Smile For Him

The house was perfectly still. The only sound to be heard was the soft snoring coming from several teenagers spread out on the living room floor. The sun had barely risen, but the world around them was already in action. The old woman across the street with three cats and a hearing problem was already up watching morning television at a ridiculous volume. The heavily tattooed fat man who lived two doors down was walking his vicious black dog down the street. A woman waved to him as she stood outside her front door, her ten month old baby in one hand, and a cigarette in the other.

But this house was silent. It was only when Niall’s particularly loud ringtone went off that the house began to stir. “Shit!” the Irish boy cried as he sprung up from the floor. His head was spinning and he tried not to gag at the foul smelling vomit on his T-Shirt. He scrambled around looking for his mobile while the other sleeping people moaned in protest. Niall eventually found his phone and groaned, noticing it was work. “Hello,” he said, his voice croaky. “Niall! It’s seven o’clock, where are you?”

Niall groaned again, realising he should have been at work. He made an act of coughing violently before saying, “Sorry, Sally. I’ve not been too well. I think one of the kids might have given me a bug or something.” The other end was silent for a minute before the woman spoke, “Oh, yes. Dean has been looking quite pale recently actually,” Niall coughed again, making sure to make it sound as horrendous as possible. He could almost sense Sally flinching. “O-okay, tell you what, have a couple of days off. Come back on Monday. We don’t want you making any of the other kids sick. Just...rest a bit. I’ll see you on Monday.”

She hung up without another word. Niall chuckled to himself. It really was quite amusing how gullible Sally was. Sally was a teacher at the nursery Niall worked at just in the middle of town. She was exactly what you would expect a nursery teacher to be. She was young, fun, neat and tidy. She had a brilliant relationship with the kids, but she couldn’t always control them. That’s what Niall was there for. Her assistant. Reining the kids back in when they got too rowdy, although his attempts weren’t always successful. He was too soft on them. So Niall was thankful he’d managed to grab a couple of days off.

At least he got to nurse his hangover. Speaking of which he turned to look at the amount of people splayed out on his floor. Liam was huddled on the sofa wrapped in a blanket, while Zayn was sleeping uncomfortably on the coffee table. One girl was in a pool of her own vomit, and another had somehow wiggled her way into their washing basket. Louis was nowhere to be seen, although he suspected he’d retreated back to his own room.

And sure enough, the older lad was just beginning to stir. He was in his own bed, with his bedside table pushed up against the door. At two o’clock that morning Louis had had enough, and gone back to his bedroom. But Zayn hadn’t, and processed to spend the next ten minutes trying to open Louis’ door while Louis tried to hold him off. Eventually Louis barricaded his door to stop anyone coming in. He just wanted to sleep!

And it was now that he woke up, with a fresh mind but bags around his eyes. Louis sat up and stretched, grabbing his flashing phone and finding a text from a girl named Lucy...the one who had passed out in the tub last night.

‘Hi, lou! tell niall fanks for last night. tell him soz i puked on him. i was thinkin we could go for a drink one nite or something? gimmie a text back. Luv lucy xxxxxxxxxxxxxx’

Louis pulled a somewhat confused and disgusted face and deleted the text. The amount of kisses she had put at the end was unnerving. He most certainly would not be texting her back. Why would he want to? He wasn’t interested in her. Oh, no. He was only interested in one particular boy. One particular boy who he was seeing again, tonight. Louis smiled. Things were going so perfectly at the moment. He had found someone who was genuinely perfect. Harry was just so innocent, but yet so intruding. He didn’t realise how brilliant he was. Or how interesting he was. Or how amazingly good-looking he was. He didn’t want to rush things, as after all, Harry was only young. But one day he knew he wouldn’t be able to help himself. And he prayed that the blush he saw on the boys face after he kissed him wasn’t his imagination. Because he really liked Harry, and he hadn’t really liked someone in ages.

