Back to Where We Started

Chapter 12

The following morning, Harry woke up before any of the three alarms he knew were set to go off. Louis, Zayn, and Liam all set alarms whenever they had to get up in the morning, Louis and Zayn because they felt responsible for waking everyone else up and making sure they got out the door on time, and Liam because he felt he was too mature to rely on the older lads to be responsible for him, but also because he didn't exactly trust them to get up on time when they really needed to get up on time.

As he became more alert, Harry became aware of the position he was currently in. At some point in the night, he'd somehow managed to curl himself into a ball and scoot halfway down the bed, tucking against Louis' mid back; there was no way that could be comfortable for his friend. Making every effort to not jostle the bed or Louis, Harry carefully stretched out his limbs and scooted back onto his own half of the bed.

Looking around the room, Harry realized it was much darker than he'd originally thought when he first woke up. Lifting his head to glance at the clock on the night stand, he was surprised that it was only just past four o'clock in the morning. Deciding he'd better get a few more hours of sleep while he could, Harry shifted once more, again, careful not to disturb Louis, closed his eyes, and tried to get back to sleep.

If only it were that simple. For whatever reason, Harry couldn't get back to sleep. When he first closed his eyes and tried to drift off, the best he could accomplish was evening out his breathing and reaching that point just before unconsciousness. He felt incredibly relaxed, but at the same time, dissatisfied. Before long, Harry's eyes snapped open, and try as he might, he couldn't get them to stay shut.

Eyes wide open, Harry turned onto his back and huffed out a frustrated sigh. Why couldn't he sleep? Ten minutes later, Harry decided he didn't care what the reason was for his insomnia, he wasn't going to just lay there any longer. Gently, Harry maneuvered himself so he was sitting upright, pushed the blankets off of him, and slid out of bed. Walking over to the other bed in the room, where both he and Louis had placed their suitcases, Harry opened his and blindly searched for the book he was currently reading.

At seven o'clock, Louis, Zayn, and Liam's alarms went off. From his spot on the couch in the lounge room, Harry heard the alarms sound and decided to find a good place to stop. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been able to sit down and read for a decent chunk of time. He'd gotten so into his book that he hadn't noticed the sun rise. Place marked, Harry set his book on the coffee table and headed towards the kitchenette to make a pot of coffee.

"Mornin', Haz," Louis greeted through a yawn.

"Morning," Harry replied, looking up from the sink, where he was filling the coffee pot with water.

"You been up long?" Louis asked

"Not too long." Harry hedged. While he didn't think he'd actually be in trouble for having trouble sleeping this morning, he still had a feeling Louis would have preferred he at least stayed in bed.

"Long enough for your side of the bed to be cold by the time my alarm went off." Louis challenged, eyebrow raised.

Before Harry could come up with a response, Zayn shuffled into the room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "What's going on out here?" he asked.

"Harold, here, was just about to tell what time he got up this morning." Louis explained.

Neither Harry nor Zayn missed the tone Louis used when he provided his explanation. Lucky for all of them, Harry understood the tone for what it was; a warning. A warning that he better tell the truth, because while he may not be in trouble for what happened this morning, he most certainly would be in trouble for lying.

"I got up around 4:30." Harry answered. Both Louis and Zayn just stared at him for a moment.

"Voluntarily?" Zayn asked. As someone who loved sleep, the dark haired lad couldn't bring himself to even imagine getting up at that hour without having to. They'd all had to be up that early, and even earlier than that, on many occasions to accommodate their unrelenting schedule. On more than one occasion, one of the boys had had to forcibly remove him from bed.

Harry nodded sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck. "Sort of. Couldn't sleep."

"You should have woken me up, Haz. I would have done something to help." Louis said.

Harry rolled his eyes at that. "What could you have done that I couldn't do myself?"

"Hey," Zayn cut in. "What yourself, Harry. We understand that you couldn't help being unable to sleep, but throwing an attitude around won't help you any."

"Sorry," Harry mumbled.

"To answer your question, Harold, I likely would have suggested a cup of tea or something. Regardless, you wouldn't have had to be up alone and I would have helped you figure out how to get back to sleep." Louis explained.

"I was fine, Lou. I couldn't sleep, and I didn't want to wake you, so I decided to get up and read. I figured, if I got tired, I'd either sleep on the couch or go back to bed, but I never got tired enough to do either. I think I'm old enough to have made that decision on my own. I don't need you, or Zayn for that matter, telling me how to manage my sleep habits." Harry snapped.

"Well, I beg to differ," Zayn countered. "I'm inclined to believe your body, in fact, needed those hours of sleep you missed out on this morning. I'm choosing to believe that, with those extra couple hours of sleep, you wouldn't be sassing us the way you are right now." Zayn lectured.

"I'm not sassing," Harry grumped.

"Oh really?" Louis snapped. "What would you call that last retort, then?"

"I don't know, what's a synonym for retort?" Harry crossed his arms over his chest, and cocked an eyebrow.

"That's enough." Zayn interjected, voice slightly raised. Neither Louis nor Harry knew if they were the one being addressed, but to be fair, Zayn could have been speaking to both of them. "Harry, this right here is why we are questioning your decision to get up alone this morning. We may not be back on tour just yet, but we've still got an exhausting schedule right now. We all need to get as much sleep as we can so we can keep up."

Harry wisely kept his mouth shut, finally coming to terms with the hole he'd dug himself into.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket and glancing at the screen, Zayn took note of the time. "Paul is going to be here in about an hour to pick us up. We're meeting with the stylists today to go over clothing options for the next few events we have coming up, but we should have a few hours to ourselves before we have to get to our meeting with management. During that free time, Harry, you will be taking a nap. Do you understand me?"

"I'm not a child, Zayn." Harry whined.

"Actions speak louder than words, Harold." Louis snapped.

Zayn locked eyes with Louis, silently telling him to zip it. Louis threw his hands up in surrender, deciding to let Zayn finish handling the situation. He had a sneaking suspicion that Liam and Niall were biding their time in their bedroom, waiting until they thought it was safe to come out.

With Louis out of the room, Zayn redirected his attention back to Harry. "If you want to act like a child, you will be treated like a child, Harry Edward. This morning could have gone much differently, but instead, you proved Louis and I were right. Now, before you protest any further, I think you need some time to cool off and think. I want you to plant your nose in that corner," Zayn instructed, pointing to an empty corner in the kitchen, "and do just that. Is that understood?"

Harry swallowed the lump that had grown in his throat before nodding his head in the affirmative and saying, "Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, do as you've been told." Zayn commanded.

As Harry walked past him, Zayn landed a firm swat on Harry's backside, causing him to yelp and scurry off to the corner.

A/N: Thank you so much to those of you who commented and voted! I, myself, am guilty of being an invisible reader at times, but I seriously think I'm going to have to reconsider that. It feels great to receive the feedback! I hope you enjoyed the latest installment :)