Privilege

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Niall gets up the next morning before the rays of the sun even penetrate through the large windows of his room. He sits upright in his bed for a while just staring into thin space and feeling more exhausted; both mentally and physically.

He glances over at Conrad’s bed where his roommate his fast asleep, his chest heaving in synch to his even breathing. Niall envies him, wishing he could go back to sleep, but he can’t. There’s too many thoughts swirling in his head, slowly driving him crazy.

All he has done all night is imagine Louis and the others catching him in 1 million different ways. In one versions, Louis will grab a bat and smash Niall’s head with it, covering his best friends with blood and brains. However, he thinks he might have been half-asleep at that point.

He sighs and decides to at least get ready. He made his bed, took a shower and dressed himself in his uniform. Every time he would make a sound above a whisper, Conrad would turn, toss, and sigh in his sleep.

+

A while later, while Niall is doing some homework, Conrad wakes up. “Good morning,” Niall mutters without taking his eye off the math equation he is trying to solve. Conrad blinks, rubs the sleep out of his eyes and doubtlessly looks surprised to see Niall up before him.

“Good morning,” He replies, shoving the covers aside and walking into the bathroom.

“You coming?” He asks once he is ready and Niall nods, closing the book and putting it in his backpack. “Yup.”

It’s when they walk out of the elevator that they hear the commotion down the hall; more specifically from the common study area of privilege house. Niall looks at Conrad with a questioning brow and Conrad shrugs, before they curiously walks over to see what is going on.

They appear in the door opening just in time to see Louis pop open a bottle of champagne and everyone in there hoots; Niall blinks, it was 8 in the freaking morning. Niall gets a better look of the room and first then does he notice that the entire room is filled with white and silver helium balloons. Everyone from privilege house - boys and girls (since it was the only co-ed dorm on campus, though boys and girls stayed in different parts) seems to be in there gathered around an elaborately decorated gifts in the center of the floor, while already opened boxes littered the floor along the walls.

Louis pours the champagne into a glass and hands it over to Harry; who seems to be the center of attention, before moving closer to the pop star and very much to Niall’s surprise, giving him a long smooch on the mouth, making the students around them whistle.

“Happy birthday, love,” He says, and really Niall has never seen Louis look at anyone with that soft, fond look in his eyes before. Apparently, he is the only one shocked by the sudden show of affection. Now, he couldn’t determine if Louis and Harry where together, because Harry flirts with pretty much everyone at every turn and Louis never seems to care.

Niall is standing awkwardly in the door, Conrad having walked inside and joined the celebration, when Harry catches sight of him.

“Ni-all! Just the person I’ve been looking for!” He sings and walks up to Niall, pulling him into the room. “Here. This is to you,” He smiles and gives him a small box and gives him a kiss on the cheek that makes him blush; he glances at Louis but he has his attention elsewhere.

Niall looks in the box

“What? Why?” He asks dumbly, surprised.

Everyone laughs.

“It’s Harry’s birthday,” Liam informs, and oh yeah Niall gathered that earlier on, but why is he getting a present from the birthday boy?

“Happy birthday, Harry,” He says to Harry with a smile.