Chapter 6: After Last Night
THE NEXT MORNING...
Waking up is just the worst, isn’t it? If you feel as tired as Harry feels at the moment, then you would understand why he really doesn't appreciate the fact that someone downstairs decided to just slam the front door closed. Now, he knows he should probably get up and check to make sure it isn't some thief or whatever, but his bed is just so warm and comfy... Who really wants to get up from this?
The sudden scream from downstairs doesn't help either, which makes him all the more irritated. Groaning, he rolls over onto his front to check the digital clock on his night stand. It’s only 8 in the morning, so whoever is in his house right now –
– is probably Louis, he realizes, getting even more annoyed. Who else would it be?
He grumbles to himself and slowly gets up from his bed, shrugging on a shirt he sees on the ground. It doesn’t look familiar so it may not even belong to him, but it will have to do. Besides, Louis’ screaming is only getting louder.
“What the actual hell? Why are you here?!”
“I am so gonna strangle him,” Harry mutters to himself as he yawns and stumbles down the stairs. “Louis, if you don’t stop yelling like a maniac, I’m about to make sure you stop breathing.”
“He’s the maniac!”
When Harry reaches the kitchen, Louis turns around from who he was just yelling at to face Harry. Only then does the green-eyed lad notice Liam standing by the stove, wearing Harry’s apron as he’s holding a spatula and is, well, shirtless. Which, can’t be safe when he’s also clearly cooking breakfast. Harry definitely does not remember telling him to do that, let alone what exactly he’s doing here. But he should, judging by the way Liam looks completely comfortable standing there almost naked and looking Harry up and down like he’s already won said prize.
“Harold, what is he doing here?” Louis demands sharply.
“I’m cooking some breakfast for both of us,” Liam answers instead, even though he knows Louis isn’t addressing him. “And good morning, Hazza. How are you feeling after last night?”
“Shut up! I never asked y- Oh my gosh! You – No, you did not just rape my best friend!”
“Trust me; it wasn’t ‘rape’. He wanted it just as much as I did.”
“O- okay, enough from both of you. It’s too early for this,” Harry interrupts, walking over to stand in between them.
Louis grinds his teeth and grabs Harry’s arm. “Can we talk alone for a minute?”
Harry doesn’t get a chance to even reply, since Louis is already dragging him into the living room, where Niall and Zayn are. He didn’t even notice they were here earlier when he was making his way to the kitchen to get Louis to shut up. Yet again, he really doesn’t know how they got into his house in the first place.
“Um, did you guys break into my house this morning?”
“Nah. We had a key,” Niall answers, motioning for Harry to sit down between him and Zayn as Louis continued to fume and stand on front of them.
“I… don’t remember giving any of you a spare key to my house,” Harry states in confusion.
“You didn’t. Louis got a copy of your key made for all of us. But it’s just one, so we have to share it,” Zayn says easily.
“… Why?”
“Harry, this isn’t about how we got into your house!” Louis snaps, grabbing their attention. “This is about the fact that you let your creepy neighbour into your house yesterday, and it’s either you gave him a key to your house, or you actually let him stay over last night! Which means you totally lied to us last night, so it better not be the second one!”
Looking away from Louis’ eyes, Harry says, “Um, what if – and this is just hypothetical, - What if I… did let him stay over last night?”
“You totally did,” Niall declares.
“N- no, I didn’t!” Harry denies, avoiding any eye contact with them. “I said that was hypothetical!”
“And there you go, lying to us again,” Louis says exasperatedly.
“You let him f*** you last night; it’s so obvious, Harry,” Zayn states with a shrug.
The curly-haired lad sputters and looks at him. “How could you kn- even think that? N- nothing happened between me and Liam last night. He’s just – He’s being very neighbourly by cooking me breakfast this morning. That’s it. He helped out a lot yesterday, so… Oh, shut up. You don’t know me.”
“He broke you.”
“No, he didn’t, Lou. Just let it go, okay? After breakfast, I’ll ask him to leave.”
“Just do it now, Harry. I doubt he’s gonna leave right after breakfast. And stop denying the fact that you slept with him, cuz you so did!” Louis exclaims, gesturing at Harry. “You’re wearing what I’m assuming is his shirt! I doubt you even own a Batman shirt, since you know absolutely nothing about comics and superheroes.”
“Well, maybe I just got into it,” Harry counters.
“Because Liam is into it?
Before Harry could say anything in return, Liam pops his head out from the kitchen and calls out to him. “I finished cooking our breakfast, Hazza! You can eat now.”
“What the heck is a ‘Hazza’? Is that a secret code thing you have with him?” Louis demands Harry.
“What? No. It’s just his nickname for me.”
“Oh. Wow. So, now you’re on ‘nickname’ terms. Great. Just great, Harold. Not only are you f***ing your insane neighbour, but you’re letting him call you lame nicknames so he can sweet-talk you into letting him have his way with you any time he wants. Do you realize how weak you are for him already?”
“I’m not ‘weak’ for him. Just – Can you guys leave and not do this again? I thought someone actually broke in here.”
“And what if Liam did? Would you have jumped him?” Louis retorts.
“Get out, Lou. I’m tired and hungry, and I really can’t deal with you right now,” Harry says as he ushers them to the front door. “When I’m done eating breakfast, I’ll ask Liam to leave nicely, then you guys can come back. Just stop nagging me.”
