Take Me Home • h. styles ✔

7 | Wishes Granted

     Ever since Niall came back, the house was never silent anymore. However, today was an exception. The clock indicated it was nine in the morning, and I should hear him already in the kitchen, probably singing loudly to the songs on my phone. But my phone was still on my bed, untouched, and it was something that caused me to be concerned. I hastily made my way downstairs and looked for my friend.

     "Niall?"

     No response.

     "Nialler? Where are you?" Despite only looking for him for a few seconds, the feeling of discomfort subsumed me. I suppose that when you had been on your own for a very long time, you would quickly get apprehensive that the only person you knew who's alive would disappear and leave you again. I didn't want that to happen. Niall's the only one I had at the moment, and I would do anything just to protect him.

     My pursuit of him inside the house was a letdown. He was nowhere in sight, making me more worried than ever. My heart was beating at full speed, fearful that he went out on his own and failed to survive the attacks. I looked for him again in each room. Even so, he was missing.

     "Niall? Are you playing games with me?"

     Suddenly, an idea came to my head about where he could be in. I kept walking past it and didn't bother checking it out because I knew it was the last place he wanted to go. He always hated that room, for it was one place where he had a burst of outrage and caused a misunderstanding between him and Liam. Everything else was history.

     I opened the door, and I heaved a sigh of reprieve when I saw him sitting on the tattered couch with my laptop in front of him.

     "What are you doing here? You got me worried up there."

     "Oh, good morning, Haz. I didn't want to wake you up, for I might sing along again with our songs. I know I was bothering you when I did that, sorry," Niall replied ruefully.

     I walked closer to the couch and then sat down beside him. He was smiling and laughing hysterically, and I couldn't help but cackle with him. He was too adorable to witness him like this, all happy and carefree, just like the old times. Everyone knew how he would always get choked up in his laughs until he couldn't breathe for a second before people could start listening to him do it again. His face would turn bright red, and he had to cover his face by resting against someone's shoulder, just like what he's doing right now. Everything he was doing was very infectious, that's why everybody loved him.

     "Wow, I miss these days. Good thing this video didn't leak. This will be a massive shocker to the fans."

     "I agree. I mean, who would want to see our little game of truth or dare like this. For sure, the media would assault us with issues when they saw this."

     Like regular guys, we had our private gatherings and gimmicks together, where only the five of us were hanging out in our homes. We would invite our friends from The X-Factor or 5SOS, and we would just have our own time having fun. Life had been pretty tricky given that we were public figures, being chased around by paparazzi and watched in our every move. Like I had said, it's one of the good things that this apocalypse had given to us, and that would be the lack of restrictions that show business took away from us for three years.

     After watching our videos, an awkward silence filled the room. Niall had been quite unpredictable these days, and it had just been a week since our reunion. I tried to talk to him about my plan to go to Cheshire, but he seemed to steer away from the possibility of leaving my home. I don't know if he was scared, or he might just not be prepared for it yet, for I knew how dangerous our trip would be. But it would be the only option we had to find the others, or if they were still survivors from the Plague. Still, I couldn't force him to do it yet, and I could understand why. I had to admit that I had the best week of my life ever since this apocalypse; Niall and I were just fooling around, talking, and reminiscing. He never cried again after the day we made our video diary, and it was a good thing.