*Harry's POV*
When I was sure she was asleep, I quietly locked the door to my room to prevent any sex-crazed couples from disrupting her sleep. Sure, the music was still flooding through the house, but I purposefully made it so the walls of my room were almost 100% sound proof. That's just part of owning a big house and hosting a lot of parties you don't want to participate in until everyone either goes home or falls asleep.
I then walked around to the side of the bed Alyssa wasn't sleeping on and turned on the lamp by my couch. Alyssa didn't stir from the light she had her back to so I pulled out my laptop and started scrolling through social media out of boredom. I got quite a few texts from my friends downstairs wondering where I was or asking how the sex they assumed I was having was going. I ignored all of them. I kind of wanted to join the party again, but I didn't feel right just leaving Alyssa by herself in my room. I didn't really care if the door was locked or not, either. I didn't want people bothering her. Maybe I was just acting like a protective big brother, but maybe I needed to be. Neither one of the two men I trusted to be alone around Alyssa were there, so I was. Niall was in a different country and Cole was probably back at his apartment.
About an hour later, I was starting to drift asleep staring at the boring home page of my Twitter. My chin was propped up on my closed fist which was propped up on the arm of my couch. I kept nodding in and out of sleep until a bubble-like noise coming from my computer woke me up. My eyes jerked open and I protectively looked over to Alyssa to see her unmoved and slowly breathing in her sleep. Rubbing my eyes, I looked back to my screen to see a Skype call from Niall.
"Hello?" I groggily asked after moving my cursor over the little green button and clicking.
While I could see that I looked exhausted in the tiny little box at the bottom of my screen, I could also see Niall's bright and cheery face staring right at me. "Hey, Harry. Did I wake you?"
I yawned and shifted on the couch so my feet were propped up on the coffee table and my MacBook was laying flat on my lap. "Nah, nah. I've been up." I tried my best to suppress a second yawn, but didn't succeed.
I watched Niall's face etch into confusion before he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Shit!" He yelled while looking at his phone with wide eyes. "I'm sorry, Harry. It's three in the bloody morning in Los Angeles!"
I waved him off like three o'clock in the morning was nothing for me. Maybe it was nothing to me on some nights, but not this one. I felt more like an adult than a party-goer as I watched over my best friend to make sure she was okay. "It's fine, Niall. I was just kind of dozing in and out anyways. So what's up?"
Niall shrugged in front of the camera and sat up a little bit so he exposed his naked chest. He had clearly only been up for maybe an hour. He was still laying in his blue bedroom underneath his white and fluffy comforter. "Not much. Just checking in to see what you were up to. Maybe get an update on how Alyssa's doing." He said the second part quieter as if he didn't really want me to hear it. I was starting to get the impression that Niall thought I was annoyed by him always wondering how she was doing, but I actually didn't mind one bit. After seeing Niall's behavior change when the modeling tour started, I knew they were meant to be. Niall never cleaned up his act for anyone until Alyssa came alone. I loved that he was willing to go to almost any extent to make her happy and make sure she was okay. Maybe the five of us were some hardcore players and heart-breakers in our teen years, but we had all started to grow out of it- for the most part, anyways. Louis was the first to change his ways for a girl and then it was Niall.
I smiled at Niall's shyness and looked over to Alyssa who was still sleeping with her back facing me. "She's doing good," I told him. "She's currently sleeping."
The corners of Niall's mouth started to slowly get tugged upwards. "Really? Is she there with you?" I nodded my head. "So, do you think you could..." I furrowed my brow at Niall as his smile fell and he seemed like he wanted to ask something but was scared to. "Don't take this weirdly, but..." He trailed off again. "I mean, I know she's sleeping, but I just really want to see her again."
I chuckled at the question but nonetheless turned my laptop around so Alyssa's peaceful sleeping body was on the screen. Her body slowly rose up and down as she would take a long and deep breath in and then slowly let it back out of her lungs. She looked so at ease and comfortable- nothing like she was only a few hours beforehand.
