Harry's POV

"Hazza? Are you ready baby? We should get going soon." Zayn, my brother asked me.

"Yeah, Zaynie, I'm ready!" I answered.

"Good. Grab your bags and let's go." He said and left my room.

I took the suitcases that I had packed the night before and headed outside to the car, where Zayn was already waiting for me.

He helped me put my bags into the trunk and we both got in. And then we started our almost 4 hour drive from Bradford to London.

You might be confused. Sorry for that.

Zayn and I are finally moving today. Our mum, Anne, is a drug addict. We have wanted to get out of that house for years.

And now we finally have a chance. Zayn turned 18 in January. It's August at the moment.

On his birthday he inherited our Grandma's house in London and all her money. That's the only reason we're able to move.

And it took Zayn a while to get my custody since he had to prove that he's capable of taking care of me.

And that is why we're moving only now and not months before. I'm so excited. We're finally getting a better life.

I'm a bit sad for leaving mum though, although she hasn't exactly been a mother to us for years. Zayn has been basically raising me.

After our father died 5 years ago mum has went off the rails. There was a year when she was clean and actually went to work but it went as quickly as it came.

It was mostly because of mum's boyfriend, Ross. He had ruined the only chance for us to get our mum back. I will never forgive him for that.

And he was abusive. He only hurt me though and only when Zayn wasn't around.

One time Zayn came home early and he saw Ross hitting me. He beat Ross up and comforted me while I was crying my eyes out in his arms.

Since then, even before that actually, he's been really protective of me. He even spent all breaks in school with me to make sure that no one messed with me.

I'm so grateful for him. He's the reason I'm still alive. There is no way I would've survived all those years without him.

And he had a chance to leave once he turned 18 but he didn't. He stayed to take care of me.

I love him so much. He's the most important person in my life. He's my rock.

Sometimes I feel really guilty. He should be able to do all the things other people his age are doing. But no, he has me to look after.

He has been working for years just so we would have food on our table and the bills would be paid since mum doesn't do it.

I know it takes a toll on him. He always says he's happy though, that I make it all worth it.

It doesn't make me feel any better though. He doesn't even have time to have friends or study. That's the only reason his grades are bad. He's actually really smart.

He actually ended up repeating a year. That's why he's still in high school.

Talking about school, it starts next week. I'm not excited at all. I don't like school, hate it actually. But who doesn't, right?

I hope in this new school I won't be bullied. Maybe I'll even make a friend or two so Zayn could find his own friends.

Who am I kidding? That's not gonna happen. Nobody is ever going to want to be my friend.

I fell asleep in the car after Zayn said it's fine. I didn't want to leave him alone but I was really tired.

I couldn't get much sleep the night before. Mum and Ross were fighting and they had music on really loudly.

                         🦋  🦋  🦋

"Hazza, wake up. We're here." I was awoken from my dream by a soft voice.

"I'm up." I said while yawning. I rubbed my face tiredly and finally opened my eyes.

We were outside of our new house. It brought back a lot of good memories. We visited grandma a lot while dad was still alive.

We both got out of the car. That's when it finally hit me. We were finally safe. There won't be any more yelling and fighting. And most importantly, there wasn't anyone abusing me anymore.

I breathed in the fresh air. It was a really nice day. The sun was out and there was a nice warm wind.

We took our bags and headed towards the house. Zayn opened the front door and we stepped in.

The house was cold and lifeless which makes sense since no one has lived in it for a few years.

Thankfully it was completely furnished so we didn't have to worry about that.

But it was very dirty. There was dust and spider webs everywhere. I shuddered at that. I hate spiders. Bugs in general actually but especially spiders.

Guess we're gonna have to do a lot of cleaning today. Great, how fun.

"You go choose a room first. I'll open up the windows. It smells like dust in here." Zayn told me.

I said okay and went upstairs The stairs creaked under my feet. I looked around and saw that there were 3 bedrooms upstairs.

I carefully looked through all of them. One of them was the master bedroom which was obviously bigger than the other two.

I decided to leave that room for Zayn. I picked the one that was next to it.

I placed my small suitcase on the bed. I didn't have a lot of clothes because they were never the priority. If I was lucky I could maybe get a shirt after every 3 or 4 months.

