Loser Like Me

Chapter 5

I pushed the door open and prepared myself for a barrage of abuse and the smell of stale pizza. Lauren would be pissed. The flat was quiet, almost too quiet, I could hear the sound of guns and fighting coming through the door of Adams bedroom, he was playing a video game. Again. That’s all that boys did, that and eat, he never went to lectures and I don’t even think he’d been on campus this semester.  I slowly opened the door to my room, wincing as the door creaked, I really couldn’t deal with Lauren, I had no idea what I was supposed to say. I rarely said sorry to people, it’s not like I was never in the wrong or never had to say it, I just never did. Yet another of my many flaws. I couldn’t apologise. I tossed my bag onto the bag and shook my t-shirt away from my body, the walk back to the flat wasn’t long but boy did it make me sweaty. The cotton fabric of my Guns N’ Roses top was thick and clung to me at the sign of moisture.

I heard a cup being dropped into the kitchen sink, the clang of the metal ringing through the room. She was in there. Hopefully alone, Tom would no doubt still be passed out, seriously what did she see in him? I made my way down the hallway, stopping briefly at the door to the living room/kitchen before bravely opening the door. Bravely? Why am I so scared of my 8 stone friend? The TV was on, some reality show was playing, typical Sunday morning crap. The brown leather sofas were back in place, and empty, the floor was clean, no trace of confetti or pizza to be seen. Twister was back in its box and on top of the stack of board games that balanced on the fridge. The kitchen table was also clean and the chairs had been put back in their place. I turned to the sink and gasped as I saw the pile of washing on the draining board. The gasp caused the person at the sink to turn around. And who was staring back at me but Harry Styles.

“Hey. How are you?” he smiled at, that breath-taking smile. Did he know what reaction he caused in people?

“What are you doing here?” I winced at my harsh words. “Hi” I added causing his grin to widen.

“I crashed here last night”

“You left though”

“I came back” he came back.

“Oh. Where’s Lauren?” I pulled out a chair and sat down. The seat was sticky; I dread to think what had caused the stickiness.

“In bed I think. I haven’t seen her”

“So who cleaned up?” I ran my finger over the table.

“Me” he turned back towards the sink and started to wash up again. His light blue shirt was had been left unbuttoned and it hung down his back perfectly. His legs were encased in black skinny jeans; did he ever wear anything else? And his feet were covered in white socks. His hair was stuck up reaching towards the ceiling, I couldn’t decide if he’d woken up like that or if he’d spent hours fixing it to look like that. He gently placed a plate on the already dangerously high pile.

“Why are you cleaning? Leave it, I’ll do it later”

“I had nothing else to do. It’s fine.”

“You had nothing else to do? A member of the world’s biggest boy band has nothing better to do than clean my kitchen?”

“I like washing up. It calms me” I bit my lip trying to stop myself from laughing. It calms him? What? Thank god he was facing away from me. I stood up, picking up a tea towel as I made my way to the sink.

“Thank you” I mumbled. A few moments passed as we silently washed and dried the plates and cups. “Next time there’s a party I’m getting paper plates and cups. I can’t deal with this.” I shook my hand, sending bubbles flying into the air. Harry blow them away from his face and back towards me my nose scrunched up involuntary at the approaching bubbles. Once again Harry started to grin. I swear that grin was going to kill me soon.