It was a nice day, the sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I wish I could say that the birds were happily chirping but from our penthouse hotel room smack bang in the middle of the city the only thing I could hear was traffic, and a lot of it. It was deafening.
Out on the balcony, I could sit and watch everything rush by. There were already a few hundred fans lingering at the base of the building despite the fact that we weren't leaving for another couple of hours.
A pair of hands suddenly latched onto my shoulders and I dropped my cup of tea in shock, turning around with a glare as it smashed into a million pieces on impact with the ground. Some of the liquid splashed on my shirt.
Niall bit his lip and struggled to stifle his laughter after seeing how I'd reacted, but he couldn't hold it back for long a hysterical snort made it passed his defenses. I stepped forward, nostrils flaring, and he dashed back into the apartment.
I exhaled and looked down at the mess surrounding me before going back inside.
"Get back out there and clean it up, Niall!"
"Nope!"
Niall ran past, trying to pull a shirt over his head. Apparently he was well rested.
"Do it or I'll cancel breakfast."
My hand lingered over the phone as Niall stopped in his tracks, his shirt still not on properly. I smirked, knowing full well that he was going to give in.
"Fine," he huffed, grabbing a dust pan from under the sink and going out onto the balcony. I smiled as Harry came into view, dressed and ready for the eleven o'clock interview. It was only just past nine now so we had a bit of time.
He sat down on one of the bar-stools with a hopeful look, "is breakfast here yet? I'm starving."
"No, not y-"
There was a knock on the door and an elderly man wheeled in a shit load of food, waved, smiled, and then left.
"Oh, it smells bloody awesome."
Harry leaped out of his seat and raided the lot of it, grabbing his share and sitting down on the couch to eat. Niall was only a few seconds behind.
"Is Lou up yet?" I asked, peering around for our missing band member.
"I'm up," came a rough voice from behind me.
I spun on my heel to see Louis standing in the doorway, his hood up over his head.
I smiled at him as he uttered a cough into his elbow crease, "good, breakfasts here."
He nodded and came further into the room.
I helped myself to a few slices of toast, some fruit and some yogurt and started eating. Hot food in the morning wasn't my thing but I couldn't help but laugh as Niall shoved strip after strip of bacon into his mouth.
"This is sooooo good!"
Harry laughed and I glanced at Louis who had been uncharacteristically quiet for the past few minutes. He was picking at his food, his head resting on his hand.
"You alright, Tommo? Normally we can't shut you up."
I chuckled to ease some of the tension.
"Yeah, I'm just not feeling that great."
He placed a square of watermelon in his mouth and bit down slowly.
I frowned, "are you just tired do you think?"
I hoped so. It was always hard when any of us got sick because we were always so busy. We always had deadlines, appointments, and meetings that couldn't be postponed so whenever we came down with something we generally just had to suffer through it. Plus, management never seemed to understand, we could being dying of malaria or something stupid and they still wouldn't take no for an answer, we would still have to participate in everything scheduled for that day.
"I think I'm coming down with something. . ."
He rubbed his nose and blinked slowly. His small portion of fruit had been set aside.
"It's a good act Lou but seriously, we all know you clashed with this interviewer last time, did you really think we'd fall for this?" Niall said casually, happily munching on some cereal after he'd eaten all the bacon.
I realised he had a point. Last time we'd spoken with this interviewer she'd been overwhelmingly hard on all of us and Louis hadn't handled it too well. His usual playful, sarcastic remarks suddenly had fire behind them, his eyes showed nothing but anger but the interviewer still didn't let up. towards the end, it was more of a debate than an interview.
I looked at Louis. He looked like he always did in the mornings, tousled hair, drowsy eyes, slumped figure. He didn't seem sick to me. And if he was, it didn't seem bad enough to get him out of anything.
His eyes darted between us almost pleadingly but I couldn't help it, I didn't believe him. "I'm not acting. I wouldn't do that," he said.
"Louis, I'm sorry but you can't get out of this interview," I said, not wanting to come down on him to harshly. He had his reasons for not wanting to go but that didn't mean I was just going to let him avoid it completely. It was just an interview, and then we'd probably never see this lady again.
Louis didn't say anything else. He scraped the rest of his watermelon into the bin and then disappeared into his room.
Louis's POV:
I caught some warm water in my cupped hands and splashed it onto my face, trying to wash away some of the tiredness. My reflection blinked a few times and I dried my face with a towel, sniffing to stop my nose from running down my lip.
Nobody believed that I was sick. I thought I looked pretty rough, and I definitely felt it.
Yes, I was a little nervous about meeting with this interviewer again but I wouldn't go as far as to fake my way out of it. I thought the lads knew me better than that.
I'd been up most of the night, tossing and turning under a mound of blankets as all the warmth was seemingly dragged out of me. My nose had been slowly clogging up throughout yesterday and when I laid down to sleep it just started dripping and no matter how many times I tried to blow it, there was always more. Trying to breathe through it only brought on sneezing fits so by morning my lips were completely dried out from having to breathe through my mouth for the entirety of the night.
