Chapter Text
A whistle rung throughout the playing field, hearty breaths drew out of players as they collided for high-fives and huddled around eachother, talking about how they would and could improve their performance for the game coming up. The team dispersed and headed to the change rooms, laughing about this or that and having spontaneous conversations.
The smell of sweat lingered around the changing room as clothes fell to the ground and were picked up. Shoes untied, re-tied and put on again. As usual, the boy with short, brown, curly hair was the first to leave; Nick following suit after just the right amount of time. Finally, it was just Harry and his friend group.
Amongst banter and random chatter, Harry spoke. “So, what do you lot say about us heading to the movies tonight?” The group nodded and spoke almost a unanimous “yes”, although of course there was a few who couldn’t, and their plans had been set in stone. After they had all finished changing and packing up, they were going to head to the movies; they would decide which one once they got there— being the indecisive teens they are.
[ a/n; this will sound lazy lol but insert the whole ass going to the theatres part from when nick and charlie get to the movies to after the fight between nick & harry and the strange scene between charlie & ben. the next scene takes off after that ]
Harry, feeling disgruntled and hurt — both physically and emotionally, as well as feeling something he couldn’t describe too well in the pit of his chest, ran away from the pack he had been with after Nick had left. He grunted out as he left; “Don’t fucking follow me.” Paralyzed, the rest of the boys stayed still and quiet.
He slid down on the side of the cement walls of the theatre, sitting down and looking at his hands. What’s wrong with me? God. he thought. He swiped the blood from below his nose and hastily wiped it onto his shirt. Inside his throat, there was a pounding feeling that felt like it needed to get out, beating at his vocal chords and tugging at his heartstrings. I hate this feeling, I hate it. I wish it would just go away. begrudgingly, he felt. Just as he was about to let his eyes water and release his emotions, he was interrupted as just a single tear flowed down his cheek.
“Hey. Wow, you seem roughed up. Guess you lost, eh?” A voice rang out. Harry hiccuped, taken by surprise by some random person who seemed to just appear. He hastily wiped his eyes to look up. It was just Ben. Thank god. he had thought, sighing. “You scared the shit out of me, you ass.” Harry said as he tried to smugly grin, although that didn’t last long. “Now, that doesn’t answer my question, does it?” Ben spoke, sliding to sit next to Harry, keeping enough space beside him so that he didn’t say something nonsensical about their closeness as he would typically. “Piss off. And you don’t have to be so far away, you know.” Harry said, avoiding eye contact with Ben.
“Pff, you want me to cuddle you, do you? What, did Nick turn you gay?” Ben said, his vocal chords pulling down on him as he grinned. “Ben, shut up.” Harry gravelled, a stern expression plastering his face. Ben felt his eyebrows twitch up in surprise, but he quickly relaxed his face and scooted himself a few inches closer to Harry. “We just stopped.” Harry grunted out. “What?”Ben spoke, confused. “Midway through the fight, we just stopped. Nick got off of me and just left. I caught my breath and headed after him, but I didn’t see him.” Harry spoke with wavering confidence, as if that wasn’t what happened, although the entire story was true. He placed his chin on top of his knees, staring off into the parking lot.
“Oh. …huh.” Ben said, somewhat zoned out. They had both just been through events that were… significant, to say the least, so it made sense that they weren’t in the mood for light chatting; to that end, they sat in silence. The sounds of crickets and passing cars filled the air, the only thing illuminating the world being the faint light floating out of the theatres door and flickering streetlights.
Harry scratched his face with his hands, covering his face entirely. He sighed into his hands, mumbling and groaning, until he paused and closed his hands in on his nose; breathing in and out sharply, turning to face Ben. “I think I’m homophobic, Ben.”
Ben gave him a blank stare before cracking up and laughing. “Hahahaa! Oh my god, are you serious? Are you actually fucking serious?” He said, laughing all the while through, his smile turning into a maniacal grin before calming down and wheezing. “That’s just hilarious. That’s way too funny. Yeah, you’re homophobic! That much has been obvious since day one.” Harry’s stare stayed the same, focused on something he couldn’t see.
“You don’t get it. I really was joking with everything I said before, I swear. But I don’t think it’s a joke anymore, and I don’t even know why I hate them.” Harry spoke, anger on his complexion as he gestured with his hands outwardly, staring into Ben as if that would give him an answer. Ben wasn’t sure if he was serious or not, so his smile stood half-sided, pondering internally as to how he should answer this. He was confused, so he spoke. “Harry, are you serious?” Harry nodded slowly. Ben scratched his head and really thought about what he should say. “Well, you… uh… gosh. I don’t know. Maybe you need to think about why you hate them, like, trace it back or something.” Harry stopped staring a hole into Ben, and began staring at his thighs once again. Harry spoke. “I guess I’ll try.”
Of course, Ben had been confused. Why in the world just now did Harry want to change his ways? Of course, there was the fight. Maybe Harry felt bad for Nick? Or maybe he didn’t want to end up in more fights for being homophobic? Neither options made any logical sense to him, knowing Harry. Something seemed different.
There was an excruciatingly awkward silence between the two. Ben felt like he was sweating buckets thinking of an answer, so he decided instead of worrying about this boy, he would just leave. “I think I’d better get going, it’s pretty late, and my parents expect me home… you get it. Yeah? I’ll see you around, Harry.” Ben spoke, getting up to leave. He was about to walk away as he noticed Harry hadn’t moved an inch. He felt pity towards him, so he decided to say one last thing. “And, uh… if you need someone to talk to, you can just text me. You’ve got my Instagram, right?” Harry spit out a “Yeah.” As Ben made his final remark; “Goodnight, Harry.” He walked off with a back-handed wave and without a second thought.