Songbird [H.S]

ONE

MARCH 1977

Ink smudged against the paper scattered carelessly across Harry's bedroom floor as the pot of murky water was knocked over while he tried to grab a clean paintbrush. Curse words tumbled from his lips as he sighed, running his fingers through his soft curls before snatching up a wad of kitchen towel to salvage the important papers. His record player blasted his new Van Morrison record, enabling the boy to block out the noise his brother was making downstairs so he could concentrate on his newest submission for his art course.

A knock at his bedroom door caused Harry to look up from the sodden pages, expecting his mother to walk in and scold him for once again making a mess on the floor. To his surprise (and relief) he watched as his older brother entered the room with a cheeky grin. The type of grin that meant Niall was plotting something.

The twenty-five year-old man was always up to no good and often tried to drag Harry into his crazy schemes. Just the other day, Niall had convinced Harry it would be a good idea to smoke a joint at the back of the local cinema during a screening of some random movie being shown. Innocently, Harry had agreed thinking it would make some mediocre screening of a crappy horror movie more entertaining. In reality, Niall had gotten too rowdy and caused a huge scene resulting in them being escorted out of the establishment by security and banned from ever stepping foot inside the place again. That was a huge inconvenience for the teenager because it was where he liked to take girls on a 'date' and make out in the back row.

"Whatever you have planned, forget it. I'm busy." He stated, jumping in before Niall could even say anything. His brother could be very persuasive and Harry wasn't taking any chances - he actually needed to start working on his canvas. It was due tomorrow and so far he'd only just started. The boy had a horrible habit of procrastinating huge painting assignments by sketching in his personal sketchbook. Nothing seemed to smother his creativity than a college assignment deadline.

"Harry!" Niall whined, stomping his foot like a petulant child. "I actually need your help."

"No, Niall. I'm not in the mood for your bullshit." He replied bluntly, grabbing his paintbrush and dabbing it gently in the acrylic paint set out on a piece of scrap cardboard on the floor next to him. Maybe if he just ignored his brother, he'd get bored and go away.

"Well, if you don't help me, I'll tell Mum the real reason you stayed behind after school yesterday," Niall smirked. He knew Harry couldn't argue with that.

"You wouldn't."

"Oh I would, you know I will." Niall smirked as he noticed the slightest hint of worry flash across his younger brother's features.

"Fine. Why do you need my help?" Harry reluctantly agreed. There were many times Niall had snitched to their Mum about all the stupid things he'd done. Yesterday, Harry had skipped his last lesson to hook up with some girl in the bathroom. Afterwards, he drove her to the diner where he met up with a bunch of people from his college and spent his afternoon getting high in the car park. He'd told his Mum he'd stayed behind in one of his college's art studios to work on his assignment considering she would definitely not approve of his extracurricular activities but Niall had somehow found out the truth. He always knew everything. It was like a superpower.

"Mum went out so there's a girl coming over soon."

"And that includes me, how? I'll stay out your way and turn up my music." Harry dismissed his brother, thankful he wasn't being dragged into another one of his stupid plans. This wasn't the first time Niall had fucked a girl while he was home and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

"For some reason she had to bring her sister too. You're the same age so I need you to take her into town. I can't fuck Rain while her sister is here."

Rain? Why did that name sound familiar?