I have decided, not to drag out this story.

5 chapters left? At most?

I dunno if u noticed but I don't really plan my stories out🙂. (I know I should)

(I just don't feel like it)

Love you. And thank you for reading.
Zayn in this fic:

___

"Where, when, why and how?" Louis demanded.

Liam was sitting cross legged on Louis' bed, Harry was lounging on Louis' chair by his desk with the same look of utter bewilderment ever since Louis explained what had happened.

Liam twiddled around with his fingers and wouldn't look up for a long time. "My place, two hours ago, I don't know why and he did it out of nowhere. Ask Niall, he was there. One minute I was telling him off, the next minute he kissed me, for a second, just- just a bare touch of his lips against mine." Liam finally explained.

"Why was he over at your place anyway?" Louis demanded.

"I don't know!" Liam yelled and he abruptly stood up.

Louis took a deep breath. "Alright, calm down yeah? I mean, it's not like it meant anything I mean. Zayn's the biggest piece of shit out there Liam."

Liam bit his lower lip, "Yeah..."

"Unless you like him," Louis added on. "Do you?" Liam frowned a bit, but he didn't reply. "LIAM!"

"Will you stop yelling at me?" Liam whispered. "You're acting like its some petty crush of a few months, I've liked him since 9th grade!" Liam slapped a hand over his mouth in shock. "Wait-"

"What?" Louis muttered in bewilderment.

"Uh- yeah okay. But, he wasn't always this mean. I mean, not until Harry messed up." Liam tried to explain.

"Hey, don't bring me into this. What happened occurred 4 years ago. He should have gotten over it." Harry established from where he was.

Liam shook his head, "what happened?" Louis questioned.

Liam looked taken aback, "He hasn't told you?" He shot back.

"Hey! We are mad at Zayn here! Not me." Harry exclaimed.

Liam ignored him, "In 9th grade Harry and Zayn were really close. I mean, joined at the hip kind of close. To everyone, it was basically that, if you saw Harry, Zayn would be a few steps away. Anyway, it was easy to see that Zayn had a huge crush on Harry. everyone, and I mean, everyone could see that. Well, we were stupid freshman, so Zayn got the courage to uh, ask Harry out, in front of basically the whole school, during one of the footie games. And well..." Liam paused for a second, "Harry turned him down. But, I guess turned him down would be putting it lightly. He ridiculed him, said he wouldn't ever go out with a guy, especially not Zayn. That they were just friends and Zayn was dumb to think anything would change that. Keep in mind that we were really, really stupid freshman. Harry, he uh..." Liam glanced at Harry who shook his head and stood up.

"I told him I wasn't ever going to look at him like that and that he could get his head out of the clouds because nothing was ever going to happen between the two of us. I called him some pretty bad names, and made him cry." Harry finished for him, and he turned to Liam. "And how do you remember this?"

"It was the first and last time I saw him cry." Liam snapped. "Anyway, he sort of left the game in tears, and that's when things started to spiral out of control-"

"We stopped being friends and I became friends with mostly girls and I made the football team, and rumors started that I was sleeping around. I didn't care for them because they were just that, rumors. In our 10th year Zayn made the team too, uh-"

Liam intercepted him, "But, 10th year, well the first few months, Zayn was a complete 180 of 9th year Zayn. This Zayn was rude, harsh, he smoked and hung out with the burn outs. Before, well, before the incident, Zayn used to always be in the art or music room. You'd see him with Harry either studying or playing a stupid prank, and then after, he was just a whole new person. No one likes to think about that time because it was partly the whole school's fault for bullying him the rest of the 9th year. It wasn't until the end of 10th year that he started to be his old self again. So you know when girls used to tell you that he's nice, it's because he was, he was nice, apart for that small smudge in 10th year, Zayn's always been nice. But, I guess, when it came to you, he couldn't look past the fact that you were with Harry. I guess he isn't really over what happened."

"Wow..." Louis was completely baffled by all this new information. He locked eyes with Harry, "and the reason you told me he wasn't nice was because you thought he was going to mess things up between us...I mean he did but...eh...well, there's nothing that can be done about it now." He paused for a second, and then, "Did you ever apologize?"

"What?" Harry asked.

"To Zayn. Did you ever apologize, for being a complete dick your first year?" Louis asked again.,

"I don't think it'd matter." Harry said.

"You'd be surprised." Louis scoffed. "I think it would matter. I think it'd matter a lot."

"It happened years ago-"

"All the more reason to say you're sorry Harold." Louis interjected before Harry could finish his sentence. "Look," he sighed deeply. "When I was in 8th grade I thought I was in love with this kid. Granted I was 13 so...anyway, he knew I liked him, and I confided in my best friend that I liked him. Now, my best friend was like my brother, anyway, my best friend, started talking to this kid, and- well, they ended up dating. And I was hurt. I was so fucking hurt. I mean, he knew I liked him, but still, and my crush knew I liked him as well but I guess it didn't matter. I spent so much time crying and wondering why I wasn't good enough. But as most 8th grade relationships, it ended quickly, but my friend and I weren't ever the same. I stopped talking to my crush as well. Everything just sort of became lost. Of course time passed and I thought I'd move on, but then something would happen and I would think back to this one kid, this one kid who held a million memories, and I'd be in such a sad and pathetic stupor that I couldn't ever do anything. And then one day, just last year he messaged me. And he said he was sorry. He said he was sorry for hurting me, sorry for doing what he did, even after he knew how I felt. And, it was like a heavy weight had been lifted. A weight that I'd thought I had left in the past but really I was just hiding. It was nice to know that, even though this time had passed, he felt the need to apologize, because he still sensed that what he'd done was wrong. What I'm saying is that, a good apology, can go a long way. So yeah, you should say you're sorry. And you should do it like, right now."

