A Slide Into First ➵ narry

Chapter 8

Harry thought away days without Niall were boring before, but he had forgotten to prepare himself for the first night in a week where he couldn't kiss Niall goodbye. He thought it shouldn't annoy him as much as it did because Niall would return before he knew it and then they'd get to be all lovey-dovey and crap with each other. Until then, though, he felt this peculiar pit in his stomach that lingered with whatever he did. He wasn't going to cry, no, because he wasn't sad. It was more of a collection of little things that left him feeling empty. It didn't help that Harry couldn't tell why he missed Niall so much.

The obvious answer was that he was gone, of course, but it was also that they never really spent that much time together anyways. The most alone time they got was what they could manage in the utility closets at games. That was literally it. Harry felt that his hollow feeling was a result of the realization that he couldn't have a normal relationship with Niall. He had somehow been avoiding this fact for the past week but he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it up. All he knew was that cocooning himself in his comforter and listening to a madly depressing playlist consisting of only Bon Iver was keeping his mind off of the empty for the time being.

He was used to wallowing in loneliness and self-pity. He had done a great job of it after his breakup, and after coming out to his dad, and after moving to Michigan, and before making his move on Niall, so he sure as hell was not going to let his misery streak down after making his move on Niall. If left to his own devices he could lay around in bed all day and feel sorry for himself, but Harry had some pretty great friends who wouldn't let that happen. Zayn was working but Liam and Louis dropped by around breakfast and let themselves in when Harry wouldn't answer their calls.

"Wake up, loser!" Louis shouted as he barged into the room. Harry had been awake for maybe an hour or so but he wasn't quite up to moving. He just groaned.

"Oh my God, you're so annoying when you get like this. Get out of bed!" Louis demanded, smacking Harry's ass through the comforter.

Liam was still standing by the bedroom door, arms folded. "Come on, let up on the kid,"

"No, Lou's right," Harry moaned into the pillow. Louis did a silent cheer, "I'm moping,"

"Great, the first step is acceptance. Now the second step is getting the hell up and coming with us," Louis demanded, grabbing hold of Harry's arm and trying to drag him out of the bed.

It's just that Louis was small and Harry was big. The tug-of-war was not very heated as even with the little resistance he was putting forth, Harry was able to hold his ground.

"You little shit why won't you get up!" Louis was exasperatedly yelling, "Liam, come help me,"

Liam's arm flew up as he backed away.

"Where are we going?" Harry whined into his pillow.

Louis finally relented and let Harry's arm fall to the mattress with a soft thud, "Nowhere!" he screamed, "Our plan was to just let you sit in your living room all afternoon! We just didn't want you to do it alone..."

"He's not lying," Liam said from the doorway.

Harry sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"So all we're gonna do is laze around my house, eat whatever we want, and not go distract me with some ridiculous idea that'll probably result in me being drunk and/or high,"

"For once, young Harold, no. I haven't got the energy and I didn't think you'd be up for it anyways,"

"Fine," he mumbled, uncovering himself and finally getting out of the bed.

"Shit," said Louis, "Forgot you sleep in the nude,"

**

Liam busied himself making them lunch while Louis and Harry sat down on the sofa. He had his phone in hand because Carl would not stop texting him, and it made Harry feel bad. He didn't really know how to bring Niall up because he and Carl weren't really a thing. They had no plan to meet up in the future, they weren't talking about their feelings for one another, and what would he tell Carl anyways? "Hey I like this kid and we made out and now we're getting closer to fucking, it's pretty great. How're you?" So Harry kept quiet and continued on with his genialities, talking about the weather and his job and his up-coming wisdom teeth removal.