When I turned the computer back around so Niall and I were once again looking at each other, Niall looked incredibly sad. "I miss her," he whispered. "Like a whole fucking shit ton."
I sighed. "She misses you, too," I tried to console him, but he just gave a skeptical sigh.
"How do you know?"
"It's obvious."
"How?"
I rolled my eyes. "She may not know that we know it, but it's obvious by the way she acts she wishes you were here. I mean all night it seemed like she was taking a new drink every time El and Lou were near us acting cute." Niall sighed again. I thought he was going to interrupt me, but he just simply sat back against his headboard and crossed his arms. "Come on, Niall. It's obvious. She's missing a certain special man in her life who loves her and she loves back."
With a tut, Niall rolled his eyes. "Loves back. Yeah. I don't think that guy you're talking about is me, Harry. She probably just misses her dad or something. Or hell, maybe it's another guy completely."
It took more muscles in me than it should have to hold back the laughter I could feel bubbling in my throat. "You mean her dad who calls at least once a week and gets ignored 99% of the time? You mean that dad?" Niall said nothing. "Yeah, no. She misses you. She loves you. She needs you. And I know damn well she isn't seeing some other asshole. She already has one." I cracked a smile to try and cheer Niall up, and it worked.
His face reflected mine and he looked away from the camera so I wouldn't notice the small chuckle that escaped from the side of his lips. I did, though. "You're a dick. I hope you know that," Niall said through his smile.
I shrugged. "Oh well. No, but really. I didn't tell you this, but uh..." As I trailed off, I noticed Niall's face fall back to a serious one as he sat up straight again. "Two weeks ago, when Zayn had his party where he gave us all backstage passes to the AMAs, she got drunk- and I mean really drunk." Niall didn't say anything, but it was evident by his slightly furrowed brow and the darkness in his normally bright, blue eyes that he was not happy to hear about Alyssa being drunk. "Anyways," I butt in before he was given the opportunity to interject, "I took her home and tucked her into bed all safe and sound, and she then told me."
The second part of my story must have been a lot more comforting for Niall to hear because the dark, blue eyes turned three shades lighter and one of his eyebrows rose to his hairline, creating a slight line in his forehead. "Told you what?"
I could feel my tired face pulling upwards on the corners of my lips ever-so-slightly. I took a moment to appreciate Niall's confusion before I let him in on what I was talking about. "They she misses you. That she still loves you," I told him softly.
I frowned when Niall tutted at me again and laid back with his arms crossed. "Yeah, she told you this?" I nodded my head. "While she was drunk?" I nodded again. Another tut from Niall's lips, this time louder and harsher. "She didn't mean it, then, Harry. She was drunk."
Now it was my turn to cross my arms and lay back against the back of my couch. "Oh really now? So did you not actually want to have sex with her that one night?" Niall didn't reply. Instead he just stared at me as if he was trying to think of something to say back. "Because you were both drunk then, too, but neither one of you seem to regret it. Or are saying that you didn't actually want it? Even sober you both know you want each other."
Niall rolled his eyes and uncrossed his arms. I mocked his movements. "That's different, Harry. Maybe she just lusts for me."
"Maybe she doesn't. She talks about you quite a bit, you know." Niall once again raised a single eyebrow. "She's always asking when you're coming back. What do you think that means?"
It was quiet for what felt like an eternity between the two of us. It was obvious that Niall was believing what I was telling him now so I kept quiet while I let him think to himself what he should do. Maybe I exaggerated a little bit, but it was the only way I could get Niall to see the truth. She didn't always ask when Niall would be back, but she did ask at least twice. I found it ironic how a slight lie showed Niall the truth, but I wasn't exactly complaining, either.
"Maybe I should text her?" Niall shyly broke the silence.
The silence wasn't gone for long, however, when I let Niall's question absorb itself into my brain. "Text?" I asked softly. I looked down at my white keyboard replaying the word over and over again in my head. "Text?" I asked louder. Then I looked up at the screen. "TEXT?"
My blonde-haired friend was clearly caught off guard by my sudden outburst. He was once again looking at me confused, but I looked over it. "Yeah? Text. Like, you know, email but more convenient?"
