Unrequited

Chapter 9 (Part 1)

LOUIS’ POV

I woke up at 7am to the sound of Niall snoring in the next room. We really have to get something done about that, I thought as I walked into the main little living area and fixed myself some cereal. By the time I’d finished breakfast, Niall, Zayn and Liam were up, getting ready to go out. We had a day off in Brighton after three consecutive nights of shows and we intended to make the most of it. “Louis, you’d better get Harry and Charlotte up if we want to make a full day of this!” Zayn yelled from his room. 

“Why me!?” I yelled back, “Harry gets violent in the mornings!”

Liam walked into the living area, switching on the TV. “Well,” he said, “If you’re lucky, you’ll have woken him up already with all your yelling.”

“Or not,” I said, after Harry didn’t emerge from his room, bleary-eyed and ready to hit someone as he usually did after being woken up. I went and knocked on his door. “Harry? Are you up?” After there was no answer, I banged the door open. All I found was his empty bed, untouched from the night before. Harry wasn’t one for making his bed in the morning. He wasn’t in the en-suite either I walked back out to Liam, totally puzzled. “Harry’s not in his room.”

“Maybe he’s in the bathroom?” 

“I checked that too.” Liam though for a moment. “Maybe he got up early and went for a walk?”

“Harry? You really think?” I said, an eyebrow raised. “Even if he did, he would have left a note or texted one of us.”  I remembered our new little friend, staying in the room next to Harry’s and a thought came to me. “Hm.” 

“What?” Liam said, confused by the look on my face.

“Well, I really hope I’m wrong...” I said, leaving Liam even more confused. I walked to the door of Charlotte’s room and knocked quietly. No answer. I opened the door and found in front of me almost exactly the scene I had expected. I sighed and slapped my forehead with my palm. “What?!” Liam said in a loud whisper from across the room. I beckoned him over. Harry was lying fast asleep on top of the covers on Charlotte’s bed, while Charlotte herself lay close to Harry, an arm draped over his chest and his hand over hers. “Holy-” I covered Liam’s mouth.

“Shh! If we wake them now, I’m imagining Charlotte would be a bit embarrassed with us just standing here. We’d be putting her in a bit of an awkward position.”

“Erm well, she’s managed to do that herself quite nicely already!” Liam half whispered.

“You go, I’ll wake Harry” I whispered, shoving Liam out the door, ignoring his protests. I walked over to the bed and tapped Harry on the shoulder, ‘Harry...Harry wake up.”

“What?” Harry groaned, rubbing his eyes.

“What are you doing in here?” I whispered. Harry looked around himself, confused. He then realised where he was, looking down at Charlotte’s arm across his chest. He breathed out loudly and closed his eyes, flopping his head back on the pillow. “God, what this must look like,” he sighed.

“Explain later curly. Right now, we’re meant to be making the most of our day off, so could you wake up your little lady friend and get dressed, please?”

“She’s not-”

“Yeah, yeah” I said walking out of the room, closing the door behind me. I wasn’t mad at Harry, I mean, of all us boys, it was bound to be Harry making a move on the tour manager’s sixteen year old daughter. But at the same time, I didn’t want Harry getting sidetracked with a girl and complicating the tour for us. Yes, I am a complete hypocrite but I was better at hiding these things from management than Harry was. Also, I’m quite sure Terri wouldn’t exactly be ecstatic over witnessing the scene I just did... and having the tour manager angry at us on the biggest tour of our lives, may just be a tad awkward.