Smile For Him

Harry Styles awoke on Saturday morning, head absolutely pounding. He was confused. Why did his head hurt so much? With a groan he lifted himself up, and opened his eyes.

He was in a car. One he did not recognise. On the floor, by his feet sat Louis, scrunched up in an uncomfortable position. His mouth was dry, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. There was a faint taste of beer and vomit...not nice at all. Through the car windows he could see his surroundings. Grass, trees, other cars, a slight fog filling the atmosphere.

Thoughts came flooding back to him...only gradually. Pulling apart his wardrobe trying to find clothes to wear. Climbing over the hedge and seeing Louis on the other side. Finally meeting Louis’ friends who were just as crazy and kind as he imagined them to be. Drinking beer straight from a bottle...Dancing with Louis...being so close to him...going outside and...and...holy shit.

Harry blushed. His face turned bright red. He remembered now. It seemed to be a little hazy and weak, but he remembered. Sat on the bonnet of a car, Louis attacking his neck. Hands creeping up his jumper. It was then that he realised he was in his T-Shirt, his arms pale and freezing. His jumper nowhere in sight. It was hard to know what to think. He didn’t know whether to be proud and happy that he’d done such an intimate thing with Louis...or whether to be embarrassed and ashamed.

Harry didn’t do things like that. He just didn’t. It wasn’t in his nature and it wasn’t how he was taught. Harry would tremble at even the most simplest of touches and yet last night everything seemed to be okay. Nothing really mattered and he felt so incredibly confident. Alcohol had wonderful effects on him. No wonder so many other people drank it day in day out. The power he felt when a little tipsy was amazing. He didn’t even feel like himself last night. He felt like an entirely new person. A new confident Harry, who was just that little bit playful and teasing, with Louis wrapped around his little finger.

Speaking of the older boy, he turned to him. He was sleeping peacefully with his brown hair flopped over his eyes. A sign of discomfort was on his face due to the tight position he was sleeping in, but it didn’t seem to bother Louis. Most probably due to the fact that Louis was use to sleeping in strange and uncomforting positions that it really didn’t faze him anymore.

As if he were aware that Harry’s eyes were on him, Louis started to stir. He shuffled a little in his slumped position before fluttering his eyes open. The blue colour was slightly distorted from the early morning...a dull haze surrounding them. The whites slightly bloodshot. He blinked a couple of times, as if confused. But, once he saw the boy opposite him, he gave a lazy smile.

“Morning,” he said. His voice was croaky and sore sounding. From his cramped position on the floor he tried to move. His back clicked as he managed to pull himself up, and slumped onto one of the backseats, sitting next to Harry. “Morning,” Harry replied, his voice equally as sore.

“Confused?” Louis asked, grinning a little when he saw how tired the younger boy was. “I was. But...I figured out what happened,” the boy blushed and looked away. Louis wasn’t as drunk last night, and clearly remembered everything that happened. Including giving him the love bite which this morning looked red and painful.

“Sorry about that,” Louis said, pointing a finger at the side of Harry’s neck. Harry’s eyes widened, confused. He touched his neck gingerly and winced at the bruise. He’d never had a love bite before. And, although it hurt, he was secretly proud of having it. There was just the issue of covering it up and hiding it from everyone he knew. “It hurts,” Harry mentioned, dropping his hand down from his neck.

“Yeah. That’s kind of what happens when you let people attack your neck,” despite his cheeky claim Louis had a sweet smile on his face, almost shameful and guilty looking. A red blush crept up Harry’s neck and lit his checks. “I didn’t let you,” he muttered, picking the thread of his T-Shirt, embarrassed at how basically slutty he had acted last night. “You definitely did,” Louis grinned, knowing full well Harry knew this too.

“Now, come on, it’s probably time you got home, isn’t it?” Harry groaned, but nodded. According to his phone it was nearly eight in the morning. Tobias would most certainly be up by now, as would Robin. He had less than an hour to get back home before someone would discover he wasn’t there. He was lucky enough that someone hadn’t found out last night. Or at least he assumed no one knew, because there weren’t any missed calls or text messages on his phone.

Both boys exited the car, the morning air hitting them like icy daggers. Harry shivered, his T-Shirt clad body trembling. On the floor a little way away sat Harry’s jumper, crumpled and creased on the floor. Wet from the morning dew. He shamefully scuttled towards it and picked it up, giving Louis a look. Louis laughed, knowing exactly what the younger boy was thinking. ‘I can’t believe we did that last night.’

They walked in silence, ignoring the sleeping people around them. Harry felt a little bad that he didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Louis’ friends considering the fact that they had been so kind to him and ignored the fact that he is a seventeen year old school boy.

They trudged through the damp grass until they came to the green wall that separated them from Harry’s house just past it. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later then,” Louis smiled, turning towards Harry to look into his green eyes.

