Any Other Heart

I was planning on using the rest of the day to relax and not do much of anything. After the early morning, and not exactly sleeping well on the bus, I thought I deserved the rest of the day to do nothing.

I took a nap shortly after getting back to the hotel, but after a few hours I was woken up by a pounding on my door. I groaned and shoved my head under my pillow praying to whatever higher power there was that if I stayed quiet, whoever was at my door would leave.

There were more knocks, frantic and sporadic and they sounded vaguely familiar, and then I heard a voice that I could only assume was Louis. “Come on, Mia! I know you’re in there. Open!”

I pulled the pillow off my head and scowled as I stood up and scowled the entire way to the door. I ripped it open and Louis and Niall were revealed. “What do you bloody want?” I hissed, my irritation apparent. “I was sleeping.”

“I can tell,” Niall said with a grin, reaching out to ruffle what I assumed was my awful bed-head.

I swatted his hand away and took a step back. “What do you want?” I asked again, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“We’re going out tonight, you’re coming, end of discussion,” Louis informed me as he brushed by me into my hotel room. Niall grinned and followed.

“Sure, come on in, I wasn’t napping or anything.” I rolled my eyes before I shut the door and turned around to face the lads who had invaded my room. “We aren’t going out tonight. You guys have a double show tomorrow. I’m not about to go out and get pissed so I can’t function tomorrow morning.”

Louis barked out a laugh from his spot on my bed. “We aren’t going to get pissed, Mia. We’re going out for a few drinks and then coming back. It’ll be a few hours, tops, and you’ll still get the designated amount of beauty rest needed for you to function.”

I rolled my eyes again. “I’m not going out with you lot. There are so many other things I’d rather do than babysit tonight, yeah?”

Niall laughed. “You won’t babysit! That’s what security’s for. Just come with us Mia. It’ll be like... a bonding experience!”

Louis snapped his fingers and pointed at Niall as if he loved the idea. “Exactly! A bonding experience. You can’t say no to bonding experiences.”

“I can, and I am. Get out, you tossers.”

Louis rolled his eyes dramatically before he stood up. “You’re coming. It’ll be fun. If you really hate it that much, I’ll buy you...” he trailed off, obviously trying to think of something.

“Ice cream. Or... something to be decided,” I finished for him. Because we both knew I was going to go, especially if it meant spending the night around Harry after the good day we had. I finally felt like we may have been making progress towards... something, and it felt good.

“That’s the spirit! Meet us in the hall at nine.”

***

I took another nap once the lads left, and then when I woke up I got ready. I figured since we were going out to a club, I’d dress up a little. I ended up in a black blouse, a flashy skirt, patterned tights, and heels, along with a bit heavier make-up and my hair sleek and straight to finish it off.

When I stepped out into the hall, the boys already waiting with a few of their security team, they cat-called and overall made a bigger deal than necessary.

I couldn’t help the blush, but I rolled my eyes to try and mask it. “You’re twats, all of you. Can we go now?”

“Wipe the scowl off your face and have a good time tonight, love. All right?”

I gave Louis an unamused look. “If I hate this place, we’re leaving. Deal?”

We shook on it, which was about as official as I was going to get with Louis, and then we headed out.

I don’t know where we ended up, but wherever it was was completely packed. Paul had called ahead so we’d have a reserved area, but because of that word had gotten out that the lads would be there. There were a group of paparazzi out front, just waiting to pounce.

I headed in first so I wouldn’t get attacked, and shortly after I was let inside the lads were following me. Louis’s hand found the small of my back and with a security guard in front of us, behind us, and a few surrounding us, we headed to the upstairs of the club.

There was a VIP area roped off, specifically for the boys and I, so we headed in and took seats before orders were shouted out everywhere. “Vodka cranberry,” I said, sticking to my usual drink while the rest of the lads ordered pints.

“Open tab tonight, so don’t take advantage of it,” Paul told us all very seriously. “I’ll be over there if you need to go down to the bar, but please, for my sanity, don’t.”

He walked towards the edge of the roped off area and stood guard.

Before I knew it, our drinks were getting handed out, as well as a round of shots. “What is it?” I asked when Harry handed them out with a grin on his face.

“Who cares? It’s on the house. Cheers to tour!” He raised his glass and we all did the same before downing them.

The alcohol burned the entire way down my throat and into my stomach, making me cough. “Christ, what was that? Pure alcohol?”

Louis laughed from beside me. “Man up, Mia. There’s more where that came from!”

There most certainly was.

I knew my limits where alcohol was concerned. I had a few vodka cranberries, but they weren’t very strong, and after my third I decided to switch to water. The lads, on the other hand... well, they probably did know their limits. They weren’t stupid, and they weren’t exactly new where alcohol was involved. But I think maybe they had come out tonight with the intention of getting pissed.