Louis snorts as soon as Harry manages to push them over the threshold. “Oh, please. You just want more alone time with your new ‘boyfriend’.”
“Goodbye.”
After shutting the front door in their faces, Harry sighs and leans back against it. He doesn’t expect Liam to be standing just a few feet away from him, which makes him yelp in surprise. Liam raises an eyebrow and slowly approaches him, placing gentle hands on Harry’s arms to not spook him out again.
“Everything alright?”
“No, it really isn’t. My friends are – Well, you probably heard what they were saying about you.”
“Yes, but I’m choosing to ignore them. I hope you do too,” Liam responds, taking one last step to be as close to Harry as he can. He smiles and leans down to place a kiss on Harry’s lips.
It’s pretty much by instinct that Harry kisses back, even though he knows he shouldn’t. Anything he shouldn’t do is what he ends up doing anyway. Yet, he can’t help but think about what Louis was saying. How naïve and dangerous it could be to be so affectionate and whatever else he can use to describe this ‘thing’ with Liam. He doesn’t know much about Liam, so maybe he should listen to Louis after all.
He pulls away and pushes Liam back with hand on the said lad’s chest. “Li… I don’t think we should do this.”
“You’re letting Louis get to you.”
“It’s not that. Um, it’s just – You know what? I’m hungry, so can we eat first before talking about this? You said you finished cooking, right?”
Liam blinks at him, but let’s Harry walk off and towards the kitchen. He sighs heavily and glares at the door, cursing Louis for putting such thoughts in Harry’s mind. I’m gonna have to deal with Louis sometime soon. He’s ruining everything I’ve planned.
He follows after Harry and takes off the apron, revealing his very tined chest and abs. Harry swallows and takes a seat at the table, avoiding having to look at Liam’s very fit body.
“This all looks good,” he comments about the food.
“Thought you’d be hungry after last night,” Liam says in return, taking a sip of his cup of coffee.
Clearing his throat awkwardly, Harry digs in and keeps his head down to avoid having to look at Liam. Even though he tries really hard to ignore the fact that he can practically feel Liam staring at him, it’s quite hard to ignore the older lad when he suddenly gets up and stands beside Harry. Without warning, he places a hand on Harry’s chin and tilts his head up so he’s forced to stare back into Liam’s eyes.
“Do you – … Do you regret last night?”
“Huh?”
“Answer me honestly, Harry. Do you regret what happened between us last night?”
“Um, no? Well, I think I should, but I don’t really know. I mean, I don’t know much about you, Liam, and last night was – We moved pretty fast, don’t you think?”
“No, not at all,” Liam replies, eyebrows furrowed together.
Harry drops his fork on his plate and turns towards Liam to seem more serious about having this conversation. “Liam, whether you’re willing to admit it or not, we moved pretty fast last night. We barely know each other and we already slept together. I don’t usually do something like that without at least knowing someone better than we know each other.”
“And that’s why I wanted to get to know you better so we can do what we did last night more often,” the brown-eyed lad insists, taking a seat on the chair beside Harry. “And even more, really.”
“It was just – Last night was just… an ‘in the moment’ kind of thing between us, Liam. Nothing more.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Liam’s snaps his mouth shut and visibly grinds his teeth as he looks Harry with dark eyes. The green-eyed lad gulps and tries not to make it obvious as he moves back in his seat, but Liam notices and pulls his chair closer. Harry lets out a surprised gasp from being moved so close to Liam suddenly, feeling quite scared of what Liam might do to him now that he just, well, rejected Liam.
“Harry, after what we did last night – How could you just say something like that?”
“What exactly did you expect? We don’t even know each other!”
“You’re not even giving us a chance to get to know each other!” Liam shouts, getting up from his chair abruptly, causing it to fall back onto the floor. “Harry, you’re just letting Louis get to you! Don’t you have a mind of your own about what we could be?!”
“’We’ are not and we never will be a ‘thing’! You know what? Just leave. Get out of my house!”
Instead of yelling in return, Liam closes his eyes and lets out a breath to calm himself down. Harry blinks at him in confusion, trying to stay mad at Liam even though he’s visibly trying not to shout at Harry again. It’s completely unexpected when Liam smirks after running a hand over his face.
“You know what? Fine. I’ll be leaving now. Hope you’re happy.”
“Good,” Harry breathes out in shock, only watching as Liam walks out of the kitchen and towards the front door.
“And just to let you know, Harry,” Liam calls back when he reaches the door and opens it. “This – whatever we have between us, because you can’t deny it either, – isn’t over. It’s just beginning.”
With that, Liam closes the door and leaves Harry all by himself finally. He sighs in relief and sits back down in his chair at the table. He tries to finish his breakfast, but he doesn’t feel like he can stomach the rest of it anymore. Not after how he and Liam ended their conversation with Liam leaving just like that.
A shiver runs down his spine suddenly, making him feel in danger somehow. He looks around the kitchen cautiously and hesitantly gets back up to quickly put his plate in the sink before heading to the hallway leading to his front door. No one is there and there’s nothing suspicious left behind by Liam, so Harry really shouldn’t feel unsafe, right? And he’s just being ridiculous, isn’t he?
But for whatever reason, Liam’s words stick with Harry and he doesn’t feel as safe as he should. I mean, after Liam left, he felt some relief, but not quite enough, apparently.
What did Liam really mean by this ‘thing’ between us not being over and just beginning?
Why don’t I feel safe?
Why CAN’T I feel safe anymore?