Breathe

When I woke up the next morning, I was met with the sight of Niall’s drool drying around his mouth and cheek. He had a penis drawn over one cheek and was snoring softly. I slowly sat up, feeling my skull pounding in my head, and tapped him on the shoulder. We were both sprawled out on one couch and when I looked down, I saw Zayn and Liam on their stomachs sleeping soundly.

“Niall,” I said, turning back and poking him harder. He shook, startled and opened his eyes slowly.

“Oh my god,” he cried, rolling over once his eyes started adjusting to the light streaming in through the windows. “Fuck, I feel like crap.”

“I can’t even remember what happened last night,” I said slowly. I looked around to notice my surroundings a bit more now that I was starting to really wake up. Along with the two boys on the floor below us, Liv, Louis, and Harry were on the opposite couch, also sleeping. It didn’t look that comfortable, what with Liv taking up double the spot and Louis lying on top of Harry while he was sat upright.  

Niall was still groaning beside me as I slowly got up and stretched. I walked to the kitchen and grabbed an empty cup and poured water into it, before chugging it down. I was parched and I really needed some food in me. Like yesterday.

“Why, God, why?” Niall began to moan loudly. He was still clutching his head and rolling around on the couch. His moaning seemed to have woken up Liam, who was starting to sit up and look around confused as to where he was.

I made my way around the flat and found a few more strays. Tons of people ended up staying back, too scared to drive out on their own, especially after all the alcohol that was consumed the night before. After making a round, I found myself back in the presence of my friends, who were trying to wake up. Liam was fully up with Zayn still snoring beside him. Liv, Louis, and Harry were yawning on their couch while Niall looked like he was grieving the death of a loved one while hiding under an arm covering his eyes.

“I’m starving,” I announced once I felt my stomach rumbling again.

“Me too,” Liv groaned. “And I’m hungover.”

“I would offer to make a fry up or summat,” Harry began, his voice deep and sleepy. “But we’ve got, like, no groceries.”

“You’ve still got some guests left, too,” I told them.

“We should tell them to go home,” Liam said. “Maybe we can go out to eat?”

“Anything’s good,” I said, making my way back to the kitchen to grab another cup of water.  

After the boys bid goodbye to their guests, we got freshened up and headed to a local breakfast diner. We chatted about the party over pancakes, eggs, and hash browns. Turns out, Liv totally made out with one of the frat brothers and couldn’t even remember his name. We were all laughing and teasing her about it, and my eyes drifted over to Harry. I could remember bits of our conversation in his room. I wondered if he remembered it, too. He gave me a small smile before lifting up his coffee cup and drinking it.



Liv met me outside of Huxley Building after my Management class and laughed when she caught sight of the grimace on my face. “Bad day?” she asked as we walked down Calender Road.

“I’m still feeling hungover from that party,” I said. “Next time, I will not go that hard. It was too much, Liv.”

“Same,” she said. “But I’ve taken like three paracetamol already. So, I’m feeling alright, I suppose.”

I hummed and looked ahead. It had been about a week or so since school started. Campus was usually dead around the time classes were in session, but since the Activities Fair was being held on Queen’s Lawn, it was buzzing. I could hear the pep squad from my classroom, cheering about school pride and all that shit.

“Were you going to go over?” I asked her, gesturing toward the crowd on the lawn.

“Wanted to. Niall had texted me, saying he was representing the football team along with Louis, Liam, and Harry.”

“Let’s go say hi,” I said. “I’m free until after 3. I’ve got my Business Law class then.”

“Okay,” she agreed. We walked towards the crowd and made our way through the different clubs set up as they tried to convince people to join. Along the way, I had somehow lost Liv to the Belly Dancing Group and found myself around the sports section alone.

“Blair!”

I turned around and spotted Zoe waving at me from behind a board that read Cross Country Team. I smiled and walked over. “Hey Zoe. How’s it going?”

“Good,” she smiled. “Recruited a lot of new members.”

“I didn’t know you ran,” I told her. “I can hardly do a sit up.”

Zoe giggled. “It’s the only sport I can really do. I’ve been doing this since I was in primary. I’m rubbish at everything else. Have you joined anything yet?”

