I've been on this app called "Vent" recently and if there's one thing I've learned it's that a lot of people want you to tag various things as TW, so I guess I'm just gonna put a disclaimer here... this part has drinking in it sorry :-(
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"So... where to?" Niall asked to at least break the silence. When they got into Daniel's car earlier on, there was a little introduction here and there but now the silence was just consuming the five.
"I dunno... I don't know any places here." Daniel mumbled as he finally drove the car onto the road so they wouldn't be idling anymore.
"Dan you live here." Liam pointed out. "How can you not know any possible places we can go to?" He incredulously asked.
"I just hang out at home." Daniel responded to Liam, but Liam knew that wasn't the case at all so the two went back to bickering between themselves, while Harry, Niall, and Emilia were left silently and awkwardly chatting in the back.
"Harry where do you wanna go?" Harry was suddenly removed from his own thoughts when he heard Daniel addressing him. He was confused as to why he was the one being asked among them all, but remembered that Niall did pretend to be him when he was talking to Daniel earlier. Harry gave Niall a quick glare before returning his attention to Daniel.
"I really don't know... I'm sorry." Harry shyly replied. He was trying as much as possible to not get involved in this decision making seeing as how Niall tried to help earlier and things just got messier.
"How about we just buy some drinks and go back to Niall's flat?" Emilia suggested. The four pondered over that suggestion for a bit: Niall was completely okay with the bit about getting drinks because that was the one thing he kept suggesting to Harry and Liam earlier, but he figured he'd wait to see what his best friends had to say.
"I'm actually fine with that." Liam said after some more thought, and Daniel voiced his agreement too. "Are you okay with that, Haz?" Liam turned around in his seat a bit to look at Harry. The poor lad hated it when all the attention was on him--which was currently the case, so he shrunk back in his seat a little and just replied with a timid "Yeah, s'fine."
Liam gave Harry a reassuring smile--he sure has been giving Harry a lot of these tonight, because he knew Harry wasn't really very fond of drinking and he could sense that Harry just went along with it for the sake of having this all finished. "Don't worry, you don't have to drink if you don--."
"Hold up," Niall suddenly interrupted. "My end goal here is to see both of you at least tipsy. I haven't seen how you guys are drunk yet."
"Niall he's just a kid." Liam replied.
"No, Harry's 18 already in case you've forgotten." Niall countered. "He's old enough to make his own decisions. Plus, it'd be better for him to discover what his limit is with us, his long-time best friends, than with other people he's been friends with for probably just a year."
"Fine." Liam sighed. He couldn't really argue with the latter part of Niall's logic. "But Harry, you don't have to if you don't want to, okay?" He said, looking back at Harry who just pursed his lips and nodded in response.
Daniel drove around a little bit more, looking for a place where they could buy their drinks. When they found a little store, Niall and Liam were able to convince both Emilia and Daniel to be the ones to go down and buy them because Niall felt like he, Harry, and Liam had to talk.
"We can't drink in my place." Niall said immediately after Emilia got down and closed the door. Liam and Harry both whipped their heads so fast to look at Niall that he swore the two could have gotten whiplash.
"What do you mean?" Liam asked. Niall could have said something earlier before they all agreed on the plan.
"No need to panic," Niall said as he tried to calm Liam down. "I have a backup plan." He said as he brought out his phone to ring yet another friend up.
"Hey Louis!" Niall greeted, now both Liam and Harry were trying hard to listen in to the conversation. "Do you wanna go drinking?" a moment's pause, Harry assumed that the Louis person was either still contemplating or was already just answering Niall. "In your flat..." Niall sheepishly said. "Me and Emilia. And do you wanna make three new friends?" Harry could only imagine the other side of the conversation... but he figured Niall was getting his way based on how it was all progressing.
"Great! We'll be there in a bit." Niall exclaimed with a smile before ending the call. "Ok we're staying in 1610 instead of my place." He told Harry and Liam.
"Who's Louis?" Harry curiously asked.
"College friend." Niall answered. "I told you, my college friends are way too game for anything." he chuckled afterwards. Harry and Liam chose not to contest Niall's plan anymore since neither of them could really think of a better alternative, so they waited in silence for Daniel and Emilia to get back with their drinks.
By the time Daniel drove them back Harry was in a relatively calmer state of mind. He told himself at least this plan was somewhat better than the original: to go wherever God knows where the road would take them. He rested in the comfort of knowing that at least they were safely inside a building and Liam was there to make sure nothing too stupid happened. Daniel eventually found a parking space so they all got out, following Niall to the elevator and to Louis' flat.
