Artwork [h.s]

seventy-two

The next day Harry didn't even come to class.

I tried my best to ignore it as I made my way through the day, deciding that I had no reason to be worried about it, as I was quite sure that someone would've called me if Harry's lack of presence was a sign of something bad going on.

However, by the time my last class came around, I couldn't help but ask around to discover what Zayn's last class was, making my way towards it quickly when I found out in an attempt to catch him before he went in.

As soon as I reached it I peeked inside, checking if Zayn was already in the room quickly enough not to be discovered by the existentially bored teacher that was tiredly flicking through the pages of a magazine at the front desk. Thankfully he wasn't, so I just stopped next to the door, not really enjoying being so close to the flow of people that were going into the room - considering the class would've started at any minute - but knowing that if I'd stood on the other side of the corridor Zayn would've deliberately ignored me.

It wasn't long before I finally saw him coming my way. He glanced up from his phone as he walked, immediately stopping in his tracks when his eyes met mine. We stood there, some feet away from each other, for a few seconds, before he suddenly sighed and walked towards me.

"What do you want?" He asked me as soon as he reached me, a hint of annoyance in his voice as he spoke to me, but still moving aside not to block the way as he talked to me.

"I just wanted to know why Harry isn't here today" I replied, trying my best to ignore the fact that he clearly didn't want to talk to me, deciding that discovering the reason behind Harry's disappearance was way more important, considering I knew I would've thought about it the whole day otherwise.

Zayn rolled his eyes at my question. "He didn't feel like coming" he simply replied, seeming to have every intention of ending the conversation in that instant. Seeing him act like that, it wasn't in the slightest bit surprising that he and Harry were best friends, considering that they acted in the same exact way, with the only difference that Zayn sounded way more aggressive as he spoke, while Harry simply never seemed to care.

"Why?" I asked, trying to understand what was going on. I hadn't seen Harry since the afternoon before, so I didn't know if something had happened that I wasn't aware of. I was still a bit hurt that he hadn't come to my house, since it had never really happened before, and it had come so suddenly, leaving me to wonder if I'd done something that had upset him, or if the issue was something else at all. If it was something else, I wondered why he wasn't telling me. I'd already made it quite clear that I was there for him, so it hurt me to know that he didn't feel safe enough to share with me something that was worrying him that much. I definitely felt hurt by his behaviour, but I didn't want to tell him, because I didn't want to weigh him down with my own issues in a moment in which he seemed to have more than enough of his own.

Zayn rolled his eyes at my question. "He just didn't want to" he said harshly, moving to surpass me and walk inside the class.

I stopped him by putting my hand on his arm before he could go in, retracting it quickly when he gave me a sharp glare. "Do you know what's going on with him? He's been a bit weird lately" I couldn't help but ask. If someone knew what was happening, surely it was Zayn, and I needed to know why Harry was acting like that, because all the suppositions I was coming up with weren't good ones at all.

He sighed, annoyance clear in his action. "Sometimes things aren't as easy as they seem, Sierra" he told me, giving me an unreadable glance before finally walking inside, leaving me alone in the corridor.

All of sudden the bell rang and I widened my eyes, realising that I was on the other side of the building, and so officially late to my last class.