Chapter 2

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Wednesday morning – a week before his collapse

Louis awoke to the sound of Niall’s alarm bleeping incessantly. It was the kind of ghastly sound that grated your ears and made your teeth rattle. Groaning, he blindly reached out for a pillow and lobbed it in his friend’s direction. The muffled whine told him he had managed to make contact. “Switch it off!” He whined at his friend, burrowing his head under the covers to try to block out the insane noise.

It took a few long seconds but Niall eventually rolled out of bed and switched the alarm off. Louis sighed in relief at the blessed ensuing silence and closed his eyes. So… another day of craziness… woohoo! Mind you, there had yet to be a day since getting through to the live shows on X Factor that hadn’t been utterly brilliant. However, that didn’t mean he didn’t still love his bed… He shifted to try to get a more comfortable position. The mattress was making his left side feel weird. The feeling didn’t go away though and Louis sighed again, flopping onto his back. He absently rubbed the area just above his hip and mused over getting old. At 19 he was fast approaching the age of supposed maturity but surely he shouldn’t be getting muscle aches this quickly? His side wasn’t exactly sore but it felt… strange, kind of full and achy – like a stitch. It was probably just a side effect of the sore stomach he’d had these past few days – not that he’d told the boys about it. They had enough on their plates, what with these big concerts, without making them worry any further about a stupid little tummy upset. He hadn’t even been physically sick… just had a niggling pain low in his abdomen and some rather unpleasant trips to the bathroom. It was easy to cover up so long as he remained calm and cheerful and as crazy as he normally appeared. Anyway, the pain had lessened somewhat with taking regular paracetamol. Talking of which…

He sat up and at once the world started to spin. Gasping, he shut his eyes and counted to ten before opening them again. The room didn’t spin this time and he carefully lifted the covers and slid out of bed. Man, he must really be getting old if he was getting the dizzy sensation of sitting up too quickly. He was definitely not going to share that one with the boys – they’d never let him live it down.

It was quite cold this morning; the hotel carpet felt rough under his bare feet and his bare arms sprung out in goosebumps as he crossed to the bathroom. Even though the dizzy spell was over, he still felt a little unsteady on his feet but he told himself firmly to get a grip as they had a lot of rehearsing to do today.

He made a beeline straight for the sink and set about gathering up his shaving stuff. The door bounced open again and Harry stumbled in, eyes still half shut. He hip-checked Louis at the sink as he reached for his toothbrush, making Louis laugh.

“Morning curly.”

“Nuh…” Harry met his eyes in the mirror and Louis winked at him. Harry slowly grinned and then elbowed him teasingly, “hey… what you shaving for? You have like nothing growing.”

“Don’t be spreading your jealousy over me,” Louis retorted, running his fingers under his own chin with a very quiet rasp – yeah, he was no Robbie Coltrane yet but at least he had something. “Just because you haven’t got a manly hair yet...”
Harry took in a deep wounded breath and then flicked him hard on the forehead. Louis chuckled and retaliated by spraying foam on Harry’s cheek. That was it; it was on – a fight to the death. Harry got him in a headlock while Louis pushed them both against the wall as they tussled for the upper-hand.

“What are you two giggling about so early?” asked Niall grouchily, as he stomped into the bathroom with a towel. He stared at them, still tussling in play fight, “Man, you guys are touched in the head.”

“Aww,” Harry cooed, practically strangling Louis with the arm around his neck, “did ickle Niall get up on the wrong side today?”

“I don’t know what’s more unsettling. The fact that you can be so cheerful in the morning or the fact that you’re grabbing each other when you’ve both only got boxers on.”

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