Chapter 1 ~ The Past

[Louis]

Two years. It had been two entire years since Harry auditioned for The X Factor and received three yeses from the judges. It had also been two years since Harry became famous and broke his promise about staying with me forever.

At first, I had been really devastated. I had watched Harry on television every Saturday, knowing that he hadn't tried to contact me ever since he left for boot camp. But, what hurt even worse was when I witnessed him thanking his family and relatives (by name) for everything they had done for him on television but not me when I was sitting on the couch, watching the whole thing together with his family.

Anne had tried to reassure me that Harry was just busy and would interact with me as soon as he was free, but unfortunately, that time never came. Harry was always busy. If it weren't rehearsals, it was singing lessons, and if it weren't that either, it was hanging out with his 'new' much 'cooler' friends. At least that was what I assumed.

I had missed my now - what I assumed to be - ex-boyfriend so much that I had even cried himself to sleep the first five weeks without him. And knowing Harry didn't miss me at all made it even worse. I couldn't believe how my best friend since birth and boyfriend had just downright forgotten about me in the blink of an eye. We had been so close, hanging out every second of every day, and he had been able to just forget about that?

Nowadays though, I had gotten better. I didn't stay up late at night to keep an eye on my phone in case Harry would call or just send me a text. I didn't have the energy to hope for something that extreme to happen any longer. He had forgotten about me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

During the first three weeks, I had even tried calling him several times, but it had always gone to voicemail and he hadn't bothered to call me back. I had also tried talking to him when I was there, on the fifth show in the audience, but fate had decided to be cruel and didn't even let him get a glimpse of me, or so that was what I thought at least.

I had now lost all my hope of getting my closest friend and boyfriend back, and had instead found myself two new friends; Niall and Zayn, Niall being the closest to me. None of them was any Harry though, and I knew for sure they would never be. But they were enough, enough for me to finally be happy again.

Believe it or not, but I had actually even got myself a girlfriend. Since Harry had been able to forget about me so easily, I thought that I might as well try to forget about him too. It wasn't working very well though, but no one had to know about that.

I would still visit Harry's family occasionally. I had practically lived at their place throughout my entire childhood and youth, so Anne and Robin were like my own parents and Gemma like my own sister. I couldn't keep myself from staying away from them. It wasn't only because I loved them so much, but also because they were the closest people I could come to Harry, and I didn't want to lose all connection I had with my ex-boyfriend.

Anne and Robin seemed to love me too, like their own son judging by the way they treated me. They always seemed so happy when I would come over to visit them. I was like a memory of Harry, they had said, and they all missed him so much since he was never able to visit them due to preoccupation nowadays.

Anne would always have this look on her face when I was over to chat with them. She seemed concerned, concerned about the fact that her son had let go of me so easily, or it was just sympathy. However, I knew that she had always been so sure that we were meant to be together considering we had always been the best of friends and had also gotten along so well, but she probably didn't think so anymore. Harry had not interacted with me in over two years after all, so it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.

Visiting his family wasn't the only thing I had done to keep feeling connected with my ex-boyfriend. I also used to visit the lake that had been my and Harry's favorite place to go to whenever we were bored or just wanted to get away from life. We would always sit on the small dock there, swinging our legs back and forth in the water and talking about everything. We used to laugh, nudge each other's sides, reveal secrets and tell each other jokes only we would understand.

It was a pretty sad moment when I first decided to visit the place after Harry had ignored me for three months. I had observed the tree the two of us used to climb at the age of ten, smiling at the memory of when Harry had laughed so hard at a joke I had pulled that he lost his grasp on a branch and had almost fallen down to the ground, if it hadn't been for me who caught his wrist at the last second.

It wasn't exactly a happy memory, but I missed those times so much that every little memory made me smile.

With tears running down my face, I had then walked out on the dock and sat down on the exact same spot Harry and I used to sit. I remembered how I used to lean my head on Harry's shoulder while he had an arm wrapped around my waist protectively. We used to watch the sunset like that, just enjoying each other's company and presence.

Since the lake wasn't very far from my house, we had usually ridden our bikes there every day of our summer breaks. Sometimes Anne and Jay went with us when we were little kids if we decided to bath or have a picnic, but it didn't really matter to us because as long as we were by the lake together, we were happy.

After that, I had left the place with tear-stained cheeks and a broken heart. I didn't sleep very well that night. Despite that though, I couldn't help but visit the lake the day after that or the day after that anyway. Everything that reminded me of Harry I wanted to visit as frequently as possible.

It was winter now, only a week or so from Christmas. I was sitting at a table in the lunch cafeteria at school, trying to make out what my friends were talking about, but since my mind kept reminding me of a certain person, it was hard to concentrate on anything but that.