My throat was starting to get sore now, swallowing was becoming a chore, and my ears were blocked too.
I knew it was just a cold but I felt like absolute shit and apparently it was something I would have to deal with on my own because everyone thought I was just trying to fake my way out of a stupid interview.
I sniffed miserably and yanked on a pair of jeans and a tank top, putting a jacket on over top as a second thought. I was feeling pretty cold at the moment despite it being a warm 75 degrees outside (I don't even use Fahrenheit so I had to look it up haha).
When I bent over to tie up my shoes my nose tingled, making my face scrunch up and my eyes water. I reached up to cup my nose and mouth as I sneezed a few times. I sighed when it stopped and finished with my laces.
There was a knock at the door and I straightened up, sneezing once more.
I made my way out into the entry where the bodyguards already were waiting for us. Upon running my hands through my hair I realised that I hadn't even touched it. It was a total wreck and now it was too late to do anything about it.
Niall's hyperactive mood made the car ride torturous. He going totally off his nut in the confined space and Harry and Liam were laughing their heads off the entire time while I resisted blocking my ears like a child. Three minutes in and their messing about had already given me a headache.
Thankfully, Niall crashed quarter of an hour in.
"Alright lads, let's not let this woman get to us this time okay? Don't react, it only provokes her," Liam stated, looking at all of us.
"And if she asks a question you don't want to answer straight up tell her that it's none of her fucking business," Harry added, "without cursing of course."
"Lou, just try not to listen too much to what she's saying yeah?" Liam said, nudging my shoulder gently. It hurt more than it should've and I winced.
"I can't really hear anyway," I muttered in response. My ears really were messed up.
"Hm?" Liam questioned, obviously not hearing me. I opened my mouth to reply but the sudden intake of air just made me sneeze again, over and over, my whole body shaking. I wiped my watery eyes and sniffed.
"Louis, we're already on our way there," Harry raised a brow warningly, "you can drop the act now."
I cleared my throat and tried one last time, "I'm sick. . .there's no act."
"You're just making this harder on yourself now Lou, give it up," Liam said.
I would've kept trying to make them realise I wasn't lying but I knew they'd just get pissed off with me and I didn't have the energy to deal with that. So I surrendered, slouching in my seat and closing my eyes.
I must've managed to fall asleep because the next thing I know I'm being shaken awake, someone telling me that we were there. All of a sudden it was way too hot and I gasped quietly as a dumb shiver shook through me. If I was hot why was I shivering? My head was aching now, a painful throbbing sensation right behind my eye that made me cringe.
"Come on, Lou, we've got to go inside."
Niall pulled me up and out of the car. My knees shook and I found that my balance was completely screwed. The fifteen minutes of sleep definitely hadn't done anything to help. A dry cough burst from my mouth and my throat protested.
We were bustled inside and pretty much went straight into the interview, not a second to spare. I sat down heavily on the edge of the couch and the cameras were all on, that quick. My gaze fell on Leilah Carson, sitting on her stupid chair with her dark hair over one shoulder and an evil glint in her narrow, steely grey eyes.
"Hello boys, glad to have you back here for a second time," she greeted, her voice nothing short of sweetness. Deceiving sweetness.
"Glad to be back," Liam lied through his teeth, the smile on his face not quite reaching his eyes.
"So, let's get straight into it shall we? I've heard lot's of things. . ."
I zoned out completely, her voice fading into a low buzz as my eyes drifted mindlessly. My fingers listlessly tapped on my knee along with the constant pounding in my head and I couldn't stop sniffling.
"Lou," Harry whispered, digging his elbow into my side gently.
"W- what? Sorry?" I stuttered, flicking back to reality. Leilah scowled for such a short moment that I doubt anyone even noticed, before plastering on her stupid smile.
"I just asked you what it's like being-"
I sneezed loudly into my elbow, unable to hold it back and held up a finger to show that I wasn't done as a string of them came out. I took a deep breath and relaxed back into the cushions, ignoring the glare from Leilah. My head hurt so much now, if I relaxed too much I'd be crying.
"What is it like being the second worst in the band? Obviously there's some speculation of the fact but-"
"What are you talking about?" Niall blurted, sitting forward in his seat.
"Second worst. You're the unlucky first Niall," Leilah said unsparingly, not noticing as the blond's face fell. He shuffled back further into the couch and I watched as his eyes went glossy.
You know what, fuck this bitch. She could insult me all she wants but the people I care about? My friends? Oh no, I was ready to kill despite how shit I felt.
"Yeah, and whose opinion is that? Yours? Because honestly your opinion means no more than a steaming pile of horse shit!" I exclaimed, my voice sounding a bit congested and hoarse as I angrily stood up, ignoring the way the room seemed to be spinning around me.
