My phone was ringing.
I could hear the annoying tune coming from my bedside table and the thing I least wanted to do was answer it. It was probably just one of the lads in the next room over trying to piss me off anyway.
The ringing finally stopped and I rolled over, drawing in a long, deep breath. It was crackly and made me cough a little into the pillow I was currently laying on.
I'd managed to contract the evilest of all colds sometime over the last day or so. Sneezing, coughing, sniffling, dragging myself around as if I wasn't feeling like absolute shit. I wasn't having a good time.
And now that I was awake at the start of a new day I was so pleased to notice that I'd only become more blocked up over night and my head was pulsing violently to match the pins and needles running up my thigh.
Then the god damn phone started ringing again.
I croaked loudly in frustration, lazily swinging out an arm to shut it up before it made my head explode.
"Answer it Haz, your ringtone is horrendous!" Liam called out.
So it wasn't them calling.
My hand hit the cool metal and I pulled it towards me, sneezing tiredly. My nose kept twitching, I knew I was going to be sneezing again soon but the ringing was about to stop again so I had to answer it.
When I tried to say hello nothing but a pitchy whine came out and I hurriedly cleared my throat as someone greeted me from the other side of the phone.
"Mr Harry Styles? This is Mrs Green from Zeppelin University, your name is down as Ms Lila Ebony's emergency contact?"
"What? Yeah, I'm Harry, but what's going on?"
I sat upright quickly, barely noticing the way my room was swimming in front of me. I wiped my hand across the bottom of my nose. Emergency contact. Had something happened to her?
"Please don't panic Mr Styles. It could be nothing. The problem is, Lila hasn't been attending her classes for the past two days and it isn't like her at all, according to everyone we've heard from. They say she would've rang in at least. So we're just a bit worried and want to make sure that she is okay. Have you heard from her?"
"No I- uh, I haven't," I quickly got out before holding the phone away and sneezing a good six times into my elbow. My entire face felt full of snot and sneezing just made it worse. And I couldn't even sniff because I was too stuffed up. It was just all one big fail.
I picked up a stray tissue and held it under my leaky nose until after the phone call was over.
"I'll go check on her though, thanks for calling," I rasped and then hung up. We weren't too far away at the moment, barely a two hour drive. I had been planning on slipping away to surprise Lila when I felt a bit better but I had to go now, make sure she was alright.
Whoever was on the phone was right, she would usually ring if she wasn't going to make it someplace and I was worried.
"Who was it?" Louis called out, obviously meaning about the phone call.
I just moaned in response, not wanting to have to raise my voice.
Half a box full of tissues, a forty minute shower and four different types of medicines later, I was finally ready to leave for Lila's apartment. I looked and felt like hell warmed over but Lila could be worse off in her flat all alone which meant that I couldn't just go back to bed and curl up and die like I wanted to.
The sneezing started up again just as I was about to leave and I grew light-headed quickly, stumbling backwards as my body shook with sneezes.
Niall caught my back as he came out of his room, "whoa Haz, hey, you need to sit."
My eyes glossed over and my vision went fuzzy and wet as Niall sat me down on the couch.
"You look even worse than you did yesterday, why are you even trying to leave? We don't have anything to do today, why don't you just go rest up?"
He patted my back as I uttered out a few dry coughs. My eyes watered.
"Lila hasn't been in her c-classes, I've gotta go check in on her."
Even I could hear how awful my voice sounded. It was choppy and broken up, every syllable sounded like it hurt. It really did.
Niall handed me a clean tissue and I nodded thankfully before blowing what I could out of my nose. Gross.
"Oh, it was the uni on the phone? I'm sure she's okay, Haz."
I cleared my fiery throat, "it's Lila Ni, I've gotta go."
I managed to stand up and grab my jacket without getting dizzy again but Niall stopped me anyway, grabbing onto my forearm.
"You're not gonna listen to a single thing I say when I try telling you that you probably shouldn't go anywhere but back to bed-"
"Yup."
"Well, let us come with you then. At least then you won't be behind the wheel," Niall suggested, looking hopeful.