"Hey Lou!" Niall exclaimed as he opened the door to 1610. Yup, Niall had a key to Louis' place. Niall of course was the first one in closely followed by Emilia, while the other three awkwardly lingered behind.
"Dammit Niall it's almost midnight." Louis groaned in response. Harry, Liam, and Daniel were still by the door but Harry just had to bend a little bit to see Louis trying to roll off of his sofa to greet Niall with a one armed hug. The flat wasn't that big, but it wasn't that small either. It could've used a lot of cleaning up though, but that was just Harry's opinion.
"Yet you still agreed to welcome us." Niall grinned as he practically attacked Louis in a hug, making the older lad chuckle before Louis turned to hug Emilia as well.
"What are you idiots and Daniel doing?" Niall asked the three with an amused expression. "For crying out loud come here."
"How come Liam and I are the idiots?" Harry huffed before hesitantly leaving the safety of his spot and moving closer towards what Louis probably considered the living room portion of his flat.
"Because I barely know Daniel but alright you have a point, given that he was hiding by the entrance with you two I guess he's deemed worthy of the title too." Niall shrugged.
"Niall be nice." Louis laughed, shaking his head a little as he moved some of his things around to better accommodate them all. Niall childishly stuck his tongue out at Louis which made Harry giggle--and in turn caught Louis' attention. Louis looked at the younger boy for a bit, the kid looked like he was no older than 15 and that giggle was absolutely adorable he couldn't help but smile at him, and of course Harry just blushed and looked down at his hands. In the middle of practically rearranging Louis' flat, there was a knock on the door and another one of Niall's friends joined them--this time it was Dylan. Introductions were saved for later and once everything was in place, it was as if some divine force willed them all to sit down in a circle in the middle of the floor.
For the first ten minutes after introducing themselves Harry wanted nothing more but to go back to Niall's flat and sleep the night away. Liam and Daniel were whispering whatever they were between themselves, and then Niall was talking to Emilia, Dylan, and Louis about some major requirements they still had to pass for one of their classes. Harry had basically no one. The only bright side he could see to this was despite the drinks being open already, no one was forcing him to take even just a sip, not even Niall.
"Niall I thought the whole point of this was so we could meet new people?" Louis laughed after finally noticing that they were failing in their agenda.
"Well, my main agenda is to get these two," Niall pointed to both Liam and Harry. "drunk or tipsy. But yeah you got a point." Harry gave Niall what he considered a death stare, but really it just made Harry look like a mad kitten so it just made Niall chuckle.
"What? Are you legal?" Louis frowned, looking at Harry in confusion.
"I'm 18." Harry quietly said and not without blush. He felt a little more embarrassed when Louis looked surprised by that sudden piece of information: did he really look that young compared to people his age?
"And since when did you care about legal drinking age?" Dylan laughed. "Man I don't know about you guys but this is the most awkward gathering I've been to in 24 years. I'm not even 24 yet!!"
"Niall's the main link here idiot. Break the ice." Louis told him, and Niall did just that--or at least he tried to. After what seemed like a year's worth of awkwardly forced small talk (which was really just another ten minutes) Dylan came up with a "brilliant" idea.
"Okay this isn't getting us anywhere... let's play King's Cup!" Dylan suggested. Harry for one was confused as to what that was, but everyone else was nodding in agreement, even Liam! "Do you guys know how to play?" he asked, and everyone except for Harry nodded their heads 'yes.' Louis couldn't help but smile at how innocent Harry seemed: the kid probably hasn't even had the tiniest trace of alcohol in his system ever.
---if you're not really interested in learning how it's played you can skip this part I'll indicate when it ends---
"Okay so it goes like this," Louis beat Dylan to it and started to explain the mechanics to Harry. "So this is a drinking game where we use a deck of cards, and the deck's placed face down in the middle of the circle and we take turns drawing a card. Who takes shots depends on what card has been drawn.
If it's an ace, the last person to put their hand to their face takes a shot.
If it's a two, that's 'you' so the person who drew the card chooses someone who's gonna take the shot
For three, that's 'me' so the person who drew it takes a shot
Four is 'floor' so the last person to touch the floor takes a shot
Five... oh yeah this one's not a rhyme." Louis shakes his head as he laughs in a way that makes Harry smile even just a little.
