Forget Me Not (L.S)

|Two

His ears were ringing and his vision was blurry. Harry couldn't feel anything but the pain in his chest as he stood up at the podium and looked out towards the grieving crowd before him.

It had been exactly two weeks since he had lost his beloved, his other half, his Louis, and things at home had been hard to get used to. The first few days, Harry would stay up late on the couch, waiting for his husband to get home from work; but then reality would hit him hard in the face.

Because Louis hadn't been going in to work.

Harry coughed a couple times to clear his throat, trying desperately to clear the tightness there that made it feel as if he were suffocating. He had prepared this speech multiple times, almost to the point that it had been memorized. Though, once he had finally stood front-and-center, his mind had went blank.

He couldn't see anything but that moment in his head. He remembers how he had woken up and got out of bed as if it were a normal morning, but it was far from the reality that he was oblivious to.

Harry shuddered just thinking about it. He can't believe that he didn't notice at first, and all he's been feeling was guilt since then. It wasn't until after he had brushed his teeth that morning and crawled back into bed when he realized that his love was gone.

His arms had instantly went to wrap around Louis' slim waist, his warm skin jumping in shock when he felt how cold his husband was. Louis' body had stopped producing heat, despite being under the covers, and Harry just knew that something was wrong.

It didn't really settle in then, even when he had called an ambulance and the paramedics had stated that his beloved was dead; he'd been dead for a while, they said, and there was really nothing they could do except bring him back to the hospital for some tests.

Just as he suspected, the results of the autopsy made him realize that he could've prevented this. He could have saved Louis if only he had looked at what medication his husband had taken.

From the testing, the hospital staff were able to find out that Louis had accidentally consumed Harry's prescription. Apparently it mixed wrong with all of the caffeine in his husband's system, and in turn, it caused Louis' pulmonary vein to burst; meaning that he passed when his heart exploded or from the internal bleeding he had suffered afterwards.

Harry murmured something under his breath as he collapsed right there at the podium, the grieving crowd sniffling in an unsettled silence. Days worth of tears had finally broke through his tough exterior, and Harry couldn't hold them back.

He let out a heart-wrenching sob as soon as his watery gaze fell upon the two women standing in the front, and they each broke away from the crowd to comfort him into their welcoming arms.

"I'm so sorry," he hiccuped as he pushed his face into his mother's neck, his hands limply held by Jay, his late husband's mother. Harry then clutched onto them, his body desperately searching for a new lifeline, and she easily gave it to him.

Both women had tears of their own streaming down their cheeks, skin flushed and red as the bright lighting beat down on them from the ceiling.

Louis' casket looked slim and shiny behind them though, brand new, and the light was almost comforting. If the light were to be of any indication that he had passed peacefully onto the other side, into heaven, Harry would believe it without question.

"It's not your fault," Jay whispered brokenly.

Harry shakes his head. "I can't blame him, I could never blame him. Maybe that's why he always stood up for me, Louis wasn't a coward towards anything, but I- I am."

Anne ran her fingers through her son's hair then. "Don't say that darling, you're not a coward."

He sniffled a couple more times before he finally stood back up, his knees weak and wobbly as his gaze locked onto the plastic, blue flowers laid around the stage. Although the forget-me-nots were fake, their meanings were the same: in remembrance of good memories and true love.

Their marriage hadn't been long, only four years, but Harry had been in a relationship with Louis since the eighth grade and had been childhood friends long before that. They had plenty of memories between the two of them that could've lasted a lifetime, and Harry had hoped that he'd be able to create more.

"He was right," Harry suddenly chuckled brokenly. "Life is cruel, but he had told me that I've got to move on. I- I don't think I'll ever be able to."

840 words
Unedited

If there's any mistakes, please let me know; I'd like to learn from them, and your help to point them out would be appreciated.

~ Abby Xx