"You alright Haz?" Niall asked curiously, nodding his head at me. I stopped rubbing my stomach and nodded in response, "yeah, just- loose thread."
I smiled and pretended to drop the 'thread' onto the floor. Niall chuckled an rolled his eyes in amusement, "alrighty then, long as you're not feeling carsick or anything."
"Nope, I'm good," I assured. I turned to watch the landscape rushing past outside the window, afraid my face would give me away. It was only a slight stomachache anyway, I didn't see any point in moaning to lads about something that would probably disappear within the next hour anyway.
We reached the concert venue with plenty of time to spare. I think that the driver heard Niall mention car sickness and sped up for his car's sake. Getting out of the van, I wondered whether my sore tummy really was just from the movement of the van. I hadn't been carsick in a long time, I hadn't even thought about it until Niall said something.
I hung a few steps behind the rest of the lads as we made our way to centre stage for a quick rerun of the show and a sound check before people began arriving. Unfortunately the ache didn't go away, but I figured I'd better give it a little longer.
It didn't cause any problems with singing at least, but it was still there 45 minutes later when we'd hidden away in the dressing room backstage to relax for an hour before we had to be back on stage. Louis and Niall were drawn like magnets to the Xbox, while Liam and I relaxed on our phones, chatting every now and then and laughing at the occasional outbursts from Niall and Louis.
"Got some afternoon tea for ya lads, thought you might something to keep you going up on stage!" A woman with voluminous red hair walked into the room, balancing a tray of all kinds of snacks and drinks. She grinned as Louis biffed his controller to the side and leapt to his feet, bounding over eagerly, "I'm starving!"
"Hey, this is pretty neat, thank you Mrs." He nodded, impressed, as he scanned through the contents.
"My pleasure. I'm going to be around all evening so if you need anything come find me." She gestured at her short hair, "I'm usually quite easy to find, but the name's Letty if you have to ask around for me."
Louis took the food from her with a broad smile, "sounds great Love," he said, distracted by the food.
"Thank you," Liam grinned. Letty waved and disappeared.
Louis sat down on the floor in front of the couch Liam and I were sitting on, pulling packets and plates away and spreading them out on the carpet all around himself. He leaned back into the space between my legs and held up a plate with a quiche on it, "either of you interested?"
Liam peered over curiously. He scrunched his nose up, "not me."
I swallowed, feeling sick just looking at it, "neither."
Louis sighed, "well, I'm not eating it. There's spinach in it."
Niall joined him on the floor, pinching a box of crackers from the pile. I had no clue where that Letty lady had found all this food. We were prepared for the apocalypse.
Louis waved the quiche around in my face again. I pushed his hand away, gritting my teeth. Seeing it reminded me of the massive cooked breakfast I'd had at the hotel buffet that morning, which although had been good at the time was a memory that almost made me gag.
It wasn't even that my stomach felt that bad, I just couldn't imagine eating anything right then. I was probably just full.
Once everyone but me was munching on one thing or another Liam glanced over at me quizzically, "not hungry Styles?"
I shrugged, not looking up from my phone, "not really."
Liam nodded and carried on eating.
Five minutes later I decided to head to the bathroom to see if that would help at all. I stood and dropped my phone into my pocket, "I'm just heading to the loo."
"Don't be too long, they're gonna wanna see us for hair in ten minutes or so," Liam reminded with a click of his fingers.
"Yeah, I'll be back in a couple of minutes," I replied.
I regretted what I'd said once I'd gotten to the bathroom because it only gave me a short time and after sitting there uncomfortable for the few minutes I had nothing had even happened and I had no choice but to go back to the dressing room.
Walking back my right side spasmed and clenched suddenly, making me wince and bend, stopping for a moment in the middle of the corridor. I inhaled shakily and straightened back up, causing everything to tighten and ache again.
That definitely couldn't happen on stage tonight. I'd never hear the end of it.
Holding my gut with one hand I used my other to dig my phone out of my pocket and opened my trust friend Google. Let's see what he has to say about all this because I'm lost and I need to know how to make it stop before I had to go on stage. There were medics around, if I could figure out what I needed I could go find one and hopefully be feeling better by then.
Eyes trained on my screen I re entered the dressing room and was instantly herded into a chair to have my hair done. I sat silently, scrolling and reading. It was more difficult than I thought it was going to be to actually find anything.
My hair was finished and it was just myself and the lads left in the dressing room twenty minutes before stage call when I finally stumbled upon something that seemed promising, and as I continued reading my eyes grew wider and wider with every pulse of my quickening heart rate.
I'd always freaked easily, so knowing that I'd need surgery or I was gonna die made me leap straight into panic mode.
Liam's POV:
"Mate, what's the matter? Oi, just relax a second!" I shouted, gripping onto his forearm as he tried to pull away from me. Terror gleamed in his eyes so I softened my hold, not wanting to freak him even more.
