Status: ACTIVE.
Lightning Moments
Liam
“Ready to go, mate?” Zayn asked as I pulled my last notebook out of my locker and stuffed it into my backpack. “We’re supposed to meet Louis outside. Since, you know, he’s the only one out of us that can drive.”
I nodded and closed my locker door. “Alright. Wait, is he going to be blaring music again? Because last time, we almost got detention.”
“I don’t think we almost got detention because he was blaring music,” he corrected, pursing his lips as he struggled to remember. “Oh! It was because he pointed at Mrs. Murray as she was leaving the school and sang at her, ‘I got ninety-nine problems, but a bitch ain’t one.’”
I burst out laughing, able to picture the entire scene once Zayn reminded me. Louis, sitting on top of his black SUV, rapping to Jay-Z with his bright sunglasses on and pointing right at the school’s most hated history teacher as she left the school, screaming as he directed the main line of the song at her.
Needless to say, the principal wasn’t very amused.
“Okay…” I trailed off, still chuckling, “maybe he took that a bit too far.”
“You think?” Zayn snorted a little and shook his head. “God, what are they doing?”
I looked over at Louis’ expensive foreign car and saw Harry lying down on the pavement, Niall staring down at him with his arms crossed, and Louis on his knees, tracing around Harry’s body.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” I asked as we neared the other group of friends.
Niall immediately burst into his hilarious laugh, clapping, while Louis remained concentrated. Harry, who was facing the sky, his eyes closed, answered, “Louis is tracing me with a bit of chalk.”
As if that were a normal, everyday thing. “And, um, why is Louis tracing you?”
Louis stared up at me, narrowing his eyes a little. “Are you questioning me, boy?”
“No,” I responded, trying my hardest not to laugh.
He let out a breath, raised his eyebrows in a sassy way, and went back to what he was doing.
A couple minutes later, Louis got to his feet and brushed off the knees of his bright skinny jeans. “Okay, Hazza, you’re good to get up. But be careful not to smudge it.”
Harry got up gently, watching his every move carefully to make sure he didn’t brush the chalk lines that surrounded him. Once he was out of the outline, he shook out his hair, making sure there was no gravel hiding in it.
“Alright, we’re good to go,” Louis announced, walking over to the drivers’ side of his SUV.
“Wait, what?” I questioned, my eyebrows pulling together. “That’s it? You just wanted to make the outline?” I loved my friends, but sometimes, I felt like they were completely out of their minds.
“Liam,” Louis sighed as I crawled into the backseat, “you’re asking questions again.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
Soon enough, we were pulling out of the space. Louis was talking about the girl from chemistry, and my wondering about the chalk drawing was long gone.
“She’s a cool girl,” Louis was saying as he turned out of the school lot. “And I invited her to come with us.”
“To play videogames?” Niall questioned with a chuckle. “What bird likes to play Xbox?”
“Loads of girls play Xbox,” Louis shot back, smirking. “Like…like your gran!”
“My gran does not play Xbox,” Niall shot back. “I don’t even know if my gran knows what an Xbox is.”
“That’s weird…” Harry trailed off wonderingly. “I could have sworn that it was your gran who came over last week to play a bit of Halo.”
“Harry!” Zayn gasped in fake-surprise. “I knew you went for older women, but…Niall’s gran?”
“Hey, little Harry wants what little Harry wants,” he grinned.
I let out a loud snort of laughter, which made everyone else start laughing, too.
“Liam,” Louis started, sneaking a glance at me in the rearview mirror as he changed the subject, “do you know why Mika was in the nurse’s office?”
I opened my mouth, ready to answer truthfully, but, after a thought, I stopped. What if Mika didn’t want everyone to know about her fear, how she completely broke down over the sound of thunder?
“I think she had a headache,” I responded after what I hoped wasn’t too long of a pause. “And she wanted some aspirin.”
“Oh, alright,” Louis nodded. “That makes sense.”
