Hiding in the Shadows

Jeff

The soft buzzing of his phone roused Niall from his deep sleep. He opened his eyes and brought his arms above his head to stretch a little. That's when he noticed that three pairs of arms were holding him down. Confusion warred with curiosity inside of him, why was he laying across his three band mates? Why had they allowed it? None of the boys had ever allowed him to even sit near them outside of interviews in five years and yet here he was lying on top of them?

His phone buzzed again and Niall put his curiosity to the side for the time being as he started to loosen the arms that were pinning him down. If he was right that was Josh texting about band practice and he could not miss this one.

Liam stirred when he felt a light weight being lifted off of him. What had he kicked off in his sleep? Harry maybe? No, looking over Liam saw Harry sleeping on the other side of the couch. Louis was between him and Harry so he couldn't be the culprit, Zayn wasn't here anymore so it couldn't have been him meaning...

Niall had almost made it out the door when an annoyed looking Liam stopped him in his tracks, "Where do you think you're going?"

Niall froze, hand on the doorknob and debated his options. He could turn and answer Liam, tell him the truth and then head out; surely the man wouldn't follow him. That might take longer than he had though and Niall couldn't be late to this practice - not after he'd skipped the last one. Another issue with this plan was that if Louis woke up then he would definitely stop Niall from leaving, Louis didn't seem to care that Niall got in to trouble for missing practice. The only other option Niall had was to open the door right then and bolt, ignoring Liam completely. Knowing that time was ticking and that he just couldn't afford another 'meeting' with Bradford so soon after his last one, Niall choose option two.

Liam was stunned when he saw Niall jerk the door open and run out of the room. What the hell had gotten into him? Instantly Liam was up and out the door after Niall, his sudden departure from the couch managed to rouse the last two sleeping boys and soon enough there were three people chasing Niall down.

Niall had managed to make it all the way to the bottom floor and had just hopped off the last step, turning to face the exit door only to find three angry band mates instead. "How?..."

"Elevators are faster than stairs." Harry answered simply.

"Look guys," Niall tried, "I really have to go."

"You're not going anywhere but back to the room." Liam informed the boy as he stepped forward into Niall's personal space.

Niall backed up as Liam approached but he quickly found himself pinned against the wall, "I have to go to practice today," he pleaded, "I can't miss it."

"Your fingers are too sore for you to be playing," Louis reasoned, "Therefore you can't do anything at practice anyway"

"I can still play." Niall argued.

"How?" Harry questioned.

Niall rolled his eyes, "I'll use a pick."

Three boys just shook their heads in disbelief at the insistency of the blond one. None of them truly believed that because Niall had a pick in one hand he would suddenly be able to play the guitar without any pain or without doing any more damage to his fingers. The one question that did nudge the tip of Louis' tongue however was, "How many times have you had to play with injured fingers before?"

Harry and Liam turned shocked expressions to Louis while Niall just shrugged. He shrugged! As though it were nothing! "It's no big deal."

Well that had been the wrong thing for Niall to say. Instantly there were three loud, insistent objections to that comment but Niall wasn't listening, he just didn't get it, why did they suddenly care? Alright yes, it had been Niall's goal to get the three of them to like him however he honestly thought he'd already done that. Then Louis went and screwed everything up.