I shook my head. “Can’t see anything that’s caught my eye. I’ve lost Liv to Belly Dancing a bit back there. She loves dancing so she’s better off.”

“Yeah?” Zoe asked, with a grin. “Had no idea. She’s never told us. Really nice though. Why don’t you look around a bit more? If you keep walking you’ll find Liam, Louis, Niall, and Harry. They’re set up for the football team.”

“Zayn doesn’t play?” I asked. “Those five are always together, so I figured that they’d be doing sports, too.”

“No,” Zoe laughed. “Zayn doesn’t like football. He’s into Arts and all that. He’s actually representing Theta Chi at the moment.”

“Oh,” I said. “I see. So, I guess I’ll keep walking and go on over to them.”

“See you around,” she waved. I gave her a wave back before continuing to walk down, passing by several other different sports teams. I spotted Harry’s curly head standing next to the football team table and walked over.

Louis spotted me first and gave me a once over. “Sorry,” he said. “No girls allowed to join.”

“I’ve got experience kicking balls,” I retorted. “Mind if I demonstrate on yours?”

“Ohhhh,” Niall said. “She got you good.”

“Do you need some ice for that burn, Lou?” Harry asked, smirking.

“Are you two quite finished?” Louis snapped. He turned back to me and grinned. “I’m only joking, B. What’s going on? You bunking class to see us? That’s quite sweet of you.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Just got out of class and I’m free till after 3,” I told him. “Do you guys get to bunk class for this?”

“Yep,” Liam grinned, cheerily. “We’re excused all day. And good thing for me, too, because it was my turn to give my speech for speech class.”

“Who’ve you got?” Harry asked.

“Rosenberg,” Liam answered. “She’s nice, but extremely strict.”

“I had her,” Harry said nonchalantly. “She loved me.”

“Everyone loves you, Haz,” Niall retorted. “Have you seen your face? You’ve got a really nice, charming face.”

“Niall’s obviously got himself a crush,” Louis smirked. “Next he’s going to write sonnets and haikus about Harry’s curls and dimples.”

Niall punched him on the arm and I laughed. “There you are,” I heard from behind me. I turned and smiled as Liv ran over. “I joined the belly dancing club!”

“You did?” I asked, surprised. “Oh my god, you were actually serious about it. I didn’t know you could move like that.”

“I’ll learn,” she shrugged. “I’ve been meaning to join a dance type of club for so long. I’m so excited.”

“Me too,” Niall said. “I’m coming to all the performances.” He winked and Liv rolled her eyes before looking at their sign up sheet.

“Got a long list of recruitments, I see,” she hummed, flipping through all the pages.

“Yeah,” Louis answered. “The new freshmen are psyched to join. What’s better is that after they sign up, we convince them to join Theta Chi as well. Two in one.”

“Are you all doing anything other than football and frat stuff?” I asked.

“I actually really wanted to check out Gaelic sports,” Niall replied.

We all turned to him, extremely confused, as he rolled his eyes at our expressions. “What’s so shocking about that?” he snapped. “It honors all the sports of Ireland. I need to represent my country, don’t I?”

“By all means, Niall,” Louis started. “Represent Ireland some more. It’s not like you aren’t already a walking embodiment of it, what with your need to incorporate green into your wardrobe everyday.”

“Don’t forget the brogue,” Harry added with his best impression of Niall’s accent. We burst out laughing because it sounded exactly like him.

“What did you get on your last exam, Niall?” Liam asked, looking at Harry with a mischievous smirk.

“I tried me best, Liam,” Harry started, once again with an Irish accent. “But I ended up with a turdy tree.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Niall said, shoving Harry playfully. Harry burst into laughter and tried fighting off Niall who continued to try to attack him.

From behind, the boys’ football team coach, Paul, walked over. “Are you lot getting recruitments or sodding around?”

“The thing is, Coach Paul,” Louis answered. “Niall really wants a break to go sign up for Gaelic sports. He wants to represent Ireland since it’s the best country in the world. After all, you’re Irish as well aren’t you?”

