"Hey, Li!" Louis yelled over the thumping music with an enthusiastic wave as his brunet friend plopped down into the passenger seat of his car, closing the door behind him.
Liam spun the dial back a bit so that he could actually hear a syllable of what Louis was saying. Louis turned it back up another few tabs, smiling cheekily.
Liam rolled his eyes and shivered a bit in his seat, the sudden change in temperature making it difficult for him to get warm in the heated car. Outside it was absolutely freezing, Liam had hardly walked ten meters from his warm house to get to Louis' car but his lips were dead dry and his gloved hands were numb.
He rubbed them together a few times and shifted against his seat, leaning closer to the air vents that were spitting the warm air into the car.
"It's bloody cold out right? I swear my hands almost froze to the steering wheel while I waited to the heat to kick in." Louis chuckled, glancing over at Liam for a split second before locking his gaze back onto the road. With all the slippery ice around he knew he had to be careful or he was going to cause an accident.
Liam hummed an amused sound and tenderly touched his cheeks. He realised he was wearing gloves and couldn't feel anything but wool. "I feel like my face is going to peel off."
"Sounds messy, not in my car if you can help it," Louis replied with a smile.
Liam shook the hood of his coat from his head as he started to finally feel the warmth.
They were going to catch up with a few people from tour a couple of towns over but first they had to pick up Niall and Harry. Niall wasn't too far away thankfully, and Harry was just on the other side of town.
Liam and Louis both cracked up laughing when the saw Niall struggling to squeeze out his front door, struggling because of the amount of layers he was wearing. He looked like a little Eskimo. Niall ran over to the car and there himself into the backseat, swearing and cursing about how how cold it was. He hooked the door shut with his leg and curled up in a ball on his side. Somehow his face was hidden, there was a hood stitched to the front of one of his layers and it was covering his face.
Liam snorted when he realised what the Irishman had done.
"You're seriously wearing a jacket backwards, Ni? How the hell did you manage to zip it up?"
He laughed.Louis glanced back at Niall and joined in the laughter. He looked like some kind of absurd, faceless bear.
Niall tore the thick cotton off his face exposing a nose bright red from the cold, "I'm just that skilled."
He put his hood back into place and sat up. The seat belt almost didn't click, there was only just enough belt to stretch over his mountain of layers and reach the buckle.
Quarter of an hour later the merry trio reached Harry's house and Louis pressed his hand down on the horn sharply, not letting go until their curly haired friend came appeared in front of his house. As always, he was dressed the lightest out of all of them. Liam had always been envious of the way his friend didn't seem to feel the cold at all, he could wear a flip flops and swimming shorts to Antartica and still probably last several hours longer out in the cold than the three of them would despite being all bundled up.
Today he was wearing his usual black jeans and a blue sweater. And while everyone else had tightly laced boots and thermal socks to protect their feet from the cold, Liam watched as Harry peered down at his shoe rack before deciding on flip flops with a shrug to himself.
Typical.
Harry trotted down the short driveway and got into the empty backseat, greeting everyone happily.
"You're fucking crazy."
Louis shook his head, shocked by the thin clothes Harry could get away with in this cold. There was snow on the ground from the night before, and yet somehow this green eyed dude could wear flip flops.
Harry was laughing too hard at Niall to hear Louis.
"Not all of us are fucking immune to the cold Harry, shut up!"
Harry laughed harder.
Louis got the car back on the road and they headed out of town.
They all sang along with the radio and complained about how cold it was all the way through the countryside and by the time they reached the mountains, Liam had forgotten about the cold. It was toasty and warm inside the car now, and his big winter jacket was keeping the heat right up against his skin.
Louis sung loudly as he carefully drove around the first sharp corner. He was a confident driver, and he thought he was pretty good, but if the car slipped up on these turns it would be disastrous and quite possibly turn into a life or death situation. The roads went high.
Liam shifted uneasily in seat, realising how he starting to feel a little off. He tucked his legs up and adjusted his sleeves as one had rolled right up and was digging into his forearm uncomfortably.
Another turn and Liam suddenly felt nauseous. There was a lump in his throat and his stomach was flipping around warningly.
He groaned quietly to himself. He hadn't gotten carsick in forever.
The nausea was the worst thing in the world. He tried taking a few deep breaths, and just when he thought it had settled down it leaped back up again. He swallowed and tasted bile at the back of his throat.
He tried looking straight out the window, like his mum had told him when he was a kid, but that didn't help. It just made him feel dizzy and lightheaded.
He tried closing his eyes, shutting out the world, but every time they went around a corner his lids would shoot open and his stomach would roll sickeningly.
He was beginning to sweat nervously now. He didn't want to be sick.
Niall tugged at his ear from the seat behind him, "are you asleep, Payno?"
"No," Liam replied simply, not wanting to keep his mouth open for too long.
