Just the two of us and a cute little cup of cyanide

ch 6

Eleven years ago, Liam Payne had let his best friend Louis Tomlinson drag him and their new friend Niall Horan to a trendy bar in Soho so Louis could watch the boy he'd been crushing on from his sociology lectures sing.

"He's very good," Louis had said, ducking his head so Liam couldn't see his blush. "Pretty fit too."

Liam had simply rolled his eyes. "I'm meant to be skyping Sophia tonight, you know."

Louis had faked a dramatic yawn. "Shut up. You skype, like, every day. You need to live some life, Liam."

"And by live some life you mean wingman you?"

"That's exactly what I mean," Louis had grinned, pinching Liam's cheek.

The bar was crowded and had smelt heavily of weed but Louis had grabbed Liam's wrist in one hand and Niall's in the other and yanked them close to the front, positioning themselves at a bar table where Harry would definitely be able to see them.

Louis had been practically buzzing with excitement and Liam had had to put a hand on his shoulder to stop him bouncing so much.

"Stop bouncing so much, you look ridiculous, mate," he told him. Louis had stomped on his foot and flipped him the finger.

Eventually the lights had faded to low and a skinny kid with wild curls held in place by a decorative headband had taken the stage. "Er, hi, 'm Harry Styles and I'll be playing some songs for you tonight."

There had been a collective whoop throughout the pub and Liam had watched closely as Harry caught Louis' eye in front of him and flushed a deep magenta. Louis had flashed him his most endearing smile and a double thumbs up, then Harry had cleared his throat and launched into a song about not letting her go or something.

He really was very good, Liam couldn't help thinking. The set was completely acoustic and he sang his way through an eight song setlist without any instruments, leaving all three of them suitably impressed.

Once he'd been applauded offstage, Harry had jumped back into the crowd, heading straight over to Louis, Liam and Niall but with another lad in tow. "Hi, Louis," he had breathed out happily. Louis smiled up at him dopily until Niall had cleared his throat loudly.

"Oh, right, right. This is Harry, we have sociology together. Harry, this is Liam and this is Niall."

"Lovely to meet you," Harry had beamed. He gestured to the lad beside him. "This is Zayn, my best mate."

Liam tore his eyes away from the fond glances that Harry and Louis were sharing between themselves and looked at Zayn, who was side-stepping nervously from foot to foot. The first thing Liam had noticed was this bloke had really, really beautiful eyes. The second thing he had noticed was he was, in fact, one of the most gorgeous human beings Liam had ever seen but he immediately quashed the thought when the thought of Sophia guiltily flickered through his mind.

The five of them had ended up in a booth together, drinking pints as a group for the rest of the night. Zayn had seemed really shy at first but after a few pints had livened right up and actually turned out to be incredibly funny and quite similar to Liam, in the end.

After that night, Louis and Harry became completely inseparable and Liam, Zayn and Niall watched proudly as the pair fell in love, got engaged at the end of their third year, got married a year later and stayed strong and happy and supportive of one another as Harry slowly became more and more successful and climbed up the album charts, Niall following closely behind as his lead guitarist and best friend on the road.

Likewise, Niall had found love in their second year of uni - a bubbly, gorgeous girl named Jade who was studying to be a nurse. Niall had fallen hard and fast, moved in with her straight out of uni and proposed drunkenly on New Year's Eve. Four years later, Niall is now the proud father of baby Millie Horan and still as gone for his wife as he was back then.