"That is so lame," Liam mumbled, "But in a way, it's true too. An apology can go a long way."

"I'm not apologizing for something that happened a million years ago." Harry noted.

"Harry, why not?"

"Because! He should have fucking grown up and moved past it. He shouldn't have held on to it, and fucking hurt and used you-" Harry almost shouted.

"True, but, we can be the bigger people here and just, talk all this out. It's no use to just have all this hatred, when it can possibly be fixed. Just, please?" Louis held out his hand to Harry.

Harry looked ready to argue, "Why, of all people you should hate him as well." He couldn't help but question.

"Life is too short to hate Harold." Louis explained softly. "We all make mistakes. You made a mistake that day in 9th grade and he made a mistake and I've made mistakes, when it comes down to it though, you gotta move on at one point."

"You're...insane, but alright." Harry nodded gently. Louis brightened up.

"Alright, let's go." Louis said and he turned towards the door.

"Wait, now?!" Harry exclaimed.

"No, tomorrow. Of course now! Come on Liam!"

"Uh- yeah okay."

Liam and Louis walked out together. A baffled Harry watching them leave, until he realized that Louis wasn't joking around. Shaking his head, Harry walked out and joined them downstairs, together they got in Liam's car and he drove to Zayn's.

_____

"What the fuck?"

"Hi."

Zayn glared at the three of them, the door was just a bit open. His eyebrow was arched upwards slightly, the bruise on his cheek still a dark purple/blue.

"And again, what the fuck?" Zayn stated.

"Can we talk...with the door maybe a little more open?" Louis asked softly.

Zayn didn't move an inch. Liam got in the front, and Zayn's posture seemed to relax just a bit. "Look, Zayn-"

"For what it's worth I'm sorry." Harry interrupted Liam and pushed him out of the way. "Okay Zayn? I'm sorry for what happened. I'm sorry for the way I treated you back in our first year, I'm sorry." And Louis had expected for Harry to not sound sincere, but that's all he could hear from those words. Sincerity and a little break towards the end. "You were my best friend and I messed everything up because I was so fuxking stupid and I'm sorry. Okay? I'm so so sorry. And I know it's a good few years too late but Louis helped me realize that we can't go on like this forever. The hate that we have here, shouldn't be here at all, and for what it's worth, I hope you can forgive me." 

Zayn's face was expressionless, he hadn't moved nor said anything as Harry had spoken. It was a dull quiet that settled over them, and Louis was yearning to break it, but no one said anything until finally...

"You're sorry?" Zayn repeated softly. He seemed in disbelief, the way his lips wrapped around the words was in slight bafflement, like he couldn't believe Harry had actually said that (Louis was having a little disbelief himself, he had expected to shove Harry forwards and demand he apologize, but the words had flowed out of Harry's mouth so effortlessly, so easy, and Louis knew he meant every word).

"I am, and I know we will never be as close as  we once were but I hope that at least we can be on a clean page. Look, we both graduate in exactly one month yeah? No point in carrying around all this bullshit hate, we made some mistakes. I'll forgive you for the one you made, and I hope you can forgive me for what I did."

"You're sorry?" Is all Zayn repeated. "You. Are. Sorry." And it was then that he cried. Well, cried would be an exaggeration, but Louis did see a tear trail down his cheek.  After another few quiet moments, Zayn locked eyes with Louis. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry for using you Louis. I didn't mean to, at first, I really did like you, but then I saw how Harry looked at you and I guess, I guess the old anger inside of me rose up again. And I'm sorry."

"I know, and I accept your apology. But, Harry wants to know if you accept his?" Louis sighed out.

Zayn looked at Harry again. He nodded, twice, a gentle movement of is head, that held four years of hurt and anger slowly wash away from him.

And Louis could feel the air around him ease up on the tension, and it all disappeared. He smiled broadly, cheeks lighting up as Harry hugged his side.

"I'm sorry, for hitting you."

"Nah, I deserved it." Zayn grinned. Harry laughed.

"I won't argue with you on that." Harry ran a hand through his hair, Zayn rolled his eyes. He looked at Liam.

"Can we talk?" Zayn asked.

Liam's cheeks tinted a dark pink, but he nodded wordlessly. Zayn opened the door a little wider, and Liam looked at Louis apprehensively. Louis shrugged, "oh just go already!" And he gave Liam a little shove. The door closed behind them, and Louis couldn't help but laugh.

"How do you do it?" Harry asked out of nowhere.

"What?" Louis asked, they walked down Zayn's steps.

"Make me be such a good person, make people in general want to be good. It's insane." Harry stopped walking.

Louis looked up at him, he grabbed Harry's hands and interlocked their fingers. "There's good and bad in all of us, we are the ones who get to decide which side we want to show. And sometimes things happen that make people show their bad, but you gotta remember that there's good in them as well." Louis kissed Harry on the cheek.

"So wise. So tiny, and so wise." Harry smiled warmly down at him. Neither minding that they had to walk to Louis' home because Liam still wasn't out, and both knew he wouldn't be out for a long time, but neither minded.

"I know." Louis agreed.

Harry brought their entwined hands up to his lips, he kissed the back of Louis' hands softly. "Now, about our date...."

____\