I nodded to Louis, indicating he cover the door in case Harry got away from me.
We'd just been sitting quietly, everything had been calm as we all amped ourselves up for the show. Then Harry went crazy, leaping to his feet and running for the door. We couldn't let him just run out, we'd never find him again before we had to go on stage, so I grabbed him.
His lip wobbled as I held him there.
"Let me go," he stammered, his eyes glittering with unshed tears. He was breathing so quickly I was surprised he'd gotten any clear words out at all.
"Sit, and tell us what's going on. Has something happened?" I asked gently, gesturing towards his phone laying on the couch where he'd thrown it in his rush to get out. The only idea I had about what could possibly have him so terrified was a death in the family that he'd maybe just been informed about, or something along those lines. It was pretty stink timing, I had to admit.
Rather than sit like I'd just suggested Harry tried to rip away from me again. He gasped shallowly and just about did it, he would've if I hadn't stood up.
In the corner of my eye I saw Niall pick up Harry's phone.
"Liam!" Harry said, the exclamation only a fraction away from a sob. I let him go, surprised.
He made it a step to the door before gagging and doubling over.
"Liam, he's been looking at appendicitis. . ." Niall murmured quietly, glancing up from behind Harry's phone screen with a pale face and a worried gaze.
Harry's gags and groans had quietened and I turned to see that Louis had managed to calm him down a fair amount. They were sitting on the ground, Louis rubbing Harry's heaving back.
"Go see if you can find a medic Ni," I directed quietly. The last thing I wanted was to stir Harry up again. It was no wonder he'd worked himself into a panic, the stuff online about appendicitis was pretty scary. He must've been feeling sick all day. I was going to stay positive about this, self diagnosis often went completely wrong so I wasn't going to get worried about appendicitis just yet.
"On it." Niall slipped silently through the door as I crouched down beside Harry. He still hadn't been sick.
"Feeling bad Haz?" I asked gently, offering a bottle of water.
Louis took it from me and uncapped it before pressing it into Harry's quaking hand and moving it to his lips. He swallowed a mouthful and nodded, "better than a minute ago though."
He ducked his head between his legs while we waited for Niall to get back. Poor Harry, although the chances of him actually having appendicitis were low he'd worked himself up enough.
There was a knock at the door but just when I thought Niall was going to come in with a medic on his arm Letty's voice floated through the wood, "ten minutes boys!"
I listened to her footsteps quieten. Harry swallowed audibly and shook his head, "I can't, I've got to-"
"We're going to see what the professionals say Haz, what you've got to do is relax. Here, move back against the couch."
Louis and I helped him shuffle backwards.
It only took another two minutes for Niall and another taller man to return. Harry had gagged again meanwhile but still nothing had come up.
The other man moved quickly without a lot of words. He obviously knew how close we were getting to show time and wanted to work as fast as possible. Harry was very impatient to hear the verdict, his tongue caught in his teeth and his leg bouncing. He answered all the questions swiftly.
"I don't think it's anything serious." The medic looked to the rest of us, "not appendicitis as far as I can tell. The pain isn't in the right place and it'd more intense. He wouldn't have been as comfortable as he was when I was touching him there either."
Harry sighed in relief and hungrily breathed in a deep breath as if he'd been holding his breath all this time. Then he groaned and curled over, looking up at everyone with tears in his eyes, "so what's this then?"
"There's plenty of things it could be," the medic replied. He cocked his head thoughtfully, "have you eaten anything off lately?"
Harry shuddered, looking as if he was about to heave again. He grabbed onto his stomach. "Can we not talk about food?" He moaned.
"Breakfast was pretty diverse this morning, it could've easily been any of the meat he had on his plate," Niall spoke up, rubbing his forehead. I nodded in agreement. He'd eaten a big meal, it really could've been anything.
The medic hummed and nodded, "that's common. The side pain seems to stem from the the muscle above his hip so he's probably pulled that. It's easy to see why he came to the conclusion he did, at first sight I would've guessed the same thing."
Harry hung his head, "I feel stupid now."
Louis rubbed his back, "no more Google then?"
Harry shook his head and gulped, "I feel like I'm gonna throw up still."
"It'd be smart to sit out of this concert tonight," the medic suggested, packing his things and standing, "I can let the head of all this know, health stuff always puts these things on the back roller."
"Please," Harry agreed right before lurching forward and throwing up onto the floor with one final heave.
"Alright, feel better Harry."
For a medic, he was awfully quick to ditch at the sight of spew.
Super short, I know! Sorry loves. This was the request I was talking about in an earlier chapter that was really similar to another so I really struggled. I got there in the end thankfully but it didn't turn out amazingly. I did my best, went through it a few times to try and improve it but this was the best I could do.
Two updates in two days though, not a bad effort :)
The next request is for: savvv15