"LOUIS!"

Louis jumped up from his desk, he'd just hung up the Skype call from Mark.

Harry had been at his own desk, doing homework or something. He'd finished just a moment ago and had jumped on his bed.

Louis' payback has worked, if Harry's scream was anything to go by.

Louis turn to look at Harry and burst out laughing at the sight. Harry sat on his bed, covered in PVA glue and different shades of pink and purple glitter. His hair was all sparky and he's school top was wrecked. Harry had attempted to lean forward and shield his face from the impact but was too late and his face was covered in glitter too.

Harry wiped his mouth, using part of his shelve which hadn't been covered in PVA glue.

"What the actual fuck?" Harry spat out some glitter and glared at Louis.

Louis thought now would be a good time to run. He stood, hoping that if Harry made a move to retaliate he could make it to the door before he got caught.

But then Harry started laughing. Like clutch-your-stomach-because-it-hurts laughing.

Louis didn't like that one bit, Harry wasn't meant to laugh. He was meant to be pissed off to the point Louis feared for his life. Harry was made out to be an arse, but at the moment he seemed no more then a harmless prankster.

Louis watched as Harry stood from his bed, still laughing as he walked towards Louis, who had unknowingly back himself into a corner.

"Hug?" Harry asked, opening his arms and advancing towards Louis.

Louis gulped and closed his eyes, not wanting Harry to hug him because one, it was Harry and two, Harry was covered in pink glue. When Louis didn't feel arms around him he open his eyes to see Harry an inch from his face, and Harry did not look happy.

Louis attempted to step backwards but his back hit the wall. Louis cursed as Harry took another step forward, making Louis' already slim chance at an escape impossible.

Harry smirked, placing a hand on Louis' shoulder.

It might have seemed friendly, but Louis' gut instinct was telling something bad was about to happen. It was the same feeling he got when he was watching a scary movie or walking home alone at midnight with a bunch of randy teens behind him who he always thought were following him but in actual fact just lived on the same road. To put it simply, he got a really really bad feeling.

Harry smiled wider, patting Louis' shoulder. "Good prank, mate" The taller boy winked and started backing AWAY.

Louis let out a sigh. Then suddenly, in a blink of an eye, Harry had Louis pinned up against the wall by his throat.

Louis' natural reaction was to suck in as much air as possible. He struggled to keep his feet on the floor, his tip toes skimming the floor as Harry put more and more pressure on Louis' neck.

Harry put his knee between Louis legs, forcing Louis' body further away from the floor. Harry's gripped loosened so Louis could breathe. He moved his face very close to Louis' ear and whispered.

"You do not want to mess with me"

Louis was creeped out and close to pissing his pants so he mustered up all the strength consider he was scare out of his mind and shoved Harry back.

Harry laughed, after stumbling a few steps back and losing his grip on Louis.

Louis fell to the floor, his hand going straight to the left side of his throat where it hurt the most. He titled his head slightly, hoping to make it feel better. His eyes stayed on Harry, trying to prepare for a possible attack. Not that it went well last time.

"It's always more interesting when they fight back" Harry stepped forward once again and dropped to Louis' current height. Harry trailed his finger over Louis' jaw line. "You are one of the most interesting yet"

Then Harry did something Louis really didn't expect. He leaned forward and kissed Louis on the cheek.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you" Harry looked down "I.. I can be a little aggressive. I don't..." Harry looked up, flinching at the fear he saw in Louis' eyes. "You know what, it doesn't matter"

Then Harry jumped up, grabbed a random notebook from his desk and left the room. Louis sat there, confused and shaking from the intense fear that he still felt.

When Louis pulled himself up from the floor his bones ached, his didn't even bother trying to figure out how long he was sat in the corner.

He glanced at the alarm clock on his side table, 11:37 was flashing in big red numbers. Louis decided to go to sleep. He didn't want to be awake when Harry came back.

Louis looked around the room. It was perfectly symmetrical. He'd never noticed that before. His ands Harry's bed, desk and even alarms, laptops and books lined up.

Louis shivered, a weird feeling running down his spine. He moved the things on his desk around before pulling his bookcase out and turning it so the back of the bookcase was against the end of his bed. He then pushed his desk closer to his bookcase, making sure to leave plenty of room for him to assess it.

After he felt less creepy regarding the room Louis took off his top and trousers before jumping into his bed.

He then glanced at the door before reaching under his bed and pulling out his teddy. He hugged the stuffed bear close to him and faced the wall. Closing his eyes and ignoring the fact his heated up as he thought of Harry pecking his cheek.

