The day had gone excruciatingly slow not only for Louis, but also for Harry who was slowly making his way to his detention. He's envious of all the students that get to leave for the day while he has to sit and write lines. There was a slight glimmer of hope that this detention would be a tutoring session, since Harry and Mr Tomlinson would be able to focus purely on the tutoring without the distraction of other students. The drama room was unusually tense when Harry walked in, placing his bag on the desk at the front of the room. Mr Tomlinson was sitting at his desk, tensely reading over papers. He had a pair of thin framed glasses on, which Harry hadn't seen him wear yet.

Louis tilts his head, looking at Harry through the top of his glasses and sighs.

"Alright, so are we ready to get this show on the road?"

There was no denying that Mr Tomlinson was pissed off, and had seemed on edge early today as well. He looked exhausted but Harry wasn't going to comment on it. It would just cause too much drama.

"Do I start with wiping the board, or am I picking off any new gum?"

Louis' face brightens up slightly, when he chuckles to himself. He shakes his head, grabbing a book off his table and walking towards Harry. He pulls a chair over and sits in front of Harry.

"I think we'll just stick to this tutoring plan. I think you've had it bad enough as it is,"

Harry doesn't respond. He just quietly pulls out his book and pencil, and writes the date on the top. Louis begins to discuss the elements of drama, and the assignment that was soon going to come up. Harry was more than a bit mortified when he learnt it was a pair assignment, because there was not one single person in his class that would pair up with him. Louis notices the stricken look.

"It will be fine, if you do the right thing and work hard, I think you'll be able to do it,"

"You don't understand, people don't like me,"

"I find that hard to believe,"

Harry looks at Louis, raising both his eyebrows. Mr Tomlinson frowns and shakes his head.

"People don't like me because of who I am. It's always happened,"

Louis swallows hard, trying to remove the ball in his throat. It doesn't move. He does feel bad, like extremely bad. He could feel himself getting more pissed off as he watched Harry continue writing the notes from Louis' books. He wasn't going to lash out at Harry again though, he'd done it too many times before. It was just that Harry was an easy target, and Louis didn't really agree with his life choices but he should learn to deal with it. It's the kid's life, not his.

"What happened to your hand?" Harry asks, not looking up from his writing that he seemed completely focused on.

"I dropped a mug and was picking it up. I accidently cut myself on a piece,"

"That sucks,"

"Yeah...also. I hope you don't take this offensively but your face looks far worse than it did yesterday,"

Harry looks up at Louis through his lashes, his mouth falling into a flat line. How can he not be offended by that? Yes. Clearly his face was swollen, bruised and disgusting but that's because he had someone punch him in the face yesterday. Bruising takes a while.

"Are you trying to say something?" Harry asks, scoffing to himself.

"Don't give me attitude. I was stating a fact,"

"Well, it's something I already know. So thanks for that,"

"What I was trying to get at was...Did anything happen yesterday that I not know of?"

Harry stops writing and drops his pen onto the paper. He leans back into his chair, eyeing Louis. He's nervous now, and he can already feel his palms becoming slightly sweatier with the anxiety that was building in the pit of his stomach. He shakes his head, words suddenly impossible to speak. Louis leans forward, taking his glasses off to look at Harry seriously. This whole situation just became a lot more uncomfortable and Harry looked at the exit, planning his escape.

"Harry, if someone is hurting you. I need to know. Abuse is nothing you should stand for,"

"I'm not being abused," Harry frowns, voice cracking from anxiety

"Did anyone other than Zayn hurt you yesterday? When we ran into each other at the cinemas, your face was bruised but not nearly this bad. I hate to ask this, but the guy that you were with, did he...?" Louis trails off, looking at the excessive swelling and bruising

Harry reaches for his bag, he's infuriated right now, absolutely seething. He unzips his bag, and throws his books into it and stands up. He's leaving and he isn't talking about this any further.

"My boyfriend would never hurt me,"

The words cut through Louis like knives, and he cringes slightly. His anger reaching a peak. He grabs Harry's arm, stopping him in his spot. His fingers dig into his arm, and he uses all his strength to keep Harry in his spot. Harry glares at his, and clenches his jaw.

"What? What do you want?!" Harry suddenly yells, pulling his arm away

"I'm saying this as someone who is concerned. Did your boyfriend hurt you at all?"