Liv and I started snickering as Coach Paul thought about it for a second before nodding. “I am Irish. And proud. I guess you guys can go have a 15 minute break, I’ll sit down here for a bit.”

The boys jumped off their seats and walked around to join me and Liv on the other side to walk through the rest of the clubs/organizations. Niall did end up signing up for Gaelic Sports. Then Louis signed up for Surf Club with Liam. After that, Zayn came with us and joined boxing club with Liam.

“Isn’t that Ed over there?” Zayn asked, pointing further down towards the Indoor Activities. We all followed his lead, and sure enough, Ed was stood behind a table that read ‘Lego Club’.

“What’s good?” Ed greeted, once we approached.

“What’s this?” I asked, looking at all the different things Ed had built with Legos.

“Ed’s president of the Lego Club,” Harry told me, appearing beside me. “I’m a part of it, too. He said I could be vice president.” Harry looked way too happy about it, causing me to start laughing.

“Is it fun?” I asked them.

“The funnest,” Ed replied, laughing. “Join. It’s really chilled and we play music more than we build this stuff.”

“I’m down,” I said after a while. I leaned down and signed my name on the sheet, noticing only a few others had signed up.

We chat with Ed for a few more minutes before continuing our walk. By the end of it, we all had joined a club or two on our own, but we all wanted to join something together. We sought out the least popular club and signed up.

It turned out that the Ultimate Frisbee club had gained eight members. 



I was sat in the dining room doing a few calc problems when Liv walked in, looking like death. I turned to look at my phone and noticed it was well past midnight. “Where did you come from?” I asked as she dropped her bag and books on the ground before slumping over one of our couches.

“I was in the library,” she groaned. “Revising.”

“All day?” I asked.

She nodded meekly. I continued to do problems as she sat there in silence. “Bumped into Zoe while I was there.”

“Yeah?” I asked, not taking my eyes off my paper. “How is she?”

“Good,” Liv answered. “She was studying with a few friends and came by to say hi to me. Her and Zayn are like the most chilled out couple ever.”

“I agree,” I told her. “They aren’t attached at the hip. They, like, do their own thing.”

“It’s so rare to find young couples like that nowadays because everyone’s experiencing all this and it’s new for them, so they feel insecure or too much. Then they just end up being clingy and annoying.”

“What was your last relationship like again?” I asked, chuckling.

“A disaster.”

We both started laughing, and she pulled herself up and went to her bedroom to wash up. I was done with my homework by the time she came back, showered and with a towel wrapped around her head. “I attempted dinner,” I offered as she walked into the kitchen and looked into the bowl. It wasn’t much. I just made some grilled chicken and boiled pasta before adding it in with a pre cut salad.

“It’s delicious,” she said, walking out a few moments after with a plate full. She had ranch dressing in her hand as she sat down across from me. “Did you hear the party this weekend at Theta Chi is construction themed?”

“No,” I shook my head, laughing. “What? We have to dress up in, like, hard hats and Timberlands?”

Liv nodded her head, laughing as well. “You going to dirty dance with Josh again?”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Depends. You going to make out with one of the frat boys and forget their names again?”

Liv threw a piece of pasta at me and I ducked. It landed out on our balcony as I had left the door open. We both shrugged and turned back to each other. “This one’s at their frat house on campus, not the boys’ flat.”

“Darn,” I said. “Was hoping to sit in Harry’s bay window again.” Liv looked at me, confused, and I realized I had never told her what happened. “At the last party, I ended up following Harry to his room when he went in alone and he has this massive bay window, right? So, I sat down and he sat down and we both talked for a while about the weirdest things.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Life...dreams and the future.”

“So weird, those things,” she said, sarcastically. “No one ever talks about stuff like that.”

“Shut up,” I snapped giving her a dirty look as she giggled.



Niall’s face lit up as he scanned the sushi menu. “I’m definitely getting the Beyoncé rolls.”

“There is a Beyoncé roll?” Louis asked.

“Number forty eight,” Niall pointed out.

Louis and the rest of us bent our heads down and scanned until we got to forty eight. Sure enough, they had a sushi roll called the Beyoncé roll. Amazing. We all decided to come for sushi after classes ended. It was also a great excuse to try out the new sushi place a block down from the campus.

