Finding The Courage (a Ziam Mayne AU)

Chapter Three "Young & Wild"

Liam's POV

Harry had excluded himself from our company fairly early, when he disappeared to wherever with some tall guy who had practically been undressing him with his eyes for fifteen minutes straight.

Niall got drunk pretty quickly, but then again, so did Chrissy, so they complemented one another quite perfectly.

Chrissy really was adorable - she was perfect for Niall. They had the same humour, she was just as dorky as he was and they looked so cute together. I was so happy for him.

They were actually dancing. But occasionally he would come over, have another drink, more drunk with every time, his diction - that was already hard to handle, given his thick Irish accent - racing downhill together with his ability to walk in a straight line, and yell something at me.

"Leeeeaaanne and Leeeeyum!", he babbled on one of his visits. "That sounds stuuupid!"

When he reached for his next drink, I intervened. "Don't you think you've had enough, mate?"

"Don't you tell me what to do.", he demanded, downing the shot and running off again.

Leanne came back from the bathroom and wrapped her arms around my torso from behind. "You sure you don't wanna drink anything, love?"

I sighed. "Yeah. I wouldn't wanna leave my car here over night."

She ran her fingers over my chest, pressing herself closer to my back. "Could you at least put the phone away?"

I'd been looking at my phone an awful lot over the course of that night. I had tried to convince Zayn to join us, but he was very stubborn.

Did I mention, Leanne was quite pissed as well. Not as much as Niall - but still. She'd started to annoy me a little. It seemed as though she had developed this desperate urge to touch me. Normally, that wouldn't really bother me but there was something about the whole situation that made me feel so uncomfortable.

I couldn't stop worrying about Zayn. I didn't really know what it was but I was really concerned about him. He often had episodes of terrible mood wings that didn't mean anything but this time it felt... different. I almost felt responsible for him.

"I will stop drinking if you start dancing!", Niall yelled from somewhere behind me.

Leanne looked at me expectantly. Niall was lying but I might as well enjoy myself while I'm here, right? I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the dancing crowd where Niall and Chrissy were jumping around.

"Hey, stranger! Where've you been?", Niall shouted when he saw us approach. "Oh, by the way: Harry said he won't be coming home tonight, he left already."

"You sure? Or is that the alcohol talking?", I asked cautiously.

Chrissy nodded vigorously at me. "He did say that. Went out with this tall bloke with the dark eyes."

Well, that wasn't too unusual for Harry, so I could very safely believe them.

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"I had a great time."

After I'd dropped Niall and Chrissy off each at their houses I'd driven to Leanne's. I accompanied her to her door out of fear she would just fall into the bushes on the side of the street and not get back up.

"Yeah, me too.", I said smiling at her attempt to unlock the door. I took her keys. "Let me."

Once the door was open, she pulled me a few steps inside. "Your choice.", she whispered, her lips close to mine. "You can stay or you can leave."

I hesitated for a second. Then I kicked the door shut and pressed my lips onto hers, letting her pull me further into the flat. We let ourselves fall onto her bed like a bag of potatoes and quickly pealed out of our clothes.