It had definitely been an interesting day so far.
Being ankle high in water upon getting out of bed was quite a shock, and realising that my whole house was practically a shallow pond was another surprise I woke up to this morning.
Somehow the boys and I had managed to completely flood out the house we were living in for the time being. My main guess was that someone had clogged up the toilet, no matter how much they all denied it over and over again.
Anyway, we'd been kicked out onto the streets while it was dealt with, all still in flannel pajamas might I add. And they were flannel because it had been cold last night, quite possibly because of the water flowing all through the house.
None of us were too perky at nine o' clock in the morning but we'd decided to go find breakfast. Apparently none of the cafes near were willing to serve 'four hooligans in their pj's' so we were kicked out of five cafes as well as our own house.
We even tried the celebrity card a couple of times, but still we were turned away.
So now we were down at the beach. It was only just past eleven but it was already stifling hot, probably just hitting the 86 mark.
I was bored shitless, sitting there on the sand as the sun blared down on my back. Looking around I could tell everyone else was too, Harry was trying to touch his nose with his tongue and Niall was staring at a single speck of sand with an almost amusing amount of concentration while Liam was just watching the horizon with a blank look on his face.
There was a low grumble and Niall winced sheepishly.
"I'm starving, ya know? My stomach's gonna start eating itself if we don't find a distraction sometime soon," he whined, but he had a point. We needed something to help get our minds off the fact that our house might possibly being sinking into the ground, or that we hadn't eaten in almost 15 hours.
Something hit my leg and I looked down to see a soccer ball stuck under my knee.
Speaking of distractions.
I realised that someone must've kicked it and glanced up to see a couple of young boys no older than four watching me. They looked kinda scared but I figured it was just because we looked like a bunch of hobos sleeping on the beach.
Might as well use it to my advantage.
I kept my face void and stared straight back at the two of them. The blond was already trying to pull his friend away, whispering to him and tugging on his arm and after a second of hesitation the other kid gave in and they walked away, shoulders slumped.
I smiled, glad that their parents had told them not to talk to strangers.
Liam raised an amused eyebrow, "did you just take that soccer ball from those kids. Lou?"
"They didn't ask for it back?"
I shrugged sheepishly, "don't look at me like that, I'm bored okay?"
"I'm not looking at you like anything, I would've done the same thing." Liam chuckled and got to his feet, " come on, I'll kick it around a bit with ya."
"I'm in too!"
Niall waved an arm up as Harry let out an excited squeal and I turned to see that he'd managed to stretch his tongue all the way up to his nose and was looking mighty damn proud of himself.
After twenty minutes it started to get competitive, we were divided into two teams, Liam and I verses Harry and Niall and then people started recognising us and to mix up the game a bit we asked them if they wanted to play with us.
Slowly the teams got bigger and bigger and more and more competitive as the sun grew hotter and the hours passed. Literal hours we spent playing with a flat soccer ball on the beach with people we didn't even know and honestly it was great.
After a decent sized run down the beach someone laughed as they swiped the ball from beneath my feet and I leaned over to rest my hands on my knees, suddenly feeling exhausted. It was so hot I felt like my eyeballs were sweating.
"You good Tommo?" Liam clapped my back and I smiled at him wearily, "yeah, I'm fine, it's just hot."
"Take your shirt off, I'm sure everyone will love it Mate!"
He smirked and ran off to defend Niall.
I thought about it for a second and then decided why the hell not? There was a chance I'd get a bit burnt but I could deal with a little sun burn.
"Louis!" A pretty brunette girl kicked me the ball and I trapped it under my foot
Another half hour had passed since I'd taken my shirt off and my head was beginning to throb a bit now. I wasn't sure if it was the shouts and yells or if the heat was just getting to me but there wasn't anything I could do about it either way, I wasn't too keen on the though of taking my pants off too.
A quick dip in the waves sounded pretty good right about now but I didn't want to ditch the game.
I dribbled the ball forward, dodged through a group of girls, and then I booted it over to Liam, almost tripping over my own feet as I did so.
There were a couple of shoes set up on the end and Liam kicked the ball straight through the make-shift goal, pumping a victorious fist in the air with a shout.
"Might have to stop for a swim soon, I don't think I've ever been this sweaty in my life."
I jumped, not knowing that Niall was right beside me. He laughed, "sorry. Lou, didn't mean to give you a fright."
"S'alright," I replied, "do you reckon we could go for a swim now? I can smell burning flesh."
"Not yet, Lou! We've still gotta kick your ass!" Niall shrieked and I cringed as my head protested.
He had ran away, flicking sand up in his wake. I stared longingly at the water.
"Nice pass Lou!" Liam held up for a high five as we reset. I slapped his hand pathetically, wanting nothing more than to go sit in the waves. Or just sit down anywhere really.
"You definitely look like you've been playing hard out, your cheeks are like cherry red!"
Liam laughed and I huffed in attempt to join in.
"Are you getting sick of this or something?"
I shrugged under his gaze, "nah, I'm just feeling kind of weird."
"How?"
"It's nothing really, I'm just awfully hot, and I have a headache." I replied, running a hand through my mildly sweaty hair. It was weird, I was cooking, but I wasn't actually sweating all the much.
