Artwork [h.s]

thirty-five

By the time my maths class had ended, it was pretty clear to me that Harry wouldn't have come to school that day. I wondered why, and if something had happened. He'd seemed to be completely fine the day before, during our little escapade, so I was more than confused.

I decided to settle my doubts by asking the only person I knew that probably truly knew what was going on, Niall.

"Why isn't Harry at school today?" I asked him when I reached him as we exited the class.

The blue eyed boy gave me a shrug. "Do you really wanna know?" He said, his answer making me furrow my eyebrows.

"Is he okay?" I asked worriedly, my mind already starting to work fast to try to solve the mystery of Harry's absence.

He snorted. "Yeah. Perfectly fine" he said snappily, the tone of his voice making me understand that there was more to it. I didn't have to wonder for long though, because he continued on his own. "He just decided it would've been a brilliant idea to hit the gym for the entire afternoon yesterday, and then for some reason he thought it would've been even a better one to just leave and, instead of going home, go nobody knows where and get drunk out of his mind. Honestly, thank god Liam and Noah were with him, because my mum would've freaked if it hadn't been for them. Gotta love getting woken up at four in the damn morning by a drunk Harry trying to make his way towards his room in the most complete darkness. That's why he's not here, he's still sleeping it off."

I widened my eyes at his rant. "Uh, should I have not asked?" I said, feeling as if that was way more information than I would've ever needed.

"Don't mind, I'm just mad at him because he keeps being such an idiot. It's so hard to keep up with him, sometimes it really looks like he doesn't know how to care for himself at all. Or doesn't want to, I don't know" Niall said with a sigh. "Sorry for complaining with you."

"It's fine... I guess" I replied, putting the strap of my bag back on my shoulder since it was slipping off. "I'll just go, if you don't mind."

"Sure, see ya" he said, surpassing me to go wherever he needed to be.

I sighed, starting to walk towards the main entrance of the building. I debated if I should've sent him a text asking him how he was, but decided against it, knowing that Harry wouldn't have been happy to know that Niall had shared his surely eventful night.

I opened the door and went out, closing the buttons of my coat as the cold air enveloped me, sitting down on one of the steps and taking my notepad and pencil out, looking around to find a good subject to sketch during my free period.

• • •

I sat down on the grass in the park, smiling to myself as I took in the small artificial lake in front of me. Considering how cold it was, there weren't many people around, which gave me both a bit of privacy and room to relax.

I put my earphones on and put on some music, before taking my notepad and pencil, opening it and starting to sketch the lake in front of me.

I looked up from the page when I felt my phone buzz against my leg and glanced down, discovering that I had just got a text.

From Harry: Can I come over?

I stared at the text for a few seconds, a frown on my face as I reread the words multiple times, confused as to why they'd been sent in the first place. I shook my head, taking the phone from where I'd abandoned it on the ground next to me and unlocking the screen, before observing the bubble of the text as it showed up, double checking the name on the top of the conversation just to come to the conclusion that it'd been actually sent from Harry's phone. After having made sure its provenience, I read it again, the second time actually taking in the meaning of the words. I let out a little sigh, and started typing.