After The End: Book 2

32. Keep Going Down

Harry's POV

Two missed calls from Lux, one from Gemma, 1 text from Tina and 2 texts from Louis were the notifications on my phone when I woke up at 8 am on the morning following our performance. There was something else coming through from the news app that made me skip over everything else.

"Ex- One Direction Star Drinks a Little Too Much Last Night... click to read."

I paled at the thought of what the link might contain. I couldn't imagine what I'd possibly done to deserve that headline. I'd drank so little. Was it possible someone had taken a picture of me downing the drink in my dressing room? Was the door even open? I hadn't even drank that much. Nobody had noticed. I'd just taken the edge off. I was still in shock that had worked out as well as it had. I'd had a good buzz through the performance which had somehow not been a complete and total disaster. Louis hadn't even noticed. I'd worried when he'd hugged me that he'd get a whiff of tequila, but we'd both been riding the high from the performance and his head was so far up Becca's arse he wouldn't have even noticed if I'd been ripping coke off the table at the restaurant.

Regardless, I couldn't think of how I possibly could have deserved that headline. I clicked the link and that's when I saw the picture of Louis, sitting on the restaurants bar, holding a spoon by the handle upside down like a microphone to his face. I definitely hadn't expected that. I was always the problem.

I scrolled and skimmed the words, not quite believing what I was reading. Louis table had been asked to leave the restaurant within an hour of me leaving according to "a source." I thought the table should have consisted of himself and Becca since I'd agreed to the bill? but that was irrelevant. They'd been told to go to the bar where Louis had reportedly started spoon karaoke. Queue the video of him singing What Makes You Beautiful with a small group of bar goers. Apparently they were other known artists. I didn't recognize the names. I discovered that Louis was surprisingly on key, which was only juxtaposed by however much he must have drank to get into that position. The bar had eventually closed and they'd been photographed going outside to drunkenly wave at fans. Becca was notably near him in every photo. She obviously had it bad for him. I wasn't sure if he was interested but he definitely liked her a lot, at least as a friend.

Louis wasn't exactly sloshed in these images but he wasn't sober. He'd taken my joke advice very literally by all accounts. He was going to be so embarrassed, which I hoped would have been the only harm done.

So I'd officially gotten away with it. I'd drank, intentionally and knowingly and I had gotten away with it. I had performed with a buzz and then I'd followed Louis to dinner before retiring to my room to sleep off my extremely ridiculous buzz. I was such a lightweight. It had let me sleep through the night for the first time in forever. I'd even gotten through a quick goodnight phone call from Lux where she'd told me I had blown everyone's expectations wide open. I hadn't even thought about my mum or Gemma. Also what the fuck had I done?

Don't think about it. You got away with it.

I'd done it because I was panicking, but I'd gotten through the night and I'd gotten away with it so I was fine. I was good. Better than good actually. They'd gotten public intoxication from Louis for once, not me. I had glowing reviews for my performance. Nobody wrote about drunk me.

I opened the texts from Louis next. The first was a little grumpy.

"Louis: isn't ordering alcohol like a roundabout lapse in sobriety?"

That made me feel a bit guilty considering the major lapse in sobriety I was choosing to ignore for the moment. The second text read less legible.

"Louis: I'm rlly proud of yiu for tonit. You did amazeng. You showed up for me me when I really needed youu and I can't thankk you enuff."