"The person who draws a five makes up any rule they want to. Like I can say for example, every time it's Niall's turn he has to do the chicken dance before drawing a card." Louis explained, and Harry couldn't help but giggle at the thought of Niall doing a chicken dance. Louis just inwardly cooed at how adorable Harry was and unbeknownst to the youngest, the others were watching them both too, and every one of them was thinking the same thing Louis was.
"Anyway, six means chicks, so girls, in this case, Emilia, has to drink.
Seven is Heaven, so last person to raise their hands has to drink.
Eight is mate, so the person who drew it has to take a drink, along with another person he or she chooses
Nine iiis... rhyme! The person who draws this says any word and we take turns saying something that rhymes with it. The person who fails to think of something takes a shot.
Ten is men, so everyone but Emilia drinks
Jack is categories, so I say for example... songs by Justin Bieber, we go around until someone can't think of a song, then he or she drinks.
Queen... whoever gets this asks another person a question. For example I ask Niall, hey Niall if you don't answer me the I'll take it as a yes: are you a dick?" Louis said the last part a bit louder for Niall to hear better, and Niall didn't respond but gave Louis an er, playful death glare.
"See how Niall didn't answer, even though he wanted nothing but to scream at me? That's because if he answers the person who drew a queen, he'd have to take a drink
Now this is the fun bit, so it isn't called King's cup for no reason.
If you get a king you're allowed to put anything and I mean anything into this cup right here." He said as he put an empty cup beside the deck Dylan has already conveniently placed.
"The game goes on until the last king is drawn, and whoever draws the fourth king has to drink whatever's in the cup. You get it bud?" Louis smiled.
---explanation of the game ends here---
"Um... I guess?" Harry mumbled. In all honesty Louis lost him at eight. Harry was just too sleepy already and wanted nothing more but to cuddle up in bed and take a good night's sleep.
"Hey no worries, you'll get the hang of it." Louis assured him. "Alright lads, ready to play?" He asked, this time addressing everyone. The lot of them all voiced their readiness to get this started because everyone was dying to get rid of the awkwardness among them already.
"New players go first!" Emilia said, giving Harry a playful smile.
"I second the motion." Niall immediately said afterwards.
"And I move this motion be passed." Daniel said almost in perfect harmony with the two of them as if this were some plan they've conjured earlier on, maybe it was, who knows?
Harry sighed, he knew he wasn't getting out of this and he didn't want to be known as the wet blanket, they already probably look at Harry as the baby among them and he didn't want to give them any more reason to reaffirm that so he bent forward a bit and got the top card.
"Three! That means you take a drink, bud!!" Niall excitedly announced when he saw Harry's card. They didn't have shot glasses so they just had regular cups, and Niall took it upon himself to grab Harry's and pour some vodka in it. Harry was no master in drinking but he was 173% sure Niall put way too much in his cup.
"Niall that's way too much." Louis said as Niall handed the cup to Harry.
"Harry can do it." Niall assured Louis, but the older lad still seemed skeptical. Harry frowned at his cup: it looked innocent enough, it was as clear as water, though the smell gave it away. He hesitated for a moment before bringing the cup to his lips, but before he could drink it Louis spoke up once more.
"Make sure to drink it quick, don't let it linger in your mouth, you won't like the taste." Louis said. Harry listened to Louis and gulped everything down... and it burned. Harry had drank everything Niall put and let the cup drop to the floor, luckily for Louis he had the foresight to bring out his plastic ones instead of the glass ones. Everyone cheered for Harry, but Louis took it upon himself to get the pitcher of iced tea to pour some into his own cup before offering it to Harry who was in a coughing fit.
"Here, drink this. It's just iced tea." Louis reassured him, promising once more when Harry gave him a skeptical look. Harry took the glass and drank the iced tea twice as fast as he did the vodka. By the looks of it Louis assumed Harry'd need another chaser later on. "Looks like we'd have to share cups now." He chuckled, noting that he only had enough plastic cups for all of them.
"Sorry." Harry shyly said when he realized that.
"It's okay, no big deal." Louis said, giving him a reassuring smile.
"Good job, Haz!" Niall whooped, lightly hitting Harry on the back to which Harry just weakly smiled to. They were working counterclockwise, so it was Niall's turn to draw a card: he got a ten and it was then Harry knew he was in for a loooong night.
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Yay okay this is a bit long and a bit dragging D:
I'll try to make the third (and last) chapter more interesting (:
I really just wanted to try a different writing style, but this would probably be the only story of this kind in this book c:
I leave you with this first. See you lot whenever!