Short Stories: Harry

TRIGGER WARNING for depression, suicide, and self-harm


***************************************
The bell for recess shrieked through the hallways, notifying students of their free ability to do whatever they please. Everyone picked up their books, their binders, and shuffled out into the hallways. My English teach, Mr. Barnes, tired his best to finish up his latest lesson.
"Read pages 213-220 in your English textbooks for next class! I will be quizzing you!" He threatened to the ignorant teenagers. "And, Aubrey, I like your paper that you handed in last week. Do you mind if I keep it?" Mr. Barnes said to me as only a few people were left in the room.

"Sure, Mr. Barnes," I said to him and smiled kindly. He turned around to clear off the blackboard.

I shoved my hand into my jeans and pulled out a crumbled up note that some girl had thrown at me before class. She was curvy, with straight black hair that fell to her shoulders. I didn't recognize her. Was she new?I had thought as she walked off without a single glance back. The girl had held a smirk on her face - a mischievous, almost troublesome look seemed permanent there, as if she was up to no good. But, honestly, I could care less what she was up to. She can deal with her own consequences.

I flattened out the paper as carefully as I could, trying my best not to rip it. It was nearly unrecognizable with all the tiny fold lines from being balled up. It read, "Find me in the gym as soon as you can, Aubs ~ H " The H was signed beautifully in old cursive, with a small tick which sliced through the top of the H. That little tick gave away the author - there was only one person who signed his H like that, and only one person who called me Aubs.

I quickly folded the note and slipped it into the pocket of my faded skinny jeans, extending the pocket so it protrudes out the rips on my thighs. After a few seconds, I looked up to find that I was the only person in the room . Even Mr. Barnes had left to eat his lunch. I gathered my supplies and nearly tripped over my own feet as I ran out the small doorway.

Anticipation drove me through the stuffed hallways. I avoided almost everyone who came my way. I say almost because I was very close to tripping into a group of bitchy popular girls. That would not have ended well. Eventually, I slipped into the gym without getting caught. I had to be very careful - the consequences for being in the gym without permission or teacher supervision was a one-week suspension. Man, would my parents ever kill me if they found out I had done anything like that.

The first thing I noticed was that the lights were completely off. Not even a dim glow was emitting from the room. I could not make out any figures in the darkness. You'd expect the lights to be on if someone was there, waiting for you. I just about turned around and left, but a quiet voice in the back of my head told me that there may just be someone in here. Was it him, though?

I flipped up a few switches, and waiting for them to get brighter so my eyes could adjust. As soon as it was bright enough for me to recognize anything, I gasped. He was there, right in front of me. "Harry," I sighed as I ran into his strong, comforting arms. He welcomed me with a snuggle, and kissed me on the forehead. I had missed him so much... Those piercing green eyes, his curly, shaggy brown hair, the constant warmth of his skin against mine... They all had become a blur in the world of finals for the past few weeks. I had barely seen Harry at all, with him touring the world with One Direction, and me having finals to deal with. I almost forgot about him - he had stayed silent in the back of my mind.

Finals, although I knew I would do well on, stressed the hell out of me. The studying stole all of my free time, leaving no room for anything even remotely social. I had seen only my parents, Penny (my best friend) and who ever was in my classes at school. The stress and loneliness bought back my depression from years ago. Only Penny knew about it all - the self-harm, the mental hospitals my mother sent me to in the summer whenever I got suicidal... I never thought it would get worse again, so I never told her if I thought it was coming back. But, it was indeed worsening.

I ended up relapsing to my blades to relieve the pain of everything headed my way. Watching the red blood pour down my pale skin and drip off onto my clothes had given me a way to escape the pain of life as it is. Harry, my boyfriend of several months now, was usually my relief when it got bad. He knew about some of my depressing past, but not enough to worry him that it might come back. Harry had never said no when I just wanted to sit back and cuddle him. Recently, my stress and worsening depression had just rolled up into a ball of sour darkness, especially whenever he was away. I was way too hooked onto him.

After I left his long embrace, I got up on my tiptoes to kiss him. He bent down to meet me halfway. Our lips moved in sync, moulding to each other perfectly. I reached up further and wrapped my arms around his warm neck. Several sets of shivers spiraled down my spine as my cold skin once again felt heat spreading through it. I was very cold without him, emotionally and physically. I had to stop myself from gasping aloud and making him suspicious.

I broke off not too long after, both of us trying desperately to catch our breath. If I never needed oxygen, I would spend all of my days connected to his pink lips. But, of course oxygen had to be a necessity... I'll just have to deal with what I have now. My thoughts trailed off, and as soon as I was down to earth again, I looked up to him with my big brown eyes. His pupils met mine, and I noticed the smirk slowly appearing on his face.

"Hey," I whispered, a small smile spreading across my face. I didn't think I could miss him this much in only three weeks.

"Hey there, beautiful," Harry spoke softly. His sexy smirk turned into a full blown, earth-shattering smile within seconds. I tilted my head downwards, attempting to hide the warmth spreading amongst my cheeks. He could've left me staring at the bland gym floor, but instead he brought his hand up to cradle my blushing face.

"Don't," he told me. I looked up to him with a look of confusion plastered on my face. "I haven't seen you for nearly a month. Don't hide from me. Do you even know how much I missed you?"

"I missed you too, you know..." I whispered to him. My eyes were full of anticipation, practically begging him to kiss me more. I could see the stern look slipping onto Harry's face. It simply screamed, "No."

"Please?" I bit my lip in hope to convince him.

