Limerence • h.s.

14

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my g-" "For the love of God, Megan, shut up." I cut her off abruptly, she'd been going crazy for an hour now. Her mind was buzzing, not unlike mine, but she had been making it everyone's problem. "No, I won't, we're literally about to go on a stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people! I am freaking the fuck out!" Frank laughs at her while I continue to roll my eyes and attempt to drown her out.

We spent hours upon hours practicing today, playing with Niall and making sure each of us knew every chord and every lyric and every cue. Niall was surprisingly prepared, true to his word. After the, maybe 30th, time running through the set, we were all sweating and tired. I was just happy to be done, my voice needed some form of rest before I played for real. And it certainly didn't help that Harry spent his day sitting in a lonely seat in the crowd, watching us. Making his little comments and suggestions. Surely he had something better to be doing, yeah? Guess not.

"Come on, Megs, you're gonna be fine." Frank tries to comfort her, rubbing her shoulders while also just trying to get her to sit down and be still. She cries out, whaling as if the world is ending. "Shhhh, you know you're confident, strong, and well equipped to handle the crowd. We all are, we got this!" His words are nice, better than most things he says, but Megan is too far gone. Riddled with the stress of a large crowd staring her down, ridiculing her every move.

Instead of standing around, I sigh before moving to the couch across from me to sit with them, Niall is sitting in silence, observing. "You know he's right, it'll all be okay," I say, smiling at her. She looks at me, glaring beneath her lashes before laughing. "God, I know, I know. I'm just, this is huge for us, ya know?" She looks to me, then to Frank, awaiting our response. I look at her, giving her the tiniest smile. "Trust me, we know, we're just better at dealing with it." She pushes against my shoulder, laughing with me.

"Enough of this, you two. This wouldn't be a 44 Lotus show without a joint and some shots. Oh, and, the wonderful, wonderful words of wisdom we cook up," Frank says, smiling at us before walking around the couch. Niall clears his throat. "I feel like I may be intruding." Frank looks up at him, wide-eyed. "Intruding? Absolutely not, get over here! All you need is an uh, what some may call, mantra of sorts." He smiles at Niall. He smiles back before hesitantly standing to walk over to sit next to Frank on the large couch we've crowded ourselves on. He rubs his hands on his thighs, probably so confused. Poor guy.

Frank pours four shots, which feels so odd but I'm trying to welcome the change. Niall is nice and I get along with him so far, but he wasn't in the mix when I dreamt of this moment. But maybe that's okay. Megan still lets her leg bounce, sitting next to me and shaking our side of the couch. I place my hand on her leg, trying to stop her stress somehow. Frank hands each of us our shots. I wait for each of them to raise in the air, to hear the satisfying clink of each of them meeting one another. "Right, Niall, you clink, dink, and sink. Got it?" Frank says, explaining the ritual of taking shots, making me smile. Niall shrugs before raising his shot in the air with ours.

"To us and our wonderful stage," Megan says. "And to at least 44 full arenas in our future!" Frank says, giddy with the buzz of our biggest arena and the promise of a tour. "To whoever will listen," I say, smiling at the lovely group of people I'm with. Frank nudges Niall now, who's been listening and watching, and he blinks in thought. "Uh," He sighs a little before shrugging quickly. "Uh, here's to remembering the songs?" We look at him, his eyes wide while he waits for our approval. Frank laughs. "It could use some work, but it'll do for now." He clinks his shot against ours.

Each of them smacks before we all tap them onto the table and knock them back quickly. My spine shivers as the liquid burns down my throat. "Whoo, yeah!" Frank exclaims, pouring himself another. I gesture for one more as well. We cheers with one another and take the second ones just as quickly. Frank is quick to dig in his pocket, retrieving the joint he rolls especially for this moment. He lights it, taking a hit and offering it to Niall, who gladly takes it.