A Slide Into First ➵ narry

Chapter 2

Louis and Liam picked Harry up approximately 20 minutes late the next afternoon.

“Fuck, guys, are we gonna be late for work?” Harry asked as he scrambled into the car. He wasn’t ready to be fired on his second day.

“Nah, Louis’s always late so I always allow him at least twenty minutes of buffer-time,” explained Liam.

“Couldn’t you have explained that to me, too?”

“Probably would have helped, wouldn’t it,”

“Probably,”

“Alright, quiet down, love birds. Louis needs time to focus,” Louis said, referring to himself in the third person.

Liam turned around and whispered, “Louis likes to concentrate and get into the ‘wrench mindset’ before games. He doesn’t like talking,”

“I CAN STILL FUCKING HEAR YOU,” Louis yelled.

Liam quickly turned back into his seat and zipped his lips with an invisible zipper, then threw an invisible key out the window. Harry laughed at how much that didn’t make sense.

Sure enough, the ride to the stadium was quiet as this seemed to be a thing that Louis actually did, not just something to annoy Liam. It was a humid afternoon and rain was definitely on the horizon, it was the first of many times Harry would find himself feeling lucky that he wasn’t the mascot. He didn’t think being a soft, wet wrench could be that fun. At the stadium Harry and Liam said their silent goodbyes to Louis and headed to the concession stand.

“It’s Thirsty Thursday, so we’re surely in for a great time!” Liam said sarcastically. He wasn’t one to use dry humor too often.

“What’s that? Like, do we have to make jello shots?” Harry asked.

“Just dollar beers. I’m sure that’s illegal somewhere – to sell alcohol for less than soft drinks,”

“Aw I wanted jello shots!”

Unfortunately, the Thirsty Thursday combined with the later start time made the game actually kinda busy. The ‘rushes’ were real rushes of many people coming all at once, all demanding to be waited on quickly, all wanting a nice cold one. Harry started to sweat and he could feel his hair sticking to his forehead. He was sure it was totally attractive.

Then the game finally started and they had a moment to breathe.

“I’ve never wanted a beer so badly in my life,” Harry shouted to Liam. Liam merely pursed his lips and shook his finger at the idea of that. Harry was honestly not sure if Liam was genuine in his disapproval, but he laughed anyways.

It soon started to rain and some people took shelter under the concourse, causing them to buy food. And then it would stop and they’d go back out. And then it would rain again and they’d come back inside. It continued like this for the entire game, until it was finally over. Harry never wanted to sell a hot dog and Miller Lite combo ever again. He finally managed to squint hard enough to see that, holy shit, they had actually won! He looked down on the field and saw the entire team was hugging.

The stand fed the last of the masses, and then started to clean up. Harry was elbow-deep in cleaning pans when he heard a loud, booming voice singing “We Are the Champions” through the concourse. Right on cue, Niall showed up at the window.

“Leemo, my man! Where is my Ni-Dog?” he shouted.

Liam ran to greet him, Ni-Dog with hand, but he thrust it down on the counter and gave Niall a hug instead.

“Congrats on the game!” he yelled in Niall’s ear.

Harry looked over and saw that Niall had quite literally the biggest smile on his face. He was the dictionary definition of the word ‘beaming’. Suddenly, Louis appeared behind them and joined the hug.