"Do you test my restraint for fun? We need restraint..." He paused for a second, as if to think. "I need restraint." He sighed, and swept his thumb across my cheek, tucking my loose bangs behind my ear. "Do you even understand what you do to me?" Harry spoke in a hushed voice, before defeatedly leaning down to me again. Our lips crushed within seconds, matching each others' movements. He slipped his tongue in my mouth, finally losing some of his control. Just as I was going to meet him in the middle, something poked me hard in the back, causing me to bite down on Harry's tongue.

"OW! Shit!" He yelped, obviously in pain. "What the fuck?" he asked, as confused as I was. I knew he wasn't asking that to me - I would never bite Harry hard enough to hurt him on purpose.

"Get a room, lovebirds," Penelope said strictly. She strided into the room with grace, ruining the mood. "You guys were so entangled in each other that I slipped into the gym and poked her with this thing-" She pointed to a wooden pool stick at her feet. "- without either of you noticing." Penny picked it up and whipped it at the dark green mats on the wall, causing it to snap dangerously in half with a wicked crunch.

"Now, behave," She spoke directly at me.

I jumped over a few dark green mats that were scattered on the floor to talk to her privately. The broken pool stick left a mark on the wall, almost an indent. Damn, Penny was strong for her age. There's probably a bruise already forming in the centre of my back. I watched as Harry pulled out his phone after it beeped several times.

"What the hell was that for? Dude, we haven't seen each other in almost a month. Just because you just broke up with your boyfriend a few days ago, it doesn't mean you can just barge in and try to ruin ours. You were the one who made the decision to end it with him." I took me a second to realize that I was holding my breath as I got all that out. I steadied my breath and started to apologize to her. "Sorry, I just needed to get that out of my system. You seriously should look into another guy, though."

"And then there's you, with your practically illegal boyfriend. Your pop-star boyfriend. You're lucky that you turned 18 a few months before you met him. Actually, he's lucky. He's the one who'd be in Prison right now. How long have you been dating Harry? Eight months? Ten months? A year?" Penny said sternly.

It surprisingly took me a few seconds to compose myself before I replied. I had almost forgotten our one-year anniversary.

"Our anniversary is in less than a month. We have all summer to spend together, you know. I can travel all over the world with him and the band. I still have to see if my parents will let him come to my cottage with us when he isn't touring..."

"Well, good luck with that. What did you get for him?"

"Umm..." I trailed off. I hadn't exactly remembered our anniversary, so I don't have a gift. "I, um, forgot..."

"Seriously, bitch! You did?! HA! HAHA! That's hilarious!" Penny broke into outrageous laughter within seconds of my new information. When she wouldn't stop laughing, I gave her one of my evil death stares.
"Penny, stop laughing. You'll cause suspicions. Bitch, shut up!" When she started to go hysterical, with roll-on-the-floor laughter, I actually started to get worried. Not only worried that Harry would notice, but that Penny would stop breathing. As I looked over my bare shoulder to see where he went after I left to speak with Penny, I noticed that he was entirely focused on his phone. He was texting someone, and he looked quite into it. What's going on?

When she finally stopped making so much noise, I swiftly turned around and started walking towards Harry. At about 3 metres from him, his piercing eyes looked up at me and he smiled his special smile at me.

"Hey girlie," Harry said to me, obviously back to himself after me nearly biting his tongue off. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, ha, I actually forgot about it... It's okay, just a little sore. Nothing super painful." I smiled back at him after that. The smile was almost fake as I felt the pain spiking up in my spine and spreading to my shoulders. Harry's eyes were sparkling from the reflection of light bouncing off the mirror on the wall. He looked absolutely gorgeous. I must be the luckiest girl alive right now, I thought.

"Can I massage it for you? Please?" He spoke gently, and I knew he was offering this as kindly as he could. He genuinely looked like he felt bad for me, as if I was hurt worse than him. I wasn't the worst between the two. But, Harry was always the gentleman. That's one quality that never changed from the time I met him to now.

"Maybe... But on one condition," I told him. He looked at me, confused. I rarely used conditions, especially after not seeing each other for a long time.

"And that is...? I'm actually quite curious to hear this, since conditions aren't your favourite thing," Harry laughed at the look on my face.

"Stop laughing at me!" I giggled and poked him in the side. he dodged it and tried to poke me back. I noticed that Penny had left us alone for some private time. "We need to get out of here before I'm the one who gets in trouble," I said. "You won't get in trouble. You're Harry Styles. The principal would let you off with a warning as long as you gave him your autograph for his two 10 year old daughters," I told him, matter-of-factly. Harry sighed with a smile on his face, and seductively told me, "And where is it exactly that you want to go, Aubrey? Do you want to fly to Toronto and stay there for a week? You can leave finals behind." He winked at me and I giggled again.

"That would sound great, as long as we can convince my parents. Which, of course, would never let me go. Why don't we just go back to my place? My parents aren't home," I said softly, grabbing his hand to lead him out the door. Harry paused for a moment and the stood up from the bench he was sitting on. I took his hand, kissed him on the cheek, and skipped out as quietly as I could.

Notes

Warning: my stories may contain graphic content such as sex, self-harm, drugs, etc. TRIGGER WARNING for depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide.

Hey guys! If you're reading this, please leave a comment! I'd love to know what you think about this. I don't write too much, but its fun so I thought I'd give it a try. This is actually my first time writing a fan fiction, both on this site and at all, so I'm sorry if it's not that good. But please, leave a comment! I'm open to any suggestions you have!

Question: Should I extend this story? And would you consider this too long to be in one chapter?

Thanks, guys!