I could still remember Harry's piercing green eyes, his plump pink lips, the dimples in his cheeks that I had loved to poke. His curly hair that I would always run my hands through whether he liked it or not. The crinkles by his eyes that appeared every time he smiled a genuine smile. His four nipples, the funny sculpture of his ears, which was another thing I used to tease him about, and his long, lanky torso that I had always envied a little since I had a little tummy myself.

All these things wouldn't leave my mind. They just kept haunting me. Not only when I tried to concentrate in school, but in my dreams as well, and it didn't exactly help that every girl would mention his name to each other occasionally either. Or even worse, mention it to me.

One time, in the beginning, I had even teared up when this girl had told me Harry didn't care about me anymore now that he was famous, that he could do so much better than being together with a loser like me. Niall had snapped at her though, and thankfully, she'd never mentioned a word to me again.

I was suddenly snapped out of my thoughts when I heard a certain name being mentioned by some girl at the table. "Harry was on the news yesterday," she informed, gaining everyone's attention.

Even though Harry was raised here in Holmes Chapel and pretty much knew everybody in this town, the girls went crazy at the mention of him, including some guys. I, however, didn't know how he could be such a huge thing to them. He was just the same Harry we had always known... or was he?

As far as I knew, at least Harry's appearance had changed a lot. He now wore more expensive clothes that would preferably be designer ones. Never had Harry ever cared about what clothes he wore before, and I didn't know whether I liked the change or not.

I wasn't able to say much about his personality though, seeing as I hadn't met him since he became famous, but it seemed to have changed a lot as well. Not to mention the star tattoo he had on his underarm.

When Harry and I were kids, we had always pointed out people with lots of tattoos and told each other how we would never get our skin inked in some strange pattern. So, when I had found out about Harry's star tattoo, I felt kind of betrayed. Had Harry lied about his opinion on tattoos all along?

"He was?!" Another girl squeaked, causing me to roll my eyes. "What did they say about him?"

"They said he's gotten this infection in his throat and therefore won't be able to sing until February," the first girl explained.

"What? But what about his tour? He can't just cancel his shows, now can he?" the second girl gasped.

By now, everyone at the table was listening closely to what the blonde girl had heard on the news. "Well, I guess so considering that's exactly what he has done."

The brunette girl gasped again. "Oh, I feel sorry for the fans who have bought tickets to see him perform."

Everyone at the table agreed, except for me. I really couldn't care less. Not that I was a cold-hearted person who didn't care about other people's feelings, but I just didn't care about anything that had to do with Harry.

"So, Louis," the brunette girl I now remembered was called Eleanor said, smiling at me. "Have you heard anything new about your boyfriend?"

I felt a stab in my heart hearing her call Harry my boyfriend. By now, almost no one referred me as Harry's lover any longer, seeing as they had found out that he hadn't interacted with me in over two years.

I looked down at my plate, picking at some pasta with my fork. "No," I mumbled, barely audible.

Everyone at the table went silent then, and I wanted nothing but to just disappear. I felt stupid, seeing as my best friend and boyfriend didn't want anything to do with me. How could you possibly make your best friend since birth not want to be friends with you any longer if you weren't some kind of freak?

I felt someone sling an arm around my shoulders, and I couldn't help but lean into the touch. It wasn't like any of Harry's embraces, but it wasn't far from it. At least not in this situation.

"Come on, Lou. Let's get out of here," Niall muttered, standing up and taking me with him.

Zayn who was sitting beside us got up as well and followed the two of us out of the cafeteria. We didn't stop walking until we were outside the classroom we had our next class in. "How are you doing, mate?" Zayn asked with concern, sitting down next to me on a bench. Niall took the spot on my other side.

I shrugged, looking down at my lap. I always got like this when someone mentioned Harry around me. Niall and Zayn had taken notice of this and always used to pull me out of these kinds of situations as fast as possible nowadays.

I hated how Harry still had this sort of impact on me even after two years of being gone. I wanted to forget about him now after a few months of having contemplated it. At first, I had done absolutely everything not to forget about him, but now as the time had gone, I wanted to do the exact opposite. Harry wasn't worth it anymore.

My two friends sighed, probably feeling concerned about me. They didn't like what Harry had done to me, they had said, and they couldn't believe how he had forgotten about me just like that. They knew how close Harry and I had been, and just like Anne, they had been sure that we would always be together, but seeing as we weren't anymore, they had been wrong.

Well, what could I say? As far as we knew, fame had changed everything.

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Chapter 1! Wow, I literally cried writing this! I've never cried writing something before, so it was a new feeling and it felt kind of strange haha However, what do you think so far?

Like? Dislike?

Pauline .xx