24 Hours

Part 21

"Hey! Fag!" I hear a voice shout from behind me. I pull Louis closer to me, telling him to ignore them. I start walking faster, encouraging Louis along with me.

"I'm so sick of it Harry," Louis mutters, pulling his hood over his head.

"You just have to ignore them." I said, following Louis action.

"No, I'm used to them picking on us. I'm sick of running away." Louis looks up at me, blue eyes catching my green ones. I slow down, distracted by my beautiful boyfriend.

"We can't fight them, Lou," I say, "that's what they want. Plus, you could get hurt. That's the last thing I want."

"I know..." Louis whispers, leaning into my arms. I would usually feel bad for not giving Louis what he wants, but this is for his own safety. I care too much to risk him getting hurt.

I hear a tiny yelp and feel Louis being pulled from under my arm. I turn quickly, but I already knew who it was. Nick Grimshaw and his friend had caught up to us. I silently cursed at myself for slowing down.

"You can't run now you fag!" Nick exclaimed as he placed his arm under Louis neck, holding him in his grasp.

"Don't hurt him you bastard!" I shouted, advancing forward.

My arms were forcefully placed behind my back and held there, ceasing my struggle to help Louis. I looked back, seeing a smirk that belonged to Nick's friend.

I looked back at Louis, seeing him struggle under Nick's arm. He looked at me, catching my gaze. His eyes shouted for help. Nick tightened his grip on Louis, making him wince.

"Stop Grimshaw! If you're going to hurt anyone hurt me, not Louis!" I shouted. Nick laughed.

"How sweet of you, defending your little boyfriend. Proves to me just how pathetic he really is." Nick leaned his face down, leveled with Louis. He whispered something to him, making Louis cringe.

Louis turned to face Nick and spit on him. "Fuck off." Louis sneered.

Nick used his free arm to wipe the spit off his face, glaring at Louis. "You're just asking to have your ass kicked aren't you?"

I looked around, trying to find anyone who could help. The street was deserted. It's funny how when you need help the most there's no one there for you.

Nick threw Louis to the ground. Louis grunted as he made contact with the sidewalk, rolling onto his back.

"Louis!" I shouted, struggling to get out of the grip of Nick's friend. It was obvious I wouldn't be able to just slip out.

I looked down to see that he had his legs spread apart just a bit. I brought my leg back, my boot making contact with the guy's balls. He grunted in pain, falling to the ground.

I ran to Louis, kneeling beside him.

"Are you okay?" I asked, moving his hair out of his face.

"I'll be fine, watch out for Ni-" I was kicked to the ground before Louis could finish warning me.

I rolled around, seeing Nick standing above me. I quickly stood up, not giving Nick the advantage of me on the ground.

"Oh, good. I've been waiting for this moment." Nick's smile grew wider as I took the first swing.

I was brought back to the present as Perrie called my name. I turned to her, letting her know she had my attention.

"Are you okay? You just zoned out."

I nodded, letting the memory of my first fight vanish from my mind. "How much longer do we have to go Luke?" I called out.

"Their camp should be up here, around the corner." Luke informed.

The rest of the walk through the tunnel was silent. All of our thoughts were clouded with what the outcome of this would be.

I reminded myself that Louis could get out of Hell, motivating myself to not back out. I wasn't looking forward to fighting anyone. My first fight with Nick didn't turn out terrible, but it didn't turn out the best either.

The only good outcome of that fight was that I noticed how bad at fighting I was. Right after I recovered, I signed myself up for a private self defense class. I was taught different ways to defend myself and fight back.

As I tried to remember the different techniques I could use, Luke held out his arm. Perrie and I stopped, looking to Luke.

Luke pointed to his ear, signaling for us to listen. I strained my ears, hearing the crackling of a small fire just around the corner. Laughter then invaded my hearing, letting us all know they were just around the corner.

Perrie started to walk forward and peek around the corner. Luke reached forward to stop her, but it was too late. Perrie looked around the corner and gasped.

I mentally cursed as shouts filled the tunnel.

"Great going, Perrie," Luke muttered, "you gave us away."

"Oh shut up. There's a bunch of guys down there, a sneak attack wouldn't have worked." Perrie countered.

Before Luke could respond a familiar voice rose above all the shouts, "Come out guys. We don't bite... much."

I was the first to round the corner, my curiosity as to who owned the familiar voice overcoming all signs of running away.

I staggered back as I found out who the owner was.

"Harry! What a coincidence I would find you here." He said.

"You know Grimshaw?" Luke asked.

"We've met before." I said, clenching my teeth.

"Luke?! You're here too?! What a party this is!" Nick shouted, walking forward.

"Don't get too excited, Grimshaw. I know you're glad I'm back, but I'm not here to join you."

Nick nodded, "I know. You're here to stop me, of course. Sadly," Nick walked up to Luke, tilting his head, giving off a fake look of pity, "I can't let you do that."

"What're you going to do to stop us?" Perrie called out.

Nick laughed, throwing his head back. "Do you see how many men are behind me? How many of you are there? Three? It's easy to see the outcome of this, isn't it?"

Luke glanced next to him, bending down and grabbing a rusty pipe that was on the floor. He tossed it to me, then picked up stray foot long piece of chain.

Perrie ended up being defenseless. I handed her my pipe, ignoring the look of refusal Perrie had.

"You can only die once, right?" Luke said, gripping both ends of the chain.

"This is going to be the most fun I've had since our last fight, Styles." Nick said, grinning from ear to ear.

"I hope so." I said, clenching my fists.

The group of men and boys behind Nick stood up, crowding around Nick. There was about fifteen in total, completely out numbering us.

Nick and I locked eye contact. "You can't run now you fag."