"Shit!" Louis muttered under his breath as he walked backwards, colliding with a chair at the kitchen table. It scooted loudly and nearly fell over but Louis caught it, letting out a sigh of relief at the save.
He was creating far too much of a ruckus for what he was currently trying to do. It was April Fool's day and he woke up feeling a little too excited. He loved playing pranks on the boys and he had some good ideas this year.
Last year he staged a robbery at their house and the year before that he pretended to faint in front of the boys. He enjoyed April Fool's day a little too much and it was honestly a little scary. Harry Liam and Niall made sure to lock their doors before going to sleep the night before.
Louis smiled down at his work. He completely covered the entire floor of the house in half filled plastic water cups, a prank he had seen on youtube. He thought it was absolutely genius so he got up at 3am to try it himself.
He knew he was going to regret waking up this early but he also knew the joy of seeing Liam's angry face would make it all worth it. Louis walked back to his bedroom, carefully avoiding the mess of cups of the floor.
He made it to his room successfully, only spilling a few of the cups on the way there. He climbed into his bed and tried going to sleep. He knew the anticipation was probably too much so he hopped out of bed and grabbed his bag of supplies he had just for today.
He dug through it and smiled at the items. He had fake spiders, silly string, and temporary tattoos. Everything he needed for some pretty terrible pranks.
He yawned after a few moments of sorting through his supplies and realized he should probably get to sleep now or else he wouldn't wake up to see everyones reactions to all his hard work. He jumped into bed and fell asleep within seconds. He was a lot more tired than he thought.
Louis slept peacefully through the entire night and the moment he woke up he heard shouting from what sounded like Liam's bedroom. Louis hopped out of bed as quickly as he could and swung open his bedroom door.
"What the hell!" Liam shouted as he stared at the cups covering the ground, clearly not very amused. Harry opened his door a few moments later, he was probably woken up by Liam's loud shout.
"Louis! How long did this take you?" Harry asked, barely being able to contain his laughter. Louis was happy at least someone appreciated all his hard work. Louis gave a cheeky shrug in response, not wanting to admit that it took him three whole hours to execute this.
Liam sighed angrily before slamming his door like a teen who had just been stripped of all wifi. Harry strategically hopped over all the cups blocking his doorway and Louis frowned. He thought his plan was flawless but he didn't place enough cups and Harry was now stood right next to him.
"You're going to have to clean this all up or Liam's going to kill you." Harry said and Louis nodded, knowing it was true. Liam hated things being messy or disorganized and cups scattered all around the floor was definitely a mess.
Louis and Harry worked together to clean the mess. Harry would stack the cups and hand them to Louis and Louis would then take them into the kitchen to be used in the future. There was no way he was going to throw away all these perfectly good cups.
Louis grabbed the fifth stack of cups to bring into the kitchen but he decided to take a quick detour. He rushed into his room, making sure Harry didn't see him. He grabbed the fake spiders from his bag and stuffed a few in his pocket.
"What took you so long?" Harry asked, sounding pretty suspicious of what Louis was doing.
"Nothing." Louis said with a smile, hoping it would be enough to convince the younger boy. When Harry handed Louis the last stack of cups Louis ran them into the kitchen before placing a fake spider on the counter right beside the sink.
Harry walked in the kitchen soon after Louis did and casually leaned up against the counter. He didn't notice the fake spider yet and Louis thought he'd take things into his own hands, faking a reaction to it as if he didn't just place it there a few moments ago.
"Oh my god, Harry!" Louis shouted as convincingly as he could. He sounded absolutely terrified and he figured if this was a movie he would probably win an Oscar for it. Harry turned around quickly, trying to figure out what Louis was yelling about.
Harry looked down at the counter to see a large spider and instantly jumped back, placing a hand on his heart as it raced. Louis couldn't help it anymore. He began laughing loudly and Harry looked up at him in confusion before taking a closer look at the spider.
Harry frowned after realizing it was fake. He picked it up and launched it towards Louis as hard as he could.
"Ouch!" Louis shouted in-between laughs as the prop hit him in the chest. He found this way too funny and Harry was no longer amused.
"What happened?" Niall asked as he walked in the room, unaware of both pranks that had already happened. He was definitely a heavy sleeper if he didn't hear all the shouting and door slamming going on earlier.
Louis continued to laugh and he wasn't able to explain all the pranking he had done that morning which was probably good since he had a ton more pranks he wanted to do, especially on Niall.
Niall shrugged, no longer interested in the answer as he walked towards the fridge, grabbing out some ingredients for a healthy smoothie. Louis had no props with him at the moment so he stood silently after calming down from his laughing fit, trying to think of a perfect prank to pull on Niall.
Louis decided on a silly string attack. He rushed into his bedroom and grabbed a can of silly string. He tip-toed back into the kitchen, careful not to let Harry see what he was doing. He opened the lid of silly string and began spraying it everywhere.
"Louis!" Niall shouted, sounding aggravated yet amused. He turned around and went to fight back. He tackled Louis to the ground and Louis could barely breath he was laughing so much. Harry rushed out of the room before he got dragged into it all which was a smart move.
Niall got up off the ground and jokingly kicked Louis a few times, letting him know he wasn't okay with being pranked. Louis continued to laugh but realized his throat was beginning to hurt. He shook it off and figured it was from all the laughing he had done today. He just needed some water.
He stood up off the ground and glanced around, making sure Niall wasn't going to surprise attack him. He grabbed a glass from the cabinets and filled it up with water, chugging it down. He instantly noticed that his throat was now burning and it didn't feel good at all.
