The Project | Larry Stylinson

Chapter 4

!!TW-violence and slurs!!

Harry's pov 🌻 

It was a cold morning today. There had been a lot of those lately. Out of context I probably sound stupid right now.

It was cold all day until it hit like 2 pm and then boom! It felt like summer again.

My problem was I didn't really have many 'in-between weather' clothes so my choices were to either freeze my ass off or sweat it off.

'I need to go shopping for some new clothes this weekend' I thought to myself, making a mental note of it.

Most days I caught the bus or walked with Niall to school but that wasn't the case today as Niall had woken up sick and I woke up late so I missed the bus.

I tried to convince my sister to drop me off on the way to work but she said it was too much if a hassle as it was in the opposite direction. So here I was, on the half an hour walk to school.

Luckily as soon as I realised I was going to miss the bus I grabbed my things and left, knowing all too well that the walk often took detours because they always seemed to be repaving part of the sidewalk.

I was about halfway to school when I heard footsteps quickly approaching me from behind. I thought nothing of it as many people walked and jogged along the path, but quickly regretted that when I was whacked with something awfully heavy in the back.

I felt my bag get ripped off my back and heard it get thrown onto the pavement a few feet from my left and watched as someone started going through it but quickly gave up after seeing there was nothing of value in it.

I thought that was the end of it, and began sitting up, but oh how wrong I was.

Within seconds I was kicked back into the hard, cold concrete. I felt my face graze along it, stinging more every second. The guy who kicked me picked me up by the collar of my sweatshirt and began punching me in the head and stomach. Hot tears quickly began to stain my cheeks. Everything was hurting. They weren't stopping. I couldn't see their faces either, and I wasn't sure if that made it better or worse.

Eventually, they let go and stopped hitting me. I didn't know how long it had been.

"Faggot," one of them spat at me.

And with that, they turned and left.

All I wanted to do at that moment was crawl into a ball and cry. But I wasn't even at school yet, so I had no choice but to stand up, and limp my way to school.

It didn't occur to me that most of my injuries were likely visible, as the main target of their punches seemed to be my face.

As I walked into the front doors of the school, I got a few concerned looks from people. I just shook it off and kept walking, deeding to just ignore it.

That was until a girl with blonde hair and bangs walked up to me.

"Hey, are you okay? What happened?" She asked, concern clear in her voice.

"I'm fine, what do you mean?" I replied, quite confused, was I missing something?

"Your face, it's literally covered in blood. Don't try and play dumb with me Styles," she said, raising an eyebrow at me.

My hand immediately shot up to my face. I flinched when it came in contact and felt an open and bleeding wound on it.

"Oh fuck. I forgot about that, Thanks, I should go clean that up," I said and began quickly walking to the bathroom.

The second I entered the empty bathroom, I looked at my reflection in the mirror.

"Fuck," I whispered. I looked like shit.

I quickly grabbed a paper towel and wet it, gently dabbing it on the bleeding wounds on my face.

A few minutes passed and I managed to stop the bleeding, but that didn't make up for all the bruising and very obvious injuries.

I signed, knowing there was nothing I could do so I just walked out of the bathroom and was shocked when the same girl from before came rushing back over to me.

"Oh my god..seriously, what happened?" She asked again.

"I tripped, that's all. I'm fine," I said. This had been happening for around 2 years now so I was used to it. Unfortunately, though, I had taken the spare makeup I had in my backpack for situations like this out of my bag on the weekend because I needed a reference shade to buy a new one.

"Don't bullshit me, Harry," she said sternly. She seemed to be thinking for a second and began rummaging through her bag, eventually pulling out a small tube of concealer.

"Here, use this. I don't know how much good it'll do but at least it's something," she said, handing me the tube.

"Lifesaver. Thank you so much. Also, not to be rude but what was your name sorry? I don't think we've met before," I said taking the makeup from her hands.

"I'm Taylor. We have math together, remember?" Taylor smiled warmly.

"Oh yeah, that's right."

"Anyways, you better hurry, more people are coming." She gently shoved me back towards the bathroom door.

I ran in and applied the concealer over the wounds, gently dabbing at them. She was right. It didn't do much but I mean hey, it was something at least.

I walked out of the bathroom back to Taylor and did a little spin.

"Oh wow, that actually worked a lot better than I thought it would. You're good at that," she said, clearly impressed with my work.

"Not my first time," I sighed. "Anyways I should get going, thank you for the help and it was great meeting you!" I smiled and walked away quickly before she has time to question my previous statement which by the look on her face, she was moments away from doing so.

"Bye!" She called out, and with that, I was once again walking towards my locker, trying not to make my limp too obvious.

-

"You alright Haz? You're really quiet today," Ed frowned at me, Justin nodding along with him, not saying anything though because he had a mouthful of food.

"Yeah I'm fine, just didn't sleep much last night," I lied.

"Oh okay, was it the dogs next door again?" He asked. My neighbours had 3 dogs who were constantly barking, waking my whole family up every 5 minutes. I just nodded, still not in the mood to talk.

He took the hint and stopped trying to make conversation with me for the rest of lunch.

The last 2 periods of the day were double science. Science was alright, just the teacher made it really boring.

I also didn't have any friends in that class so I just sort of sat there and stared out the window, doodling in the back of my book.

Soon enough, the bell went and everyone scattered out of the classroom, ignoring the teacher asking for us to come back.

I grabbed a couple of books from my locker and shoved them in my bag, knowing I had homework I probably wasn't going to do, and walked out of school and all the way home. Making sure to walk quickly so I didn't have a repeat of this morning.

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A/n woo I wrote 2 chapters in one night nice. But u guys don't get this chapter until Saturday heheheh. Just for context, it's 2am on Friday morning rn. Just spent the last 2 hours writing. My eyes hurt like hell and I've got to get up for school in like less than 5 hourssss. I should go to bed now. 

If anyone is residing this in the middle of the night, this is your sign. Go to sleep. Sleep is important. Just like water and food. It's fuel for your body. Hope ur enjoying the story, love u and tysm for the support xx

Larry 💙💚✨

24/3/2023

Holy sht I just realised I've been awake for 20 hours straight (gay). Dayam.