STILL | NH |

TWENTY EIGHT

Niall

Going back to The Bunk Off after having a few days off was something I was both looking forward to doing but also not looking forward to doing at the same time, my brain completely unable to make up its mind.

Rigby and I had been back for a couple of days, giving me time to see Harry and catch him up on everything... Well, almost everything.

It wasn't anyone's business what happened between us, but when Harry asked me how it went with her and I explained how we both got stuck in the same bed he was quick to jump out of his chair, pointing at me as he correctly stated what happened.

Never one to disclose of details, my smile and flush of my cheeks were a dead giveaway to him, trying to get him to shut the fuck up as he yelled out 'about fucking time' into his apartment.

He was quick to ask what we were doing, where we were going in the relationship. Staying friends? Friends who sleep together? Putting a label on it?

When I told him we were just going to take it day by day, he rolled his eyes, ready to protest before I changed the topic — asking about Margo.

Turns out, my dearest best friend finally worked up the nerve to make it official with her. Seeing him so happy with her was something he deserved. Harry moved his entire life to be in Boston with me, running the pub.. There's nothing in this world I wouldn't give him for doing that for me.

Which brings me to now.

I can hear him walk in, locking the door behind him since we don't open for another couple of hours, his loud footsteps echoing across the hardwood floor. Harry was a lot of things, but quiet sure as fucking hell was not one of them.

"Hey Nialler, how's it going?" He's dressed in a pair of green pants, somehow matching it with a brown and green sweater. "Ready to get all prepared for New Years?"

"Hazza!" Nodding at him as he comes around the bar top, grabbing onto a bar towel with a big fat smile right across his face. "New Years is always so much fun, ya know?"

Working New Year's Eve was always a shift that Harry and I enjoyed, seeing people celebrate a new beginning with people they care about... And some with people they barely know.

He washed his hands, pulling up a couple racks of glasses to make them easier to grab for once we started getting busy. "One of my favorite days here. How's Rigby?"

I finished the task at hand, slicing fruit for drinks, looking over at him. "She's good. Think her and June might come tonight? I'm not sure though."

It had been a few days since we had seen each other. After we woke up from napping that day at my apartment, we lazily laid in bed watching Hannah Montana and ate pizza. We were well into season two at this point, something I never thought I would say.

Truly, it's not a bad show. I find myself wanting to watch it when she's not around — but that's 'against the rules'.

She was curled into my side as the pizza box laid empty at the foot of my bed, her fingers tracing patterns across my chest when she finally announced that she needed to call an Uber and get back to her place.

Watching her change out of my shirt almost made me want to throw her over my shoulder and sink back into my bed, to keep her with me.

To ask her to stay.

Of course we talked most of the time in the few days following, facetiming at night and just still going with the flow of whatever we had started, but work was about to take off for her and she even told me she had a lot to prepare for.