I looked at Niall angrily which only confused him more. "You mean you've had her number this whole damn time!?" I yelled louder than I meant to. I heard Alyssa shift on my bed. I quickly looked over to her. She stopped moving.
"Yes. Damn. Why else would I bring up texting her?" Niall shoved one of his fingers into his ear and twisted it around. "Damn, dude. You're loud. You're gonna wake up my sleeping beauty."
I glared at him again. "While that was incredibly cute and poetic because you already call her your princess, I'm sorta pissed at you."
For the fourth time in ten minutes, Niall was once again looking at me as if I had just told him I was an alien. "What? Why? What did I do?"
"You could've been texting her this whole damn time!" Niall sighed. He opened his mouth to talk, but I already knew what he was going to say. "Yes, I know you weren't sure if she would respond because she never did before and yes, I know you weren't sure of her feelings," I said before he could speak, "but it would've been nice to know that you never deleted her number."
"You mean like she did mine?"
I ignored his interruption. "Damn it. I should have told you earlier. Then maybe you woulda already been texting her and she wouldn't have gotten so drunk that she..." I cut myself off before I could finish the sentence. I just stared at Alyssa's sleepy body and how it got there. I knew how protective Niall was over Alyssa and he already didn't like hearing about her getting drunk, so I decided against telling him about her drinking herself sick.
"She wouldn't have what?" I heard an Irish growl come from my screen. I looked back to my screen to see an upset Niall, eyes three times darker this time.
I sighed and avoided looking at him. "Nothing, nothing. She's fine. I promise. Anyways, it's going on three thirty in the morning. I need to get to bed."
"Harry," he called.
"I got to get up before noon tomorrow and get some stuff done."
"Harry!"
"Not to mention I want to hit the gym at some point before Liam's party tomorrow night."
"HARRY!"
I sighed and looked at my friend. "I'll text you in the morning. Promise. Night, Niall."
"Harry, no. Don't you dare hang up yet. I'm not-"
I cringed as I slid the cursor over the little red button on the bottom of my screen and clicked down. "Sorry, Niall," I sighed, "but you worry too much." Not that I found that necessarily a bad thing because I'd rather him care for my best friend too much than not at all, but sometimes I knew it was just better to not tell Niall some things because it would work out better in the end that way. I know him. If I told him that she drank herself sick, he'd (a) feel bad because she did it out of not having Niall to love on and (b) would try to tell her not to drink anymore which would just push Alyssa away. She's too stubborn to take orders from someone else. Not to mention that if I told Niall and she knew I told Niall, she'd be mad at me for making him worried.
I placed my laptop on the floor and then turned the lamp off. Right when I did, I heard a high pitched ding and a buzz buzz. I furrowed my eyebrows but walked around to the other side of the bed where Alyssa was sleeping. On the nightstand by her head was a light- her phone light to be more precise. There was a notification of a message on her lock screen.
(214) 898-8554
Hey..
I smiled at the text and then looked to Alyssa's sleeping body. She didn't stir from the noise, and I was glad about that. She was in for a surprise when she woke up and I couldn't wait to see her reaction.
So I don't know how many of you remember because this was CLEAR back in Chapter 3 of Night Air, but that number that texted her -and, yes, I had to look it back up- is the same random number that first texts Alyssa when she's sitting in Lou's chair on day 1 of the modeling tour. How many of you remember that? Because I wrote in an author's note saying that it was a random number and not to call it lol. I don't think I really need to explain who the number is, though haha.
One last thing before you go. I find this hilarious so I'm gonna share this with you. So when I published this chapter the first time, I had only briefly edited it but it looked good enough so I clicked publish, anyways. Well, turns out, I had a really bad typo lmao. I meant to say "I heard Alyssa shift on my bed." Yeah. Except there was no f in shift. 😂 I might have typed that part on my phone so I'm gonna go ahead and blame autocorrect on that one? Lol. Yeah. Okay. Enjoy your day/night/whatever.
I love you and stay sexy!