You Make Me Strong

Chapter 3 - The party

"Z I don't want to go..." Harry mumbles, fingering the material of his sheer shirt that Zayn had shoved at him an hour earlier, telling him to "put this on and don't ask questions, we're going out".

"I know, but I think it will be good for you Haz, make some more friends, talk to people. You can't honestly be happy with just having me and Nick as friends, eh?" Zayn says in an attempt at a joke as he continues styling his hair up.

"I like both of you, I don't want other friends." Harry protests, walking after Zayn and not protesting when presented with a pair of boots to put on.

"Please Haz, for me? I'll be there the whole time and if you wanna leave at any point I promise we can as long as you give it a go. Please?" Zayn asks sincerely.

"Okay" Harry sighs, pulling on the boots and a jacket and heading out after Zayn

-

"Lads!" Niall's deafening tone rings out across the apartment, making Louis flinch from his position on the floor where he was responding to emails and causing Liam to wake up from his nap.

"Bloody hell, Niall. Give a man a warning when he's about to be woken up!" Liam exasperated, holding a hand to his chest.

"Oops." Niall offered cheekily before plopping down onto Liam's lap and giving him a tight hug. "I'm sorry Li, don't be mad at me!" He teases.

"I'm not mad at you you idiot, but you're squishing me." He complains before shoving Niall off of him.

"Whatever, Louis loves me, right Lou?" Niall questions, looking over at Louis who's giving him an unimpressed look back with one eyebrow raised.

"Okay okay, nevermind, its cool, noone loves Niall, whatever." Niall sighs dramatically, making the two older boys smirk at their friend. "Anyways, what I was going to say is that there's this party tonight and someone asked me to come and I said yes so now we're all going to a party! Yay!" Niall says with enthusiasm to the not so enthusiastic boys.

"Ni, we can't. Training program specifically says not to go out getting drunk. I'm captain and I need to set an example. You should too." Louis says responsibly.

"You know there was a time when Liam would say some dumb shit like that and you and me would laugh at him and go out anyways and he'd end up coming with us." Niall complained.

"Excuse me I am nowhere near as bad as Liam used to be!" Louis defends.

"Oh really? What did Liam say when I suggested we go out last year for new years as our last big night out before training started again?"

"That it was irresponsible and we shouldn't be taking our places on the team for granted. And that the program said not to go out drinking..." Louis grumbled. "Okay fine we're going, I don't want to be responsible like Liam!" He teased, running upstairs to go and get ready, followed by the two other boys laughing loudly.

-

Harry wrapped his jacket round him tighter, his hands fumbling with the empty plastic cup in his hand as he sat down on the floor outside, his knees pulled up and his hands wrapped around his legs. Harry hated parties and he knew he hated parties, why he decided he would come was beyond him. He could feel the beat of the music beneath him and the faint hum of people chatting, but outside everything was a lot more peaceful.