"You've gone quiet, you good?" Louis asked, not taking his eyes off the road. He'd noticed Liam wriggling around a bit beside him in the past few minutes and he thought maybe he needed to use the bathroom.
Liam blinked slowly and gulped as the car went around yet another corner.
"Feeling kind of ill," he admitted, shutting his mouth quickly afterward. Now they knew, he let his arms lace around his swirling mid section.
"From the curvy's?"
Liam nodded, earning a moment of sickening dizziness as the view spun around him. He moaned lowly and rubbed at his eyes with one hand.
"Do you feel like you're gonna be sick?" Louis asked. He knew there were places to pull over every couple of minutes, so if it was needed, he could stop the car and let Liam get his bearings back. He felt bad for his friend already. He wasn't feeling well, and if he did need to get out of the car, the cold was going to hit him like a slap to the face. At the altitude they were at, it was going to be even colder than it was before.
"Dunno, maybe," Liam replied quietly. He was really hoping that he could handle this without puking but the lump was growing and his stomach was just getting more and more nauseated.
"Are you gonna stop, Lou?" Niall asked.
Louis nodded, "yeah." He patted Liam's leg, "we need a bit of a break I think."
Liam closed his eyes, already impatient. He wanted everything to just stop moving underneath him. The stupid corners could go to hell.
When the car jerked to a stop Liam's boy involuntarily doubled over and he coughed, one hundred percent certain that he was about to throw up. Niall and Louis yelled for Harry to get out of the car and help him out, seeing as he wouldn't freeze like they would. Louis unclipped Liam's belt and rubbed his back as he continued to cough. Nothing was coming up, and Louis couldn't help but be thankful for his cars sake.
Harry opened Liam's door and spun his friend gently around so that he was leaning out of the car instead of into it. The coughing quickly turned into gagging and Harry winced as Liam heaved a small amount of liquid up onto the frozen gravel. He shuffled back slightly so that his bare feet wouldn't get splattered if Liam threw up again.
At this point, Liam wanted to throw up again. His poor stomach was fighting to keep its contents down and it was just making him feel worse. If he could get it out of him he might be able to get to sleep.
But nothing else would come up. He stared at the ground for ten minutes, breathing heavily from the intense nausea, but he just couldn't be sick again.
He didn't want to get back on the road, but the cold was starting to hurt his eyes and his pathetic excuse for sick up had already frozen over.
"You good, mate?" Harry questioned softly.
"I feel like crap," Liam rasped, his throat dry. He hiccuped and pitched over some more but unsurprisingly still nothing came out.
"You think there's more to come?"
"It won't come up. . ."
"How about we get you buckled back in so we can warm up the car again, and we'll grab a bag or something just in case?" Louis suggested. He was shivering in his seat now, the cold air had quickly made its way through Liam's open door and filled the car.
Liam nodded with a whimper and shuffled back to face the front of the car. Past his red cheeks and nose Louis could see how pale his friend was, and his hairline looked damp too.
Harry closed the door and made his way back over to his side of the car. Niall passed a supermarket bag he'd found in the pocket on the back of the seat to Liam. Fortunately there weren't any holes in the plastic.
Liam knew it was a bad idea getting back to driving, he felt awful and he knew that his stomach was going to lose at some point. It was literally only two minutes after they'd gotten back on the road that it happened. It was completely unexpected, Liam's eyes flew open as his mouth filled with sick. He spat it out into the bag and coughed, triggering an extremely uncomfortable and unattractive vomiting session that lasted a good five minutes and had involuntary tears running down his cheeks.
Louis was quick to stop the car as soon as he could but by the time he finally found somewhere to pull over Liam was practically done.
"You good, Li? That was horrible," he sympathised, rubbing his friends heaving back.
"Tell me about it," Liam replied breathlessly. His stomach definitely felt empty now. He still felt like he was going to be sick, but he knew he wouldn't. He couldn't, there was nothing to come up.
He grimaced at the disgusting taste in his mouth.
Harry tried not to screw his face up. It smelled inside the car and with all the windows up there was no way to get rid of the smell. There were also no bins around to throw away the bag of vomit, "what are we going to do with the bag?"
Liam opened the door and placed the tied off bag down on the gravel, "I'll just leave it right here." He quickly shut the door behind him so that the cold air wouldn't come in again.
"Gross." Niall smiled, "feel sorry for the poor bugger who gets curious as to what's in it."
"You good to carry on?" Louis asked as Liam slumped tiredly against the seat, closing his eyes again.
"Hmmm, I'm gonna sleep. . ."
"Alright Mate, just say something if we need to stop again," Louis said.
All he got in reply was a soft hum.
He switched the radio off so that Liam could sleep in peace and made sure he did the corners extra slowly. Their only bag was on the side of the road, and he didn't want to start Liam off again.
Thankfully the rest of the ride went smoothly.