A few minutes later, we pulled up Louis’ ridiculously long driveway. His house came into view, a giant white building with different wings.
Niall, who was new to our friend group after moving to Wolverhampton from Mullingar, Ireland and had never been to Louis’ place, stared with his jaw dropped. “Holy shit, Louis,” he gasped. “This is where you live?!”
“Yeah,” Louis answered easily as he pulled the car into the garage. “Just make sure that you follow me. Liam got lost his first time here.”
I felt a flush fill my face as I climbed out of the car, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. “Shut up, Louis. That wasn’t my fault. You purposely gave me the wrong directions to the toilet.”
Louis started laughing hard, shaking his head, before wiping away an imaginary tear. “God, that still gets me every time.”
“I’m so glad it amuses you,” I muttered under my breath, although the other boys were too far ahead to hear.
Once we were all in Louis’ den on the third floor, we plopped around the room: Zayn and I shared the loveseat, Louis and Harry on the couch, Niall sitting Indian-style in front of them.
“I CALL FIRST,” Louis shouted, reaching for the first player remote on the coffee table in front of him.
“Then I’m second.” Harry reached out, trying to act out his statement, but he was too slow. Niall swiped the other controller out of nowhere before turning back to grin at his friend. “NIALL!” he screeched, putting on a pouty face. “NOOO.”
“Harry, come on,” Louis sighed. “I think my sister’s napping. And my mum will kill me if we wake her up.”
Harry sat back, still pouting but no longer screaming, as Louis and Niall played the first round. The losers passed the controllers around while the winners got to play again.
Before I knew it, three hours had passed. Not that I noticed, since I was in the middle of fighting Niall in the fighting game.
“Dieeee,” Niall hissed, jabbing his finger into the X button again and again, sending punch after punch into my face.
“No!” I repeated over and over, watching the little bar of life run out faster and faster. “BLOCK HIS HITS, GOD DAMMIT!”
But the game couldn’t hear me, and my character passed out, surrounded by a pool of blood. “HA!” Niall exclaimed, standing up and pointing at me. “You just got pained.”
All of us groaned, recognizing the pun with my name. “That doesn’t even make any sense,” Harry sighed. “It’d be a bad joke if Liam said in place of you getting pwned or something, but you saying it…was pointless.”
Niall sighed and sat back down. “Who am I playing next?”
“Me,” Zayn piped up without hesitation, ripping the controller from my hand.
I lied back on the couch, sighing with defeat, as my phone started going off in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the name on the front. DAD.
I swallowed as I got to my feet. “Guys, I gotta take this.”
No one heard me, since they were too immersed in the video game. Sighing, I went out into the hallway and answered. “Hello?”
“Liam?!” Dad’s voice came through the other side. “Where the hell are you?! It’s half five, and I come home, and this house is a mess! Didn’t I tell you to clean this afternoon?”
He was shouting so loudly that it took me a second to register what he was saying. Immediately, I blanched. “I’m so sorry, Dad. I forgot.”
“You forgot.” He let out a groan. “Liam, you’re always forgetting everything. I ask you to do one thing around here, and it’s more important to hang out with your friends. It’s pathetic.”
I swallowed, taking a deep breath. “I’ll come home right now and get it done.”
“Good.” And then the line went dead.
When I walked back into the room, nobody noticed me until I picked up my backpack. “Going somewhere, Liam?” Zayn asked. He no longer had a remote, which meant he must have lost.
“Home,” I responded, trying to hold back my emotions. “My dad’s throwing a fit.”
Harry grumbled, “That guy’s batshit crazy.”
I chuckled in spite of myself. “Want me to drive you?” Louis questioned, pausing the game.
“HEY!” Niall whined. “You only did that because I was winning.”
“No, it’s fine,” I answered, ignoring Niall’s outburst. “I’ll just walk. Thanks, though. I’ll see you in school tomorrow.”
