Secrets

Nine

I had actually forgotten about Liam and my Harry for a few weeks. Once I was home and got back in routine, it was too easy to forget. After thinking about it, the whole situation did seem like a dream.

At least, I forgot until I started school again. Niall walked besides me as we headed into the school, and one of the first people I saw was Harry. My mind went blank for a second with just thoughts of us until Niall grabbed my shoulder and stopped me from walking. Everything crashed back down. My smile that had been on my face dropped and I shook my head, looking away from him.

"What are my classes again?" I asked quietly.

"Louis," Niall said softly, squeezed my shoulder.

"It's okay. It was fake anyways." That sentence was weird to say. I still believed it could have been real, but they highly doubt it, so I went with it. I started walking and Niall followed. "It was fake."

Niall showed me my classes, pausing by a vending machine when we were done. "You have a class with Harry, but we can go get it changed if you want."

I shrugged. "I guess I see how today goes and if it's too much, I'll switch or something. What hour?"

"Fourth," he told me, leaning against the wall. "From what you've said before, he doesn't usually talk to you, but you never know."

I nodded and took a deep breath. "Alright. This won't be bad. I can do this."

Niall chuckled at my pep talk. "You'll be fine, L."

And he was right. I was fine up until fourth hour. When I walked in the room, Harry was already there, sitting on a desk while talking to someone. I glanced at him before turning my head to the side and walked to an empty desk. Most of the students were in the room already, so I figured Harry wasn't going to do anything.

Oh, was I wrong.

"Lou," he called, drawing my attention. "Where have you been?"

Instead of actually telling him, I got defensive. He never cared before, why does he now?

"Why do you care?" I mumbled, setting my bag down as he stood up.

"And that's what I get for trying to be nice," he muttered. "Maybe because you haven't shown since like the third week of school. Starting to get worried about you dropping out or something."

"I was in a coma." I shrugged when he stared at me. When everyone stared at me. I wasn't in the mood for this bullshit. I wanted my Harry, not another version.

"What the fuck happened?" I looked up at him and he genuinely looked concerned. It sparked something that I couldn't quite remember. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the hallway. "Are you okay?"

I pulled my wrist away and stepped backwards. Things were starting to clash and it wasnt going to be good for either of us if we actually talked.

"I'm fine. I thought we didn't talk?" I questioned, trying to draw that distinction.

"You don't remember?" Harry asked, knitting his eyebrows.

"No, and what I do know is a lie and made up and a mess."

"What does that mean?" Harry asked.

I shook my head. "You don't want to know." He gave me a look and I sighed. "We were dating, it was great, but we're not dating and we apparently fucking hate each other, so I'm still wrapping my mind around that. Then, you do this, which is cool, but it just confused me and I'm trying to figure it all out but..." I trailed off and threw my hands up with a shrug. "I don't know, alright. So if we're mad, I need to know why. If you'll let it go and we just don't talk,  I can live with that too. I just... tell me where we actually stand."

Harry stared at me for a few seconds. "We were dating?"

"In my coma, yeah. Reality-"

"Yeah, we dated," Harry whispered, looking down the hallway and pushing me further from the door. "It ended really, really badly, on my end. It was my fault, and I let something that wasn't even your fault eat at you until it got so bad that you couldn't stand to be around me. I didn't care so I was being an asshole to you and made it worse."

"No, we didn't. Niall didn't know I even liked-"

"We never told anyone because I wasn't out. I'm not out." Harry ran a hand through his hair and let out a long breath. "At lunch, will you come with me and I'll explain? If you never want to talk to me after that, I'll never talk to you again. And I won't leave things out to make it look better than it is, I won't add in shit, just the truth."

I stared at him for a few seconds. "Yeah," I said finally, nodding a few times. "Yeah, we can do that."

Harry nodded then turned his head back to the class then looked back to me, his lip between his teeth. "I'm gonna go in, take a minute if you need to." I nodded and leaned against the wall while Harry walked to the room, glancing at me.

He could just lie to me. From what I've heard, no one really knows what's going on either. It's a different story from everyone. It wad between our families. It was us fighting over a girl. One of us liked the other and couldn't deal with it. The stories never ended.

I had to trust he would tell me the truth. I didn't want to be fighting with him. And if was willing to tell me the truth, then I would have to listen.

I walked back to class and sat down in the seat. Everyone was staring at me except Harry, who was focusing a little too hard on his notebook. I tapped my fingers on the desk, waiting for Mrs. Ashinha to start talking.