The Babysitter (boyxboy)

Chapter 8

Louis couldn’t get it off his mind. The cuts. The scars. The blood! Every time he closed his eyes it was there; etched on to the inside of his eyelids. He’d tried to escape it. He’d drawn a bunch of sketches of Harry’s wrist, of the hurt in his eyes, of the ashamed expression on his face but it didn’t help. No matter how many times he shook his head to rid those pictures from his mind, they’d be back in an instant. And he knew why. One word, well, one question…Why? 

Why had Harry done it?

The question burned in Louis mind every time he thought about Harry’s eyes when he had seen. When he had been caught. When Louis found out his biggest secret. Louis wondered if it had something to do with school or his step father, but Harry seemed so strong up until the night he collapsed in Louis’ arms, his face bruised from Robin. Up until then Harry had seemed fine. He was funny, cute, chatty and a bit cheeky. He seemed fine. Louis just couldn’t understand how someone could purposely hurt themselves like that. What would his parents think? Louis had thought. What if they know but haven’t said anything? Thinking it was a phase. Louis’ brain just couldn’t comprehend why someone would do that, and it was annoying him to no end. 

“You right mate?” Zayn asked from across the room. “Lou?”

“Great, have fun.” Louis responded, still stuck in his thoughts.

“Sure, well I was just going to jump out of a plane with no parachute okay?”

“That’s great.” Louis answered, his gaze still on the coffee table in front of him.

“And then I was going to go swim with some sharks with out any protection.” Zayn said, moving closer towards Louis.

“Yeah cool, see ya.” 

“Lou!” Zayn clicked his fingers in front of his friends face, “Earth to Louis. You there, mate?”

“What?” Louis asked, his gaze breaking as he looked up at Zayn.

“Jesus, thought I’d lost you.” Zayn laughed, plonking down next to Louis on the couch.

Louis gave him a small smile.

“Alright,” Zayn started, knowing all to well something was wrong. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Louis answered, his gaze finding his hands in his lap.

“Right…”

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Oh come on Lou, you know you can tell me anything right? I’m your best friend. You can trust me.”

“I know, but I just…I can’t with this okay? I-I really don’t want to talk about it.” Louis mumbled.

“Okay. That’s fine.” Zayn said, patting Louis shoulder, “But I’m always here okay?”

“Sorry.” Louis muttered.

“Don’t worry about it.” Zayn shrugged.

Louis smiled, “I might just head up to bed.” Standing from the couch, Louis headed for the hallway.

“Alright, see you in the morning.”

“Yeah, night.” Louis said, before leaving the room.

“Night Lou.” Zayn waved, waiting until he heard Louis’ bedroom door close before he leaped up and snuck down the hallway, heading straight for Louis’ studio. Pushing the door open and flicking the light on, Zayn was meet with an unfamiliar face. Sketches, drawings and paintings of a young boy, a young boy Zayn presumed was Harry, was everywhere. His face littered the walls, from different drawings of his eyes or his lips to paintings of his face and his body. Zayn did admit that Harry was attractive, but this was kind of creeping him out.