"No he fucking didn't! I said no the first time,"

"Don't you swear at me," Louis mutters

"What else do you want me to do? I came here to actually get tutored so I can become dux but here you are trying to tell me that my boyfriend is hurting me! He loves me, and I love him,"

"Please spare me the details of your love life," Louis scrunches up his nose, holding his hand up, "I wanted to know Harry because whatever's happened, it's really bad. You're too young to realise right now but sometimes the people you love more than anything hurt you. And they use the word love to justify it,"

"I don't know who you think you are telling me I don't realise that, but I know what that shit means. He isn't hurting me! It's nothing like that okay Mr Tomlinson? Keep out of my business,"

"If he isn't hurting you, I want you to tell me who is. If you can tell me who it is, I will drop this right now and you'll never hear about it from me again,"

Harry's silent. He stares at the floor, biting the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from crying. He'd bite his lip but he'd split it again, and he was sick of the taste of blood on his lips. He had enough of it yesterday. Harry would never admit it, but Louis was right on the money with his guess. And Louis knew it too, and this brought rage. He was almost physically fuming.

"It's nothing you'd understand,"

"Oh yeah? Try me," Mr Tomlinson crossed his arms, staring at the younger boy

"I'm leaving. Please don't ever talk about this with me again," Harry mutters, turning and leaving the room.

Louis watches helplessly as the boy leaves the room in a rush. Louis swears almost every word possible, reaching for the first thing he sees. He grabs a white board cleaner, hurling it across the room. He hadn't been violent in a long time. And this was a sign it was getting bad again. He doesn't bother cleaning it up. He grabs his shit and forces it into his bag, leaving and locking the room. He listens out for Harry, just in case he's somewhere right now. And Louis has a slight feeling he is but there's no luck. His train of thought is thrown off when his phone begins to ring. He answers it without looking.

"Louis speaking,"

"Why aren't you replying to my messages," Eleanor's grief stricken voice is beyond intelligible

"I am honestly not in the fucking mood for this," Louis snaps, walking across the school

He's lucky there's no one hanging around, because he was going to let her have it now.

"You? You aren't in the mood for this?! You sent me that god awful message and switched your phone off and spent your day as if it was any other day? How dare you call me a stupid bitch. I'm not a leech either! I'm trying to make sure you don't revert back to the way you were!"

"Why the fuck would you even care if I were to be the old me?"

"Because I love you, dickhead."

"Fuck off, honestly,"

"No,"

Louis rolls his eyes, shaking his head. He can see his car from a few hundred meters away. Eleanor continues to scream down the line, and Louis has had it. He's sick of her babying him.

"These 2 years have been you constantly babying me, tip toeing around me like I'm a bomb. I'm a fucking person you know?"

"What are you talking about? What has happened to make you be like this? What triggered you?"

"Eleanor if you ask me that one more time, I will come over there and punch you,"

"You're threatening to hurt me now?"

"Did I stutter?" Louis shouts

"I'm calling the psychologist,"

"Eleanor. Do not fucking call the psychologist. You hear me?"

"It's either that, or your mother. Which would you prefer?"

"Let me be me. I am who I am, and if you can't accept it then you can get the fuck out of my life right now,"

Louis' got the overwhelming urge to just punch his steering wheel as hard as he can, but he refrains. He closes his eyes imagining driving off a cliff. He drowns out Eleanor's yelling.

"I didn't hear a thing you just said but it was probably the same thing as always. I'm going to go now. Goodbye,"

Louis hangs up the phone and throws it into the back seat. He really doesn't even care if it's broken now. He's pissed off beyond relief. He turns the radio on, and makes sure it's loud. The music is blaring so loud that he can't even hear himself think. He finds himself driving to a place he knew like the back of his hand, but hadn't been to in over a year and a half.

-

Harry's shirt was drenched in blood. For the second time that day, he was bleeding from the nose and now his lip was busted too. He was curled up into a little ball in the corner of a room, arms over his head, protecting himself. He waited for the swings to continue but they never came. He slowly peeked, so relieved when he realises Nick had left the room. Harry looks down at his shirt which was now completely soaked with his blood. He doesn't even realise what's going on, or what happened. The room is spinning and he can't focus on anything but the pain. He knew the argument had started when he wouldn't give himself up again, and Nick had attempted to hold him down. The faint blurriness of kicking Nick off to protect himself fills his memory. The haunting almost black eyes cause his hair to stand up. He's sobbing to himself. Nick got so aggressive, and he had the look in his eye that made him look like a maniac. He didn't look like Nick. He didn't have any self-control, it was the eyes of a man that was getting what he wanted no matter what. It was all a blur from there, but Harry just remembers being hit a few times, and strangled. It isn't long before Nick comes storm into the room. His hair wild and eyes no longer the terrifying black they were. He looked pale and sickly. He was different now. He was back to the Nick he loved and knew so well. He approaches Harry, apologising profusely, begging for forgiveness. Harry does. He's so scared. He's terrified that the dark side of Nick will return. This Nick takes special precaution to clean all the blood off Harry's face and skin, and give him fresh clothing. He helps apply ice to his nose and face which is already swelling. Harry doesn't sleep that night, too scared to fall asleep in case he's assaulted.

