how you get the boy

ten

If there was one person whom I knew had the worst timing ever, it would be my brother, Nick.

It all started when we were kids – he walked into the bathroom whilst I was taking my shower simply because he thought no one was inside and he couldn't hear the sound of the water running – and it had stayed that way since then unfortunately.

Out of all days that he could've picked to bug the life out of me, he had chosen today – this evening, to be precise – to knock on the front door incessantly, refusing to leave until I eventually relented and opened the door. His choice of words when I refused to open the door had always been 'open the bloody door Alice, I know you're inside!' and because I feared the neighbours would hate me because of my brother, I opened the door.

"Why didn't you tell me that you've moved?" He questioned as soon as I was standing in front of him, his voice causing me to wrinkle my nose. See, I didn't hate him but he had the power to nark me so easily that sometimes I was glad that we only saw each other once a month. Or if I was lucky, once in two months. "I went to Nina's and she said that you've moved in with Shiloh but when I got there, she said you're not there."

Riiiight.

It had completely slipped my mind that I should have probably told someone – other than Shiloh and Niall – that I had moved in with Louis. In my defence, Nick had never cared about this sort of thing. As a matter of fact, I was pretty certain that if I were to ring him one afternoon and tell him that I was moving in with a bloke whom he had no knowledge of, he would tell me that he couldn't be arsed by that. So it was not completely my fault that he had to go to two flats in order to search for me.

"Are you living with your boyfriend, Tee?" Nick questioned next as he invited himself inside, eyes wandering around the living room as though he was trying to see if there were evidences that I was living with my boyfriend.

"I'm living with Louis, Nick." I answered as I returned to my previous spot on the couch and hugged the pillow I was hugging earlier before Nick interrupted my rather comfy afternoon alone in the flat. I had planned on enjoying a quiet afternoon all by myself before the madness – the party that Louis was so looking forward to – started. But judging by the way Nick was making himself comfortable on the couch, I could tell that my plan wasn't going well.

"Who's Louis?" He asked then, the question I knew I couldn't avoid.

"A friend," I mumbled whilst my eyes were transfixed on the cooking show I was watching to make myself feel less lonely since Louis wasn't around.

He was gone when I woke up this morning and as much as I wished he would tell me where he was going, I knew that it wouldn't matter to me. For all I knew, he was probably out to get some stuff for the party he was throwing tonight.

Louis and his bloody love for parties.

"So, he's your boyfriend, innit?" Nick asked, eyes never leaving the side of my face. Though I should probably ask him if he wanted something seeing that he was a visitor in this flat, I wasn't exactly in the mood to entertain him. He should've at least ring me before he came over, but Nick being Nick, of course didn't – couldn't – do the simplest thing. "Tee?"

Rolling my eyes, I lowered the volume of the telly and swivelled my body until I was fully facing him, "What?"

"S'he your boyfriend?"

"No, Nick, he's not my boyfriend. Just a friend," I emphasised the last word, hoping that he would drop the subject.

He didn't. "You're not shagging him?"