fighting love » l.s.

fourteen - my friends won't love me like you

It was Thursday, and Louis hadn't seen Harry since the incident in the cafeteria. When he asked Liam and Niall about it, they had acted shifty and refused to give him a straight answer, which meant that Harry was avoiding him.

To make matter worse, Eleanor was extremely clingy. Louis couldn't go anywhere without her asking where he was going, what he was doing, and who he was with. They were only a few days into their relationship, and he was about ready to strangle her.

He still believed that they could work it out, though. She was a nice girl, despite her annoying possessiveness, and he did find that she was a good distraction from his feelings for Harry. Whatever those feelings were.

Today, for some reason, he couldn't get Harry off his mind. He hadn't seen the boy in a few days, and Harry wouldn't answer his texts. At first, he figured that Harry was just angry at him for not telling him about Eleanor, but now he wondered if something was wrong with the younger boy.

At lunchtime, Louis didn't go to the lunchroom like he normally would. He knew that he would open his phone to a thousand texts from Eleanor, but he decided to let her wonder for once. He headed toward Liam's locker, hoping that he could catch his friend before he went to the cafeteria.

Apparently luck was on Louis's side, because he spotted Liam's head right as the boy closed his locker. "Hey, Li!" he called, speeding up to a casual jog to catch up with his friend.

"Hey, ready for lunch?" Liam asked, already walking toward the cafeteria when Louis fell into step beside him.

"Actually, I was hoping I could talk to you," Louis admitted, stopping before they could walk any further. Liam stopped too, turning his body toward Louis. "About Harry."

Liam's eyebrows raised immediately, but he nodded. "Okay." He headed in the other direction, toward the bathrooms, and Louis followed. When the door closed behind them, the two boys leaned against the sinks, and Liam looked at Louis expectantly.

"Well, don't look at me," Louis snapped immediately. "You're the one who's helping Harry avoid me."

"What are you talking about?"

Louis rolled his eyes as Liam tried to play innocent -- the boy was a terrible liar. "I know that Harry is avoiding me, mate, I'm not stupid. I just don't understand why."

"You don't understand why?" Liam raised his eyebrows, smirking sarcastically. "And you claim you're not stupid."

"Hey!" Louis replied, starting to get annoyed. "Cut the bullshit and tell me what's going on, yeah?"

"How can you not see what's going on?" Liam exclaimed, taking a step away from the sinks so he could shoot Louis a proper glare. "You like Harry, Louis, no matter how hard you're trying not to. Everyone could see it but you. You make Harry think you care about him and then show up with a girlfriend that none of us have ever heard a single word about?"

"It's not my fault --" Louis interrupted, but Liam ignored him and continued. Now that Louis had got him talking, he couldn't stop himself.

"I can't believe that you couldn't see how hurt Harry was when you announced that Eleanor was your girlfriend. That was a real dickhead move, and now Harry's at home and he's in pain all the time and hell, he can barely move, and he won't let anyone help --" Liam stopped suddenly, eyes widening as he realized what he had just said.

Louis took a slow step toward his friend, saying slowly, "What did you just say?"

"I said you hurt Harry's feelings not telling him about Eleanor. You need to talk to him about it," Liam quickly covered. "Can we go to lunch now?"