Author's Note: A thousand apologies for the late late late posting of this chapter. For those that didn't know, I sustained a serious injury to my shoulder, hence the slow typing progress. For those that did know, thank you ever so much for the wonderful well wishes x
Louis returned to school on Wednesday - against Harry’s medical opinion and the issued doctor’s line. Harry only found out about it when he was driving back from a home visit and spotted Louis casually walking towards home with two of his colleagues. The busted expression on his face when Harry honked and pulled over would have been hilarious if Harry hadn’t been so incredulous. Louis was quick to pour out the apologies and promises that he was taking it easy (much to the amused sniggers of Miss Black and Mrs Thompson behind him) and Harry really had no time to argue. However, he gave him such a stern warning about pleurisy and blood poisoning that Louis was sheepishly hanging his head afterwards and agreeing to phone in sick the next day if he so much as sneezed.
Wisely, Louis avoided the pub that night and the next – taking some much needed rest. However, he did venture out on Friday to have dinner with the lads, as per their usual deal, even though he wasn’t particularly hungry.
It was nice to have them all together again though, Harry had thought as they’d tucked into their various meals; what with their busy work loads on the run up to Christmas, winter bugs and their own hectic Christmas preparations, it was hard to get some time when they were all free. Liam even managed to beg an hour off bar duty to sit down with the lads for dinner and the laughter and banter flowed even more freely because of it. Liam also took the opportunity to finally confirm that he and Danielle would love to join the rest of them for Christmas dinner that year, which brought on a lot of lamenting about food of Christmas past.
When Louis and Niall went to the little boys’ room in the recess between main and dessert, Zayn turned curiously to Harry, “I know you’re preoccupied with Christmas day and everything but have you any plans for Louis’ birthday as well?”
Harry blinked as his heart sank, “Louis’ birthday? Shit, when is that?”
“Christmas Eve,” Liam replied, setting down another tray of drinks.
Harry gaped at him in horror, “No way! Fuck! I didn’t know!” He internally berated himself, how could he have not asked about this nugget of information before? “Damn.” He drummed his fingers on the table, thinking furiously. This was going to shake up his plans for Christmas Eve. He had planned to do a lot of the prep work for Christmas day on the 24th but he couldn’t exactly not do anything for Louis’ birthday … “What do you guys normally do to celebrate?” He asked helplessly, when no amazing solution shot into his head.
“Nothing too extravagant,” Zayn replied with a shrug, “unless it’s a big number birthday, like 18 or 21 or something, we usually just do drinks and stuff here.”
“Louis used to spend the day with Stephen and come into the pub for a drink in the evening,” Liam explained. “Obviously last year that didn’t happen so we gave him dinner and alcohol. It’s what we usually do for each other’s birthdays – unless, like Zayn said, it’s a big number. Anyway, Christmas Eve is really too awkward a day to do anything proper.”
“Well…” Harry considered aloud, slightly relieved that they were all used to just having drinks and dinner and no huge birthday bashes, “the surgery is open on the 24th from 8 till 11 for emergency appointments only. I was originally thinking that we could all go out over the weekend. Maybe see if there was anything festive on in Exeter or Plymouth to get us into the Christmas spirit? Though we could turn it into a birthday present instead?”
