Sign of the times

1

 "You drink too much," Harry said to Louis while Louis was having a beer on the couch. "Mind your business," Louis said with a scold. Harry rolled his eyes and got on his phone. "I don't think that this was the best idea," Liam said while sitting uncomfortably between Harry and Louis. Niall looked up from his guitar and said, "No, now we need this. We used to spend every waking minute together and now we barely speak." Liam crosses his arms and says, "I understand that, but once we break from hiatus we will be seeing each other just like we used to. Don't you think we are all sick of eachother by now?" Liam directs the question to Niall but motions to everyone. Louis and Harry look down towards the floor. Niall stands up. "I don't believe this. You guys are actin crazy?" Louis says, "look mate, it's nothing personal. I just think we need this time apart. Emphasis on apart" with a bit of guilt in his tone. "If someone saw us together fans would think that we would be getting back together soon, too." Louis nodded at Liam for saying what everyone else also thought. Niall slowly sits back down and asks, "Are we ever actually going to get back together, especially if we can't even stand to be in the same room?" No one spoke though everyone had the same thoughts in their mind. Probably not. One Direction will not be getting back together. Niall took the silence as his answer, got up and walked out of the room. "Well this went terribly," Liam muttered as he got up and left the room too leaving Harry and Louis alone on the couch. Both didn't know what to do. Should they get up and leave without saying a word or should they try to make small talk before making up an excuse to get as far away from each other as possible. Right when Harry decided to leave, Louis spoke. "Niall can be bloody persistent." Harry was shocked by the sudden words. He kind of forgot how to speak to him. He used to do it so carefree but now he had to think out every word. "Yeah, I'm probably gonna go talk to him." He started to get up. "So that's it. End of conversation." Harry stopped walking and turned towards him only to give him a shrug. Louis put up his hand and motioned to Harry saying, "here we go ladies and gentlemen, the man with so little words and at such a little pace." Louis had this smirk on his face that angered Harry when he looked at it. Harry debated on what to say and how loud he should say it, but decided to just walk out the room. There was no point in getting to an argument with him. At least not today.

Harry found Niall sitting on his couch watching t.v. Niall looked up at Harry and sighed. "Well that was a shit show. I don't know why I bothered." Harry sat beside Niall and put his hand on his shoulder. "I admire you calling everyone to meet today, but I just don't think that we are the same people or the same type of friends as we used to be. So much has changed and I'm not saying I like the changes but they had to come." Harry locked his hands together and focused on Niall as he spoke. "I just thought we could have a day of catching up. Just one day." Niall and Harry got startled when they felt a presence by the door. Louis was leaning against the doorway only focusing his eyes on Niall. "Sorry mate. Just thought I should say that before I left." He waved and left. Harry got a phone call. He contemplated picking it up or not, but decided it was more important than his conversation. He answered it while putting a finger in front of Niall's face. Niall waited a few minutes before deciding to get up and leave. Harry tells the phone, "hold on for a second" then he stops Niall. "Sorry mate, just give me another minute or two." Harry was about to speak into his phone again until he noticed that Niall had something to say. "Do you honestly think the band will get back together. Nevermind the drama or busy schedules, do you think it's possible?" It was quiet and Niall was serious which he normally tries not to be. " Honestly, i don't know if I could.. If the band could get back together. Time will tell I suppose." Niall looked down at the ground kind of disappointed in the answer but appreciated his honesty. He puts a hand on Harry's shoulder and leaves the room while Harry finishes his call.

Louis finished off another beer in his car while telling the driver to "take me home." He felt low to say the least. He didn't want to go home. As he played with his thumbs and put away another beer, he felt like he could start crying and never stop. He has felt like that a lot lately, but didn't really know why. He had this emptiness inside of him that kept getting bigger and he had no idea how to fill it. When Louis finally arrived home, he was a little buzzed. More than a little. Eleanor greeted him at the front door of their house. She had an annoyed expression on her face when he got out of the car. "You didn't feel the need to call me back?" she asked in a serious tone. Louis tried to balance his way inside of the house. "Did I miss a call?" He asked but in reality he knew the answer. She called him while he was on the couch beside Liam and Harry. He turned his phone off as quick as he could in order to spare Harry from the caller ID. He wondered if he did see the screen. Liam saw it. "Yeah Louis you missed a call. You always miss a call." Louis got another beer out of the fridge and popped it open on the couch. He kept his eyes on a soccer game playing on the television when Eleanor came to sit beside him. "Can you please just try to answer your damn phone," she said in a worried tone completely forgetting that she was upset with him a minute ago. Louis nodded at her while keeping his focus on the game. Eleanor sighed at this and got up from the couch, went into their bedroom, and shut the door behind her. Louis realized how upset he makes her sometimes and regrets how he can be. He contemplated on apologizing to her, but decided to keep watching the game as he took another sip of beer. Time passed but Louis slept through it. He slept through breakfast and the light coming through the window. He slept through Eleanor dropping a plate; however, he woke up to Benji holding his hand saying, "daddy." Louis eyes opened up to his son's. No matter how much he wanted to keep sleeping to keep his headache at bay, he got up to hug his son. Eleanor bent down to Benji to hand him a piece of paper. "Whats this?" Louis said with the most energy he could muster up. "Benji drew you something," Eleanor said with a smile on her face. "Hand me it little man." Benji shyly handed it to Louis. The drawing was shit. Louis didn't even know what it was suppose to be. He tried to hold in a laugh when he told Benji how amazing it was. He put Benji on his back and walked over to the fridge to hang up the drawing. "I'm so proud of you." Louis spun Benji around being careful but acting careless. Benji kept laughing which just made Louis laugh. "Is he staying the night?" Louis whispered to Eleanor. She nodded her head yes. "His mommy has got herself a date tonight?" She whispered back. "A date? What time is it?" He didn't wait for Eleanor to answer but instead looked up at the clock to his right. It was 4:13. "Jesus Christ. Just gonna let me sleep all day." Eleanor scolded, "I am not your fucking baby sitter. You are your own person and how you choose to spend a day depends on you." She turned her back to him. She could get annoyed pretty quickly. If something bothers her even a little bit she could change moods just like that. Louis used to think it was cute, but now he is always so tense around her, afraid she will go off on him. He deserves it, most of the time. Louis spent the rest of the day ignoring Eleanor while he played games with his kid. He had mind battles with himself everytime he walked past the fridge. He held out on a drink until Benji fell asleep feeling ashamed that he could barely wait and was eager to go to the fridge. As he was watching some random show an ad popped up for perfume. Louis was about to change the channel when he heard the song playing in the background. He knew the voice from anywhere. It was a song from Harry. Louis normally skips things all involving Harry but tonight he stayed on the channel to hear the song. Why tonight? He didn't know. He has been curious a million times, but never let it take the best of him. Why was he letting himself hear one of his songs now? Possible guilt for just ignoring him. He decided to just listen as he closed his eyes: