I Remember

Liam just doubled over, head hitting the pillow now covering his lap in embarrassment, letting out a small grunt. He had no idea what to say to the blonde who was now next to him.

Niall stared at Liam, not really sure what to do. He was pretty sure that neither of them were gay, well WAS pretty sure, and he had no idea that he even liked Liam. Niall suddenly felt embarrassed. What if Liam didn't even like him back and he was just confused? Niall scooted to the end of the bed and sat on the edge of it, facing the wall. He quickly put his head in his hands and wondered what he was even thinking when he kissed Liam.

When Niall’s body moved away from Liam’s, the older boy felt like he lost something. For some reason, he still wanted the blonde’s body near him. But why? Liam didn’t like guys. He was so confused. He wanted to say something to break the silence in the room so he just simply cleared his throat and said, “I guess we should head to bed too.”

“Yeah. I guess we should.” Niall said as he stood up and turned towards Liam, hesitating, but then shook his head and started towards the door.

When Niall was leaving, Liam plastered on a small smile for the blonde boy. However, once his door shut, Liam just slunk down under the covers and attempted to get some sleep, but only succeeded in replaying the day’s events.

Once Niall reached his bedroom, he paused before entering. He saw Zayn come stumbling out of the bathroom, his onesie hanging off his waist, headed to his own room. Niall opened his door and flopped face-first onto his bed, grabbing a pillow and shoving it over his head.

Niall stayed in bed, tossing and turning, until about 5 am. At this point, he gave up and retreated to the roof, dragging a bottle of vodka with him. He stayed there for a long time, dangling his feet over the edge and downing about half the bottle.

-------------------

Around 6 o’clock, Liam woke up from a rough sleep. He couldn’t fall back asleep, so he headed downstairs to see if there was anything for breakfast. As he was rummaging through the fridge, he found some eggs and bacon. He was going to start cooking, when he remembered that the lads probably wouldn’t be up for a while. He shut the fridge then situated himself on the couch and watched the recaps of last night’s Olympic events.

Louis came shuffling into the living room around 7-ish, mumbling as he held his most-likely throbbing head. He flopped down on the couch and stared at Liam, his face breaking into a knowing smirk.

“Can I help you? Do you need a glass of water or something?” Liam offered.

“That would be lovely, sir Liam, but do tell me, where’s your little Irish ‘friend’ this morning, hmmm?” Louis wiggled his eyebrows and started laughing, then immediately grabbed his forehead and groaned.

“What are you--” Liam cut himself off. At that moment, he realized that, unfortunately, Louis wasn’t quite drunk enough to have forgotten the series of events from last night. “Oh, uhmm.... I’m not sure.... He hasn’t woken up yet...” Liam said as he fetched the hung-over Louis a glass of water and a banana. As he handed them to him, he simply said, “Here. These are supposed to help.”

Louis just shook his head and ate the banana in silence, occasionally looking over at Liam to give him a smirk, which was always un-acknowledged.

Shortly after, Harry came in, only wearing his boxers. At least he wasn’t naked, right? He flopped down next to Louis and slumped over, going comatose on his shoulder. Louis grinned and re-adjusted his position so that both he and the curly kid would be more comfortable.

Zayn soon came into the room rather sluggishly, still in his onesie. He yawned and laid across the other couch, covering his eyes with his arms and groaning when Harry started to speak.

“Liam, mate, what the hell happened last night?” Harry asked, still groggy from sleep. At that, Louis rolled his eyes and whispered something to Harry, causing his eyes to widen in shock. “You what?”

Liam moaned and buried his head in his hands. “Harry, don’t you have breakfast to make or something?” Harry huffed, then stood up and made his way to the kitchen while everyone sat with their eyes on the TV.

------------------------

Niall had stayed on the roof all morning, well after the sun had finished rising. He was just sitting there, leaning against the tattered shingles. He pulled out his phone and began to tweet to a few lucky fans and play games. After a few minutes, he was already bored so he placed his phone back into his pocket and laid back, watching the clouds for a while, trying to clear his head.

