Tomlinson was the best thing to happen to me (Watty's '13)

Well And Truly Unexpected

"Don't you think Louis' acting strange?" I ask Niall. "He's gone a while without mentioning Hannah." It's July now, and he hasn't mentioned a call to her in 2 weeks already.

"Well we have an album to get out and maybe he just wants to focus on it? Zayn's been weird as well."

"Zayn's weird as usual."

"He's quiet, usually. But even then he's usually chirpy enough to do something silly."

"Last night I still heard Liam jabbering away on the phone to Dani or Wolverhampton. Or both, knowing him."

"I wouldn't worry about him, he's fine."

"As we've come to the conclusion of."

"Hey Louis, how're things going?" I'm only doing the rounds of wiggling eyebrows to check on what's going on with my friends.

"We broke up. So did Zayn and Rebecca." I was hoping they'd last somewhat longer.

"Did you guys make a pact or something?" I ask, thinking back to all those times they've locked themselves away for a chat.

"No. At that point," he caught on to my train of thought, "that was for planning how we'd say it to them. It's not particularly awkward between Hannah and I."

"Still friends?"

"Most definitely."

"You aren't upset?"

"Not really, she understood that I had the album to work on, and stuff. We're still friends. Like I had time to spend with her anyway."

"I was hoping you'd be, because what the heck am I going to do if two of my friends can't spend time together without being awkward?"

"I'm eating with Harry because he makes good lunch."

"Don't need to count me in."

"Uh, I'm hiding out with Liam."

"I'm taking lunch over to Zayn's." I want to talk to him. I rapped on his door. Hair neat enough to have an event on later in the day, Zayn opened the door.

"Hey."

"You alright? I heard you ended it with Rebecca."

"That was… pretty stupid, really," he told me honestly. It took me by surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't the brightest idea. Don't know what I was thinking."

"Here, I've got 4 boxes of takeaway, two each. There's ginger chicken, roast duck, barbequed pork somewhere and the last box is most definitely mine."

"I'll take the chicken and the duck."

"One time I had roast duck, and, as everyone knows except me at the time, roast duck has a lot of fat on it if done well. I went home and sat on the toilet for a good 20 minutes."

"Don't you have roast duck at your parents' place?"

"Nah, that's a different shop altogether. My parents own a café, you have to go to a separate BBQ place to get that sort of stuff, usually."

"Ah, okay. You watch any football?"

"Apart from Premier League Manchester United, I watch out for Yorkshire. That's about it. When Theresa came-"

"Who's Theresa?"

"German exchange, when she came over, she'd discussed Bayern Munich with dad."

"That's a German team, right?"

"She's a German exchange, genius."

"Which part of Germany?"

"Bavaria. Southern Germany."

"Oh, okay. I mostly stick to Premier League and Bradford City."

"Bradford City," I mused. "League Two Bantams."

"None other than."

"Not Leeds United?"

"When hell freezes over!"

"So you are one of those adamant fans, eh?"

"You know about the stadium fire, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you know of the chip van incident?"

"I know it got set on fire-"

"Many of us City fans see it as a mockery of the stadium fire."

"But that killed dozens of people!"

"Exactly why."

"Huddersfield Town. February of 97, coincided with Harry's third birthday, like anyone knew at the time, Gordon Watson was slide tackled, and it broke his leg in two places. 6 inch plate, seven screws, two years to recover. Even then, the contract ended. He was only in his third match for the club when it happened."

"And I thought he was one hell of an expense?"

"Most definitely. And then there are the baby rivalries with, like, Barnsley, Burnley, Sheffield United and Wednesday."

"Watson played for Sheffield Wednesday at some point, I believe?"

"I dunno. Did he?"

"Check Wikipedia. That's what I always do these days. Don't know anything? Check Wikipedia. Want to confuse yourself about something science related? Check Wikipedia."

"Watch out, we gotta badass here."

"Says the Bradford bad boy."

"You got yourself disowned, after all."

"And you smoke. I did a project last year on acupuncture. And it can help you quit."

"Needles?"

"Thin ones. Depending where they poke you, it might not even hurt. Of course, that's provided the acupuncturist is a good one."

"I've thought about quitting. The fans don't like it. And I know it's not good for me. You seen this year's XFactor contestants?"

"Nup. I've seen a bit with Niall, but haven't paid much attention lately."

"They're probably gonna get us to perform there, a new single, probably."

"Why are you so happy?"

"I dunno… I just am."

"Aw come on, there has to be something that's got 星仔 so happy. There has to be, I swear."

"Don't have to deal with Rebecca any more. It was a decidedly stupid idea. She has kids. Two of them. And though I'm fine with little kids, I'm not one for that sort of position. It would just be weird, in the end. And really, I had to work around her just to spend time together."

"Oh. Well that's never good. She's what? 24? With two kids?"

"Yep. Even then,  there was no problem with the kids, it’s just going to be a case of weird families if we stayed together. I'm only 18 anyway."

AN: And there you have it, readers, two chapters together because I found you gave me sufficient readings. If these get 10 reads each over the next 48 hours (to 26/4/13) I'll upload another two chapters. Don't forget to comment what you think and to tell your friends about it. Happy reading!