And with that, I walked out the door and started down Louis’ million-kilometer-long driveway, trying to block out any thoughts about my dad.
I nodded and closed my locker door. “Alright. Wait, is he going to be blaring music again? Because last time, we almost got detention.”
“I don’t think we almost got detention because he was blaring music,” he corrected, pursing his lips as he struggled to remember. “Oh! It was because he pointed at Mrs. Murray as she was leaving the school and sang at her, ‘I got ninety-nine problems, but a bitch ain’t one.’”
I burst out laughing, able to picture the entire scene once Zayn reminded me. Louis, sitting on top of his black SUV, rapping to Jay-Z with his bright sunglasses on and pointing right at the school’s most hated history teacher as she left the school, screaming as he directed the main line of the song at her.
Needless to say, the principal wasn’t very amused.
“Okay…” I trailed off, still chuckling, “maybe he took that a bit too far.”
“You think?” Zayn snorted a little and shook his head. “God, what are they doing?”
I looked over at Louis’ expensive foreign car and saw Harry lying down on the pavement, Niall staring down at him with his arms crossed, and Louis on his knees, tracing around Harry’s body.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” I asked as we neared the other group of friends.
Niall immediately burst into his hilarious laugh, clapping, while Louis remained concentrated. Harry, who was facing the sky, his eyes closed, answered, “Louis is tracing me with a bit of chalk.”
As if that were a normal, everyday thing. “And, um, why is Louis tracing you?”
Louis stared up at me, narrowing his eyes a little. “Are you questioning me, boy?”
“No,” I responded, trying my hardest not to laugh.
He let out a breath, raised his eyebrows in a sassy way, and went back to what he was doing.
A couple minutes later, Louis got to his feet and brushed off the knees of his bright skinny jeans. “Okay, Hazza, you’re good to get up. But be careful not to smudge it.”
Harry got up gently, watching his every move carefully to make sure he didn’t brush the chalk lines that surrounded him. Once he was out of the outline, he shook out his hair, making sure there was no gravel hiding in it.
“Alright, we’re good to go,” Louis announced, walking over to the drivers’ side of his SUV.
“Wait, what?” I questioned, my eyebrows pulling together. “That’s it? You just wanted to make the outline?” I loved my friends, but sometimes, I felt like they were completely out of their minds.
“Liam,” Louis sighed as I crawled into the backseat, “you’re asking questions again.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
Soon enough, we were pulling out of the space. Louis was talking about the girl from chemistry, and my wondering about the chalk drawing was long gone.
“She’s a cool girl,” Louis was saying as he turned out of the school lot. “And I invited her to come with us.”
“To play videogames?” Niall questioned with a chuckle. “What bird likes to play Xbox?”
“Loads of girls play Xbox,” Louis shot back, smirking. “Like…like your gran!”
“My gran does not play Xbox,” Niall shot back. “I don’t even know if my gran knows what an Xbox is.”
“That’s weird…” Harry trailed off wonderingly. “I could have sworn that it was your gran who came over last week to play a bit of Halo.”
“Harry!” Zayn gasped in fake-surprise. “I knew you went for older women, but…Niall’s gran?”
“Hey, little Harry wants what little Harry wants,” he grinned.
I let out a loud snort of laughter, which made everyone else start laughing, too.
“Liam,” Louis started, sneaking a glance at me in the rearview mirror as he changed the subject, “do you know why Mika was in the nurse’s office?”
I opened my mouth, ready to answer truthfully, but, after a thought, I stopped. What if Mika didn’t want everyone to know about her fear, how she completely broke down over the sound of thunder?
“I think she had a headache,” I responded after what I hoped wasn’t too long of a pause. “And she wanted some aspirin.”
“Oh, alright,” Louis nodded. “That makes sense.”
A few minutes later, we pulled up Louis’ ridiculously long driveway. His house came into view, a giant white building with different wings.