"How dare you speak to me li-"
"No, how dare you speak to us like that!"
I didn't even notice the heat that seemed to be suffocating me, everything was clouded by anger.
"None of us wanted to come here after last time, because of you, but we did anyway, apparently just so that you could treat us with zero respect and insult us! Again!"
"Shut your mouth!" Leilah snarled, stepping forwards.
"Why? So you can make everyone here feel like shit?" I growled. "Because I don't think so, not over my dead body! Oh, wow. . .guys I don't feel right, i think i might-"
And that was it.
I woke up in another room and instantly my stomach stirred, making me shoot upright and vomit all over the floor. It burned my already raw throat and I coughed wetly before throwing up again. There were hands everywhere, on my back my shoulders, my forehead and I panicked, my breath coming out in painful wheezes.
"Sh, hey you're okay, try to calm down," someone said softly and I tried, I really did, but I just ended up puking again, bile dripping from my lips. Black spots littered my vision and I almost passed out, squeezing whoever's hand was in mine hard enough to break bones.
"Come on, Lou, breathe," the voice instructed and somewhere in my blurry mind I recognised it as Harry. I tightened my grip on whose ever hand it was even more and took a deep breath in before exhaling, my eyes closed as I struggled to collect myself. It was hard considering my head felt like it was going to explode and even though I was pretty sure I'd gotten up the entirety of my stomach's contents, the nausea was still horrendous.
"That's it. . ." someone else said.
I opened my eyes a couple of minutes later. Niall smiled tenderly from his crouching position in front of me, shaking out his hand. I winced, knowing that I'd probably just about crushed it.
"You passed out Mate," Liam said, knowing what I was going to ask before I asked it.
I let out a single sob.
"W-we don't h-have to go b-back in r-right?"
"No, never again." Harry gently tugged my hair out of my face, "geez, you're really burning up." He frowned just as the door burst open and a couple of medics filed in, immediately coming over to me.
"N-no, I'm f-fine," I stuttered, trying to pull away. I was to weak to really resist. "Why a-are they here?" I asked.
Liam shrugged sheepishly, "you went down and my first instinct was to grab you and I just ran in here. Harry and Niall followed. I think I just wanted to get you away from all the cameras."
My stomach churned and I turned to the side, holding myself on shaky arms as I threw up again, almost falling on my face due to my arms collapsing. I was slowly realising that it wasn't a cold, it was my decision to not get a flu jab coming back to bite me in the arse.
"Kid, it's alright, we're just going to check you over real quick and then you might be alright to go, this just looks like a case of the flu," an older man assured me, leaning me against the wall so that I didn't have to hold my own weight.
I couldn't have really stopped him if I wanted to.
Niall looked at me for a second, his lips twitching as if he had something to say. Then his gaze dropped to the ground, "I'm sorry I didn't take you seriously this morning."
"It's okay," I coughed as the blood pressure kit wrapped around my upper arm tightening, making my fingers tingle.
"Not really, I didn't even believe you when you said you weren't feeling well, and then you get up like that to defend me despite how shitty you were feeling and I just-"
"It's fine Niall, I forgive you, all of you." I looked to the others as my temperature was checked.
"104." The man frowned.
"I don't want to go to hospital," I whimpered, my eyes wide in fear.
"Can we just take him back to the hotel? Please? You can come with us to make sure he's alright." Harry looked at the man with his big pleading eyes.
I looked to the medic. He seemed nice, maybe he'd let us-
"Alright, but I'm definitely coming with. We can't afford to let this fever get any higher," the medic said. He smiled, but he did look worried and I knew that I wasn't exactly in prime condition right now.
"Thank you, sir, this means a lot," Liam said, shaking the medic's wrinkled hand.
The other paramedic patted my shoulder and stood up, "you're in good hands, kid. I hope you're feeling better soon. And for what it's worth, I enjoyed watching you fight back out there. Good on you."
I smiled to myself as she walked away.
"Now, you're in no state to walk on your own," the remaining medic said to me, "so we're gonna have to help you out to the car."
I tried to get up, my stupid stubbornness getting the better of me, but I found that my muscles were completely useless. My arms were quaking like mad and my legs may have well have just been cooked pasta.
Liam chuckled at the disappointed look on my face and crouched down beside me, "I've got him."
I made a noise as he lifted me up into the air. My stomach stirred, and I had to lift a hand so I wouldn't spray snot everywhere as a few sneezes escaped, but thankfully I survived the way back to car.
***
"Ted?" I swallowed.
The medic looked to me, "yeah? What's wrong?"
I gagged, "I'm going to throw up."
He held a small bucket under my chin and I heaved, my stomach trying to send up things that I didn't have. I managed to get up a little stomach acid before it stopped and I fell back into the seat again.
"Better Lou?" Niall asked, tapping my shoulder from behind me.
I nodded tiredly and shut my eyes, quickly falling into a heavy sleep.
This is pretty long, I'm proud haha.
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