I Dare You

Fourteen

Harry snuck back into his house unnoticed by anyone. It wasn't late, but it was past six o-clock. Harry gave his sister her keys back, thanked her and went straight to his room to charge his phone. He text Niall, told him everything and then laid there... Waiting for the thoughts about Novelly to escape his head. He had too much stress going on in the last three days- he didn't want to see the world, he didn't want to face the fantasy reality just yet. His current reality was shit- and he just wanted to sit back and wait for it to pass over. He just wasn't ready to deal with anything yet.

***

Gemma had given Harry a ride to school the next morning- Anne wasn't home from work yet and Josh was already at work. Harry knew his mother would be furious when she found out he left the house- she might even just come to school to pick him up. So Harry promised himself that if he was called to the office, he would just run away to the junk yard and never go home.

He loved his mother, unconditionally- but he didn't want to see her, speak to her, or having anything to do with her in that matter. He was too stressed and too upset to deal with the drama his mother was dragging him into. Or maybe Harry started it all and dragged his mother, Jasmine, and Gemma into it. It was always Harry's fault- so why not?

*

"That's all the work- I'll give you till next Monday to finish it. It's not that much." Harry's teacher spoke. Harry smiled and thanked her.

"I'll have it done." Harry gave a small grin and then took a step backwards.

"I believe you." His teacher smiled.

"Nice to have you back." Novelly's voice sounded from behind Harry, making him jump.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"No, it's fine." Harry mumbled as he turned around.

Novelly followed Harry out of his fourth period class and into the halls.

"Why were you in there?" Harry asked her. He only had second period with her.

"I have her fifth- I was just dropping off my back pack. Would you like to go to lunch with me?" Novelly asked. Harry smiled.

"I would love too."

*

"How are you doing with Louis and all?" Harry dared to bring up the topic. He just didnt want to sit in an awkward silence anymore.

"We're not exactly talking. He's mad at me for going through his phone. He was saying I broke his trust and that he couldnt believe I would go through his messages... He sad I broke his trust... How dare he? I can't believe him sometimes. He's too much."

"I think Louis was just upset you caught him in his lie... I mean, he said he wasn't cheating but then you caught him and so he was probably just trying to make himself not look like the bad guy in the situation. It's a typical guy move. We can't always help the shit that comes out of our mouths." Harry was starting to feel kind of sorry for Louis. If it wasn't for Harry telling Novelly that her boyfriend was going to cheat on her in the first place, then Novelly wouldn't have been so suspisious, caught him in a lie, and then told the whole school he had a small dick and was cheating on her with some whore. Eventhough from what Harry has heard, Eleanor is a very nice person.

"He should learn how to keep his dick in his pants. What if he gave me an STD?" "I don't think he did..." Harry awkwardly mumbled.

"Let's not talk about Louis anymore. He's an asshole."

"Okay. Er- Where are we going for lunch?" Harry changed the subject.

"I was thinking maybe we should just ditch the rest of the day and go to the mall."

"But your back pack is in-"

"We'll go back and get it."

Novelly was determined to get away from school, from everyone and everything. She wanted to be alone with someone who could distract her and make her happy. She just wanted to explore her feelings a little more and see what she could have if she ever decided to have something with Harry. It was obvious to her that he liked her. She knew it, Louis knew it, Niall knew it, hell... even Jessie knew it and shes so clueless and only talks or thinks about Liam. The point was- everyone knew Harry liked Novelly, he never said it, but it was obvious. And it all came clear when Louis dared Harry to kiss the prettiest girl in the room... and he kissed Novelly.

***

"Harry?" Novelly brought him to attention.

"Yep?" Harry was in focus now, always ready to listen to what Novelly had to say.

"I just wanted to say thank you." She smiled. Harry was confused, practically choking on his chicken nuggets from McDonalds when he couldn't come up with anything to say.

"For what?" He asked. Novelly looked around the food court, trying to find an answer that wouldn't give away anything yet.

"For being so nice to me when I've always shut you out. You're a really great guy."

"Thank you." Harry said sheepishly, a blush creeping on his cheeks whilst he looked down.

"No. Thank you." Novelly smiled.

"I'm really sorry about what happened with Louis. You know you deserve so much better." Harry blurted out. Novelly dropped the fry in her hand and looked down.

"I know that now.... Enough about me. What about you, Harry? What's been going on in your crazy fucked up life?" She smiled.

"What makes you think my life is crazy and fucked up?"

"Who's life isn't?" She made a point. Harry nodded, dipping his chicken nugget in the sweet and sour sauce before speaking.

"It's crazy and fucked up." He chuckled. Novelly giggled a bit. Harry dropped the chicken nugget and then slouched back in his chair.

"I've never talked about my personal life, sorry- uh- I just don't know where to start..." Harry admitted.

"It's fine. Just say anything." Novelly obviously didn't know anything about Harry. If she did then maybe she wouldn't ask that question. Everything in Harry's life was too extreme for Novelly to ever understand.

"Well... I'm grounded." Harry came up with something simple. Novelly laughed.

"What for!"

"It's um...."

"A 16 year old being grounded? Harry you're the biggest goody goody I know. How did you get grounded?"

Ouch.

Harry wasn't that much of a goody goody!

"You know that house I was staying at?" Harry brought up.

"Yeah."

"Well she's not my real family. I look at her like an aunt and things got to aggressive at home to the point where I ran away to her house. I lived there for a whilst, I thought I was going to get away with it. But my mum found out. And her and my mum go way back, bad history, my mother hates her and was furious about me going to her. My mum was going to take her to court.... But I convinced her other wise. I've been grounded, on lock down. Not allowed to even go to school- but I did anyways today."

Novelly was speechless. Harry couldn't believe that he even told Novelly... But it was nice to tell someone who wasn't in the situation. It was nice to get it off his chest.... Even Niall didn't know all this.

"Harry.... I- I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. Just don't tell anybody please. I haven't told anyone... I never tell anyone anything."

"I can tell you're a very private person." Novelly nodded.

"My life isn't something that you wanna know about. It's too fucked up to talk about... No one would believe me anyways." Harry sighed.

"I would."