Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Ninety-Two

Liam

"Welcome to the EE answerphone. You currently have no new messages. To record a new outgoing message, press 1. To access saved voicemails, press two. To-"

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"Welcome to the EE answerphone. You currently have one new message from Louis, message duration seventeen seconds. 'Li, bro, you should totally have come out with us, this club is sick. Also, that's what Zayn has just been. How ace is that?' To replay the message, press one. To save the message, press two. To delete the message-"

**

"Welcome to the EE answerphone. You currently have no new messages. To record a new outgoing message, press 1. To access saved voicemails, press two. To-"

**

"Welcome to the EE answerphone, you currently have two new messages. Message one from Zayn. Message duration twenty-eight seconds. 'Li, you're such a wet blanket these days. Come out with us for one, you can't keep waiting in hoping that the timezones aren't fucked up so your boyfriend can call.' To replay the message, press one. To save the message, press two. To delete the message, press three- Message deleted. Message two from Mum. Message duration thirty-seven seconds. 'Hiya, love, it's only me. Your dad and I were just wondering- You're obviously busy, so I'll back and ask later.' To replay the message, press one. To save the message, press two. To delete the message- Message saved."

**

"Welcome to the EE answerphone. You currently have no new messages. To record a new outgoing message, press 1. To access saved voicemails, press two. To-"

**

"Welcome to the EE answerphone. You currently have one new message from Niall. Message duration one minute and twenty-three seconds. 'Hey, Li, I know timezones have been shit lately, and still are, but I'm guessing seeing Tokyo has to be worth it. Sorry that it's only texts lately but I figured they were easier. Not this, though. It was my appointment today, remember, the one where we'd find out the gender- I think they said they'd email you, but I really need you to call me back, even if it's two am or something. Call me, so I- So we can- Just call me, yeah?' To replay the message, press one. To save the message, press two. To delete the message- Message saved."

Nearly dropping his phone once the voicemail had ended, Liam let out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding, smiling properly for the first time in ages as he glanced down at his phone and tried to figure out what time it was back in London.

Figuring that the difference wasn't too awful — it was only eleven o'clock at night there or something, not nearly as awkward as it had been three days before — he called Niall, not caring that he was supposed to be packing and getting ready to leave the hotel, sitting on the end of his bed and dragging his trainer along the carpet as he waited for Niall to answer.

He had sounded...excited in the message, and Liam briefly considered trying to check his email first, just to see if the scan image had come through, but a moment of hesitation stopped him, wanting to hear the news about whether they were having a boy or girl from Niall first.

Actually, if he was really, brutally honest, he just wanted to hear from Niall. They'd been communicating by text for the past few days, and it just wasn't the same as getting to hear his voice. If Liam closed his eyes whilst he listened, he found that it was almost as if he was still there, laying next to Niall, or sat across the table from him, hearing him bitch about his day and which customer annoyed him the most, or how things were going with Chloe.

The texts he'd received lead him to believe that there had been progress on the Chloe front, that she'd mellowed and was no longer being a 'stubborn monster', to quote Niall directly, but it still worried him a little, leaving him feeling as though he'd just been punched in the gut, and that gut-punchy feeling was so...well, gut-punchy that he'd been periodically looking up flights back to London and trying to figure out how much shit he'd be in if he snuck off in the middle of the night and went home, just for a day.