2015 || H.S

Behind the Boys

Harry!" she screeched into the phone.

"Gemma, I've missed you!" he cheered. Louis rolled his eyes and moved onto the other couch in an attempt to get some sleep in.

"This is weird deja vu," she murmured.

"What do you mean-"

"Oh guess what, Harry?" Her tone was full of excitement. The most excited he had ever heard her.

"What, Gemma?"

"No guess," she squealed. He could tell she was probably jumping around like she does when she gets overwhelmed with enthusiasm.

He sighed. "I don't know, Gem. Just tell me."

"Harry, it involves you," she hissed.

He raised an eyebrow in interest. "How?"

"No! No! I can't tell you," she yelled.

"Why make me guess if you can't tell me?"

"I want to surprise you when you get home instead."

"With what?"

"Come home soon, okay? Bye!"

"No, wait, Gemm-"

The line went dead. She was infuriating. What kind of a person puts you through the pain of a surprise like that? Mean older sisters, that's who, he thought to himself in amusement.

"Was that Gemma?" Louis asked with his eyes forced open for a second. They were the only two awake on the train.

"Yeah, she says she has a surprise for me when I get home," he said while shaking his head. "I have no idea what it is."

"It won't be a present, because Christmas has passed." He yawned. "Maybe a person?"

Harry shrugged and lay along the couch, looking around the small train cabin. "It's going to bug me all night now."

"Anyone coming down?" Louis asked with little interest. He was about to pass out.

"Not that I know of." His eyes caught the framed picture of him and the boys on the fold out table.

The train screeched on breaks and picture slid straight off the table and onto the floor, surprising them both when it smashed open.

"Dammit," Louis muttered with an irritated expression. "Why are they stopping like that?"

"It's alright," Harry sighed. "I'll clean it up."

He got up and was about to leave when he heard Louis's laugh. "You dirty bugger, Harold."

He spun around with a frown as Louis picked up a second photo off the floor. Where did it come from?

He flipped it between his fingers and Harry recognized the girl immediately. He yanked it out of Louis's hands and hurriedly slid it into his back pocket as idea's formed in Louis's head, and he had no problem sharing them.

"Your secret girlfriend?"

Harry bit his lip as he thought back to the young girl. She seemed young now anyway. She always seemed like an older woman to him when they were kids.

"No, Louis. She was just my sister's friend. I don't even know her any more," he said.

"Why was her picture behind the picture of us?" he asked with a smirk.

"I must've put it in there for safe-keeping or something and forgotten it."

Part of it was truth. He had forgotten it was in there. He had in fact almost forgotten her. He pulled out the picture and rubbed his thumb to wipe the dust off her pretty face. He chuckled at himself as he remembered how weird he behaved around her. He could never even come up with a decent sentence.