Louis's voice through the phone. They talked basically every day for the first week, and then, as Harry got busier with schoolwork and Louis started hanging out more with Eleanor's friends, it dropped down to every other day.

When Eleanor snooped in Louis's phone and found his call history with Harry, it became a couple of times a week. Louis was extremely apologetic, and Harry promised that he understood, although he truly didn't.

Harry remembered that Louis once told him that labels didn't matter. If Louis really cared that much about him, he would be putting Harry first, not Eleanor. Even if she was his girlfriend.

So as the weeks flew by, Louis's calls became few and far between. Harry was left alone with his thoughts much more than he liked. He missed the feeling of being with Louis: safe, easy, and painless. He started doubting himself more and more, and he could feel himself drifting back into the state of mind he was in last year after the incident. And he wanted to scream for help and try to stay afloat, but he just couldn't. Because the only person who could help him didn't want to.

And he refused to beg Louis to love him.

Liam and Niall could see Louis drifting away from them as well, but they were more concerned with Harry. Although they'd known Louis for longer, Liam had shared his knowledge with Niall, and both boys knew how terribly Louis was treating Harry. They weren't taking Harry's side exactly, but they too refused to negotiate with Louis when he was acting this way.

Louis had told them, as well, when Eleanor had ordered that he stop hanging out with Harry. The boys told him that he was an idiot to put a girl over his best friend, but Louis refused to listen. He said that he just told them so that they understood why he wasn't sitting with them at lunch anymore, and that he probably wouldn't be able to hang out this Friday. Or any Friday for the foreseeable future.

So they gave up trying to change his mind, and let him make his bad decisions, saying that he would be the one to face the consequences. Even though in the back of their minds, they knew that they would always be there to help him, even after a major screw up like this.

After a few weeks of Harry moping around, they finally convinced him to go out to a party with them that Friday night. Harry was naturally reluctant at first, especially considering what had happened at the first party he'd gone to with the boys. It brought back unwanted memories, and he'd worked hard to push those feelings as far out of his mind as possible. But after persistent begging from his friends, he eventually agreed.

Niall honked his horn outside of Harry's house (thankfully Harry's mother had already left for her normal weekend business trip), and Harry hurried out of the house. He slid into the backseat and Liam turned around in the passenger seat.

"Are you excited? Because I definitely am," the brown haired boy said, practically bouncing in his seat.

"You know I'm not a big partier, Li," Harry replied quietly, fumbling with his fingers in his lap. There was no one there to tell him to quit it, but Harry immediately thought of Louis grabbing his hands and shooting him a scolding look, and he immediately dropped them to his sides.

"It'll be great," Niall interjected as he pulled onto the road in the direction of the house party.

"I wonder if those cute girls from maths are going," Liam said, glancing back at Harry with a grin. "I think one of them is super into me."

Niall rolled his eyes at Harry in the rearview mirror and Harry stifled a laugh. Liam smacked Niall playfully and Niall protested loudly, saying something about not distracting the driver. And although Louis's unique voice was missing from the group, they still laughed the whole way to the party.