you bring me home [larry stylinson]

Chapter One

8 years later

"Thanks for coming in," Harry called out. "Have a lovely day!"

He looked at the clock and noticed his shift was finally up. He took off his apron and hung it in the back. He waved goodbye to his manager and walked out of the bakery; making his way back home. He had just recently finished his Stage 5 education at school and now was fully done with high school. Currently, he was working at a bakery in London. He decided just to use the summer to focus on his music and YouTube channel. Once summer would be over, that's when he'd figure out what to do with his life. For now, he just enjoyed working at a bakery and making music.

On his way home, he texted his friend Niall.

Any plans tonight? x

Niall responded back almost instantly. Ye, going w/ Zayn to this new restaurant that opened up! Wanna come?

Sure! Text me the deets.

Harry went home, walked into his room and looked at the time. 4:45 PM. He had just enough time to shower and get ready for his dinner plans. He looked at his untouched laptop and sighed. The music was just going to have to wait until later that night. Ever since he had turned fifteen, he had really gotten into music; mainly singing. He knew how to play some guitar, but not much. Only simple chords. He planned on practicing over the summer to become better at guitar. Since Niall knew how to play, he had asked him to help. Niall promised to help if Harry brought back treats from the bakery; he was a simple man like that.

Once Harry was done taking a shower and getting ready, he started making his way to the new restaurant. He took the tube and got there in exactly a half-hour. When he walked in the restaurant, he began looking around to see if he could see his friends. Luckily, Zayn noticed him and flagged him down. They were sitting in a booth. Niall and Zayn were sitting on one side, so Harry sat on the other side.

He moved in all the way and Niall looked at him, confused. "Why don't you just sit in the middle Harry? It's not like we have a fourth friend in our group."

"You make us sound like losers," Zayn frowned.

Harry chuckled and scooted to the middle. He grabbed a menu and started looking at what they had. "Three is a good number," he began, still scanning the menu, "the three stooges, the three musketeers, the three bears from Goldilocks. . ."

"I'm just saying," Niall shrugged. "Maybe we should try to extend our friend group."

"It's hard making friends," Harry mumbled. He looked up at the boys and smiled softly. "I'm lucky I even have you guys."

Both Niall and Zayn were a year older than Harry. They were both in university; Zayn was an English major, and Niall was in this fancy culinary school. Since it was finally summer, he was able to see the boys more often.

While they were gone, Harry just focused on his music. He never really went outside, unless he had to work. He used to be so outgoing and wild back when he was in his early teens. . . but he wasn't like that anymore. He knew why.

Louis Tomlinson.

That was his first ever best friend. They had been best friends since Louis moved across the street from Harry when he was five. Unfortunately, when Harry had turned ten, Louis had to move since his father got relocated at his job. Harry still found himself thinking about Louis a lot. He wondered how he'd grown up, what he was currently up to, what was he like now? Louis brought out Harry's social side.

After Louis left, Harry sort of clammed up. He found it hard to make friends after that. No one could compare to Louis. Luckily for him, he found Niall and Zayn when he was sixteen. This kid at school was picking on him and the two boys happened to be walking by when they told the kid to 'shove it'. Ever since then, the three of them had been the best of friends.

"So what is everyone going to get?" Zayn asked, forcing Harry out of his thoughts.

As if on command, Niall's stomach growled. They all laughed and Niall told his friends about his two options. He couldn't decide between the lasagna or the fish tacos. Harry was sometimes worried for him. Although Niall loved food, he could never pick a meal. Zayn always teased him saying that when Niall owns a restaurant someday, he won't know what to serve to his customers.

When the waiter came back, Niall ended up going with the fish tacos. Zayn ordered the chicken parmigiana, and Harry got a bacon cheeseburger with fries. Once the menus were gone and out of the way, Niall propped his elbows on the table. "So, does anyone have any big plans for the summer?"

"I'm just hoping to work on my songs and put out some more covers," Harry shrugged.

Niall and Zayn groaned. They had never heard Harry sing, unless they were listening to music in the car. They both knew he had a YouTube channel but Harry was sneaky; he made sure there was no way for anyone to find his channel based on his name. It wasn't private or anything, but he used a fake name. He didn't want people from high school finding him online.

"Will we ever get to listen to your covers or your songs?" Zayn asked.

"Yeah," Niall piped in, crossing his arms. "If I'm going to be teaching you guitar, shouldn't I be able to hear what you're going to play?"

"Maybe someday."

Harry didn't say anything else on the subject and that's when his friends knew to stop pestering. Niall turned to Zayn and raised his eyebrows, waiting for him to answer his question. Zayn looked up at the ceiling and thought for a moment.

"I'm not too sure," he admitted sheepishly. "I'm just glad the semester is over. I only got back a few days ago, I hadn't really planned anything out. I might focus on my art and do some paintings. I just need to find some inspiration. I might take a little trip too, I haven't decided. What about you Niall?"

"I'm just going to work on my cooking skills," Niall smiled. "We were actually given a couple assignments over the summer. One of them is to perfect the macaroon recipe."

"Maybe we can help you?" Zayn suggested.

Niall burst out laughing and shook his head. "Nuh uh mate, I'm okay. Remember last time you two tried to help me make crepes? There was flour everywhere!"

"Fine," Zayn sniffed jokingly. "Enjoy making the macaroons by yourself!"

~

When Harry got back home, it was nine o'clock. The boys stayed past dessert and just caught up since they hadn't seen each other in a couple months. He walked up to his room and shut his door. He turned on his laptop and went to check his YouTube page.

A video he had posted a couple of days ago had a few likes. He smiled softly to himself and grabbed his notebook. It was filled with song ideas and covers he had planned to do at some point. Whenever he had a nice lyric pop in his head, he would write it down immediately in case something great would come out of it. While at dinner, he had thought of a nice little line.

Once he opened his notebook, he scribbled furiously until he had written down the lyric. He reread it and shrugged to himself. It was a good line, but he didn't know what to do with it. Not yet anyways. He shut his notebook and yawned, feeling tired all of a sudden. He got changed and got ready for bed. He then turned off his light and hopped into bed, the lyric replaying over and over in his head.

We're just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me