Save You Tonight

The usual banter of the sixth form common room became muffled and faded, as if someone had pressed cotton wool into Louis' ears. He flinched and wrapped his muscular arms around the burning pain that seared across his lower belly. A sweat was breaking out across Louis' forehead and he was beginning to feel light headed. Louis' best friend Niall -a short Irish kid with dyed blonde hair and a crooked smile- grabbed onto his tanned forearm with a concerned frown. Niall spoke but Louis couldn't focus on the words, the pain was getting too much for him to bear. He stumbled to his feet, arms still around his stomach and doubled over groaning in pain. The other six formers around him peered over looking confused, and concerned. Louis got himself into the small, dingy boys toilet and locked the peeling blue door behind before turning round and vomiting into the toilet bowl.

Louis Tomlinson was bulimic and had been for almost three years. Its not that he had body issues or that he thought he was fat, it was more that he liked the feeling, the dizzy head rush of it all. He liked how throwing up blinded him from his stress and his problems...at least for a little while. Some people cut when they were stressed, others drink, Louis threw up. After three years it had gotten to the point that eating caused his stomach this agonizing pain, it could easily have been all in his head, or he might have done himself some pretty bad damage, he would never know as he was too afraid to go to a doctor about it. Louis flushed the toilet then turned and stared at himself in the small mirror, his stomach had a habit of ballooning when he ate and it had settled back to its usual slim and toned self. He washed his face then went back to the common room looking pale. Niall was the only person in the world who knew about Louis' condition, he was also very aware that there wasn't much he could do about it, Louis was stubborn and it was impossible to break a three year habit when someone was as dependent on it as Louis was. The bell rang loudly over the chatter just as Niall opened his mouth to make a comment. Louis clipped his half done work back into his History folder then pulled his locker key out of his large, brown satchel. Niall sighed and grabbed his things.

"See you at Lunch, Lou!" Niall half shouted over the other sixth formers before heading out the common room door.
***
Louis took his usual seat in the Geography class year 12 and 13s shared on the top floor and pulled a pen and his oxford paper out of his bag. The year 12 girls behind him were whispering and giggling as usual and his friends were talking about Zayn Malik's party the following night. Although Louis was popular for being the comedian/actor/singer and teenage heart throb, he liked to sit alone in class, usually at the very front or back corners. He wanted to be left to work in peace, he didn't think failing was cool, having a future was.

Half way through the lesson the head of Sixth -a tall, white haired man with a welcoming smile and small, round glasses- banged on the door and pulled the teacher, Mr Marks out of class. The whole room erupted with noise the moment the two men shut the door behind them.

"Hey Lou?" A paper ball smacked off Louis head making him sigh and turn around "what?"
"Do you have a date for Malik's party?" Marvin -the captain of the rugby team- questioned him with a raised brow. It was general knowledge than Louis wasn't the dating kind, Aston knew Louis answer before he even asked.

"Nah I'd rather just show up alone an..."

Louis was interrupted by Mr Marks coming back into the room, followed by a young looking boy with a tangle of curly brown hair on the top of his head. He had a very serious expression on his face and his hands buried deep into his pockets. Louis face went red, this knew kid was really attractive.

"Everyone this is Harry Styles, he's just moved here from a Grammar school in Redditch and will be joining our year 12s."

A couple of the rugby lads sneered at the word grammar, they all attended a comprehensive school and it was a cheap school with hardly any funds and a lot of troubled teenagers...big proper grammar schools screamed 'posh twat' to the boys at Louis' school.

"Harry go sit in that empty seat there next to Louis," Mr Marks pointed over next to Louis.

Harry sat down quickly, dragging an old battered folder from his old school and a half used pad of paper. The class resumed. Louis tapped his pen awkwardly on his folder as the teacher rambled on. He felt Harry's eyes on him so he glanced to the side.

"Urhh..hi..?" Louis said under his breath, it was a large class and they were right at the back so his voice went unnoticed.

