A Slide Into First ➵ narry

Chapter 16

"Will you stop fidgeting so much?" Michael moaned. He was lying across his bed, fiddling with the electric guitar in his lap.

"Niall should've been here a half hour ago," Harry whined, checking out the window again, as if that would make him magically appear.

"Won't he call when he's here or something?"

"I think his phone's dead. That's why I keep looking out the window, so I can see if he's coming down the road. He should know how to get here, he promised,"

"I'm sure he's fine. Where's he coming from, anyways?"

"He's taking a taxi from the Amtrak station. Oh God, what if the cabbie's a murderer or something? Christ, I should've made sure he charged his phone before he left," Harry started pacing again.

"He's nineteen, not nine. You don't need to hover over him,"

Harry checked his phone again, he thought he had to be setting a world record or something, but still nothing was coming through, "Are you gonna leave?" Harry asked, turning to Michael.

"Oh, so first you want me to calm you down, now you want me to get the fuck out?"

"I mean, you can stay until he comes. It's just we have a lot of catching up to do after he gets here, and most of that will require no pants,"

"Right, got the hint. Don't worry, I'm going over to Ashton's for practice. Luke should be dropping by at any moment to pick me up," Michael said, starting to put guitar back into his case.

"Luke's still available to drive us down to Chicago in his roommate's car on Sunday, right?" Harry asked. This trip had kind of been spur-of-the-moment and they hadn't really ironed out all their travel plans yet.

"Yeah, yeah. Says you owe him a shift at work and gas money,"

"Got it,"

"Why's Niall coming down this weekend, anyways? Didn't you say he's visiting for Halloween weekend?"

"Well, yeah, but I was lonely and someone offered to cover his shift at work on Sunday,"

"Lonely? He's been gone for a month!"

"That's a long time, Michael, Christ!" and Harry was yelling because he had been irrational in the past. He had been irrational when the first weekend he had decided that he was going to quit school and move in with Niall, and he had been irrational (and drunk) when he had cried to Niall on the phone at four in the morning saying that he wasn't going to come until it was directly because of Niall's hand on his cock. But now, when he was tired and sad and missing Niall like crazy, he was surely not being irrational.

"Whatever, must be a saint of a man to put this much effort into coming to see you for a weekend," Michael mumbled, pulling the scarf tighter around his neck. Even though it was only mid-October, the air was getting increasingly chilly. Harry didn't like it.

"Or I'm pretty good at sucking dick," Harry quipped with a wink, and then Michael was out the door before he could gag.

Niall had sort of been a saint, though, putting up with Harry that month. He had been kept awake at three in the morning so Harry could drunkenly Skype with him, and he had even agreed to a spot of phone sex when things had gotten a bit rough there. It was never too much for Niall, and Harry couldn't thank him enough. Couldn't emphasize that he loved Niall with all of his heart and that he'd be lost without him. He could only imagine all the ways he'd have to repay him that weekend. Buying him some food and taking a walk along the lake, taking him to that stupid action flick that he had been dying to see since the trailer had first rolled out in early summer, or maybe even just staying inside all day and letting Niall dictate what the two of them would do.