Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Sixty-Three

Liam

"He got it, then? The surprise. Not that it's a surprise, everyone knows you bought him a phone. He got it, though?"

Nudging Liam's feet off the coffee table in their dressing room, Louis dropped into the spot next to him and glanced over Liam's shoulder, nosily staring at his phone until Liam elbowed him away, nodding. "Yep. Went down better than I'd thought it would."

"Excellent. You can stop moping, now then." Scoffing as Liam tried to protest, Louis reached over and stole his mug of tea, taking a sip before silencing Liam. "You've been moping since we left London. Stop. Please. You're making us want to punch you."

"Even if I was moping, which I wasn't, we left London, like, a day, maybe two, ago. That's not so long, really. You can't have reached punch me levels of pissed-off-ness yet." Liam mimicked Louis and scoffed as his bandmate nodded, stealing his tea back and flipping Louis off as Louis said, "We all have. You've been waiting for him to get it, and you've been worse since we got to Manchester."

Liam rolled his eyes at that, having the grace to concede Louis might be right, at least about him being worse since they'd arrived in Manchester, where they'd perform a couple of gigs before flying out of the country. London had at least been one performance, close to home, yet Manchester was the real start of the distance and he was already hating it.

The previous phone calls with Niall had only reinforced his regret about leaving; Chloe was heartbreakingly upset, apparently at how she'd reacted to him leaving before, and he'd wanted nothing more than to go home to her and Niall and tell her that she had no reason to be upset at herself. He'd been debating it, dramatically considering sneaking back to London before realising that, a) he and Niall had been going in circles for days about the issue, and b) he loved performing again. The first performance in London ad proved that, and he'd tried to satisfy himself with the knowledge that he'd be closer to being there when Niall got the present he'd sent him.

The desire to go home was sated somewhat when Chloe finally spoke to him, sniffling into the phone for a while before she told him about school, the films she and Niall had watched when she'd been home from school for the day, and what she'd be doing in swimming class when she went later. That left Liam feeling much better, truly, and he'd tried to hide his grin when Niall sent him a video of Chloe's swim class, sheepishly captioned, 'I think this is how to send it?'

He'd failed at not grinning.

The grin had been what had tipped Louis off that his gift must have been received. It must have, because Liam had been enjoying a quiet moment watching as Niall mastered the art of sending photos and liking them via iMessage, and then Louis had been there, annoying as ever and stealing glances at Liam's own phone whenever.

Turning his phone off, Liam ignored the buzz of new notifications and gave him a pointed stare, raising an eyebrow as he asked, "Is there a reason you're here, mate? Or are you bugging me for no reason?"

"H's busy and Zayn's skyping Safaa." Louis reached for Liam's tea and prised the mug out of his fingers, swallowing the last mouthful and smirking victoriously as Liam sighed, the buzzing of Liam's phone attracting his attention. "Lemme guess...that's Niall?"

"And if it was?" Liam rolled his eyes as Louis grinned devilishly, pushing him in the shoulder and keeping his phone away from Louis, waiting pointedly for Louis to leave him alone before he checked his phone and grinned again, at another video of Chloe's swimming lesson. It was of the race held at the end of every lesson, with Chloe, unmissable in her turquoise costume she still wore, despite Liam having bought her the same as every other girl there, racing ahead of the other children, even those two or three years older than her.