the treehouse | larry stylinson

thirteen

"this might sting a little," the nurse said as she dabbed a soaked cotton pad over harry's wounds. turns out, the blood on harry's hands wasn't just nick's. apparently he had accidentally punched right into nick's lip piercing a few times too hard, and it had caused him some smaller wounds on his knuckles.

he winced but tried to keep his face straight, the only thing giving it away was the small line in between his eyebrows. i held his hand as tightly as i could, i know he wanted me to.

for once in my life, i was protecting and helping someone else. i had the responsibility of making him happy again, and well, perhaps he could open up about his anger issues to me if everything went the way i wanted them to.

"there, all done," the nurse said as she began stuffing the supplies away into the cabinets. "i would advise you to not get into any more fights, mr. styles. you got of easy this time, i wouldn't want you to end up in here again."

harry nodded sternly, biting his teeth together revealing his sharp jawline. the nurse walked to her desk and began typing away on her computer, harry and i watching on eagerly. she hummed to herself a few times, before pressing a button on her printer and soon after two papers came out. she handed us one each, and walked up to us again.

she looked at me mercifully, "now, louis. i assume this must've been tough for you to see, which is why i'm sending you home for the rest of the day. if there's any issues or if you're feeling bad, i put the number of the school counselor on there as well." she pointed at the paper.

"okay," i said quietly.

next, she turned to harry. "and harry... the principal is waiting for you in his office."

harry shrugged nonchalantly before walking out the door, me trailing behind him like a little lost puppy. he was a fast walker, a very fast walker and i was soon getting out of breath from trying to keep up with him.

"harry, wait... i can't keep up..." i huffed, making him stop and turn around. i sighed with relief, holding my knees to catch my breath.

"go home, louis."

"but... i can wait for you?"

"no. go home."

he watched me with a stern look as i slowly nodded and turned to walk away. tears prickled at my eyes, and soon enough i was crying again, and this time it wouldn't stop.

outside, my tears mixed with the cold rain as i ran all the way home not even caring about how soaked i was getting. i didn't care about anything else other than the fact that harry might've been seriously angry with me. that was somehow worse than anything i'd ever been through.

my mum wasn't home, so i didn't have anyone to cry to and i definitely wasn't going to call niall or the others about this, that wouldn't work. no, i only really had one person that i could talk to about this.

i went straight out to the treehouse, not caring that it was so cold i was shivering. i didn't care.

i was going to sit there, and wait.

-

my eyes shot open at the sound of a loud thunder. i looked around to observe my surroundings, i was still in the treehouse. i quickly fished up my phone out of my pocket and clicked the home button.

it revealed 5 missed calls and 8 texts. i sighed and opened the texts first.

niall: lou?

niall: where are you??????

niall: hey i'm seriously worried, u just disappeared :(

niall: louis?? is everything alright?

no it's not.

niall: lou this better not be true... u and harry in a fight against nick???

niall: are you seriously still hanging out with harry??

niall: can u at least answer me...?

i had one text left, and i could only hope that it was from harry. i was worried about him, he seemed so cold and angry with me earlier. i took a deep breath and opened the last text.

mum: sweetheart, the principal called me. where are you? can you please come home as soon as possible so we can talk about it? i love you.

i sighed and closed my phone, not bothering to check the missed calls and voicemails if i had any.

the thing was, i didn't know what to feel about everything that had happened. it was as if my mind was trying to decide which side it was on, if harry was right to fight with nick, or if it was simply wrong and uncalled for. i had no clue.

it felt nice to have someone. someone who could stand up for me in moments like those, someone who'd defend me no matter what. now i had that. i had harry and maybe that was all i needed, yet i still felt like something was terribly wrong.

a few minutes later, i decided that it was time to go back inside. overthinking stuff would certainly not make it any better, if anything it would probably have made everything worse.

i climbed down the ladder carefully, skipping the broken step - which i still had to get fixed, and began to walk towards my house. now, usually i would try to walk as fast as possible, but right then everything was going in slow motion. i was like in a haze of endless thoughts of harry, harry, and even more harry. i was way too worried, because for once i felt like things were going okay and then something stupid happens. typical me.

i opened the porch door and pulled my shoes off, putting them neatly against the wall. i heard footsteps coming from the kitchen, and they approached me rather quickly.

"oh louis, my darling boy. are you alright sweetie?" my mum asked me as she approached me and put her arms around me. i relaxed into her touch and let everything go. i didn't even notice i was crying until i tasted the saltiness of my tears in my mouth. "darling, don't cry, it's okay. you're okay," she cooed against my ear, as she kept petting my hair soothingly.

"i'm sorry," i cried, even though i didn't know what i was apologizing for. it felt like a natural thing to say.

"why are you apologizing for? you did nothing wrong."

the weird part was, i thought so too, until she told me. because when i actually thought about it, it was my fault. if i wouldn't have been trying to cover for the fact that harry and i were seeing each other, i wouldn't have had to escape the cafeteria, which meant i wouldn't have met nick, which meant that harry wouldn't have showed up to defend me since the fight wouldn't have happened.

"come on, let's go upstairs. you're probably tired, aren't you?" my mum murmured as she took my hand and began walking towards the staircase. i nodded and followed her upstairs to my room.

that night when i fell asleep i only thought about one thing. was harry okay? what happened, would we be alright? would everything go back to normal after this?

if i'd known what was to happen back then, i'd probably have called him right away. but i didn't. and things were only going to go downhill from there.