𝑺𝐈𝐗, One Direction Sixth Member

1, seventeen

The clock read 2.43 in the morning when Aviana slipped inside Alden's room.

His room was dark - it always had been, to be honest. No matter what time of the day it was, Alden liked to live like a vampire in the comfort of drawn curtains and shadowed lights.

If there was a part of the house that Aviana hated with all her might, it was Alden's room. The older boy had no sense of cleanliness at all, and it showed in the huge pile of unfolded laundry in front of his closet and the way his belongings were strewn across the room messily. She didn't even remember the last time Alden bothered to open the windows to let some fresh air in. Hence, she always made a show of holding her nose whenever she entered the vicinity that smelled like spoiled fast food, strawberry-ice smoke and marinated farts.

Just like any other day, all the lights in his room were turned off, a result of faking the fact that he'd gone to sleep just in case Soniya woke up in the middle of the night and decided to check on him. The ordeal of faking sleep was something both Alden and Aviana had mastered - pretending to go to sleep and instead staying up late doing god knows what till four in the morning. The habit was induced to stop their mother from nagging them past their curfew and so far, none of the two had been caught in the act of near-crime.

When Aviana finally spotted Alden, she noticed that he was sprawled on top of his bed. His limbs were thrown everywhere as he dazedly watched something on his laptop - completely unaware of the girl slipping in through his door. She could clearly hear the familiar voice of Alicia Silverstone's Cher from the device on his lap.

Of course, the fucker was lying about re-watching Fast & Furious earlier during dinner. Here he was, fully invested in the rom-com at ungodly hours of the night with a shit-eating grin on his face like a schoolgirl.

"Fast and Furious, my ass"

Alden almost screamed, her voice catching him off guard and making him jolt up against the bed in an instant. "Ruhi, what the fuck are you doing? Get out, Jesus Christ. What the fuck"

"Stop overreacting" Aviana sighed, watching as Alden scrambled around to push the laptop away and pull the bed covers around himself. Ignoring his cries of protest, she walked towards the bed, sitting down on the floor right next to it. Instinctively, she scrunched up her nose. God forbid whatever Alden does in his room for the air to be this thick around her.

"Why are you here?" Alden huffed in an irritated voice. "Get out of my room"

"I need help"

Without saying anything else and ignoring Alden's look of vex, Aviana held her phone up towards him. On the screen was the group chat with the six of them, which opened up and lit Alden's face in the glow of the screen. The boy squinted his eyes, pushing himself towards the device as he tried to read through what she was showing him. Aviana could see the way his eyebrows furrowed and softened back and forth as he skimmed down the screen, lips twisting into something Aviana couldn't decipher right away.

"They're meeting up tomorrow?" He asked finally, taking his eyes off the screen and turning to Aviana.

"Yeah," Aviana nodded, taking back her phone. "Apparently, the Irish guy is going back in two days. So tomorrow- today actually, it's past midnight - is the only day we can meet up. They're asking if I know any place to hang out and yeah, talk, I guess"

Alden nodded absentmindedly, his eyes drifting somewhere, which told Aviana he was processing her words. "So, what do you need help for?"

Aviana sighed. This was always the hardest part when it came to asking for help - the process of actually asking. No matter how much she'd tried, she had never been able to get Alden on the boat on the first try in the past. And this time, even at the cost of his own stake and quite literally his reputation - there was no way Aviana would be able to convince Alden to cover for her tomorrow that easily.