[Harry]

Gemma left my room only a few minutes later, when both of us could hear Louis trudging down the stairs. She told me to follow her, implying that he shouldn't have to wait for me just because he didn't know where the bus stop was located. I let out a sigh, but reluctantly did what she said.

When I came downstairs, I was met with the sight of Louis standing in the entryway, slipping on his black Vans. Wordlessly, I walked over to him to do the same thing and shrugged on my jacket. "Bye, Gemma. See you after school," I called once Louis and I were ready to go.

"Bye, H!" She called back from her bedroom.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Louis roll his eyes, making me turn to him. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," he said, a smirk playing on his lips. "Just funny how you can't leave without having to say goodbye to your sister."

I shot him a glare, turning the doorknob to exit the house. "Shut up. You don't even know the feeling of having a sibling, so how about you just keep quiet, huh?" I hissed.

He did go silent after that, and a frown slowly made its way to his face. We started walking to the bus stop in uncomfortable silence, and the more time that passed by, the more concerned I got that I had hit a soft spot. Not that I actually cared about him, but it was odd to witness him being so quiet around me. He usually didn't hesitate to make a move to insult me whenever he got the chance to.

After a few minutes, Louis began searching his pockets for something, and the next second he was holding a cigarette between two of his fingers and a lighter in the other hand. I scrunched my nose up as he brought it to his mouth and reached up to light it. "Gross," I muttered under my breath, turning my gaze away from him.

"Huh?" He wondered, his eyes trying to meet mine. "You were saying?"

"I said..." I snatched the cigarette from his lips and held it up so he could clearly see what I was referring to. "That this is disgusting and bad for you for that matter."

He took it back from me immediately and placed it between his lips again. "Since when did you fucking care that I expose myself to bad stuff? It's my own decision anyway," he snarled, taking a drag from the cancer stick.

Grey smoke started spreading around us in thick circles, and I had to pinch my nose not to gag at the awful smell. "Whatever, it's still disgusting, and I'd rather you not do it in my proximity, alright?"

Rolling his eyes, he nodded his head. "I'll keep that in mind, wimp."

I didn't even bother giving him a comeback, knowing it would only make matters worse. Sure, I usually told him something in return when he would insult me even if it didn't make things better, but I was too tired of arguing with him at this point to do so now. Instead, I watched him from the corner of my eye, smoking the cigarette until it was only the butt left, and he had to drop it to the ground and stomp on it.

Only a few minutes later, we finally arrived at the bus stop, where several students were already gathered. Louis didn't hesitate to walk away from me and join some other guys who I knew played on the football team with him. It wasn't like I expected him to stay with me anyway, and it wasn't like I wanted him to either.

Letting out a sigh, I leaned against a pole nearby, and pulled out my phone of my jeans pocket, checking my social media. By the time I had checked my Twitter and Facebook, the bus pulled up in front of us, so I could finally get on. Louis was nowhere in sight at this point, but I assumed the command mum had given me was done with now, so I didn't even bother checking on him.

I started walking along the bus aisle to find an empty seat, but to my dismay, all of them were already taken unless you wanted to sit beside a jock. I found Louis sitting beside Zayn but didn't even look at him as I sat down in front of the two of them, next to their friend, Niall, against my will.

"Um, excuse me? What do you think you're doing?" He asked rudely, raising an eyebrow at me as his eyes flicked to see if Louis and Zayn were watching us; they weren't.

"All seats are taken, so just shut up, will you? You're not the only one who doesn't want me to sit here," I grumbled, placing my backpack on my lap.

Niall stared at the side of my face with a clenched jaw but didn't bother saying anything else. I wondered if he simply sucked at comebacks or if he was just not used to people defending themselves against him. I found it a bit suspicious because as far as I could remember, Niall had never given me a rude comeback, only nasty remarks and insults.

During the rest of the ride, I could see him texting someone on his phone with a frown on his face, but I knew better than to ask him about it. It wasn't like I cared anyway. I was just curious as to what brought the crease between his eyebrows. That was totally normal, right?

Once the bus came to a halt outside the school, I made a move to get up and get out of the vehicle but was suddenly tripped from behind, the impact sending me flying forward. Fortunately, a hand grabbed a hold on my wrist before I could hit the floor and injure myself badly.

"Thank y--" I cut myself off when I turned around to notice that Niall was in fact the one who had saved me from the fall, and by the looks of it, he was just as surprised by this himself.

"I, uh..." he trailed off and quickly let go of my hand before rushing past me and out of the bus that was now almost empty with students. I didn't miss the blush that coated his cheeks, though, and to say I was surprised would be an understatement. What just happened?