---------------

Once breakfast was served, Liam was beginning to wonder where Niall actually was. So, he decided to venture his way up to the blonde’s room. When he reached the door, he noticed it was slightly ajar. Out of common courtesy, Liam knocked on the door. “Niall?”

When there was no response, he bit his lip nervously and poked his head into the door. Liam was honestly a bit scared. Was Niall so upset about last night that he was ignoring him? When his head was inside the room, he looked around and to his surprise, he found... nothing?

Liam quickly burst into the room and began searching all over for the blonde. The others heard Liam basically trashing the upstairs, but paid no mind to it. They were all too tired right now. So when Liam came bolting into the dining room and slammed his hands onto the table, it was a bit of a wake-up call for all the hung over boys at the table.

“Niall’s missing.” Liam gaped. Those two words made each boy stop in mid-chew for at least a half a second. That’s when Louis spoke up. “Where could he have gone? We’ve been down here all morning” he commented through a full mouth of food. Harry gave him a confused look then went back to eating, still pondering where their Irish friend could have escaped to.

“I don’t know where he could have gone! What if he left in the middle of the night? What if we just never noticed?” Liam started pacing nervously. “I’m going to go check one more time.” At that, he bounded upstairs.

When he reached the top, Liam remembered that Niall had told him to mention food and he’d be up. So, he figured he’d give it a shot. “Niall! Breakfast is ready!” he said. It wasn’t quite a yell, but it was pretty loud.

Niall was still on the roof at this point, trying to rest through the effects of the vodka. He had his iPod blasting in his ears, so he only heard a bit of what came from inside. He paused his music and waited to see if he could hear anything else. When he didn’t, he simply shrugged and continued to blast his music.

Louis, Harry, and Zayn all sat downstairs and lost their appetites as they became more and more aware of the situation at hand. Louis abruptly stood from the table and headed upstairs. “I’m going to help Li look.”
Harry and Zayn nodded as Louis continued upstairs. Shortly after they began to search the downstairs.

Louis walked over to Liam, who was currently searching the bathroom, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re sure you checked everywhere?"

Liam wheeled around to face Louis with red, puffy eyes. He felt a bit better that Louis was willing to help him. However, his reply came out rushed and breathy, “I checked everyone’s rooms, all the bathrooms, closets, in beds, under beds, in the showers, in the cabinets, every drawer.... I just don’t know where else he could be... the roof?” Liam hung his head in his hands.

What if he had one of those nightmares again? Did he go back to the hospital? Was he out wandering the streets? What if he went for a walk and was abducted by some psycho or a crazed fan? GAH! Listen to yourself Liam! Pull it together!

Liam shook his head to clear his thoughts and was about to speak when he was cut off by Louis shouting in the hallway.

“Niall Horan! Get out here RIGHT NOW. Your breakfast is getting cold!”

Niall was suddenly shaken when he heard Louis’ booming voice and jumped a little. Unfortunately for Niall, when he jumped it caused him to slide down the roof a bit before he clumsily caught himself. Niall’s heart started pounding as he quickly scrambled to the flat section of the roof next to the window he had come out of, clinging to it for dear life.

Liam and Louis heard something rushing around on the roof, then they both just looked at each other, silently confirming the other’s thoughts. In the blink of an eye, they were both rushing down the stairs as fast as they could. They passed by the other 2 terribly confused boys then headed outside. They both circled the roof until they found the the blonde boy.

Liam was about to say something, but unfortunately for Niall, Louis beat him to it. “Niall get down from the roof right now! What do you think you’re doing? Why-- Is that a vodka bottle? Oh, so you’re drunk on the roof. Perfect. That’s just splendid. Okay. GET OFF THE ROOF. YOUR BOYFRIEND HAS BEEN WORRIED SI--” Liam punched Louis in the stomach just hard enough to get him to shut up.

Louis shot Liam a terrifying glare. “Louis, get inside before you pop a blood vessel or something.” Liam said, waving for Louis to head back into the flat. Liam acted concerned for Louis’ hangover, when in reality he just didn’t want this conversation to go any further.

Louis walked back inside, his head in his hands. It seemed like he somehow managed to forget about his nasty hangover from before, but it was now back tenfold. Meanwhile, Liam had to try and coax the newly discovered drunk off the roof.