I wanted to start unpacking but figured I should clean the room first. I sighed but took out a towel and made it wet so I could clean up the dust.

Cleaning my room from dust took me way longer than I thought it would, around 10 minutes.

I then unpacked all my things. It took me around 10 minutes as well. I went downstairs to see Zayn cleaning the living room.

"I think I'm gonna start looking for a job today." Zayn said randomly.

"Okay. I think that I should find a job as well." I told him. He stopped cleaning and turned to face me.

"What? Hazza, no. You're 14. You definitely shouldn't be working." He said sternly.

"But I wanna help too! And you're only 18. You shouldn't be taking care of me and providing for us." I argued.

"I know you wanna help, baby, but you're too young to get a job. No one even hires people this young."

"I'm sure someone would hire me." I muttered.

"Please, baby. Just leave it. You're so young. You should be playing outside with your friends and do homework not worry about money."

Before I could argue I heard the sound of the doorbell. I was surprised since we don't know anywhere here but I went and opened the door.

It was a boy. He looked around my age. He had blonde hair that was obviously dyed since I could see his brown roots.

"Hi! I'm Niall! I live nextdoor. My mum asked me to bring you some cookies as a welcome to the neighborhood." He introduced himself. I only then noticed the paper plate in his hands.

"Um...hi. Thanks. 'M Harry." I introduced myself.

"Hi Harry! Nice to meet you!" That boy is way too energetic. He reminds me of a puppy.

"Yeah, you too."

"Can I come in?" He asked. I was confused by that.

"Um...sure." I said and stepped away from the doorway so he could walk past me.

"Sorry it's so dirty in here, we just moved here like an hour ago."

"Oh yeah, I know. I saw you arriving. Did your parents buy the house?"

"No, we got it from our grandma. She owned the house. She used to live here."

"Oh! Sheila, right? I remember her. She was always super sweet, always gave me cookies and cupcakes."

"That definitely sounds like her." I said with a giggle. We then got to the living room.

"Who was it Hazza? Oh." Zayn started asking but then he noticed Niall. "Oh, Hi! I'm Zayn, Harry's brother." He introduced himself.

"Hi, Zayn! I'm Niall! I live nextdoor. My mum told me to bring you guys some cookies." He said the same thing to Zayn he had said to me.

"Thank you. That's really nice."

"No problem! Hey Harry, do you want to go outside? I could show you around." Niall offered.

I looked at Zayn pleadingly. He misunderstood the look on my face though.

"That sounds like a great idea! Have fun!" He said with a smile. I gave him a fake smile back.

I didn't really want to go. I'm not good with people, especially strangers. I was hoping that he wouldn't let me go since this is a new neighborhood and Niall is a stranger.

Dammit, where is his protectiveness when I need it?

"Let's go to the park. It's not very far from here." Niall said.

"Yeah sure." I answered. I didn't really care where we were going. It's not like I know where anything is anyway or what there is to do around here.

"How old are you?" He asked me once we sat down on one of the benches in the park.

Turned out the park was only a 5 minute walk. It wasn't very big but it looked pretty. There were a lot of flowers and trees and a playground and a skate park.

"I'm 14." I said quietly. I still wasn't completely comfortable around him. He looked harmless but you never know. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I think it's clear that I have trust issues. But who doesn't nowadays?

"Me too! Are you gonna be a freshman?"

"Yes." I answered simply. Poor guy, he just wanted to make conversation but here I am with only one word answers.

"Yay! I hope we're gonna have a lot of classes together. And we can sit together at lunch. Well us and my best friend, Liam. He lives next to me. He's not home today though. But he's really nice. You're gonna love him."

I didn't say anything, just smiled. It seemed like he was trying to be my friend.

I was confused by that though. He already has a friend so why would he want me to be his friend as well?

Shouldn't he be mean to me or ignoring me or something?

"Earth to Harry!" Niall waved his hands in front of my face.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course. I just zoned out, sorry. It happens sometimes."

"That's fine!" He assured me.

For the next several hours Niall and I walked around the town. He was telling me about his family and school and Liam.

He seemed so...happy. I envy him for that. He's so carefree like there aren't any problems in the world.

But he was nice. Really nice. And at the end if the day I was glad that I made a friend.

My first friend ever.