There was no way Niall Horan had just saved me from embarrassing myself and getting injured. He was one of the most popular students at school and Louis' best friend. He knew how much Louis hated me, and I was sure he found me annoying as well, especially since I didn't give two shits about the jocks. The idea of saving me clearly must've been on instinct because there was no way he had done it intentionally.

Still rather astonished by the scene that had just taken place, I got off the bus and made my way into school. People were rushing through the hallways even though the bell wouldn't ring yet in another fifteen minutes. I had never really understood why they did that, but it was nothing new to me, so I silently made my way to my locker, where - as usual - my best friend was standing, leaning against it.

A smile crept to Liam's face when he caught sight of me. "Haz, you have to tell me everything! Who was it? Was he good looking? Do I know him? Was he nice?" He rambled, making me roll my eyes. He was most definitely referring to my stepbrother since I hadn't spoken to him about that topic yet.

I put the combination in my lock and opened my locker to get rid of my backpack and jacket. I then pulled out my Math books before shutting the locker again and facing the excited look on my best friend's face. "You don't even want to know who it is, believe me."

"What do you mean? It can't be that bad, can it? I'm sure you're just exaggerating," Liam objected, but you could see the excitement slowly disappearing from his eyes, as if he didn't believe his own words.

"Oh, it definitely is. In fact, it couldn't be any worse."

He was about to open his mouth when I suddenly felt myself being pulled away from him by a strong grip on my arm. I turned to see who'd grabbed me and was surprised that my eyes fell on a boy with feathery brown hair, his back facing me as he pulled me to the nearest room. It ended up being an empty classroom that for some reason wasn't locked. When he shut the door behind us, I tugged myself out of his hold with force. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I spat, rubbing the now slightly red spot on my arm where his hand had just been.

He turned to face me, his eyes flicking down to my arm for a second before moving up to my face. "I didn't grip it that hard, stop weeping about it. Anyway, I pulled you in here because I wanted to let you know that you can't tell anyone that we're stepbrothers, alright?" He commanded, trying to sound and be intimidating by pressing his frame against mine so I was forced to back into the wall.

I grimaced at the pain that shot down my spine by the harsh impact and furrowed my eyebrows together. "And why is that so important? It's not like it actually matters."

He looked at me a bit surprised, but quickly recovered, and the next second the surprise was replaced by fury. "You think it doesn't matter? Well, maybe it doesn't to you, but it sure as hell does to me. My friends are literally going to kill me - or even worse, make fun of me if they find out I live under the same roof as you."

My cheeks turned a dark red and I found myself clenching my hands into tight fists at my sides. "Wow, is that it? Didn't know you were such a pussy, Tomlinson. I thought you could handle something as small as that," I said, rolling my eyes, even though I was boiling with anger on the inside.

His face approached mine until we were mere inches apart. If it weren't for the hatred that glinted in his eyes, I would've thought he was going to kiss me. "If you so much as dare say that word about me again, I swear, I'm not going to hesitant to rip your head off, are we clear?" He threatened, raising his eyebrows while waiting for a response.

There was no doubt he wanted me to give in to him, but he could kiss that thought goodbye because he should know me by now that I didn't find him intimidating at all. I pushed at his chest hard enough for him to stumble backwards and for his body to separate from mine.

"Next time, attempt something better than trying to be intimidating, alright? Well, that is if you want to win an argument against me," I said before exiting the room without looking back at him.

_____

At lunch that day, I was furiously picking off pieces of my tuna sandwich and stuffing them into my mouth. Liam was staring at me from across the table weirdly, clearly thinking that I must've gone crazy. "What's up with you today? You seem way different than you did just the other day," he frowned, bringing his can of mineral water to his mouth to take a sip of it.

"It's Louis. He stays making me so damn frustrated all the fucking time," I muttered.

Liam tilted his head and glanced over to the table across the room where Louis along with Zayn, the blondie, Niall and Eleanor were sitting, laughing about God knows what. "What has he done now?"

Louis suddenly looked up to shoot me a pointed look towards Liam, and I knew exactly what he meant by it. I hadn't told Liam that my stepbrother was in fact Louis yet, and I knew the jock was warning me not to do it anytime soon either. Sure, I wasn't affected by his attempts at making me give in, but I still knew better than to not agree with his commands. I mean, we lived under the same roof now. He could do practically anything to me with no problem at all.

Liam had been asking me all day who the mysterious brother was, but I had avoided the topic thanks to this. There was just something about Louis that always made me agree with whatever he told me to do, especially commands that consisted of not telling people a secret apparently, for some unknown reason.

"The usual, I guess. He's just been threatening me about this stupid thing all day, and it's really taking a toll on me. Sometimes I wish I could just tape his mouth shut so he would just keep that damn thing closed sometime," I said, rolling my eyes at the image of Louis' mouth being covered by masking tape. That would definitely be a sight.