"Hello" Harry went red in the face and stared at his hands. His voice was a lot deeper than Louis had expected it to be, deeper than Louis own high voice.

"I'm Louis..."

"Yes...he said."

"Right..."

They stayed silent for the rest of the lesson. Louis could have kicked himself when the bell rang. He had never admitted to anyone he was gay yet, not even Niall. How could he tell them? He'd lose everyone, all of his friends. They were the straightest guys ever, football and rugby players, popular and for the most part, total players. They'd never look at him the same way again. Yet here he was, sat next to some posh new kid in Geography, cursing at himself for not trying to drag out the conversation.

Mr Marks dismissed the class once the bell had gone and the room started to empty person by person. The giggling year 12 girls bid Louis a goodbye, hovered for a moment in the hope that Louis would just decide to ask one to Zayn's party, then sighed and left when all they got was a 'bye' as Louis stuffed his things into his satchel.

"Louis?"

Louis looked up from clipping his bag over and responded to Mr Marks with a simple 'yes'.

"I was to allocate Harry here a guide to take him to and pick him up from classes, would you mind?"

Louis looked over at Harry who was awkwardly biting at his nail and staring at the groud below his feet.

"Sure...come on Harry." They left the room together.
***
The corridors were very busy as usual. Harry looked absolutely terrified as he tried desperately to dodge everyone. Louis almost lost him twice as the younger kids knew he had tough friends and moved for him. In a school in this area it was important to have intimidation, and Harry was the least intimidating thing Louis had ever seen...he looked like a lost puppy.

"What class do you have now?"

Harry unfolded his timetable, still trying to keep close to Louis.

"Maths...Ground floor"

Louis nodded and grabbed Harry's arm so he could drag him along quickly. They rushed down the the bottom floor and down past the music corridor until they came to Maths. Louis saw Harry into his classroom and promised he'd be back for him after class.
***
Once the bell rang for the end of second period Louis threw his things together and dived along the corridor towards Harry's math class. The door opened and a few of Louis' friends came bounding out laughing and joking.

"Hey Lou!" Niall patted Louis hard on the back and gestured him to follow the lads to the common room, Louis gave him a 'one minute' hand gesture then leant against the wall waiting to start playing tour guide again.

Harry appeared at the door a few seconds later looking pretty grim, his eyes met Louis and he gave him a forced smile. He was finding it tough fitting in, he might have been popular in his last school but that meant nothing here.

"Alright kiddo?"

Harry nodded and followed Louis back down the busy corridor.

"Year 12 and 13 share a common room just down past the cafeteria, its where we spend break and free periods. Have you been shown it yet?"

Harry shook his head. Louis wished he would talk, it was hard being the only one keeping a conversation going. As they pushed open the big double doors of the common room Harry groaned. The room was very clearly divided up: the total rejects sat playing games on their laptops, the quiet ones who had no interest in socializing out with their group -in fact they hardly socialized with each other- sat near the door, the stoners sat in the corner looking like they needed a good wash, the inbetweeners who spoke to pretty much everyone but who weren't classed as popular were on the sofas and the well dressed, well presented popular kids, talking loudly about their weekend antics and making fun of those around them were perched by the counters sipping tea and coffee. Harry didn't belong to any of these groups yet, he knew would be spending the interval alone, he was, however, wrong. Louis grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards his friends.

"You need to make some friends...mine are alright. They can be complete twats sometimes but they're harmless really."

Harry bit his lip anxiously as Louis got the attention of his friends.

"Guys this is Harry, he's new. Year 12."

Harry was introduced to Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness, Tom Parker, Nathan Sykes, Oritsé Williams, Marvin Humes, JB Gill, Aston Merrygold, Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall. After the introduction Harry turned to Louis and bit his lip.

"I'm never going to remember all those names Louis..." He said quietly

Louis laughed and patted his back "S'alright! You only need to remember me, Niall, Zayn and Liam...they're my best mates."

Harry nodded and flashed Louis his first genuine smile since they met.