Artwork [h.s]

forty-six

I got out of the house, looking up just to see that Harry was leaning against the driver's side of his car, his gaze focused on something on the ground as he waited. I shut the door, my fingers gripping the strap of my bag a bit tighter as I walked towards him, a slight nervousness in my step as the memory of the events of the previous day crossed my mind.

I understood that something was wrong even before reaching him. He was wearing his usual black coat, but his beanie had been thrown on carelessly, his eyes still drawn to the same spot on the floor even after he heard me come closer. I sighed, stopping next to him. There were dark bags under his eyes, proving that he probably hadn't slept well during the night, the look on his face was evidently tensed, even though it was obvious he was trying his best to act as he always did.

"Is Niall here too?" I asked, giving a little glance to the backseat through the car window, just to find it completely empty. I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering where he was. As far as I knew, his and Harry's friends were the same, and it wouldn't have made sense to have someone else pick him up when Harry could've done it just fine with his car.

Harry shrugged, his attention still focused on that spot on the floor. "He didn't trust me with his son" he replied quietly, making my eyes widen. I knew that the action itself didn't bother him much, given he'd always hated to drive Niall around, but I was also certain that the cruder meaning behind it certainly hadn't gone unnoticed by him.

I stared at him in silence for a couple of seconds, trying to decide what to do. Despite the lack of reply, he didn't make a move to glance in my direction, for some reason finding the floor much more interesting. "Turn off the car" I said in the end, successfully managing to catch his attention.

He slightly turned his head to look at me, the faintness of his reaction being somewhat concerning. "What?" He asked, a frown making its way on his face at my words, making me feel as if he'd only truly heard me in that moment.

I furrowed my eyebrows at the confused look on his face. For the first time his walls seemed to be crumbling down, the facade he'd accurately built for himself being harder to keep up due to the stress he was in, and it was kind of unsettling, if not scary. "You aren't going to school like this" I said, adding a little shrug to my words to try to lessen the intensity of what I was suggesting. Never I would've thought I would've been the one suggesting to skip a school day - not because I was a perfect student, but simply because I was scared of somehow getting caught doing that.

He gave me an equally confused look, probably not believing that I'd just suggested something like that as well, that lasted just before a couple of seconds, before detaching himself from the car, opening the door and taking the key out of the ignition. I turned to look in the direction of my house, worry washing through me as I realised that my mother still hadn't left to go to work. I bit my lower lip, knowing that if I'd managed to find a good enough reason to stay at home, she wouldn't have had any issue with that - mostly because I'd always been quite responsible. It would've been fine to act a little more spontaneously for once.

I watched as he closed the door and locked the car, my fingers playing with my house keys in my pocket. When he was done I started walking towards the door to my house, knowing that he would've followed me. We stopped in front of it and I unlocked the door, opening it slowly and glancing inside as I hesitantly stepped in, trying to find out where my mother was. I closed the door as soon as Harry walked in behind me, putting down my bag and taking off my coat, hanging it next to the door and freeing up space for Harry to hang his.

I walked down the hallway, peeking into the kitchen to see if it was empty. I knew it wasn't realistic of me to think that my mum could've left to go to work before finding out both Harry and I were in the house, but I would've still done all I could to delay the moment she would've found out as much as possible, especially because Harry didn't seem to be in the right mindset for that kind of confrontation.