It wasn't a bad idea, I thought to myself with a sigh. It would make it easier. I didn't really trust myself to drive either.
I blinked slowly, rubbing at my right eye. It was watering even more than my left, tears were gonna start falling soon, "get ready fast then."
"Okay, go lay down or something while you wait, we won't be ten minutes."
Niall rushed off, calling for Louis and Liam to get ready to leave.
I thought about laying down as Niall had suggested but I knew that if I did I wouldn't be able to get back up. Instead I just leaned against the wall, happy to be at least resting my still pounding head for a few minutes.
Liam came into the room dressed with his hair lazily sat atop his head, "alrighty then Styles, let's go see your girlfriend."
I forced a smile. I was excited, about seeing Lila for the first time in a fair view weeks but I was really feeling like shit and I was just so worried about her. I needed to see her, healthy and alright, or I would go crazy.
Louis counted my sneezes out loud as we made our way down to Liam's car.
"28. . ."
He glanced at me as I groaned in frustration, "I hate this so much."
"I betcha do, I'm really pitying ya at the moment, Styles."
Louis grinned in a sympathetic manner but I couldn't help but see it it as sarcasm. Everything Louis said seemed like sarcasm at this point to be honest.
Thankfully Liam was thoughtful enough to not turn the stereo volume all the way up like we usually did and somehow even the lads were quieter than usual. My head throbbed anyway, but at least I didn't have to worry about their voices turning it into a migraine before we got to Lila's.
"Have you heard back from her? Lila I mean?" Liam asked, glancing back at me from the drivers seat. I held a hand up for him to wait as I sneezed a couple of times, my head down as my shoulders shook.
I was confused though, what was that supposed to mean?
"Huh?" I croaked, going beet red as I cleared my throat.
"You texted her to ask if she was alright, didn't you? Did you get a reply?"
I slapped myself in the face without even thinking about what I was doing. Usually it was more of a mental thing, like internally face palming when you fuck up and make yourself look like an idiot but apparently this cold was turning my brain to mush because I literally slapped myself in the face.
I groaned as the stinging pain spread across my face and Niall snorted from beside me, " that looked enjoyable."
"I didn't even text her," I whined, annoyed at myself. How had I forgotten that I literally had contact with her at the touch of my fingertips in a damn screen? I couldn't even blame this on the plague that was rattling through me anymore, I was coming to the realisation now that I was just an idiot.
"She'll be fine Harry, we're almost there anyway. Don't worry."
Louis shot me an assuring smile as I leaned back into my seat with an unconvinced grunt. I couldn't help but worry, it was out of my control.
"Haz, hey, wake him Niall, gently."
"Harry. . ."
I moaned, twisting stiffly away from the hand shaking my shoulder.
"I'll snot on you. . ." I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut tightly, "let me sleep."
"We're at Lila's H," Louis said. My eyes shot open, watering almost instantly as the cool air hit my eyeballs.
I hurriedly unclipped my seat-belt and opened the car door, "just give me ten minutes or so with her, please."
I pushed myself up onto my feet, a firm grip on the door as I fought the same dizziness that had rushed over me back at the hotel.
I blinked away the dots and closed the door before anyone could realise something was wrong and make me waste more time.
I coughed into my elbow as I jogged a little wobbly over to the building. Running wasn't one of my brightest ideas but now that I was so close I didn't want to wait any longer. I just had to make sure that she was okay.
The lift felt like it was taking forever to get there so I just went for the stairs, panting and struggling with every stuffy breath as my chest loosened up and made me cough. Luckily I was own on the stairs because I'm sure I looked like a right mess.
Finally I got to her apartment, fourth floor. I took a few deep breaths in a sad attempt to pull myself together and appear the normal me, even bothering to tug my messy hair back into place before I knocked on the door.
There was no answer for a couple of minutes and just as I was about to unlock the door with my own key the lock twitched and then the door opened.
"Harry!"
She shot forward and fell into my chest. I managed to stay upright and as her arms found their way around my neck I squeezed her close, breathing in the scent of her shampoo.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, pulling away with a wide grin.