“Speaking of Beyoncé,” Liv exclaimed. “I’m still obsessed with her newest album.”

I snorted and she gave me a look. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I just realized I’m never going to get rid of the image of you singing Partition stark naked that one time you thought you were home alone.”

The boys all looked up, their attention perked, and eyes wide with curiosity. “Do you want to elaborate on that, B?” Liam asked.

“She will most certainly not,” Liv huffed adamantly.

Liam pouted like a child, which prompted Liv to start laughing. “We all have embarrassing moments, Livy,” he coaxed. “I’ll tell you mine if you want. It’s quite similar to yours actually.”

“Is this what I think it is?” Niall asked.

“What do you think it is?” Liam replied, but then quickly shook his head. “No, don’t answer that. I’ll just say it. Freshmen year when I was a pledge for Theta Chi, one of the things we had to do before initiation was run around the entire campus naked. I was uncomfortable, but I still did it, and then when I was running around the school, I bumped into my English professor. He couldn’t look me in the eye for the rest of the term.”

I laughed along with the others as Liam’s cheeks reddened. “Anyone else got one that could top that?” I asked, turning to face the others.

“Me mam’s walked in on me jerking off before,” Niall told us. “I was mortified to say the least.”

I covered my mouth in shock, but continued to laugh. “That’s definitely worse. Oh my god. Anyone else?” I asked, starting to like this game.

“Well,” Harry added. I turned to look at him and realized this was the first time he’d talked since they’d gotten here. He had seemed a bit down lately, but I didn’t know why. “After graduating sixth form, I got an internship at this office. There was this massive meeting going on, and I had to go deliver a message to someone in the meeting, but I walked right into the glass door. Everyone stopped the meeting and came to see if I had a concussion or not.”

“That’s not that embarrassing,” Zoe said. “I have a really bad one.”

“What is it?” Liv asked.

“My mom wouldn’t let me shave my legs until a certain age, but that didn’t mean I didn’t start growing leg hair. I constantly avoided wearing shorts, but for school we had to wear it in P.E. and I did. Needless to say, everyone noticed the bush and laughed.”

“That’s kind of horrible,” Liv cringed as did I.

“I’ve got one,” I said after a while of thinking. They all turned to look at me. “I was seeing this guy for a bit. We weren’t official. It was a fling type of thing, but I was trying to impress him, so I got a haircut on the day of one of our hang outs. Later on, while we were hanging out, we went to the park and I was standing next to the swings by the bars. I kept flipping my hair to show off, and I flipped my head so hard that I ended up banging it on one of the metal bars.”

The entire table erupted in laughter, definitely imagining it, I wouldn’t doubt. “Okay, okay. I’ve got one that’s great,” Louis said. “I was at a rager back in Donny a few years ago and it got really bad to the point where I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. I woke up at the fucking airport of all places.”

“Where the hell were you trying to fly to?” Harry asked, laughing.

“God knows,” Louis shook his head, chuckling himself. “I was a mess. Mum flipped a shit, too. Jesus.” We all turned to Zayn after that since he was the last one left. He looked reluctant, but shrugged.

“Alright, fine,” he sighed. “I was at Zoe’s house one summer and I was on her bed naked---.”

“Ooooooo,” Niall cooed.

“Shut up,” Zoe rolled her eyes.

“Anyways,” Zayn continued. “She’d gone to the bathroom and I was just lying there, my hands behind my head, just chilling. The door suddenly flew open and I expected it to be her, but it was her parents.”

“Oh my god,” everyone cried.

“How did you even recover from that?” I gasped.

“I was grounded for a month,” Zoe pouted. “But Zayn sort of fell off my bed and put his clothes on as quick as he could. I tried to run in and save him, but I was also naked so I stepped out in a towel. It was a rather awkward conversation with my parents afterwards.”

“I can imagine,” Liv said, eyes wide.

“All I can say is,” I started. “Liv should really look into being a stripper if the law thing doesn’t work out, because she was very good doing that dirty dance thing she was doing.”