*

"What happened?" Eleanor asked the moment Louis sat down.

"Huh?" Louis panicked. Did she know something about yesterday?

"You have a bruise on your neck... Is it a love bite?" Eleanor asked the question with a look of distaste.

Louis continued to frown, he understood what she was referring too, what he was interested in was why she said the thing about a love bite the way she did. Was she against love bites? Or maybe she didn't like the look of bruises. Louis just let it go, deciding it didn't matter.

"No, I fell and hurt my neck. Must've bruised" Louis shrugged. It wasn't a complete lie. He did fall and he did hurt his neck, though not in that order.

"Oh, okay" Eleanor nodded, opening her folder and reading a few lines before closing it again and looking up at Louis. "Today, we're supposed to talk about your feelings towards being here. Oh, and just to let you know the head teacher has asked me to a few extra conversations into our schedule"

"Wait, for just me? Why?"

"Oh, no. She asked me and the other counsellors to add them into all the sessions we have with the students"

"Oh, okay, that makes more sense then the head teacher asking you to add extra unto just my sessions" Louis nodded, making his already sore neck hurt. He didn't go to massage it though, wanting to avoided any further discussion on that topic.

"You're not that special Louis" Eleanor snorted, making Louis laugh.

"Anyway, what are these extra conversations?"

"Um," Eleanor flipped open the folder again. "Their on, er, Relationships, Morals and.. Fears"

"Well, that's sounds fun" Louis muttered, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

"Don't worry, its not till next week we need to start talking about stuff like that" Eleanor smiled

"Need to? I thought that we didn't have to do the set activities?"

"Ms A has changed that too" She shrugged

Louis thought this was slowly sounding more and more like therapy and less and less like chats between friends. He didn't like how much things were changing, not just with these sessions but with things at home, the communication with Mark and his situation with Harry.

Everything was just going wrong.

"I messed up at the wrong time"

Eleanor seemed to find that funny.

"There's never a right time to mess up Louis"

"No, but there's a really really bad time too. Lottie's starting her first relationship, Mark's having girl issues, my mum and I were getting on perfectly. And now mum can't look at me, I'm not there to protect Lottie and I can't help Mark. I miss him the most, even more then Lottie or my mum. While I was living at the house Mark and I would see each other everyday and now the most I'll get is a Skype call a day. We did everything together, he understood me, what the hell am I meant to do without him?" Louis was talking franticly, getting more and more worked up as he went along. Louis threw his hands up and looked at Eleanor as if to ask her what the hell he was meant to do now.

He hadn't even realised how deeply he missed Mark. He knew he missed Mark loads, but he didn't realise that he needed Mark. Depended on him even.

"Do you want to help Mark?" Eleanor asked, titling her head to the side.

Louis couldn't register what she was saying. "What kind of a question is that? Of course I do, he's my best friend. I love him"

"Just a best friend? You speak very fondly of him" Eleanor jotted something down in a notebook that she was holding. That was odd, she didn't take notes last time.

"Are you suggesting me and Mark were, or are, together?" Louis found that a little weird. He and Mark had kissed and stuff but it'd be too weird for them to be anything more then a best friends who kissed that night they were pissed.

"Well, I was. But your reaction is making me think that I was wrong with the whole gay thing too" Eleanor looked guilty, but there was something in her eyes that Louis couldn't read into.

"I am gay, but honestly me and Mark are just friends"

That secret look in Eleanor's eye disappeared.

"Okay, well let's drop that- unless you want to talk more about what's bothering you at home?"

"No, let's just move on.." Louis trailed off, the atmosphere becoming overly awkward.

"How are you feeling about your life at school so far?"

"It's been shit" Louis states, not thinking twice about it.

"Oh, erm, what makes you say that? You seemed happy enough yesterday even though Harry showed his true colours" Louis didn't see how it was necessary for her to mention the last bit. He thought they had an unspoken agreement that it would never be mentioned again.

"Well, I guess it's because I miss Ma- everyone at home so much"

"Louis, it's not my place, but have you really thought about your feelings towards Mark?" Eleanor was looking at Louis with the most caring look he'd received since being here.

Maybe excluding the look Harry gave him last night just before he kissed him. A shiver ran down Louis' spine, but unlike last night, this shiver seemed more.. positive. Louis couldn't make sense of it so dismissed it.

Louis took in what Eleanor had said "You're right"

"I am?"

