It felt like hours, but it was only a few minutes for Harry to calm down enough to walk to a park bench in Munn Park with me and sit down so we could talk.

"Why are you acting like this Harry?" I finally asked after a while of silence on the bench. "Why are you always wanting to drink, do drugs, and party? You had so much going for you? You had a scholarship to the University of Florida. Where is that? You were going to be a Gator. Orange and blue man. Why aren't you going to therapy for your depression? What is wrong with you?"

"I wasn't always like this." Harry whispered as he leaned back to look up at the few stars in the sky.

"What do you mean?"

"I was a happy kid. I was so happy."

"What happened?"

"High school happened. Ed happened."

"Look, I heard your friend Ed died in the military. I'm really sorry about that. But you have to move on, for him."

"Irwin told you didn't he? You guys seemed to be close back then." was all he said to me.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Well that is what I told everyone at school my Junior year when school started again."

"Is that not what happened?" I asked confused.

"No. That's not what happened."

"What actually went down then?"

"Well to tell you the truth... Ed and I weren't friends."

"Then why are you so hung up on his death?"

"We were lovers."

I was shocked.

"Like real lovers? You weren't drunk?"

"I was completely sober."

"What happened?"

"Well, I met Ed during football practice. I was the youngest on the team... so coach made Ed train me after practice and on weekends. Ed flirted with me first during all of that." Harry said with a smile. "Ed was very attractive, and he was very charming. He could sing too. He'd sing to me when he'd take me home from practice or if I was having a bad day. He was very sexual with his jokes too."

I started to smile at the story he was telling.

"He then finally came out and told me that he liked me and me being a freshman... having a junior like me made me very happy. I didn't care that he was a guy. He was someone that was nice, funny, and he made me smile. So I said yes to the date and on that date he kissed me. We were boyfriends from there on out."

Awe.

"The boys on the team didn't notice. They all just thought that Ed and I had become the best of friends. Which we were... but the kind that suck each others dicks."

I chuckled at that.

"By my sophomore year, which is when the football team you know started to get moved from JV to varsity, and Ed's senior year, we were fully in love. Talking about marriage in love."

Well damn.

"But we still hadn't told anyone about us. Not even our parents. If we told them then we couldn't have anymore sleepovers if you know what I mean?"

I chuckled a little and nodded.

"So we kept it all private and went about our business. We were the cutest couple too. We'd go to pride things in secret and party with other closeted gays at our school. We were having the time of our lives. But that all ended on July 20th. The summer after his graduation and the summer going into my junior year."

"What happened?"

"Ed took me out on an amazing date that he had been planning on for a while because he was going to propose to me that night, even though I was no where near done with high school yet... but he wanted to. He said he couldn't wait any longer to have me as Harry Sheeran. And god I wanted to be that too."

"He was going to ask you to marry him?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "But he never got to."

"Why?"

"Because we were out in downtown, holding hands, minding our own business, walking to where he was going to pop the question, and some homophobic asshole came up to us and started yelling these terrible things at us, like 'fags' 'faggots' 'queers' 'twinks' 'fairies' anything negative you can call a gay person... this guy said it."

"That's awful." I whispered.

"Yeah, well Ed seemed to think so too because he started yelling back at the guy even though I told him to stop and just walk away. But Ed being the stubborn ass he was, kept going and ignored me. They started to fight so bad that it got psychical."

I can't imagine where this is going... so many possibilities...

"I kept telling Ed to stop but he wouldn't listen. I tried to pull him off but he was way stronger then I was at the time. So I backed up not knowing what to do and no one was around to help. Ed and the man kept getting closer and closer to the street and they didn't notice a car was coming."

Oh my god...

"I kept shouting to watch out because a car was coming and I tried to pull them back, but the guy ended up pushing Ed into the street and the car hit him, making him fly and hit the side of a building because the car was speeding so fast. It broke every bone in Ed's body, even his skull, which caused his brain to be punctured killing him instantly."

Holy shit.

"The cops were called and the guy went to prison. I only got questioned and then let go. It took me forever to be able to go to school so I was a few weeks late in the start. But when I did finally go... I couldn't handle being in the halls where I met Ed, where we fucked around with each other in janitor closets, or the place where I told him I loved him for the first time... on the football field on our last game night my freshman year. I couldn't do it... so I turned to drugs for coping and Bieber was a plug." he said shrugging. "But that soon led to depression... that was a side affect and I was becoming a druggie when I was sad. You're not suppose to do that. But I did and then I became suicidal and I was just being led down a dark path that I can't seem to get out from now." he said choking up on the last part.

I scooted closer to him and put an arm around him.

"I never wanted to be with a guy again because I didn't want them to end up dead like Eddy. I fear they will die... and I will die. I don't want that. But of course my drunk and high self just crawls right back to men. I can't hide from it."

"I've got you Harry. I'll help you. I will be here for you okay Harry? I was here for you when you were at the hospital, and I will be here for you now. Okay?"

He only nodded silently.

"I also told everyone he died in the military because he was talking about joining to all of his friends and the team, so I thought it would be easier to say that to everyone then come out after something like that had occurred."

I nodded.

After a few minutes of soft crying he spoke up again but I couldn't hear him.

"What?" I asked.

"I keep two photos of him in my wallet. Do you want to see them?"

"Sure." I nodded.

He then pulled them out and handed them to me.

"He was a red head?"

"Yeah." Harry smiled.

"He was gorgeous."

"Yeah he was." Harry whispered.

__________

Everything is explained!

Please like and comment ~Ash