Floating in The Water

Chapter 7

Thursday turns out to be his easiest of the week. There is no draining swimming lessons with Zayn, or explaining his newfound friendship with Louis to Harry. There is just work. Lots of it, but then, it's a good distraction from everything else.

Harry is off his babysitting duties because Louis was taking his sisters into town for something. Harry didn't press them for details, apparently. He just followed Liam over to Outlook and the two of them cleaned out rooms and screwed around. At some point -- it had to be almost eight-- Niall came to find them, and he helped them clean out their final room before the three of them flopped onto the large, queen sized mattress and turned on the television.

They could get in a lot of trouble for hanging out in the rooms, but the chances of them getting caught would be slim. The most one of their coworkers would do is blackmail into them covering for them at some point in the future.

"Think we could convince Jess to send us room service?" Niall asks as Harry flips through the channels.

Harry snorts. "Probably not."

"Liam could," Niall points out. "Go on Liam, try. Just call her and ask to send over some chips for us."

Liam shakes his head. "Why can't you?"

"Because," Harry starts, "everyone likes you. She'll do it for you. Call her. I dare you."

He's not twelve, and he's not going to just do something because someone dared him. He's going to do it because he's hungry.

He picks up the phone on the bedside table and presses *2 and waits. Jess answers a moment later with a bright, "Hello, this is Jessica. What can I do for you?"

"It's Liam," he say quickly. "We're in room 109. Do you think you could send someone over with some food?"

"You're in one of the guest rooms," Jess says flatly. She doesn't sound pleased, but he knows she's not going to tell on them. "Okay, fine, I'll have Jake bring something over for you -- two, or three? Is that Irish bastard with you?"

Niall, who apparently can hear her through the phone, laughs and yells, "Love you too, Jess!"

"Yeah, he's here," Liam admits. "So you'll send something over?"

"Mhm," she agrees. "Whatever leftovers I have laying around from the gust dinner. Don't make a habit of this, Payne."

When Liam hangs up, Harry and Niall shake their heads at him. "You get away with everything," Harry says, looking awed.

"I'd probably hate you if you weren't one of my best mates," Niall tells him. "It's ridiculous how easy you make people like you."

He knows that they're complimenting him, he does, but the words make him feel sick to his stomach. "It's not like I force them to."

"No, we know--," Harry starts, but Liam cuts him off.

"It's not my fault that I'm nice and a good worker," he says. "And it's not like I try to make people look bad. But apparently everyone thinks that's what I do, right?"

Niall shakes his head, surprised. "No one thinks that."

Liam snorts and falls back against the bed. "Some people do."

"Who?" Harry demands. "Who said that? Want me to strangle them?"

"You've got a problem, mate," Niall says to Harry. "We're going to get you therapy. But seriously, Liam, who said that?"

"Zayn," he admits. "He apparently hates me. A lot."

"You never did anything to him, did you?" Niall asks.