Devotion [L. S.]

25

Louis Tomlinson

3 months later
24th of December

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Louis! Happy birthday to you!!!"

I smile brightly as my entire family is making their way into my room. All of them are wearing party hats, obviously except for fizzy, and my mom is carrying a big chocolate cake with I'd say 19 little candles on it. 

I yawn loudly and try to wipe some of the sleepiness out of my eyes, so I'd be capable of forming a proper answer.

"Thanks, you guys!", I try to sound as surprised as possible, but I'm clearly failing.

"You're so old, 19! You could be a dad!", both Phoebe and Daisy yell at me as they jump onto my bed.

After them, follows a giggling Lottie and an, as usual, annoyed Fizzy. She's not that kind of a birthday girl.

And then follow both of my parents. I can clearly see that my mom is trying to hold back a few tears, while placing the cake on my desk, birthdays are always very emotional to her. My dad walks over to me as well, smiling brightly.

"Congratulations, son", he formally states as he wrecks his right hand through my already messy hair.

After both Phoebe and Daisy gave me a long warm hug, Lottie does the same. 

"Happy birthday, big bro", she chuckles into my ear, just because she knows how badly I cringe from that nickname.

"I hate you", I chuckle back.

Then Fizzy comes up to my bed, as always, looking a little awkward like she's not sure what she's doing here. Then she formally points out her arm and offers her hand for me to shake it. As usual, she found a way to show some affection, but didn't need to hug me. Last year she patted the top of my head twice and the year before she gave me a high-five, so I'm kind of used to it.

I decide to just do whatever she's comfortable with so I reach out and grab her hand, but that's when she suddenly yanks me up with a force that you wouldn't expect to come out of such a little girl. I yelp in surprise as I feel her warm arms being folded around me and my chin being suddenly nuzzled into her neck. 

The surprise quickly forms into contentment, as I smile into her neck and close my eyes. By the decrease of sound coming from my siblings and parents, I can tell that they are just as surprised as I am. 

After a few seconds, she lets go and steps back out of my bed. That's when my mom gets up to get the cake. She approaches me with a big smile clearly proud of the cake she made.

"Now blow them out, love!", she yells excitedly as my dad takes his phone out of his pocket to take a picture.

I take a deep breath and then blow out all the candles at once. My entire family claps and cheers.

I look around as everyone is talking to each other about the most random stuff and my room is again filled with happy chatter. I just look around and smile.

The last months have been far from easy, but moments like this make me realize that they were worth it.

"So you take your time and get ready for breakfast. Then we can eat the cake and give you your presents, is that alright sweetie?", my mom wakes me up from my daydream.

"Yeah, yeah 'course."

With that, all of them leave the room and I'm left alone again in my bedroom. Or well... alone?

The second the door makes the little click that insinuates its closing I hear a burst of familiar loud laughter coming from under my bed.

"I can't believe we got away with that!", I yell at the laughter as a disoriented Harry climbs from under my bed.

"I know, right!", he yells back as he drops himself to my bed once again.

I chuckle loudly, still trying to get some of the adrenaline I just survived in out of my body.

"Fuck, that was close", I laugh as I turn on my side, to face Harry again.

"Be glad I heard them coming up the stairs!", Harry answers.

I nod as I stare at him and how angelic he's looking in this moment. He's wearing his own black Calvin Klein boxers but matched with one of my green t-shirts. It's way too big on me, but it fits Harry perfectly.

When he came in last night he was wearing a perfectly fine T-shirt of his own, but then he started randomly looking through all of my clothes and put on the one he's currently wearing. I thought it was adorable. 

"Why are you smiling at me like that?", Harry wakes me up from my daydream.

"Just because- I don't know how I deserved this... you", I answer in honesty. 

In answer, Harry presses his lips against mine in a 'same' manner. It means more than whatever answer he could've given. 

These past few months Harry has been sleeping over at my house, just to escape his parents as they are trying to deal with their divorce. My parents act like they know nothing about the fact that Harry has been practically living here, but I'm pretty sure they do. 

Harry tells me that his parents are constantly fighting, but they try to hide it as much as possible for him and Gemma. We talk about it often and then he tells me about how hard this time is for him, but how he also thinks it's for the best this way. Seeing him mentally suffer like this, hurts me to the core. But sadly I can't take his pain away, so all I've been doing these past few months is trying to make it easier. 

On the other hand, I've been doing better. With a lot of help from doctors and family, I've been regaining some weight and right now I'm back at 130 pounds. I could say that I'm proud of myself, but I don't know if that's true, all I have to do is eat anyway. And yes, it's hard, but everyone does it, so why should I be proud of it? 

Anyways it turns out that having Harry here is not only a benefit for him, but that, in these times, I need him as much as he needs me. 

I've picked up on playing soccer again too, that's what I'm the happiest about. Obviously, I couldn't keep my position as captain, but I'm very glad to be back. Zayn has taken the position and I wouldn't want anyone else to do it in my place. I know that he had always been happy for me, but he also hoped to become captain himself one day and I'm happy for him. 

He and Gigi are still going strong as well as Maya and Liam. We got to know them better over time and turns out Maya's a lot of fun too. 

Harry has started writing songs again and playing the guitar, the boy's got real talent. He also started seeing Taylor, Niall and Liam again, which is good for him, because it felt like a lifetime since he last hung out with them. You could actually say that we have become one big friend group, which I love. 

So life was good, for the first time in way too long, I was happy. 

〜

Sooo, did you like this one?

Anyways I have good news and bad news.

I'll start with the bad news: this story is coming to an end... in about one or two (maybe even three) chapters, I'm going to end the plot. I planned for the story to end there so that's what I'm going to do. 

But there's also good news, or well good for me, at least. This won't be my last story! In fact, I'm already working on a new one. It'll take a lot of time, though, because I really want it to be better than this one. I'll obviously inform you guys whenever it's ready! You can then choose if you'd like to take a look at it. 

Question of the chapter: if you could be one of the boys' siblings, who would you want to be?

I think I'd really want to be Lottie (Tomlinson ofc) or one of the twins, I just love those girls so much. 

Anywayzz, love ya

Xox Nora