I should have known better, to be honest. This wasn’t a bonding experience; this was an excuse for them to get drunk. I wasn’t really mad about it, because I was having a good time. They weren’t completely incapacitated and they were all in their fun drunk stage, so it was a good enough time, if I was being honest.

Except for Harry. Harry was the only one who seemed to get even more quiet as the night went on. I thought maybe if he had a few more beers, he’d be back to his normal fun self, but it only seemed to get worse. He was attached to his phone all night, frowning down at it like it held the meaning of life but wouldn’t tell him.

I wondered if maybe he was just homesick or missing his mum or sister or something of the like though, which made me want to forgive him for being kind of an arsehole. In fact, I couldn’t help but think he looked a little cuter concentrating so hard on his phone so that his forehead creased, but maybe that was the vodka in my system talking.


After a few hours, just like I was promised, security rounded us up and we all headed out.

None of the lads were so far gone that they couldn’t walk on their own. Niall was a bit louder, Zayn seemed a bit more touchy-feely, and Liam was babbling on about something or other. Harry was still incredibly quiet, and as we were walking out I stopped him quick. “Everything all right? You’ve been kind of quiet tonight.”

Immediately he grinned at me and shoved his phone in his pocket. “I’m fine, love. Thank you though. Did you have fun?”

I nodded. “Of course. I didn’t want to, but I did.”

He laughed and grinned, satisfied with my answer.

It wasn’t until we were all piled into the van that I noticed Louis was, without a doubt, the drunkest of them all. I ended up with Niall and Louis flanking both my sides on the ride back, but Niall was falling against the window, laughing about something that probably wasn’t even funny.

Louis fell against me, his head on my shoulder while he giggled. “You drank too much,” I muttered, but wrapped my arm around his shoulder regardless.

“I drank just enough,” he replied.

“Just enough for all of us combined, maybe.”

When we got back to the hotel, I left the rest of the boys climb out first before I helped Louis. He could stand on his own, for the most part, but I figured, just to be safe, I would help him.

When we got to our floor, the boys scattered, except Liam. “He all right?” he asked, nodding towards Louis.

I rolled my eyes but nodded. “He’s a twat, but he’s fine. He can walk, so I’ll just make sure he gets to his room in one piece and then he’ll be fine.”

“Do you want help?”

I waved him off, knowing Liam had drank his fair share tonight as well. “I’ll be fine. Go get some sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.”

He grinned before nodding and heading down the hall to his room.

I pulled Louis out into the hall and got us situated before I said, “Walk yourself, I’m not about to carry you the entire way you drunken twat.”

He laughed. “I’m perfectly capable of walking myself, thank you very much,” he told me, slurring his words together.

I rolled my eyes and hooked his arm around my shoulder before looping my own around his waist and then we started to walk. “You drank too much tonight,” I repeated. “Thought this was supposed to be a bonding experience.”

“We are bonding! Look at us bonding. Bonding. Bond. That’s a weird word, yeah?”

I suppressed yet another eye roll but didn’t answer him. As we walked, he kept babbling on about ridiculous things that I was mostly ignoring, until we reached his door and suddenly he looked somber. “What’s wrong? You were practically in hysterics over the word bonding just a minute ago and now you look like I killed your cat.”

He shook his head, falling more heavily against me while I fished for the key that I had taken from him in the beginning of the night. “Kristen...” he trailed off, but that was all he said.

My fingers wrapped around the keycard in the pocket of my jacket and I pulled it out before trying to open his door. “What about her, Lou?”

He shrugged again. “She’s been texting me all day.”

“About?” I got the key in the card reader and when the light turned green, I pushed open the door.

He didn’t answer, so I pulled him inside and brought him over to the bed so he could sit down. “Don’t know. We didn’t talk about much, just polite conversation.”

I gave him a look. “Polite conversation all day? Find that hard to believe. She’s your ex, not your best mate.”

He shrugged and fell onto his back, bouncing slightly when he hit the mattress. “Dunno. Just stuff. She wants to come visit or come to a show or something, I don’t know.”

I nodded, standing back and watching him with my arms crossed. “So? Does she want to get back together?” I didn’t like the idea of that, because she had hurt him the first time around and I didn’t trust her not to do it again, but if it made Louis happy, then I was all for it.

“Dunno,” was all he said.

“Do you want to?”

He didn’t answer. His eyes were closed and I sighed. I thought he fell asleep. “Lou? Are you--”


“I don’t know,” he said finally, his eyes still closed but his voice calm and even. “I... I don’t know, Mia.”

He sounded kind of upset now, so I decided to drop the subject. “Get some sleep, Lou. Big day tomorrow.”

He nodded. “Thank you, Mia.”

I stopped with my hand on the door handle before I turned back around. “What for?”

He shrugged and didn’t say anything else. I figured he was close to falling asleep, so I said, “Goodnight, Lou,” before I headed out to my own room across the hall.