I got a piece of sashimi thrown at my face for that last comment.



Liv and I didn’t really have any real construction worker type of outfits. We both ended up settling on jeans shorts with white tank tops and some brown boots. Liam went out and got us tool belts to wear, and after that we were set. This party was much like the last one, but a lot larger since it wasn’t a mixer between a frat and a sorority. Everyone, including people who weren’t a part of the Greek life, showed up.

The frat house itself was nothing special. In fact, the house was actually pretty run-down based on the peeling paint and crooked greek letters nailed above the door. The real appeal of the house was the open living room turned dance floor, flashing club style lights, booming music, and constant flow of beer from the number of kegs lined up against the wall. The floor of the frat was already a mine field with discarded red solo cups. I was happy that I had worn thick boots, because my feet were already sticking to the ground from spilt beer and God knows what else. While I thought the theme of tonight's party was silly, it seemed his was not the popular opinion since everyone in his sight was decked in their construction worker best.

I met a few more new people and chatted with them, including some whom I recognized from classes. I took three shots with Liv, Ed, and Liam before venturing out to see what else was going on. Much like the last party, a dubstep remix of a Miguel was playing loud on the speakers, and people were dancing all around.

I spotted Niall and Louis a few feet away, taking drags off a cigarette between them, and walked over. Niall grinned like a Cheshire cat when he saw me and placed a hand on a screwdriver on my belt once I was close enough.

“Let’s screw,” Niall smirked.

I couldn’t even get mad because I had to give it to him. That was pretty clever and also so cheesy. I laughed and shoved his hand away. “Funny,” I retorted. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Louis said. “A friend of mine passed this to me, and I couldn’t throw it out. Niall offered to share with me.”

“You don’t like cigarettes?” I asked.

“I like it plenty,” he answered, blowing out smoke. “However, Lacy Howards has been eyeing me all night, and I’m thinking I’ll be getting lucky tonight. I don’t want to have cigarette breath when we hook up.”

“And what about you?” I asked Niall. “Has the let’s screw line worked on anyone else?”

Niall shrugged, grinning. “Haven’t tried it out. Think I should?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Duly noted.”

“Where are the others?” I asked. “I know where Liv and Liam are, but I haven’t spotted the others.”

“Zayn’s with Zoe since she came tonight,” Louis answered. “Harry’s being a little emo because he and his girl are having problems.”

“Yeah?” I asked. It surprised me about Harry.

Niall nodded. “They were great and Darcy’s really nice. But they’re fizzling out, you know? It’s just been so long and it’s sort of lost its excitement. I don’t know how they’re holding on. Darcy’s so uninterested. So is Harry, kind of. But he’s a bit of a hopeless.”

I decided not to ask anymore questions, but kept it in mind as I nodded and turned back to the party. A few of our friends, along with some of the other boys in the frat were walking over to us just as Louis threw the cigarette out.

“We’re going to play suck and blow,” Liam said.

“I haven’t played that in so long,” I exclaimed.

“I have never played,” Liv tacked on.

A few of us looked at her in surprise, but Niall quickly told her the rules and the basis of the game. It started off with one person holding onto a card with their mouth by sucking it in and passing it on to the next. Whoever dropped it had to make out with the person they were passing it to. Liv nodded in understanding, and we started the game.

It was starting to get pretty easy until someone suggested we do a round of shots. I downed my shot and shook my head as I tried to focus on my surroundings, but it was starting to get a little hazy. I blamed all the pot being smoked a few feet away from us, blowing the smoke in our direction and making it hard to see.

As we continued the game, Josh somehow ended up next to me. I smiled at him and took the card from Niall before passing it on to him. It didn’t end up on his mouth, but instead the floor. Everyone started cheering around us, and he smiled before leaning and kissing me. I kissed back and opened my mouth to let his tongue in once before pulling away.

A part of me felt like he had been waiting to do that for a while, but I didn’t let on that I knew. Instead I focused on where the card was going. It ended up between Zayn and Zoe. When the two of them purposely let the card fall and grabbed on to each other to make out, the game ended. We all left the still snogging couple alone, and I grabbed Liv’s hand to go on the dance floor.