"Yeah, it's not your place" Louis spat the words, annoyed that she wasn't listening. He said that he and Mark were friends and that was what he meant. He didn't mean he had feelings for his best friend that he was keeping hidden or any shit like that. He said they were just friends and that's what he meant.

The room fell silent after that. Eleanor looked hurt and after taking one look at her face Louis felt guilty. But he still stood but what he said. It wasn't her place.

"I didn't mean to be so harsh"

"It's okay, it's not my place"

"No, it isn't but I didn't need to be so harsh about it" Eleanor nodded.

"I guess" She glanced at the clock. "You have science next, I'll take you a while to get there so I'll let you go five minutes early. See you Friday" She smiled at Louis and then started to write in her notebook.

Louis just nodded and picked up his bag. He left, hoping it wouldn't be that awkward on Friday.

When he was half way down the corridor he realised the science rooms were literally just round the corner. Well, that just confirms even more that she was hurt by what he said.

Feeling bad Louis pulled out his phone, hoping to get distracted.

He scrolled through the unanswered text messages from Mark and was about to text again when he remembered what Eleanor said. Getting annoyed all over again Louis left Mark's text screen and went to Lottie's.

Louis: Hi

Lottie: Lou, I'm in school. Don't text me, I'm not allowed my phone out.

Louis: Why you on your phone then?

Lottie: Cos edtjk/iokj

Louis: What?

Louis: Hello

Louis: You there?

Louis: Bye then

Sighing, Louis put his phone away. Just in time to see Harry walk around the corner with a blonde boy. Harry nudges the guy and nods towards Louis.

The blondes eyes light up and he starts rushing towards Louis.

Louis flinches away as the boy gets closer.

"Um, hello?" A soft voice with a noticeable Irish accent spoke.

Louis looked up to see the blonde boy looking at him in worry. Harry was stood next to the boy, smiling at Louis.

"Hi?" Louis asked, directing his question-that-wasn't-supposed-to-be-a-question at the nameless blonde. Unnatural blonde Louis noted.

"Harry's told me quite a bit about you. He's right, and I say this as a straight man, you are quite hot"

"Thanks" Louis smiled and Harry got that odd look that he got when he had complimented Louis.

"I'm Niall by the way" The blonde said, smiling at Louis.

"Nice to meet you"

"Likewise"

Harry didn't say anything, just smiled at Louis before falling into a conversation with Niall.

*

Louis officially hated his science teacher.

Mr. Hannah (what kind of a name was that) had only gone and sat him next to fucking Harry Styles. At least he had Niall on his other side. There was a boy named Jake sat on the end of their work bench.

Harry was on the other end to Jake. Meaning Niall often spoke to Jake, because it was easier. And that left Harry and Louis to awkwardly sit in silence as the teacher droned on and on about space and the planets and why Uranus was so interesting.

The jokes he was making weren't even funny.

Louis was more interested in the students in the class. It didn't take him long to realise that the age range of the students varied. There were students that seemed as young as 13 or 14 and then there were teens that looked a little older then Louis. Most were Louis age.

He hadn't noticed in his other lessons. But then none of his other teachers were this boring.

Louis looked to his side to see Niall and Jake talking, moving closer and closer suggesting that the conversation was most likely important or private. So that left Harry. Louis glanced at the curly haired boy to find him looking at him.

Harry rose an eyebrow. Louis shook his head but continued to debate asking Harry in his head. What's the worst that can happen? Right?

"What's with the vast age difference in this class?"

Harry looked shocked for a moment that Louis had actually spoke before he answered.

"The school put you in classes according to your skill, not age"

Louis nodded. "In all classes?"

"Yep"

"I never noticed.." Louis muttered.

"Well, usually people of the same age do end up in the same class"

Louis nodded once again. Louis looked back to the front of the class, trying to pay attention.

He failed. It was too boring.

"Harry?" Louis turned back to the curly haired boy.

"Hmm?"

"How old are you?" Louis had assumed that Harry was the same age, being in most of his classes.

"Sixteen nearly seventeen, why?"

"Oh. 'Kay, just because I thought you were the same age as me. I'm seventeen, nearly eighteen"

"Cool" Harry trailed off awkwardly.

"Wait, am I in a class for the year below me or are you in a class for my year?"

"Er, I'm above. Although with the pace of these science lessons I'm sure we'll all go down soon" Louis laughed at that.

Harry could be alright. Even if he was an arsehole.

At least him and Harry could be civil with each other.

~~~

A/N: Jake on the side