Save You Tonight

Outside the rain was drizzling lightly and the sky was grey and dull. Harry pulled his rain coat on with a deep sigh and grabbed his bag. Rain wasn't his favourite weather, he preferred it when the sun was shinging. Harry grabbed the cold brass door handle and pulled open his front door before stepping into the cold, damp day. He strolled down the garden, hands deep in his jacket pockets. His shoes made loud splashing sounds as the rainwater flowed across the concrete, trying to find its way back to the nearest river. Louis was perched on a small wall at the end of the road with a huge black umbrella protecting him from the cold rain. He was wearing his black school jeans with red wellington boots and a thick sweater on top of his school shirt. Harry smiled and bounded across to Louis.

"Good morning!"

"Morning" Louis grinned and jumped off the wall, his wellies splashing water all over Harry's shoes and ankles.

"Louuu! My feet!" Harry groaned giving Louis a playful shove.

Louis laughed and started up the road with Harry towards school.

***

Louis and Harry walked down the corridor side by side until they came to Harry's locker. Louis gave Harry a pat on the back and they bid their goodbyes before separating for Registration.

After Registration had finished Louis went to the common room during the ten minutes between Regi and first period for a quick bite of toast and his folders for the morning. After leaving the common room he passed a group of year ten girls and overheard 'Zayn' then something about 'that new kid in year 12'. He frowned wondering what the new gossip hanging around since Zayn's party was as he continued on towards Biology.

He took his usual seat next to Zayn and started to drag out a pen and some paper from his bag. Louis didn't usually sit next to his friends in class to give him maximum concentration, however due to the lack of spaces left in this class on the first day of the new school year he was forced to sit with Zayn. Zayn had his back to Louis and was laughing about the weekend with Nathan and Oritse.

"Hey" Louis said while scribbling the date in his margin.

Zayn turned around with a smile and wrote the heading that was pre-written on the board at the front of the classroom.

"How insane was that party?"

"Yeah. Did you get into trouble?"

Zayn grinned and shook his head "nah mate, a few guys stayed back and helped clean up. Just told my parents we were playing xbox. No problem. Where did you run off to though?"

Louis opened his textbook as Miss Stevenson had just instructed them and began writing out of the textbook. He stayed silent for a few more minutes as the young teacher circled the desks before returning to her own.

"Went back to Harry's. Finished our drinks there."

Zayn raised an eyebrow and moved his head closer to Louis so he could whisper, "You seem pretty...fond of Harry. Since when do you show intrest in individuals? You're a...group kind of person. You're always with the group.."

"And?"

"And now you're running off with this new kid? Y'know Jade got everyone who had been thrown out mine to go back to hers. Normally you'd be down there quicker than anyone else...not sat in someones house drinking cocktails out the bottle."

Louis sighed and turned the page in his textbook. He never realised he was being so obviously intrested in spending time with Harry. Zayn was right though, Louis was a very social person...if there was a party, there was always a Louis. He took a mental note to be more careful in future.

"He's not got friends here. I just thought yous would all like him. That's all."

Zayn shrugged and finally opened his own textbook. The subject was not brought up again that lesson.

***

Harry took his seat alone in first period math and opened up his exercise book. The classroom door opened and Niall, Max and Jay walked in chatting and laughing. Niall hovered over his usual seat, muttered something to the other two then walked over to Harry.

"Hey Hazza!" Niall smiled as he dumped himself in the seat next to Harry, the other two sitting in front.

"Uhh...hey"

"Don't worry, if you're good enough to be Louis mate then you're good enough to be mine!"

Harry smiled and gave Niall a nod before turning to his workbook to find a blank page to work on in that lesson. Niall mimicked his actions.

"So did you have a good night after the party ended? Louis said he went back to yours."

Harry looked round at the Irish boy, it bewildered him how fast information spread round this friend group, he also wondered why Louis felt it important to mention to his friends that he stayed at Harry's. Was it a big deal?

"Yeah we did..."

Niall nodded waiting to see if Harry would let out anymore information on Saturday night (Louis hadn't said much at all) or if he'd remain a closed book.

"Actually...Louis did something, and I was hopeing you knew about it...cause I'm not really sure what to think, or do for that matter."

