I was probably the worst liar on the planet, in the universe, and everybody knew it. I stammered, I went red, and my pupils dilated to the size of spoons. Which is why I didn't understand why the lads thought I was lying to them about this pounding headache. They knew all my tells and I didn't have any of them, I wasn't lying!
"Niall, it's just a signing. We're not even doing anything huge today. You didn't even choice a worthwhile day to fake sick," Louis shook his head from side to side, disappointed.
"Louis. . ." I grumbled, frustrated. "My head hurts. I'm not faking."
"This is stupid. We have to go or were going to be late," Liam huffed from the doorway. I glared at him over the top of my pile of pillows. Even narrowing my eyes hurt.
Harry looked down at his phone, "Liam right. Can you just get up Niall?"
"I'll call management myself, tell them I'm not going. Go without me." I sniffled and buried myself deep under the mountain of blankets I'd collected. It was marginally nicer for my head in the dark without all the bright lights and loud voices.
Suddenly my safe house was torn away and I croaked in shock at the sudden whoosh of cold air that instantly clung at my skin.
"They're not going to let you out of it because of a fake headache Nialler. Let's go." Liam yanked on my leg until I was hanging over the side of the bed. He took me by the shoulder and stood me up as of a was some kind of human sized doll so that I really had no choice in standing, or I was going to hit the floor.
My head spun and I didn't like the feeling at all. I grabbed onto Liam's arm and didn't let go. Before in bed I'd felt bad but up for arguing, now on my feet I felt far worse and hardly up to even talking. It only took me a moment to decide that this wasn't a headache, it was a friggin migraine and still my idiot friends thought I was lying to them.
"Get changed, we'll meet you in the car," Liam said, tearing out of my hold and leaving me to blink away the spots in my vision and sway in my place like I was on a boat.
My room became empty quickly and soon I was all alone.
"For fucks sake. . ." I grumbled to myself as I slowly levered my sweaty shirt over my head and carelessly tossed it into the floor to replace with a fresh one. There wasn't even any point in calling management like I said I would. The lads would probably get cranky over it and tell everyone I was fine anyway.
"Stupid Liam, stupid migraine," I huffed, kicking my discarded shirt across the room. Standing on one leg made me stumble but luckily caught myself on the bed frame before I really fell down.
I sat down heavily beside my bag and dug through it to find a fresh change of clothes, my head clenching and pulsating the entirety of my search.
"Aren't you done already? We've been waiting five minutes!" Louis said from behind me. I groaned and stood up, only just finished with my socks, "I'm trying Louis."
He rolled his eyes and tugged me out of the room, "I don't care if you're tired of whatever, we can't just be late for this signing."
Like standing had, the sudden movement had me reeling. I cried out as my head pulsed painfully hard and lights flickered all around dizzily. Tears sprang to my eyes and Louis was less than impressed at the tight and desperate hold I had on his shoulder.
"Are you seriously crying?" Louis whispered unsurely, peering at me with his face all screwed up. My vision was blurred with tears and spotty with lightheadedness but I could tell that I'd probably just made it worse.
"Dude, Liam's gonna be so pissed when I tell him you tried the crying card." He smirked and patted the hand of mine that was sitting on his shoulder patronisingly.
I swallowed and whacked his hand away with as much strength as I could muster. I didn't even say anything, I just stormed off and hoped that I wouldn't pass out or fall over on my way. That might ruin the effect.
I couldn't walk very fast so Louis caught up quickly and spent the walk down to the car pestering me relentlessly and teasing me every time I tripped on one thing or another.
By the time we finally reached the other lads my shaking fists were itching to smack the confident smirk right off his face.
Harry glanced over at me as I got into the car. Then he sighed and looked back out the window.
I pulled my hood up over my head to block out both their stares and the sunlight pouring out the window. If I'd had more time I might've been able to grab a pair of sunglasses out of my bag, and actually had the chance to brush my teeth before I was rudely rushed out of the door.
Moaning and shifting I ran my tongue over my teeth. Now that I'd remembered they were dirty I felt even more gross than I had before.
"Maybe we should've just let him stay back at the hotel," Liam grumbled to Liam from the drivers seat.
"What?" I opened my eyes. My head might've been throbbing pretty hard and despite the minor ringing in my ears I could still hear him.
"Well, if you're just gonna moan and groan all day. . ."
My lip twitched. I wasn't going to humour him, or argue with him, because it would just make everything worse again. As blank as I was trying to keep my face my eyes were getting itchy again and I had to wipe another tear off my cheek before anyone else noticed it. I was just so frustrated, this hadn't happened before. Never had I been accused of faking before.
Turned out the signing was outside, smack bang in the middle of a park with nothing to keep the hot sun from spilling down on my back. Within ten minutes I was sure I'd been roasted, scorched crispy and crunchy. I was sweating from just about every pore my body had and the patches of black and white circulating around my vision were ten times more obvious and shocking every time.
People were beginning to notice too. A few girls asked if I was okay, and younger girls mums were all over me with their motherly instincts and touching hands. The lads were all laughing and teasing me but my face wasn't red because I was embarrassed, it was red because I was so hot I was about to melt into a thick puddle right there on that chair.
I tried taking a sip of water out of the bottle I'd been given in an effort to push away the lightheadedness but it didn't work at all. Instead, it settled in the pit of my stomach and began churning around sickeningly, just that tiny little sip.
After an hour and a half the band was given a quarter of an hour break away from all the people in the shade of some trees on the outer edge of the park. The rest of the lads took off, chasing after each other and laughing loudly while I sat in my seat and contemplated whether or not I could even stand up. What if I really did pass out? I felt like I could.
