meet me in the hallway |h.s|

53 | competitive

"Boy, love isn't easy, it's heartache"
(Lovin' you is heartache)
"Boy, see everyone leaves and your heart breaks"
(Lovin' you is heartache)

• • •

3 months later

Life-changing.

That's what the hiatus was. The guys did what they had to for the past three months. They did their last interviews and last shows as a band.

It was painful to watch them smile only for the cameras but it kinda surprised me how they were so understanding of each other. It amazed me in some way, how all of them actually agreed to leave five years of work behind. But it was good, they actually needed the break.

They broke up as a band two weeks ago, and now we were all currently at Harry's house, just hanging out together, distracting ourselves from reality, of course.

I was missing Zayn too. It was almost a year since he left the band and the fact that I haven't heard from him for two months was really concerning. I messaged him a few times, but he always left me on read, so I stopped trying because I had the feeling he wouldn't respond. And I tried not to think much of it. It pissed me off that none of us talked with him anymore and that he really left us.

"Harry, you have that Ping Pong table, right?" Niall catches all our attention, and I look at Harry without wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

"You have a Ping Pong table?!" I shout. He flinches and nods at the same time. "I've been here a lot of times, Styles, and you haven't told me about it."

"Baby, calm down, you know now," he chuckles, standing up. "Come, I'll show you."

We all stand up and follow Harry through the living room towards a hallway that also leads to the indoor pool. He opens a door I've never touched, and we all enter the room. I quickly look around, seeing all the stuff that helps when you're bored. There's a pool table, a dartboard... a fucking Pacman machine and the Ping Pong table.

"Shut up," I say with wide eyes, smacking Harry's chest. He groans as I walk further towards the table and grab one of the small rackets and the Ping Pong ball. I turn around to look at him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He rolls his lips into his mouth, trying to hold back the smirk. He runs his hand through his hair and shrugs.

I glare at him and turn to the others. "Anyone wanna play?" I ask, holding the racket and the ball in the air.

"Nope, thank you," Karen quickly answers, shaking her hands and stepping back.

I laugh, knowing why she's reacting this way. a small smirk appears on my face as I stare at the boys. They're glancing back and forth between Kay and me, wondering why Kay might have reacted that way.

Liam shrugs and walks towards me. "Fuck it, I'll play."

I smile, walking around the table to position myself at one end while Liam grabs the other small racket, doing the same. The others just gather themselves in a small group to watch us.

"I'm not that good, though." Karen lets out a high-pitched laugh at my words.

Raising the small racket and the ball, I start playing. The ball bounces on the ball to Liam and back to me when it touches his racket. We do that several times.

"You're good, Vee," he says, and then I smirk, the ball coming back to me.

Doing the harsh move, I know to do best, I hit the ball with the racket. Liam misses and the ball launches somewhere in the room.