-

The numbers on the board swam in front of Harry’s eyes. He couldn’t pay attention, as what he had done last night was bothering him to no end. He enjoyed it! Do not get him wrong. But he felt incredibly dirty, and even guilty. Guilty because he had thought of another boy while doing such a thing to himself. But not just any boy...Louis. It’s not as if Louis had accidently crept into his mind. No. Harry had specifically thought of Louis. And in fact, Louis was the sole reason why Harry stuck his hands down his pants in the first place.

He was afraid that now he would act different around Louis. And what if he found out? Would Louis laugh at him? Would Louis look at him with disgust and walk away? Or would he accept it? Harry didn’t know. And he was keen for Louis to never find out. He felt like a fool. He was seventeen, and until yesterday, he had never known pleasures like that. He had of course seen his fair share of porn out of curiosity, but he never really enjoyed it. He felt rude, like he was invading someone’s private life. But now he was just the same. Thinking of Louis while he wanked himself off. Was that normal? Probably not. No other boy thought of their friend while they did that sort of thing, did they?

Harry found himself blushing at the mere thought of what he had done, and was thankful when the bell rang. He packed away his things and raced out of the classroom, joining the throng of students in the corridor. His heart was racing, knowing that Louis was on his way. This was the best part of the day. When Louis picked him up. When Louis saved him and took him away from the life he hated. Harry just hoped he hadn’t ruined things. Because Harry tended to ruin things, or so Robin said. Harry blamed himself all too much for things that were not his fault. No wonder the boy was so quiet. It upset Louis. Because Louis knew better. He thought it was pathetic that a grown man would undermine and bully a boy such as Harry. Because there was no reason for it.

Harry wouldn’t hurt a fly. And that was both adorable and incredibly frustrating for Louis. The thing that frustrated Louis the most was the fact that nobody had helped the boy thus far. He was clearly weak and upset, yet nobody had seen that. People either chose to ignore him or bullied him further. What people didn’t seem to realise was that it hurt Harry. It hurt him a lot. Harry didn’t seem to react to the bullies. He didn’t cry or lash out. He simply took the beating. That’s why they carried on. Because Harry didn’t do anything about it. And if Harry didn’t do anything about it, why should anyone else?

Louis thought of this as he drove. As much as he was excited to see the younger boy, he couldn’t help but be afraid too. He was afraid every time. He was afraid that one day Harry would reveal something to him that would be too hard to take. Because he knew Harry had secrets. There were things locked up in his mind that he had never told anybody before. He had questions, he had puzzles, and he had thoughts and opinions. But he had no one to ask. No one to tell. No one to seek comfort in. But that’s what Louis was. He was that comfort. And that made him happy. Because Louis needed someone too. Sure, he had Liam, and Zayn, and Niall. But they didn’t offer him the same comfort that Harry did. They didn’t care. Not really. Not in the way that Harry did.

Five minutes later Louis pulled up at the empty school. Harry got in without a word. Both boys thrilled at the finally having the company of each other, but both also awkward because of the thoughts running through their mind. Usually Louis would have driven away as soon as Harry was in the car, but this time he turned to him. “You okay?” Louis asked with sincerity. Harry gave a deep sigh and nodded, “Yeah. I’m okay. Where are we going today?”

Louis smiled, “I thought you could choose. I’ve taken you to places, I want to you take me somewhere.” This made Harry frown, because Harry didn’t know anyway. “But I don’t know anywhere,” he said. A chuckle escaped from Louis’ mouth, “Surely there’s somewhere you’ve wanted to go? Somewhere you’ve wanted to see?”

Harry thought for a moment. “You know that barn, in the field near where I live?” Louis raised an eyebrow, “You want to go there?” He spoke as if the place was boring. Like it had no significance to him other than the fact it was a barn. A place he used simply for parties. He didn’t admire it like Harry did. But once he saw Harry nod shyly he smiled and said, “Okay. We’ll go to the barn.”

“One more thing,” Harry almost whispered just as Louis started driving back down the road. “Yeah?” Louis asked, keeping his eyes in front of him. “I don’t want to go home tonight. Not for a long while anyway. Can you...can you stay with me? Until I want to go home?” Louis licked his lips. Clearly he was confused, and slightly worried. But he accepted the request anyway. “Of course, Harry. I’d love to stay with you.”