Take Me Home

Chapter Twenty-One

The next day was a much quieter one.

Louis and Zayn were in the kitchen, attempting to make the world's biggest lego house on the table - though Liam was convinced that Zayn was having much more fun than the seven year old, who would probably be happy with doing just about anything as long as he was being acknowledged.

Niall was sitting on Liam's lap in the living room. It was clear he hadn't slept well last night, but he hadn't said anything, and he was being uncharacteristically cuddly, so the men didn't want to ruin anything by asking questions - they simply assumed that he still wasn't feeling one hundred percent, it hadn't been long since he had been discharged from the hospital after all.

They were watching a children's channel, and Niall's eyes were glued to the screen as Liam ran his hands through his hair, clearly enjoying doing something he had been deprived of his entire life so far. Niall's finger was absently tracing shapes on the front of Liams shirt as he watched the TV tiredly.

Harry was upstairs alone. He didn't trust himself to be with his own thoughts but he decided that he didn't care today. All he could think about was the messages on his social medias, of all the nasty, cruel things that his classmates had said about him.

His mind repeated those cruel words to him on repeat, an endless loop in his head. And the only thing that could distract him from the words was to hurt himself. So he took the blade from his washbag, sat back on his bed, rolled up his sleeves, and he used it again and again and again until the door opened and Louis walked in.

"Haz, do you want to come and -" Louis' voice cut off mid-sentence as he stared with wide eyes at the object in Harry's hand and the red streaks on his left wrist.

He tried to cover it up but he wasn't fast enough. The seven year old had already seen and he looked terrified as he turned and ran down the stairs.

"Lou -" he began to call out, but he knew that it was pointless. It was too late.

Harry felt his stomach flip. Now everyone was going to know about his secret, they were going to think he was a freak, they were going to want to send him away. Liam and Zayn hadn't signed up for this, they hadn't signed up for a messed up kid. They already had enough to handle as it was.

He ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind him, throwing the dirty blade into the toilet and flushing it quickly, barely even acknowledging the familiar pain as he turned on both taps and placed his injured arm beneath them, staring blankly as the water turned pink and vanished into the plug hole.

He hadn't cut very deeply at all today. But there was so much evidence from the times that he had, so many scabs, some faded scratches. There was no way to cover them, no way that everyone wasn't going to find out.

He watched the water go back to being clear as the bleeding stopped, wrapping some tissue paper around his forearm as he sat down on the toilet seat and pulled his knees up into his chest.

Everyone at school already hated him.

He knew it was only a matter of time before everyone he loved began to hate him too.

#

Louis was afraid.

He knew he had to tell someone what he had seen but he still wasn't sure what Harry had been doing, or why he would do it. But he wasn't sure if Harry would get into trouble or not, so he was uncertain.

He sat down beside Zayn downstairs, quietly chewing on his lip. His heart was racing. He felt sick.

It was a lot for anyone to handle, let alone a seven year old kid.