18 (Narry AU)

Seven

It was just past five am when Niall woke up with an awful feeling in his stomach. It was rumbling loudly and the back of his throat burned. He pulled himself out of bed and upon standing, immediately felt dizzy. The room began to spin and the top of his head was throbbing. He felt an uneasiness in his stomach and rushed to the bathroom, making it just in time to puke in the toilet.

Niall had been sick plenty of times, but he hadn't felt is bad. His face felt hot and his vision was blurry. He knew he couldn't go into work with the condition he was in, so after spending almost thirty minutes sitting and puking his guts out, he called his boss.

"Mr. Johnson," he said drowsily, his head pounding worse at the sound of his voice. "I..." He paused for a moment, before puking once again, this time in the kitchen trash bin.

"Are you all right, Niall?" Mr. Johnson asked with slight worry in his voice. Niall hummed softly in response.

"Just a bit sick," he told his boss. "I'm not sure I'll be able to make it in today."

"That's all right," he promised. "I'll have Lou come in. Get some rest, yeah? Call me if you need anything." Niall thanked his boss and hung up, puking once more. He grabbed an ice pack from he freezer and headed into his room, lying on the bed then placing the pack on his forehead. The cold sensation felt so relieving against his burning face. He fell back asleep to the soothing coldness of the pack on his head and the sound of his heartbeat.

-

Harry woke up to a freezing cold home around ten in the morning. His duvet was lying on the floor, and he was completely exposed, only lying in his black boxer briefs. His legs felt like ice, and he wondered why the hell it was so cold.

He headed into the bathroom to take a hot shower, hoping to warm his body up. The water felt nice against his cool, tanned skin, and he couldn't help but stand there with his head down as he water rushed onto his body.

When he got out, his house was still as cold as an ice box. He made his way into the hallway to check the thermostat, finding out that it had ended up going down to 16.1 degrees Celsius. And for housing temperature, that was pretty damn cold. So Harry bumped the number up to 20.5, hoping it would warm the house up a bit.

He returned to his bedroom and changed into a fresh pair of clothes, settling with a pair of blue skinny jeans and a white button up covered in stars. He checked he time, remembering he needed to go by Milo's for his first guitar lesson. He was pretty excited. He wasn't sure how long it would take before he got pretty good at playing, but he hoped it wasn't long. He really wanted to do original performances, but he needed the guitar skills. He had written plenty of his own songs, but putting music to it was the problem.

Harry ate a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast before heading out. He locked the door behind him with his guitar case in hand, then set off down the road to the bus station. He was too late for the first bus, so he had to sit and wait twenty minutes for another to come. He was extremely bored, mindlessly tapping his fingers to an unknown rhythm, a rhythm that he soon realized fit one of his songs perfectly. If only he could write the music to go along with it.

The bus finally arrived just after noon, and he boarded along with a few other people. The bus wasn't too packed, so Harry was able to snatch a decent seat toward the front.

The bus ride wasn't too long, but it was delayed by five minutes because a couple of guys toward the back began arguing over a couple of bands. They ended up shoving each other and almost getting into a fist fight, that is, before the bus driver broke them apart and forced them off the bus.

Harry finally made it to his destination around twelve forty. He gripped the handle of his guitar case tightly, both excited and nervous about his lesson. He didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of Michael or Niall if he screwed up. Harry was easily embarrassed and just the thought of it made his insides turn.

He walked across the street and made his way inside the shop, slowly making his way up to the front counter as he admired the guitars he passed. Harry had a simple old Rogue RA 090 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar which had previously been used. He got it for cheap, only around fifty quid.

"Oh hey Harry," Hayley said, smiling at the taller boy. Harry smiled shyly, almost whispering back a hello.

"I'm sure you're here for Michael, eh?" Harry nodded his head.

"He doesn't come in for another twenty minutes, but you're more than welcome to hang here with me and Louis. Max, the lucky shit, got to leave at twelve."

"What about that Niall lad?" Harry asked, remembering the night before when he was told Niall went home earlier due to work.

"He called in sick," she replied. "Boss said it was awful. Said he heard the poor lad puke two times before they even got off the phone."

"That sucks." Harry knew he hated being sick. The thought of old food coming back up from the pipe it was previously put down made him almost gag. He tried avoiding being sick as much as he could. He had been lucky so far, being completely healthy for almost ten years straight.

Louis came out from the back of the store and noticed Harry. He joined him and Hayley at the desk, and they all became engrossed in a conversation.

Michael finally made his way through the door at five before one. He spotted Harry and smiled. Michael was pretty excited about getting to teach someone guitar. So far, the past two weeks had been quite boring. People only came in for guitars, never lessons.

"You ready to get things started, Harry?" Michael asked, clipping his photo ID to his chest pocket. Harry smiled and nodded his head almost too excitedly, making Michael chuckle. Harry followed Michael into a smaller room that occupied a few chairs, guitars, and a couple amps.

"So just go ahead and sit there," Michael said, pointing to a chair as he grabbed himself an acoustic guitar, "and we'll get this shit started.

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Sorry, sorry, this chapter was mainly just a filler.

So I feel really down cause I feel so friendless idek. This guy on here told me I should try to make friends with people on here, but I'm so awkward, and I can't keep a conversation going to save my life. Cries.

I know you guys hate me for all this teasing, and I am very sorry, but Narry will happen very soon, I promise.

Thanks for reading and getting me so close to 2k. I'm glad people are liking this story. I'll update again as soon as I can. Xx

~Tay :*