Chasing Empty Spaces

Chapter 1

He gently scoffed, "Performer, huh?"

Harry glanced over and saw the man take his bandana off with a smirk. He ran the material under the running faucet and put a dollop of soap on it. Turning to face Harry, he expectantly held out the bandana.

"Take it," He pushed the material closer to Harry. "It'll work better than whateva you were gonna do."

"You sure?" Harry hesitantly asked, looking between the soapy bandana and the man's face.

He rolled his eyes and laughed, "I'd hope so since I already did it. Just take it."

"Thanks," Harry mumbled and he took the bandana, turning back forwards to wash off the remainder of the lipstick.

"Good luck out there," The man drawled as he walked towards the door.

"Wait, I still have your -" Harry started, but was cut off.

"Keep it," He looked over his shoulder at Harry and flashed him a quick smile. "Seems like you'll need it more than me, Stud."

The other man left and thankfully, Harry was able to get the last bits of red off of his cheek. As he walked out of the bathroom, Harry stuffed the bandana in his back pocket and mentally prepared to go up on stage. He had gotten the gig a few months back when the former pianist moved away to some other city. The band held open auditions and Harry felt like he was going to pass out from nerves up until the moment he sat down at the stool. Before the audition, the only person who heard him play was his parents and piano instructor.

Harry pushed through a mass of people until he reached the back stage area. He looked at the clock hung on the wall and saw that he had five minutes until they needed to be out. The crew rushed around him, carrying mics and tuners as they did last minute checks.

"Well look whose lazy ass finally showed up."

Niall Horan was leaning against the brick wall with a bottle of scotch in one hand and a lit cigar in the other. The best way Harry could describe Niall, was that on one hand, he was a brilliant performer. On the other hand, he was a sarcastic bastard. Niall had been playing banjo for the band for almost two years when they first met. Apparently, Niall had noticed that Harry kept coming to the club to listen to the music rather than dance with any of the girls. He ended up calling Harry out on it after one of their sets and told him that he should audition the following Spring.

Harry rolled his eyes and held his hand out for the bottle of scotch, "Yeah, yeah. I was just a bit preoccupied."

Niall handed over the opened bottle and Harry took a swig, smacking his lips as the auburn liquid ran down his throat.

"Preoccupied?" Niall waggled his eyebrows. He knocked the toe of his shoe against Harry's, "Is that what we're callin' it these days?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Faye Mason and her parents came over for dinner tonight and now she's here."

Niall's eyebrows shot upwards as he exhaled a cloud of smoke, "Never thought I'd see the day."

"What do you mean?"

"You sir," Niall punctuated with a firm grip on Harry's shoulder, "Are finally gonna get laid."

Harry shrugged off Niall's hand and took another swig before passing the bottle back, "Hate to break it to you pal, not all of us are only focused on getting laid."

Niall groaned and rolled his eyes, "One of these days, you're gonna meet a pretty lil' thing and then you'll be changin' that answer."

Since they met, Niall had been making it his own personal project to get Harry a girlfriend. At the beginning, Harry even went along with it. He attended multiple double dates that Niall had somehow managed, but they all went to shit rather quickly. Each of the girls either tried too hard or they were clearly interested in the large sum that Harry would inherit one day. Eventually, Harry just lost interest all together and he stopped turning up.