Scars [Book 1]✅

Fourteen

"Louis Tomlinson, what the hell did you do to get suspended?!" Louis' mum asked angrily as he slid into the passenger seat. He sighed, rubbing his tired eyes with the palms of his hands.

"I uhm, punched a guy," he mumbled, looking down at his lap.

"Louis! Why would you do that!?" she exclaimed, driving off.

"It was for a good reason! Hear me out! Remember that, Harry kid, I told you about?"

"The one with the bright green eyes and the perfect curls? That one?" she mocked Louis, only knowing what he looked like, nothing about the other things.

"Yea," he sighed, "well when he moved here I guess Zayn and Sam, two bullies, took a liking to him. But not in a good way. They beat him up, mum. That was the first time I met him, I helped him after they hurt him. Like, I'm the only one who actually hangs out with him in school. I don't mind, I actually really like him, but they somehow get ahold of him whenever I'm not there or when he's alone and beat him up. That's what happened a bit over a week ago when Zayn was suspended," Louis explained to her.

"So how does this lead up to you punching someone?" she asked, glancing at him.

"Just wait, I'm not done. I didn't know until the bullying incident that got Zayn suspended that Harry uhm, self harms himself," he paused when she gasped. Although he cut her off when she went to speak again. "I'm pretty sure his mum knows. Don't worry. But mum, he self harms, and I'm guessing he was bullied at his old school too," he paused, taking a breath, "today I stayed with him for pretty much the whole day, and even though he always goes to the library for lunch I begged him to eat with us. He agreed eventually, but didn't eat anything," Louis stopped, looking over to her.

"Okay," she nodded slowly, dragging out the word.

"Mum, you have to understand. Harry is like a tiny little twig. But not like Niall kind of skinny. Like unhealthily skinny. I can tell that he is underweight just from looking at him. When I brought him to the nurse today she checked him, and when she lifted his shirt I could see his ribs and his hip bones clearly. And he's pale. Really pale. He looks almost dead like. But then when I go to the library with him and get him laughing it's just like... different," Louis said, smiling at the end.

"You do have that effect on people, Lou," his mum chuckled.

"No, no, but like it's amazing. Usually he doesn't talk at all and hunches himself over to make him seem shorter, because he's so tall and he obviously doesn't like sticking out in crowds, and he stutters. God he's a stuttering mess," he chuckled, "but then we're in there alone and I can actually see some color come to his skin, and he smiles and his dimples come out and it's like seeing a double rainbow or something. Oh, and when we were in the hall we were near Sam so he got scared since he helped Zayn beat him up. So he like sunk into my side and when I grabbed his hand he like relaxed a bit. And then when I released his hand, he got upset and grabbed it again, and ugh, it was so cute mum!" Louis whined, carrying on.

"That sounds good love but you haven't told me why you got suspended," she scolded.

Louis cheeks heated up, "Sorry," he mumbled, "well when the nurse lifted up his shirt we saw the bruises that must've come from today so I figured out that Sam must've done it. So I kinda just got really mad and fumed and like, punched him and yelled a bit," he told her, looking down at his folded hands embarrassedly.

She sighed heavily, thinking over what her son had just told her, "Although I'm glad you were sticking up for your friend I'm not happy with you," she sighed, shaking her head slightly as they pulled up in front of their house. Though she didn't go into the driveway. "Am I taking you to see your friend or no?"

Louis gasped, "Can I? Please?" he whined. She nodded silently, and kept driving onwards, towards the hospital.