Niall, who was new to our friend group after moving to Wolverhampton from Mullingar, Ireland and had never been to Louis’ place, stared with his jaw dropped. “Holy shit, Louis,” he gasped. “This is where you live?!”
“Yeah,” Louis answered easily as he pulled the car into the garage. “Just make sure that you follow me. Liam got lost his first time here.”
I felt a flush fill my face as I climbed out of the car, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. “Shut up, Louis. That wasn’t my fault. You purposely gave me the wrong directions to the toilet.”
Louis started laughing hard, shaking his head, before wiping away an imaginary tear. “God, that still gets me every time.”
“I’m so glad it amuses you,” I muttered under my breath, although the other boys were too far ahead to hear.
Once we were all in Louis’ den on the third floor, we plopped around the room: Zayn and I shared the loveseat, Louis and Harry on the couch, Niall sitting Indian-style in front of them.
“I CALL FIRST,” Louis shouted, reaching for the first player remote on the coffee table in front of him.
“Then I’m second.” Harry reached out, trying to act out his statement, but he was too slow. Niall swiped the other controller out of nowhere before turning back to grin at his friend. “NIALL!” he screeched, putting on a pouty face. “NOOO.”
“Harry, come on,” Louis sighed. “I think my sister’s napping. And my mum will kill me if we wake her up.”
Harry sat back, still pouting but no longer screaming, as Louis and Niall played the first round. The losers passed the controllers around while the winners got to play again.
Before I knew it, three hours had passed. Not that I noticed, since I was in the middle of fighting Niall in the fighting game.
“Dieeee,” Niall hissed, jabbing his finger into the X button again and again, sending punch after punch into my face.
“No!” I repeated over and over, watching the little bar of life run out faster and faster. “BLOCK HIS HITS, GOD DAMMIT!”
But the game couldn’t hear me, and my character passed out, surrounded by a pool of blood. “HA!” Niall exclaimed, standing up and pointing at me. “You just got pained.”
All of us groaned, recognizing the pun with my name. “That doesn’t even make any sense,” Harry sighed. “It’d be a bad joke if Liam said in place of you getting pwned or something, but you saying it…was pointless.”
Niall sighed and sat back down. “Who am I playing next?”
“Me,” Zayn piped up without hesitation, ripping the controller from my hand.
I lied back on the couch, sighing with defeat, as my phone started going off in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the name on the front. DAD.
I swallowed as I got to my feet. “Guys, I gotta take this.”
No one heard me, since they were too immersed in the video game. Sighing, I went out into the hallway and answered. “Hello?”
“Liam?!” Dad’s voice came through the other side. “Where the hell are you?! It’s half five, and I come home, and this house is a mess! Didn’t I tell you to clean this afternoon?”
He was shouting so loudly that it took me a second to register what he was saying. Immediately, I blanched. “I’m so sorry, Dad. I forgot.”
“You forgot.” He let out a groan. “Liam, you’re always forgetting everything. I ask you to do one thing around here, and it’s more important to hang out with your friends. It’s pathetic.”
I swallowed, taking a deep breath. “I’ll come home right now and get it done.”
“Good.” And then the line went dead.
When I walked back into the room, nobody noticed me until I picked up my backpack. “Going somewhere, Liam?” Zayn asked. He no longer had a remote, which meant he must have lost.
“Home,” I responded, trying to hold back my emotions. “My dad’s throwing a fit.”
Harry grumbled, “That guy’s batshit crazy.”
I chuckled in spite of myself. “Want me to drive you?” Louis questioned, pausing the game.
“HEY!” Niall whined. “You only did that because I was winning.”
“No, it’s fine,” I answered, ignoring Niall’s outburst. “I’ll just walk. Thanks, though. I’ll see you in school tomorrow.”
And with that, I walked out the door and started down Louis’ million-kilometer-long driveway, trying to block out any thoughts about my dad.
♠ ♠ ♠
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