The water didn't help once bit and now every time he swallowed it got worse. He didn't understand why this was happening but he shook it off, figuring it'd go away in a few seconds.
---
It was now three hours after he had pulled all the pranks on the boys and his throat was one hundred times worse. It felt like sandpaper and he knew he couldn't just hide this, the pained look on his face every time he swallowed would give it away soon enough.
"Harry?" Louis asked quietly as he walked into Harry's bedroom. He knew Harry would be the most sympathetic about all of this so he went to him first in hope of some help. It was hard for him to even talk at this point and he knew this wasn't going away anytime soon.
Harry looked up from his phone in fear, most likely thinking Louis was going to attack him with some type of prank. Louis gave a small laugh at the sight but ended up coughing harshly in his arm, wincing at the pain in his throat.
Tears began to fill his eyes and he knew he probably looked extremely pathetic right now.
"My throat hurts so bad, I don't know why," Louis said and Harry looked confused.
"Get out, Lou," Harry said before returning his gaze back to his phone screen. Harry must have thought Louis was pranking him once again. It wouldn't be surprising. Last year Louis pretended to faint in front of the boys so faking a sore throat wouldn't be that crazy.
"I'm being serious!" Louis whined, feeling a little upset that Harry didn't believe him. He coughed dryly into his arm a couple times, hating the itch in his throat that just wouldn't go away.
"I don't believe it," Harry said and Louis sighed before walking towards Liam's bedroom.
"My throat hurts, Li," Louis said as he walked in and Liam instantly shook his head, still looking a little mad over the whole cup situation.
"Louis, enough with the pranks," Liam said before pushing past Louis and heading into the kitchen. Louis followed closely behind, stopping for a minute when he realised Liam didn't notice he had followed and was now talking to Niall about him.
"He's faking sick now! That's not even a good prank!" Liam exclaimed as he dramatically slammed his hands on the table. Niall gave a small laugh, amused with the whole situation. If none of the boys thought faking sick was a good prank then why would Louis be doing it in the first place.
Louis rushed into the kitchen, tears streaming down his face from the pain. He swallowed harshly before trying to speak.
"I-" He rasped out and he noticed he barely had a voice anymore. His voice was scratchy and he didn't know if he should even be talking right now. He grabbed his phone out of his back pocket and typed out a text to Liam, figuring it would be easier that way.
I'm not joking, Li! I genuinely think there's something wrong.
Louis sent the text and gestured for Liam to check his phone once it buzzed. Liam read the text and rolled his eyes, not bothering to type a response since he could speak just fine.
"Drop it, Lou," Liam said harshly and Louis frowned before walking into the bathroom. He closed the toilet lid and sat down on it, letting the tears flow freely. He had no idea pulling a couple harmless pranks would lead to this.
He just wanted someone to believe him so he could get some help or some medicine. He had no idea what to do right now so all he did was cry. He let out a weak sob and instantly threw a hand up to his throat. The pain was beginning to become too much.
Louis walked towards the bathroom sink, turning it on slowly before cupping some water into his hands and drinking it. The water was now providing some relief and Louis was thankful but it only made his throat feel ten times worse when he swallowed dryly without any water.
Liam knocked on the bathroom door and Louis was quick to unlock it and let him in, hoping something good would come out of this.
"Wait, are you serious?" Liam asked, suddenly sounding concerned. Louis nodded, trying to blink back the tears that were threatening to spill again. Liam frowned before pulling Louis into a hug as an apology for not believing him earlier.
"I'm so sorry I didn't believe you!" Liam said and Louis frowned, not really caring about that anymore. He just wanted to feel better.
Liam googled Louis' symptoms and figured he had a bad case of strep throat which sounded absolutely awful. Liam searched up a few remedies and decided to try one out, hoping it would help Louis.
"Alright, we need salt and water," Liam said as he walked into the kitchen, grabbing one of the plastic cups Louis had used earlier for the prank. Liam filled it with warm water and Louis frowned as he watched it all happening. The concoction Liam was making sounded terrible.
Liam poured in an extreme amount of salt and stirred it up with a spoon, handing it to Louis once it was ready.
"You just need to gargle it for a few minutes," Liam said as Louis raised the cup up to his lips, he looked a little uneasy about it all which was understandable, who would want to gargle warm saltwater.
Louis only did it because he was desperate to feel better. He took a huge sip of the water and tilted his head back. He immediately threw his head back down, jumping over the sink to spit out the disgusting mixture.
"I can't do it, Li," Louis rasped out, his voice sounding extremely scratchy. Liam frowned before helping Louis raise the cup up to his mouth once again. He really wanted to help Louis and he knew this was the only way.
Louis took another sip, this one a little smaller than the last. He began gurgling it and Liam could tell he was holding back a gag. It must have tasted horrible.
Louis managed to keep the liquid in his mouth for a good two minutes before deciding he couldn't handle it anymore. He leaned forward and spit into the sink. He swallowed hard, testing if he felt any better.
He was pleasantly surprised to find that Liam's weird remedy actually worked and his throat was feeling way less dry and scratchy. He definitely still didn't feel 100% but this was better than nothing.
"Thanks, Li" Louis said quietly, not wanting to hurt his throat any more. Liam smiled in response before bringing Louis into another hug, not caring if he caught the sickness.
-----
I'm really bad at endings hahaha. I was writing this and then the late late show came on so I had to watch that of course because Harry hosted tonight (: so then after that ended i sat back down to finish writing this and Niall released a spotify single of Fool's Gold! It absolutely blew my mind Niall is such a pure talented precious boy and I love him. That is all. <3- Alexandra