"Do you wanna go sit under a tree or something for a bit? The heat's probably messing with you a little," he suggested.
I nodded eagerly, already stepping away.
"Thanks Li, been waiting to sit down for hours now."
"All good, we need you though so you better be back soon!" Liam laughed and I smiled as I made my way over to a tree, imagining how nice it was going to be to get the pressure off my feet.
I plopped down onto my butt at the base of the tree and leaned up against the trunk. I closed my eyes for a second and nearly fell asleep but caught myself just before, shaking myself awake.
Why was I even trying though? A quick nap would probably do me good so I gave in and let myself fall asleep against the tree, my cheek pressed into the bark.
***
"Oi, Louis! We're going in the water! Wake up!"
A voice pulled me out of my sleep and I blinked with a grimace. Unfortunately the sleep hadn't relieved the pain in my skull and stupidly enough I didn't feel any less tired either, possibly even more.
And fuck, it felt like even my insides were on fire.
"Huh?" I mumbled, trying to see through the glare of the sun.
"We're going for a swim, Lou!"
I made out Harry in front of me, his green eyes bright.
"Come on, mate, wakey wakey!"
Niall held out an arm to hoist me up. My depth perception was kind of off but I managed to grab it and let him pull me onto my feet.
The second I was upright I stumbled, my head foggy and my vision spinning. I might've blacked out for a moment because next thing I know I'm back upright and leaning against the tree again. My brain wasn't clear enough to even try to start thinking what the hell was going on, all I knew was that I felt like shit.
"Lou? Louis? You there?"
"Yeah," I murmured, my tongue feeling triple it's usual size and my mouth dry.
"What's wrong? Do you have a migraine?" I recognised Liam's voice and remembered telling him that I had a headache earlier.
"N-no I, uh, something weird is g-going on. . ."
Liam's POV:
"Do you reckon it's the heat?" Niall whispered next to me and it clicked, like a rubber band snapping against my brain.
"Heat stroke."
I was kinda mad at myself for not realising sooner. I had watched him slowly deteriorating since we started.
"Isn't that like, dangerous?" Harry questioned, eyes wide.
"It can be. Shit, do either of you have your cellphones on you?"
I was starting to panic now. Heatstroke wasn't something to be taken lightly. If he got too hot it would start damaging his organs and stuff, hell, if he got too hot he could die.
"No. . ."
And we were stuck on a beach without cellphones.
"Niall," I figured Harry was bigger so it would be easier for him to stick around and help me move Louis, "can you go sweet talk someone into giving you their cellphone? Once you get one, call for an ambulance," I ordered.
He nodded and scurried away, obviously as scared as hell.
Suddenly I was holding dead weight and Louis slouched to the left, his head hanging. Shit.
I felt his forehead gently and winced. He was literally burning, like an oven.
Harry tried to fan our unconscious friend with his hands desperately, "what are we supposed to do?"
"Cool him down, we're going to have to get him down to the water."
I hooked my arms under his armpits and gestured for Harry to grab his legs. Thankfully he got what I meant after a few tries and we hurried down to the shore. There were a few weird looks as we went but nobody said a word, or offered any assistance sadly enough.
It would've been great if this was one of those lucky situations where there was a just coincidentally a doctor nearby. Apparently if there was she or he was a complete dick who just chose to ignore the unconscious body being carried into the water because hey, it's their holiday too. Thanks doc.
When the water hit Louis he woke with a start, his breath leaping into his throat. His glassy eyes were wide and scared and I laid a hand on his scorching back in an attempt to calm him down before he passed out again.
"Hey, buddy, it's alright, just cooling you down a little," I said, trying to keep any panic out of my voice. There was no point in scaring him.
"W-what h-"
"You just passed out for a little bit, but it's okay because you're back now, everything's fine, just relax."
The words came out freakishly quickly and didn't exactly seem very relaxing to even my ears.
"I got it!" Niall appeared on my right looking a little puffed from running around, "they reckon ten minutes."
"That's quick," Harry said, obviously surprised.
Niall huffed a short laugh, "it was forty minutes until I mentioned the band."
It would've been funnier if I wasn't currently having to hold Louis himself upright so that he wouldn't fall backwards and drown.
Louis mumbled something that I didn't hear.
"Sorry, mate? What do you need?"
"I think I'm gonna-"
And then, with zero percent gracefulness, threw up all over my arm and into the sea. Thanks to the tides changing we got to see it a few more times before it finally washed away.
By the time the paramedics got there we'd managed to cool him down a little at least, he didn't feel nearly as warm as he did before but he was still pretty disorientated.
He had no clue what was happening as he was loaded into the ambulance and if we'd have had our phones it probably would've been a video to look back on and laugh at in a few weeks time.
Luckily they let the whole lot of us ride with him, after explaining that we actually didn't have a car or a house at the moment so that saved the trouble of having to lie to a taxi driver or walk ten kilometres in pyjamas.
It was all under control. He was stable and without any organ damage. The only memory we got to keep of it all was the fact that even after three days my arm still smelt like vomit.
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