Niall shifted uncomfortably in his seat and leaned closer so that they could lower their voices, "he didn't...did he? I'll kill him if he did," he said in a matter of fact tone.

"He was fine then suddenly he was buckled over in pain-"

Niall interupted him "-what a bloody idiot. He knows better than to eat when he's at a friends house. Sometimes I think he wants people to know."

Harry stared at Niall, he didn't seem overly concerned about Louis actual condition, more so about the possibility of people finding out.

"Look you have to understand that Louis isn't sick. He might say he is...he might say he can't control it...but that's bullshit. He's stuck in a rut, he doesn't realise he can get out of it. I don't know what to do about it, and even if I did he wouldn't let me. Louis is the most stubborn person I've ever met. You're best just to pretend it doesn't happen."

Harry frowned and tugged one of his hands into his tangled hair. Just ignore it? Could he really do that? Was it safe for Louis? He cared about Louis, he'd only known him four days but he cared. What if ignoring just made things worse.

"I don't know if I can do that."

***

Harry stood closely to Louis as they waited in the line for their lunches. The cafeteria was packed and the lines gave little breathing room as students individually packed food onto their plates then paid at the three registers at the end of the line.

Once it was Louis and Harry's turn they grabbed a tray and a plate. They both went for bottles of water then Louis packed his plate with salad and a couple chips.

"Salad doesn't hurt my stomach." He said quietly to Harry as they moved closer to the register.

Harry hadn't grabbed much food himself, a sandwich and his water. He found it hard eating when he was nervous, and he waas still very unsettled around Louis friends. He couldn't be sure whether they actually liked him or not.

Louis friends took up two tables in the far corner of the hall, a space barely big enough for both the boys had been left between Niall and Zayn. Harry had never properly spoken to Zayn, so squashed himself in next to Niall.

"So are you settling in alright?" Liam asked flashing Harry a very chocolatey smile.

Harry nodded as he ripped open his sandwich and pulled the bread apart. Louis gave him a questioning look as he inspected the meat inside.

"Harry...what are you doing?"

Harry gave Louis an innocent smile "Just making sure its okay...its not really on the same level as my last school."

Zayn rolled his eyes and muttered something along the lines of 'spoilt rich twat.' Louis nudged him sharply in the side. The turned back to Harry giving him a laugh and informing him that the food was fine, or else he would go out for lunch.

After about 15 minutes Louis stood up and dumped the remainder of his lunch in the bucket before turning to his friends.

"Anyone wanna come with us, I'm gonna show Harry the drama room."

Nobody was up to it as most were still eating. Zayn shot Louis a warning glare which was met with an eye roll. The two boys walked out of the busy lunch hall side by side.

***

The drama roon was tucked behind the assembly hall's massive stage. It was a fairly large room and the walls were covered in easy assemble clothes racks with a rainbow of costumes from previous shows and pantos. Harry looked around in wonder.

"This place is amazing! How come you have a key?" He asked as he dragged a costume from Oliver off the rail and put on the blazer.

"I teach drama after school to some year eight and nines. And I've been pretty significant characters in every show and panto since I started here. So the drama teacher trusts me."

Harry smiled and threw on a red clown wig that happened to look a lot like his natural hair style. Louis laughed at him and sat on one of the dressing tables tapping it with his fingers to an imaginery beat.

"So Louis...?"

"Yeah?"

Harry walked over, pulling off the wig and sitting next to Louis.

"Who do you live with?"

"My mum, my four little sisters, Phoebe, Daisy, Felicite and Lottie. Oh and my dog -Ted. Why?"

"I dunno, I was just wondering. I don't know much about you...you know a lot more about me" he gave Louis an embarrassed smile.

Louis laughed and ran a hand through his hair, "there isn't much to know really. I've lived here my whole life...my dad lives two streets away, my parents split when my youngest sister was two. That's it really."

Harry smiled and walked over to where he had gotten the blazer, shoving it back on the hanger. He looked over at a massive board that was covered in pictures from shows and smiled as he saw Louis face repeatedly staring down at his with other cast members.

"Why don't you have a girlfriend?"

"Oh..urm...I'm not really the..girlfriend type."

Harry never suspected for one second that Louis meant that he was gay, he automatically assumed Louis was a player, that he'd rather mix and match than be chained down by one girl.