Room 317

Chapter 10

Harry smiled, finding it vaguely amusing that, although his friend didn’t want to talk about it, he had already started talking about it anyway. He took a seat on the edge of Niall’s bed, silently approving of the Power Rangers duvet set. “I don’t think it’s a big deal, mate. It was only a game of gay chicken. Lots of guys do it. I used to do it with my school friends all the time.”

Niall’s head raised a little, to look back at him, “Are you kidding me? Harry, if it was just a stupid kiss I wouldn’t care! But… I put my hand down his pants. My hand down his pants. Liam’s pants.” He groaned in mortal pain and burrowed his bright red face back into the table.

Harry tried not to grimace at the image of Niall with his hand down Liam’s pants and was proud he found the balls to say, “Liam didn’t seem to mind.”
The noise Niall made at that sounded painful.

“Seriously mate,” said Harry, as soothingly as he could, “you were both drunk. It was just a bit of fun. If you’re really that worried about what Liam thinks, why don’t you just go and talk to him? I’m sure he’ll laugh and just tell you to forget about it.”

Niall sat up looking horrified, “There’s no way,” he shrank backwards, eyes wide, shaking his head, “I am talking to Liam. No way in hell! Never.”

“Why?” asked Harry, rather bewildered. Jesus, it was only a drunken game, why was Niall being so ridiculous!

“Because I can’t,” Niall wailed, covering his face.

“Seriously, it was just a game of gay chicken, Niall!” Harry cried, wondering how many times he was going to have to say it in order to get the message through to his friend. “You both got a little carried away, sure, but it was totally harmless. It was funny and we stopped you before you took it too far!”

“No you didn’t…” Niall’s voice was so quiet Harry nearly didn’t hear him and Niall suddenly looked horrified – as though he hadn’t meant to say that at all. Harry frowned and stared hard at his Irish friend, who was now hiding his whole face in his hands. His shoulders had slumped and he curled inwards, the embarrassment morphing into genuine upset.

“What do you mean no we didn’t?” Harry asked carefully, reigning in his mind before it started making dangerous conclusions.

Niall didn’t reply and his shoulders started to shake. Alarmed to see Niall getting so upset; Harry jumped to his feet and walked over to his friend. He then knelt down and touched Niall’s knees gently. “Niall?” He entreated. “What’s going on?” He squeezed Niall’s thigh gently and bit his lip when Niall sniffed. “Come on, you can tell me,” he soothed.

It took a few moments but then Niall whispered, still hiding his face, “You didn’t stop us.”

Harry’s mind let loose and whirled furiously; what was Niall trying to say? Was he suggesting that they didn’t stop them early enough? Should they have stepped in after the first mouth-to-mouth contact? That was probably fair, maybe they should have done – he and Louis had been perfectly sober and should have known better. Niall and Liam had been absolutely plastered and were at the mercy of a suggestive crowd – a crowd that didn’t know them very well.

“Where…” Harry began, about to ask where they should have drawn the line but Niall cut across him with,

“In the music room.”

It took a few moments for Harry’s head to work out how that had anything to do with his question and, when it finally dawned on him - what Niall was trying to say - his mind whited out.