Harry's jaw dropped as he took in the brown haired girl standing in front of him. He wanted to smack the smug smile off of her face, and the only word out of her mouth so far had been Louis's name. Maybe that made it worse.

Louis lead her over to their table with Harry following behind, still stunned. Niall and Liam had stopped eating, eyes flicking between Louis, the girl under his arm, and Harry.

"Hey, Lou, who's this?" Liam asked carefully, eying Harry's sulking figure as the three of them joined Liam and Niall at the table.

"I'm Eleanor," she introduced herself. "Louis's girlfriend."

"Wow, mate, you never mentioned her to us!" Niall forced a laugh and smiled coldly in Eleanor's direction. Harry could already tell that Niall didn't like the girl, probably because he hated to be left out of things. Harry couldn't figure out Liam's reaction, as the boy was very good at keeping a straight face. "Nice to meet you, though."

"How long have you been dating?" Liam asked casually. He shot Louis a pointed glare, which Eleanor didn't notice and Louis purposefully ignored.

"We just made it official this morning," Eleanor replied, smiling sweetly. She glanced at Louis, squeezing his hand lightly. Her hand was warm in his, but it was small and unfamiliar. "Right, honey?"

"Yeah," Louis agreed, snapping out of his thoughts, "but we've been talking for a couple of weeks now," he added quickly, glancing at Harry for a reaction. Harry stared straight ahead, keeping his eyes locked on the table in front of him and refusing to meet the blue-eyed boy's gaze.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell us," Niall said again, shaking his head slightly as he turned his attention back to his food.

"Yeah," Liam said, his food still forgotten. He glanced between Harry and Louis, immediately noting the guilty expression on Louis's face and the stone cold look on Harry's.

"We were trying to keep it on the downlow," Louis shrugged. Eleanor nodded, leaning her head on Louis's shoulder. His arm stayed tightly wrapped around her shoulders, fingers gripping her arm stiffly.

"Did a pretty good job," Niall muttered, faking yet another cold smile.

"We're happy for you, though," Liam quickly added, shooting Niall a look.

"I just remembered I have to meet with my English teacher. I missed class this morning," Harry said suddenly, voice and face completely emotionless. He stood abruptly from the table and turned to leave.

"Wait, we got you your assignments!" Niall called after him, waving him back.

"I still have to talk to him," Harry shrugged. "I'll see you in class." He walked quickly out of the cafeteria and toward the bathrooms. The hallway was almost completely empty, except for a few people grabbing things from their lockers. Harry walked with his eyes down, not wanting to attract attention as tears started to pool in his eyes.

As he reached for door handle, something knocked him backwards, slamming him into the wall behind him. He groaned in pain, instinctively covering his head to protect himself as blow after blow was delivered to his shaking body. Pain shot through his side as punches hit his barely healed bruises. Suddenly, he was dragged to his feet by his hair and shoved back against the lockers. Two hands gripped his t-shirt, pressing into his chest. He kept his eyes trained on the ground, praying that his attacker would just give up and leave him alone.

"Thought I forgot about you, faggot?" Nick's familiar voice sneered, slamming Harry back against the locker again. "Hey, answer me when I'm talking to you!"

Harry shook his head, biting his lip nervously as he raised his gaze to meet Nick's. Before he could register what was happening, Nick's fist collided with his cheek, snapping his head to the side. Pain shot through his head, making him feel a bit dizzy and lightheaded.

"Don't fucking look at me," Nick spit out, giving Harry one final shove before releasing his grip on Harry's shirt. "Who knows how easy it is for you to spread your disease."

Harry's legs gave out from under him and he sank down to the floor, relief washing over him as he heard Nick's footsteps moving away from him. He buried his face in his knees and released the tears he'd been holding back ever since he'd heard that word escape Louis's lips: girlfriend. This day really couldn't get any worse.

Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Louis felt extremely guilty for making Harry upset, but he knew that this would be better for him and Harry in the long run. It had to be. Louis hoped that Harry could handle being a bit upset for a while; then, they could go back to being best friends and nothing more without the added pressure of that damn kiss.

For the first time ever, Louis was anxious to go to his next class. He had it with Harry, and he needed to work on mending their friendship. He needed Harry in his life.

He knew that Harry must be pretty upset with him right now, but Louis knew that he did what he had to do with Eleanor. She was a nice girl, and maybe he could learn to love her if he spent enough time with her. Maybe he could forget the way his stomach turned flips every time he looked into Harry's bright green eyes. Maybe he could forget the way his heart swelled when he felt Harry's mouth on his.

"Lou, are you listening?" Eleanor's high pitched voice snapped him out of this thoughts once again. He nodded, trying to focus back in on the conversation, but her words echoed in his mind. Only Harry had ever called him "Lou," and he couldn't keep the curly haired boy out of his head. Everything seemed to make him think of Harry, but especially that nickname.

Although Eleanor had said it, Louis could only hear it in Harry's voice. He could only imagine the way the nickname looked and sounded coming from Harry's soft, pink lips.