Loving You's The Antidote || l.s. ✓

Chapter 4

Harry awoke the next day at 4 in the morning, thanks to his painful bruises. He took another lot of painkillers, putting the packet in his bag before getting ready for work.

//

"Hi Harry. How are you?"

"I'm good thanks." He lied. "What do you want me to do?"

"Can you serve the customers? Like take their orders then make the drinks."

"Yeah, sure."

He stood at the counter, staring into space. It was quiet today, and he had only had to serve a few people. He looked up as the bell rung, spotting the three familiar faces, Louis, Liam, and Zayn.

He bit his lip anxiously, now Louis knew he worked two jobs. He was bound to get made fun of even more. What if people found out about his financial situation? What if-

"Oi Styles! We're talking to you." Zayn interrupted his thoughts, snapping his fingers in front of Harry's face.

"I-I'm sorry, what would you like to order?"

"If you'd have listened the first time you would know. We could get you fired for ignoring us." He smirked.

"N-no, please don't!" Harry rushed out, "please y-you can't-"

"Relax gay boy, we're not going to get you fired." Louis rolled his eyes.

"Oh..." Harry blushed.

"Anyway, we'll just have 3 iced mochas to sit in."

Harry nodded, "um, that'll be £6.30."

Liam slid the money over and Harry put it in the till. He began to make the coffees, wincing at the pain in his tummy and back.

"Oi, hurry up." Zayn groaned.

"Sorry." He murmured, fumbling to place the lids on the coffee. "Here you go." He placed them down, the trio snatching them up without even a thank you.

They sat at a table in the corner, whispering to eachother and glancing at Harry every so often, obviously making comments on him as they burst out into laughter.

Harry drew his hands up inside his sleeves, wrapping them loosely around his waist as to not hurt himself.

"Harry, can you watch the shop for 20 minutes or so? I've got to pop next door." John asked.

"Yeah, okay." He put his head back down as John left, focusing on his shoes.

He busied himself as to not seem awkward, beginning to tidy up the work station where he had made a mess.

He turned around as the bell rang again, his jaw dropping. The woman who had just walked in had her head down, fumbling around in her handbag.

When her head finally snapped up she let out a gasp, "Harry? Oh my god you've grown."

"What do you want to order?" Harry asked coldly, avoiding eye contact.

"Oh don't be like that." She sighed.

"I can't do this right now."

"When can you then?"

"Preferably never."

"For god's sake Harry, stop making it into such a big deal." She groaned.

"I'm not making it into a big deal." He huffed.

"Yes you are."

"No I'm fucking not Gemma! You left me! You fucking moved away without telling me! You left me, I needed you and you left me!" Harry yelled, tears filling his eyes. He glanced over to the trio in the corner, wiping his eyes as he noticed their stares.

"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't know it bothered you that much."

"It doesn't matter anymore. What are you even doing here?"

"I came to see you."

"Well you've seen me now. Just order your drink and go."

"For Christ's sake Harry, we used to be so close."

"Well now we're not. And who's fault is that? Just go away, please. I've got to go to school as soon as my boss is back."

"Give me your phone."

"What? No."

"Just give me your phone, I'll put my number in. I'm going to call you later, don't you dare ignore me."

"No, you can't. Just text me and I'll call you if I can. Just hurry up please. What's your order whilst you do that?"

"Just a black coffee please."

Harry nodded.

"Harry, you can go now if you need to." John walked back into the cafe.

"I'm just going to finish this order." He told him, rushing to finish the order before passing it to Gemma and taking his phone back. "I've got to go and get changed."

//

"Hey, wait up Curly. We thought we'd walk with you." Louis grinned. "So, what was that all about? Does Harry actually have a voice?"

"It was my sister." He mumbled, not wanting to explain.

"Ah, your sister who upped and left without telling you? The one you waited up for but she didn't come back because she had moved away." Louis taunted.

Zayn let out a loud laugh, "god, nobody wants to be around you."

"Stop." Harry murmured.

"You're telling us what to do, hmm?"

Harry looked up anxiously, his eyes widened as he realised what he had just said. "I didn't mean to, I'm sorry."

"Well, we're almost here. No time to beat you up now, but now if you don't meet us at break it'll be much worse. Meet us around the back of the school."

//

Harry limped to the spot they told him to meet them, dreading the second he arrived. He felt incredibly unwell, his stomach and back were hurting so much he could hardly move.

"Ah, here he is. Are you ready for your punishment?"

"I...please don't. Please-" Harry was cut off by a sudden punch to his stomach. He let out a strangled cry as he dropped to the floor.

Zayn kicked him again, and again. Stan, Liam and Louis just watched, joining in occasionally.

A feeling of sickness rose up suddenly, Harry rolled over quickly onto his hands and knees, throwing up on the ground beneath him as he sobbed.

"Jesus that's disgusting." Stan wrinkled his nose.

"Do you think we better get him to the nurse?" Liam frowned as he threw up again.

"Nah, he can do it himself." Zayn shrugged, "let's go."

"I think we should." Louis said, "look at him. He's not going to be able to get there."

"You and Liam can. I can't be arsed." Zayn walked off, followed closely by Stan.

Liam crouched down next to him, rolling him onto his back. "Help me sit him up Louis. I think we should see how bad his tummy is."

Liam lifted the crying boys shirt up slightly. "He has a tattoo!?" Louis exclaimed in disbelief as the butterfly came into view, "how the bloody hell did he get that? He's 16!"

"Louis, not important. God, this is bad. Did Zayn do all of this?"

"No, these are new but they wouldn't have gotten so dark so quickly."

"Harry, how did you get them?"

"Fell down stairs..." He choked out.

"Come on, let's get him to the nurse."