There were a few fan who were too excited and the guards were struggling to hold them back. One came over and asked if I'd go with the other boys so they could keep everything under control. Then he frowned and picked up my water bottle, "you should finish this Niall, you look hot."
Shakily I took the bottle, "not thirsty. Can you help me up?"
Unsurely, the guard offered a hand and hoisted me slowly and carefully onto my feet. One of my legs collapsed right from the get go and the taller man beside me grabbed my shoulder to keep me upright.
"Whoa kid, what's the matter?"
"Migraine," I whimpered miserably, hardly refraining from burying my face in the chest of a man I hardly even knew.
"Oi Niall, get over here!" Harry called in the distance. My own name echoed a few times in my ears.
"Do you want to sit back down?" The guard questioned.
Niall sighed and shook his thumping head, "I'll be okay, I'm just need a minute."
"Alright son, be careful. Tell one of your friends if you get any worse." He nodded and left me to help his own friends keep the over excited fans back. I felt sick and woozy as I walked over to see what Harry wanted with me.
I got within five feet of him before a heavy pile of jackets hit me in the chest, shoving me down onto my knees in one swift movement. The hit to my abdomen made a lump instantaneously grew to what felt like the size of a tennis ball in my throat and my stomach swirled with intense nausea that had my mouth salivating.
My eyes widened and I weakly tossed the jackets onto the grass beside me in case I was about to throw up on them all.
"On the grass?" Liam tutted, scooping them up, "seriously?"
And then I vomited. It was painful, jarring, and tasted a hell of a lot like I'd swallowed a cup of acid and just heaved it back up. After skipping breakfast it probably was about all I was just getting up so the burning feeling wasn't exactly unexpected, but it was killer on my throat. And my head was absolutely screaming.
As the vomiting eased up I became aware of someone fanning me from the side. The boys were all still standing in front of me with their jaws swinging on the ground which meant. . . Good old Mr Bodyguard from earlier stood their with a clipboard and a worried face.
"Shit," Louis murmured, his shoulders high.
Liam threw the jackets at the guard without a second thought and crouched down beside me, spitting everywhere as he apologised loudly and frantically. My ears rang and I managed to get out a shush loud enough to make him quit yelling right in my ear. The muscles in my legs gave out and I plopped from my knees onto my bum, squeezing my eyes shut. Not even that helped much to be honest, the lights still flickered and leapt around even behind my lids.
"Shuffle back just a little Ni, there's a tree for ya to lean on," Harry whispered into my ear. I was grateful that he seemed to be getting the idea that loud noise was no help.
"Help," I whined, reaching out in the direction his voice came in. He gently took hold of my arms and helped me scoot back on my bottom until my back hit the bark. I laid my sensitive head back and let out a crackly whimper, pressing the heels of my hands into my eye sockets.
"How bad's your head Ni?" Louis questioned quietly.
"Really bad, no thanks to you," I said. I'd tried sounding defiant and grumpy but my voice was too choked and near to crying to sound anything but pathetic and weak.
"Aw Mate, I'm really sorry. I was especially tough on you. I don't know what I was thinking," Liam said, shaking his head and biting his bottom lip. He was radiating guilt even thicker than the other boys.
"Sorry for making fun," Louis added.
"Yeah." Harry shifted an inch closer to me against the tree, "we were being proper wankers all day."
"You were." I agreed, nodding. It sent the world spinning around me all over again and even though I was already sitting down, my body wanted to be closer to the ground apparently because everything went weak and I fell. Thankfully it was to the side Harry was on, rather than the dirt on my other side.
He caught me in time with a shocked gasp and then his eyes met mine about two inches from my face, wide in worry. "I thought you'd passed out!" He rested my head on his shoulder gently.
"I'll go back over there and get this whole thing put to an early end." The guard tossed my water bottle to Liam, "have him drink something, I tried before but he wouldn't."
I groaned and protested as the bottle was waved in front of my mouth. Liam yanked on my bottom lip lightly with the open top, "come on Niall. It'll help cool you down some more. You're bright red."
He was right. Like always. Stupid Liam. I raised a hand reluctantly and tipped his hand, sending a river of cool water pouring into my mouth. Since I'd already been sick it wasn't so bad. Plus, I was in the shade now and I reckon that probably helped some.
After having that bit I guzzled down the entire bottle, spilling it all down my front as I went. I finished up and finally opened my eyes into slits, seeing everyone watching me. Louis was trying not to smile, glancing from my face to the wet patches on my shirt.
"Don't say anything Lou," I muttered, "please."
"I wasn't going to," Louis replied, a grin creeping in at the edges of his lips.
We caught a ride back to the hotel with our helpful bodyguard and the lads helped me up to our room. I could hardly walk at all. I still couldn't see very straight which made it difficult, but I was also just completely exhausted after trying to tolerate a migraine all day out in the sun. My feet kept dragging over each other and I knew that if I didn't have someone on either side of me I would've hit the floor at least ten times on my way to me bed.
Liam had some strong pain killers hidden away in his bag so I took some of those and took a long nap that lasted long into the night. I woke up at two in the morning feeling way better, pretty much as if nothing had happened in the first place, but I couldn't go back to sleep after sleeping so long already.
It would've been a long morning in front of the TV if the lads hadn't joined me on the couch. We had nothing on that day for once so we were able to screw around and not worry about being too tired to function throughout the day, we could just sleep whenever! I was just super happy that my headache hadn't followed me into our one day off. Then the lads really would've been upset with me.
What a crappy ending. I didn't know where to go with it, sorry loves.
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