I hadn't noticed it before as she'd moved to quickly but now that she was standing right in front of me I could see how red her nose and cheeks were, and how messy her general appearance was. I mean, she still looked adorable, just in the way she looked when she woke up in the morning.
I smiled, still getting my breath back from running up the stairs, "thank god you're okay."
Lila frowned, sniffling wetly, "of course I'm okay, a bit under the weather, stupid cold, but other than that I'm perfectly fine. What's the matter Babe?"
"Zeppelin rung, said that you hadn't been in classes for the past few days. I thought something was wrong. I was scared."
Lila's expression changed into one of realisation and she blinked slowly, "I knew there was something I forgot!"
I grinned, one side of my lips quirking up slightly, "you're gonna be the death of me."
Judging by the way my legs were going numb, I felt like I was on stilts and I had to keep rocking back and forwards to stay up, and the returning dizziness I was aware that I was going to need to sit down really soon unless I wanted to give Lila a good scare.
I was glad she hadn't noticed that I wasn't in the best health though, it meant that she would let me look after her.
"I'm sorry for scaring you Hazza." Lila muffled a cough into her sleeve, pulling a face, "come inside before you pass out. You look way worse than I do."
Well there goes that then.
I grinned at her wearily as she lead me into the apartment by my hand, "I thought I'd gotten away with it then."
She shook her head with a raspy chuckle as we sat down on the couch, "I know you far too well, Curly."
Sitting down was a big relief but I stood up again a few minutes later, remembering why I was here. Just sitting there wasn't any help.
"So what can I do for you, your majesty?"
I ignored how croaky my voice was and smiled.
"That isn't even quarter of a smile Harry, you're feeling awful. I don't need you to run around after me babe, sit back down and we'll just cuddle for a bit."
Lila patted the empty seat next to her but I just shook my head.
Before I could say anything I had to turn around and sneezed twelve times. I span back around even more slumped than I was in the beginning. I still smiled though.
"I'm not feeling that bad Lila, I just want to look after you."
I rubbed her back gently while she coughed and when it stopped she smiled at me tearfully, "thanks H, but seriously. You can't do-"
A loud and obnoxious voice came from behind the closed front door, "hey! Can we come in?"
Lila glanced at me with a grin, "I should've known you wouldn't have come without the rest of the squad."
"Yeah-"
I was cut off by another sneezing fit and flopped like a fish onto the couch as my head protested angrily.
"Come on in lads, its unlocked!" Lila called out as I continued to sneeze.
"I told you she was fine, Harry!" Louis called out triumphantly as he burst through the door.
Lila laughed with another cough, "just stupid enough to forget to call in sick."
I was still sneezing, buried in the couch pathetically.
"Harry, mate, you good?" Liam asked.
I just groaned out shudderingly, another sneeze shooting out.
"Ugh, yeah, I'm fine," I replied, my voice barely recognisable thanks to the thick congestion the sneezing fit had brought on.
"Yeah, sounds it." Niall grimaced, "catch."
He threw a fresh box of tissues at me but unfortunately my hands were trapped underneath me so it just hit me, feeling like a brick against my aching muscles.
"Oops."
Lila fell asleep during the little catching up session around the coffee table. She went quiet, and when I looked down she was snoozing against me, her mouth open slightly. I carefully tucked her hair away from her face and shuffled down further into a more comfortable position. If she could sleep, so could I.
"Oi, what are you doing?" Louis asked.
"Joining Lila," I replied, "you guys can sort dinner."
"Oh can we now?" Niall huffed with a smirk.
"You wanted to come." I shrugged, closing my eyes, "and nothing gross please."
"Demanding much," Liam chuckled, and that's the last thing I heard before slipping off into dreamland. It was a lot easier to fall asleep with Lila's skin against mine, just as it had been since I met her all those years ago.
Sorry Avamae15 I know this isn't quite you requested but I got a bit carried away, I really hope you still like it, if not, just yell at me or something and I'll write you something else.
Comment your thoughts guys! I really appreciate all the voting, you don't even know how much it all means to me :)