“Yeah, I guess,” Harry said, looking a little sorry that they’d barely spent five minutes together this morning after spending such a heavy night together last night. Louis just continued to smile and moved in. Harry expected him to kiss him, and puckered up his lips in preparation, but instead Louis swooped down to Harry’s neck. There he laid a gentle kiss on top of the rough red bruise. It tickled Harry’s skin and made him feel absolutely wonderful.

It was intimate. Somehow the sensitive area felt almost private, but Harry tilted his head to the side, allowing for more access, where Louis pressed another butterfly kiss. He mumbled against the soft white skin, “I’ll see you soon, I promise,” the breath on his skin sent shivers down Harry’s spine. Louis raised his head again, choosing to look deep into Harry’s eyes once more, admiring the gold dust that was scattered through the green. He placed a hand on Harry’s cheek. Harry bit his lip, enjoying the way Louis’ rough thumb stroked over his blushing skin.

“Now, go on,” Louis chuckled as he pushed Harry away. With a last smile Harry turned his back and clambered up the hedge and jumping down to the other side. “I don’t regret a thing,” he whispered, and although he didn’t reply, he knew Louis heard.

-

“Gosh, Harry. You look tired,” his Mother said as they sat down for lunch. Despite the fact Harry had had an unnecessarily long shower once he had managed to sneak into his room without being seen, he was still tired and hung over. He grabbed his glass full of water and drank the entire thing in one go. He sniffed and rubbed his eyes but didn’t respond to his mother’s curious eyes. Moments later, after realising she wasn’t getting anything from her son she turned back to her food. The table remained silent, although Harry could hear the thumping in his head and it was wildly distracting.

“So, Gemma my love, what are you going to do this weekend?” Anne asked, taking a sip of her tea, her perfect white teeth clinking on the china of the floral cup. Gemma, whose mouth was previously full of strawberries swallowed her mouthful and grinned. “Well, I was thinking of seeing Annabelle and Katie. We were perhaps going to go shopping and then for a stroll down by the lake. Although I’ve heard nowadays it’s looking a little worse for wear as those mongrels from downtown have got their hands on the place. The last time I went up there it was covered in bloody beer cans. But then tomorrow Bert and I were going out for the day. So I probably won’t be home for dinner,” Gemma smiled at her plans and shot Harry a look. It was full of smugness and Harry to look away to avoid smirking himself.

She knew nothing. Gemma would have been horrified had she of known hours before Harry was in fact hanging out with the very same mongrels she was just talking about. Yes, Harry was very smug indeed. Although he had to hide it, like he had to hide his hang over which was incredibly painful. But, he was sure it wasn’t the worst it could be. He’d only thrown up once after all.

His family didn’t even bother to ask if he was doing anything. After all, they never did. They didn’t need to. Because Harry didn’t do anything. As far as they were concerned as soon as this meal was over Harry would go back up to his room, his door firmly shut. Like he did every other weekend and every day in between. But it was different now, because there was someone in his life who hadn’t been there before. Someone who was so incredibly unimportant to the rest of the world, but a crucial necessity for Harry.

Harry could just quite simply not lose Louis. Because if he did, he’d fall apart. He really would. It was amazing, how quickly a seventeen year old boy could change in a week. At this age he was so vulnerable, scarily so. He’d been the same way his entire life, and known no different, yet this week...even just these last few days his life had completely turned around. Landing on its head. He’d experienced things he never thought he would, and he knew this was just the beginning. Somehow, he could sense that Louis would be in his life a long time.

Louis wouldn’t just be that boy who changed him and went away, acting as a tragic love story. No, Louis would be there forever. Not just in his heart, but quite literally there. Standing next to him and holding his hand. And Harry didn’t care whether they were friends...best friends...boyfriends? He just wanted him there. The way his hand fitted into his own and how their lips moulded onto one another it were magic. Harry had no other way of describing it. It felt like magic.

But...it wasn’t magic at all. Because there was no such thing. What it was was something Harry didn’t ever thing he would be quite capable of.

It was love. Pure and simple. No tricks. No rose tinted glasses. Raw love which was the most honest thing he had ever felt. The most fantastic and the most awesome. And he knew that no matter what Louis did to him, that feeling would never go away.

Strange really, how quickly you can fall in love. Some may say it was because Harry was so young. But he knew that wasn’t the reason. It was because Louis was the only one to hold Harry’s hand when the rest of the world had turned its back. Because Louis relit his life when it was just about to fade and flutter away. Because if Louis hadn’t turned up, there probably wouldn’t have been any Harry left. Just an empty shell where a beautiful boy once was.

But that beautiful boy was still there. And he was sneaking out of his front door and running down the grey stone path to meet the most wonderful human on the planet.