Harry's entire world is crumbling around him. His throat is constricted, his hands are clammy and he's gagging. It feels like the world is tilting on its axis, and his legs are becoming jelly. He collapses against a wall at the back of the school. His sobs wrack through his body and makes his shoulders tremble. He hiccups, body trembling as the air won't find his lungs. No one was supposed to know or even ask about it. It was supposed to be shrugged off as Zayn just beating him badly, and Zayn would proudly take that title. Harry stays in this position, struggling to breathe for almost an hour. His hands are pulling at his hair, harder with each terrible memory from last night. He was traumatised, but he can safely say 100% that Nick didn't get what he wanted. Harry wouldn't let it happen, so Nick ended up leaving the room to relieve himself. Harry doesn't know what to do. He can't talk to anyone about this. Louis wouldn't understand and nor would he really care. Louis couldn't give a shit because Harry was just another gay kid stuck in a world of homophobics.

-

It's currently 7pm on a school night. Louis is leaning against a dark mahogany table, a glass pressed to his lips. The music is loud, and the room is dark. The edge had been taken off completely, and Louis finally felt normal. This place always had the effect of keeping Louis in place when things went bad. He had come here a lot but once he was being forced treatment, he had to cut this place off because Eleanor believed it to be a way of still triggering the sadness and rage inside him. The bar was on the outskirts of town, almost a half an hour drive. It was ridiculous because there were so many other bars in town but this was his special place. The room is swaying slightly and Louis feels as light as a cloud. The taste of vodka burns his mouth, and leaves an uneasy feeling in his stomach but he ignores it. He hadn't been this drunk in almost a lifetime. He quickly drinks the rest of it before finding a stool to sit on. The bartender watches Louis carefully, laughing to himself.

"So, you never told me why you were here. You haven't been here in almost 2 years and you think you can just rock up and start drinking like the good old days? You best bet that you've gone some explaining to do,"

Louis rolls his eyes and groans

"I stopped coming because I wasn't allowed to. I was getting my life back on track, I wasn't so agitated, angry and sad all the time. I mean, I really needed to. I landed myself a job as a teacher and I needed to be sober and mentally stable for it, so I worked on it. And hey, it's a great fucking job you know? I get to be a prick to all the little children. It's everything I've wanted in life," Louis laughs to himself, closing his eyes.

"But, why are you back?"

"Well....I was doing okay for a long time. About 3 months ago I stopped taking my medication. I still felt fine, I really did. It wasn't until about maybe a month ago or so that the edge started coming back. I could handle it. I needed to learn how to deal with this without relying on drugs. This past few days, no chance. Today was the worst it's been. If I didn't escape, I think I would have done something dangerous,"

"Louis..."

The man in front of him barely looked like the man Louis knew. This man was his best friend growing up, and knew every single aspect of his life. He went from that hippie with long auburn hair and a beard, to short styled and gelled back hair, and no beard. He looked pretty great, a lot better than the last time Louis saw him. He seemed a lot happier with his life. He was now a dad, and was getting married to his long-term girlfriend in a few months. Louis was surprised to learn that he was going to be the best man no matter what. Nate's baby girl was gorgeous, well Louis assumed from what he could see on the phone screen because his vision was tripling already. He was excited to meet her really.

"What?" Louis sighs

"I don't want you to go back either. I'm saying this as your best friend. You are 25 now, and turning 26 at the end of the year. You need to start settling down and trying your best to move on from that part of your life. You have Eleanor now, she's worked hard to help you. You're so drunk right now, how are you even getting home?"

"Driving?" Louis raises an eyebrow

"No! No way in hell. I'll drive you home in your car and catch a taxi back here,"

"That's so expensive, don't worry. I'm fine to drive,"

"You have been downing shots of vodka and tequila for 2 hours. I don't think so,"

Louis hesitates and then nods.

"Yeah...you're probably right," He laughs

"In the meantime, you should probably take those. It will help with all the shit in your head,"

Louis looks down at the two white capsules that have been sitting in front of him for ages. He's been carrying them around all day. He groans and closes his eyes. Nate places a cup of water next to them. He needed to get mortal if he were to feel better after today and this wasn't a way of having fun. He massages his temples and places one capsule in his hand. He looks at the familiar pill in his hand and then throws his head back, and dropping it in his mouth. He swallows it down with water and scrunches his nose, before doing the same with the second. Nate smiles at him sadly. While Nate continues his shift at the bar, he and Louis catch up on all the missed up gossip in each-other's lives and when Nate leaves at 9pm, Louis can't stand. He can't string a sentence together, and he's buzzing.