"I see," Liam smiled timidly, glancing over towards their table again. He had this longing look in his eyes that I couldn't quite put my finger on what it meant. I had seen it a few times before, but I never caught the reason behind it.

Deciding to drop it, I looked over there as well to see Louis feeding Eleanor a cherry with a bright smile on his face. He was always happy around her, and that was most likely because they were in a relationship and he loved her. It was just so odd to see him smile like that, the way he had once smiled at me...

I felt a knot form in my stomach all of a sudden, and I had to look away from the couple to make it go away, even though it didn't completely. It was a strange feeling, something I had never felt before. It was almost like jealousy... but that couldn't be it, right? No, of course not.

My wandering gaze found Niall who looked rather left out, to be honest. He was looking down at his lap every now and then as if he didn't really want to be there. It all confused me because I had never seen him like that before. He usually seemed to be at home with them, but something obviously must have changed. What it was, I didn't know.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost let out a squeal when I felt someone sit down in the seat next to mine, the person throwing an arm around my shoulder. "Styles!" A familiar voice exclaimed in my ear, and I turned to see Ed smiling brightly at me.

Even though Ed played on the football team and was great friends with Louis and the other jocks, the two of us had always gotten along. We had known each other since kindergarten when we both had been in desperate need of a friend. From then on, we had always been close, and I was lucky to have him. It didn't matter that he and Louis were buddies, I knew Ed would never tell him anything that I said about him.

"Hi, mate," I smiled, and Liam nodded towards the ginger boy in acknowledgment.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come watch the game next Friday? We are playing against the team that's number one in the series, and I would love to have one of my best friends there to support me... please?" He pouted, his bottom lip sticking out adorably.

Rolling my eyes, I turned to Liam to see his reaction. He nodded his head with a smile on his face, and I let out a sigh. "I don't know, Ed. I don't really like watching football, you know? I've never really been a fan of it."

To be honest, the only game I had ever been to was when Louis had begged me to come watch him play once when we were still friends. He had literally pulled me to the field when there were no people around and placed me in a seat on the bleachers where I sat throughout the whole thing before he came back from the shower after the game and drove me home. Sure, it hadn't been that bad, but that was when Louis and I had still been friends. After our friendship, it had never really crossed my mind to go to another game. But like I said before, I wasn't a big fan of football, so that was probably the reason why.

Ed fluttered his eyelashes in an attempt to look cute, which made me smack him on the arm. "Don't pull anything on me, you know I can't resist your adorable faces," I chuckled, causing Liam to snort across the table.

I raised an eyebrow at him, and he reached his hands up in defense. "You guys are just so weird."

Ed looked confused. "What do you mean 'weird'?" He asked, trailing his hand up my arm until it was resting on my shoulder.

"That, for example," Liam said, motioning to Ed's hand. "I know you guys have kissed, yet you say you're nothing more than friends. Are you really sure about that? Because to me, you're not acting like just two buddies."

Rolling my eyes, I unwrapped Ed's hand from my shoulder, which made him pout a little, but I decided to ignore it. "No, we're definitely just friends. And that was one time, Liam. We were just experiencing whether we liked guys or not, okay? Nothing more, nothing less. We're just two close friends, right Ed?" I glanced at him from the corner of my eye to see him nod his head enthusiastically with a smile on his face.

"Yep, only friends. If we were more, I would've forced Harry to a football game a long time ago since boyfriends should support each other on those kinds of things, right?" He said, giving me a pointed look.

I nodded. "Yeah."

Even though we weren't together, he succeeded in making me feel guilty about not showing up at any of his games. And maybe that was why I decided to agree to attend the one he was talking about next week. Liam instantly jumped at the idea, implying he had nothing better to do. Somehow, I felt as though he was hiding something, though, but I didn't question him further about it. He would tell me eventually if something was on his mind.

Soon enough, the lunch hour ended and we had to get to our next lessons. I was just about to exit the room with Liam by my side when I felt someone bash into my shoulder. When I turned to see who it was, I was met with a pair of ocean blue eyes that looked into my own. However, it wasn't as pleasing as I made it out to be.

Louis gave me the classic 'I-am-keeping-my-eyes-on-you' sign with his fingers, and I just shot him the middle finger in return.

Seriously, he could go fuck himself.

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Chapter 6 everybody! Thank you so much for all the support you've given me on this story so far! It's nice to see that so many of you like it because I was a little skeptical before I posted it. It glads me so much that you enjoy it!

Btw, Lacy and I are going to have a Q&A, how exciting is that?! So, if you have any questions for us, leave them here and we will answer them! :)

Edited by: Lacy

Pauline .xx