Paper Birds

Chapter Thirty-Five ; Looking for Trouble

"Well, sorry, you can't anyway. He's out with Tiffani."

I cursed under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Thanks for calling, I'll talk to you later, okay?"

I hung and dropped my phone on the floor dramatically, whipping around to face Harry.

"What was that all about-"

A large grin crept into my mouth, my hands trembling. I ran, full speed, towards him and collided into his chest. "Jonah's getting married!"

Harry coughed and recoiled, shock on his face. I didn't realize how hard I hit him.

"Sorry," I muttered breathlessly.

He sniffed and straightened out with a small smile, "No, I'm fine, it's okay. Who's getting married?"

I grabbed his hands, bouncing on my toes. "Jonah, my brother."

He squeezed my hands back and bounced with me. "That's brilliant!"

I was too late to notice that he was naked and I was just dressed in a flimsy towel. The door to our room burst open and out came Louis, Zayn, and Niall. Louis an Niall stood there in shock, debating whether to leave or laugh, while Zayn erupted into a fit of laughter that didn't sound human. Louis finally tried to stifle a snicker with his hand, grabbing a still shocked Niall by the wrist and dragging him back into the kitchen. Zayn regained his breath. "What is going on here?"

Harry's eyes flickered to mine then back to Zayn. He jerked his thumb towards me. "Her, uh, brother is getting married."

Zayn's eyesbrows raised. "So, to celebrate, you strip yourself of clothes?"

I cleared my throat, struggling not to laugh at the situation. Niall's thundering cackle came from the kitchen, and that was our breaking point. I sputtered and went into a fit of giggles, Harry's shoulders hunched with laughter. It wasn't even that funny.

Harry shook his curls off to the side of his head, tearing through a dresser drawer and throwing on a pair of tight jeans. He reached into my dresser and tossed me a pair of black ripped jeans and my New York Rangers hoodie. I locked myself in the bathroom and hurriedly put on my under garments and threw the jeans and hoodie over them, grabbing my matching Rangers snapback off of the sink and putting it on.

When I came out, I was immediately yanked to the side by Louis. 

"D'you wanna do this now?" he whispered, jerking his head towards Harry.

I nodded, a small smile playing on my face. "Yep."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows at us. "Do what?"

I swallowed, the painful memory of his expression after I told him what Louis and I almost did filling my brain. "We're just gonna run some errands."

"That's it?"

My cheeks flushed. "Promise."

I ignored Niall and Zayn's confused glances and followed Louis out the door, feeling horrible for two reasons. One: Louis and I making Harry's mood go from happy to bad instantly. Two: Not buying Harry a birthday present on his birthday. I figured a gift from the heart and laser tag tickets would make up for it; Louis had told me that Harry loved laser tag. 

Once we were in the van, there was a long, awkward silence before Louis cleared his throat. "So, what were you and Harold doing?" 

I grinned. "Nothing scandalous." 

He raised his eyebrow at me in question. I rolled my eyes and confessed with a sly grin, "Fine. We were taking a bath."

"We? As in the two of you, together?"