There had been little interactions between Harry and the other patients, maybe it was because he didn’t think he needed any friends it the dodge hospital ward he had been forced to call home, or maybe it was because he didn’t think he needed anyone but Nick.

It wasn’t until his fourth week as a patient did he talk to anyone who wasn’t in the self harming wing of the building. He was sitting down at his lunch table, waiting for Nick to appear after his therapy session when Niall sat down beside him, he tugged Harry’s shirt which made him feel uncomfortable, why was this strange boy touching him when they had never met? Why was he clutching a juice box between his sweated fingers just like he’d seen the pre-schoolers do in his local town every time he went for a walk.


“Are you lonely?” Niall asked him with wide eyes, Harry had no idea that Niall’s head was stuck back in the days of his childhood, mentally he was no older than a seven year old. Harry grunted, trying to ignore him as he continued shovelling peas into his mouth. Niall was quite persistant, no way was he giving up on having his question answer. “Do you like peas?” He asked instead this question just infuriated Harry, he wanted to sit in peace and wait for his friend.


“What the hell are you playing at?” He demanded, catching the attention of Liam who was sitting across the room, at their table. He instantly jumped out of his seat, not caring about the loud bang it made as it hit the cold hard floor. He ran over to Harry and sat down opposite him.

“Sorry, Niall is nosy.” He explained, not wanting to tell Harry the truth in front of Niall who had no idea he was nay different than anyone else. Niall folded his arms across his chest after throwing his juice at Liam, hitting him straight on the forehead, Harry admired the way Liam just ignored that immature tantrum, he knew he himself would never put up with that. Liam looked Niall in the eye and said to him with parental authority detected in his voice. “Niall your lunch is getting cold, you should go and eat it, let him eat in peace.” Niall frowned at Liam before storming off, telling him how badly he hated him, but Liam sighed he had heard it all before.

“What the hell just happened?” Harry asked, dropping his fork as soon as Niall was out of hearing range. Liam let out another sigh before turning to make sure Niall was out of ear shot.

“He has the mental capacity of a seven year old. They think it’s because of something traumatic that happened to him while he was eight, but it’s hard to tell for sure. There isn’t anything wrong with his brain not really, trauma blocks things you don’t want to remember.” Harry nodded, he knew that feeling well.

“Shit, I’m sorry mate. I didn’t offend him did I?” He asked, sipping his glass of milk. He felt awful, why hadn’t Nick explained anything about that kid to him before? Nick had been here for a lot longer than he had.

It just didn’t make any sense. “No, don’t worry about it.” Liam smiled, Harry looked back at the table, noticing Niall was now happy as ever. “I think he is over it” He pointed back at their table.

Liam chuckled, “Louis is back.” He mumbled, watching the thin boy sitting beside Niall, ignoring the plate of food in front of him. He had a giant smile planted on his face, something which Niall always seemed to bring out of him. He hadn’t been in the lunch room for nearly a week, his feeding was coming from a tube after been caught skipping out too many times, the nurses knew they had to feed him whether he liked it or not.

“Is that him?” Harry pointed at the frail boy he hadn’t seen in a week, he still didn’t know his name because until then he hadn’t bothered to learn it. Louis, he repeated it in his head over and over. Liam turned back around. “That’s our Lou, he’s had a rough week I should probably go and talk to him.” Harry nodded, but as soon as Liam stood up he spoke out to him.

“Wait, what’s his story? Where has he been?” He splattered questions straight out of his mouth without thinking. Liam shrugged. “He’s anorexic, they have to force feed him sometimes.” Harry felt his stomach tighten, no wonder he was so thin, Harry couldn’t imagine starving himself, sure he wanted to die nearly every single day, but not like that. No way could he watch himself slowly die, it was like a band aid, the quicker you pulled the plug the less pain you were to endure. You could probably say that Harry was a coward, but he didn’t care not one bit.

He watched Liam make his way back to the table, the look on Louis’ face was priceless, he looked like he was home for the first time in years seeing his family again after a long time a part. He hadn’t even noticed Nick sitting beside him until his friend kindly decided to speak, causing poor Harry to jump from a fright.

“Who are we staring at?” He asked, unwrapping his plastic knife and fork and digging into his potato. Harry looked down at his own plate, hoping he wouldn’t blush. “Nobody, just they look so happy over there.” Nick nodded, “Yeah, they are always overly happy it’s kind of creepy considering we are all here for abusing ourselves.”

All Harry could do was nod as he watched Louis for a while longer, he wanted to know his story, wanted to know the real Louis and not the one who he told his friends he was. He knew what it was like suffering so badly that you start making up lies just to keep your friends and family satisfied, just to keep them off your back. He hated that he wasn’t the only one who felt that way, he didn’t want other people to suffer the way he did it just made him feel dirty. There was one thing Harry knew he had to do and that was to become friends with the Louis guy, whether he wanted it or not.