a special little favor for my friend amberlynn.
comment! the weekend begins now! this book is done by sunday!

chapter fifty-three

N.J.H.
"Fuck Harry," I whine, my voice cracking, as it's basically the crack of dawn, "faster please."

I feel him pound harder to my plea and I moan, gripping myself as quickly as I can.

"Harry..."

It's round...seven at this point? I find it to be extremely strange (yet appealing) that Harry and I have managed to have sex at least ten times in the past three days. I talked to Louis about it at the rehearsal, and he said that maybe it was the fact that we were on vacation and didn't have sex regularly. Then he proceeded to complain for the rest of the time about how he and Zayn have had sex one time.

"Oh sure, there's a lot of oral, but I need the real thing every once in awhile!"

Knowing that Zayn just likes to play hard to get with Louis often, I ignore his complaints and tell him that he shouldn't worry about it. Part of me is still a bit concerned about what had happened between us, and sex is one topic that's now awkward to talk to my best friend about. You know, because we almost did it.

"I'm co--" I can barely warn him before I'm coming all over my stomach. Harry finishes shortly after and that marks the end of round seven.

"No more, right?"

"We said 'no more' three rounds ago," I heave in response, "how do we even have this much energy?"

He shrugs and rolls over, stretching his arms out.

"The wedding is tomorrow, you know."

"It's all I can think about," I sigh, shaking my head, "This is all so surreal...I never thought things would end up like this."

"Like what?" Harry asks me curiously, wrapping us in the sheets we had discarded on the floor,

"Like...this way." I try and explain, "Not that anything's wrong though, it's just interesting how much everything has changed. Eight months ago I was planning on proposing to Tiffany. Then I met you, I figured her out, and now we're here. She's matured, about to be married, and I have the best man in the world to be my fiance."

"Oh," he says, pondering a bit in his own thoughts, "yeah, I suppose things have changed a lot."

"What..." I adjust myself in his embrace before repeating myself, "What were you doing before you met me?"

"What was I doing?"

"Yeah, who were you before me?"

"Well," He strokes his chin and I smile, "It was extremely dull without you, now that I look back on it."

"Knew you were gonna say that," I roll my eyes, "come on!"

"I mean, there haven't been a lot of real relationships in my life," he explains, "not that this sounds so great now, but there have been plenty of one night stands and drunken nights because, well, I guess I was lonely. I had given up on love after a recent break up and I let it get to my head..."

I nod thoughtfully.

"You're not mad?" He asks me in surprise.

"Living in the present," I smile, "the past doesn't matter to me right now."

He smirks, kissing me before continuing,

"So yeah, it was a dark and empty time, but then the sunshine that goes by the name of Niall Horan came into my life. I stopped going to parties after work and enveloping myself in the distant euphoria of alcoholism, and instead I thought of  you."

"When did you first see me?" I ask, feeling like it wasn't the night I tried to lock him out,

"I got a file of all the employees when I joined," he explains, "when I saw your face, my breath kind of hitched and my heart fell from its place down to my stomach. Then I read your name and I knew I was done for."

I nod, fiddling with his fingers,

"So then?"

"So then it was talking to you in person. Luckily, you made that really easy to accomplish."

He laughs and I smack his shoulder, snorting as we reminisce back on when I messed up.

"It's okay," he grins, "took a lot of the pressure off of me. But after that I talked to my sister, because she knows guys like the back of her hand."

"What did she say?"

"She said 'Seduce him, then play the nice guy act.'"

It's scary, because what she said was right. The nice guy act would have completely turned me off.

"When she described the way you were skittish and shy, I assumed you had to be straight."

"You just...assumed?" I say, somewhat offended,

"No not that way," he explains, "I just had a gut feeling. I was right though, wasn't I?"

"Yeah..." I mutter, rolling my eyes again.

"But yeah, that's how it all really went."

I nod, resting my head on Harry's chest, exhaustion suddenly enveloping me in it's spell. He reaches over to turn the lights off and eventually we're falling asleep.

•

Louis and I sit in Harry and I's room, eating french fries from the buffet downstairs and watching Whiplash as it's the only that's good on this cheap hotel TV.

"How are you doing?"

"Louis we saw each other yesterday..."

"I mean with your infinite sex drive."

"Oh," I blush, "we did it like seven times today."

"Where is he now?"

"He and Zayn went to Dunns River. I wasn't feeling it, so that's why I invited you up."

"Right, god. Why would I want to go there anyway?"

"It's a waterfall," I chuckle, "but anyway, I need to talk to you."

"About?"

"I wanna adopt," I tell him, and he smiles,

"Niall that's amazing, where are you thinking about going?"

"No like, once Harry and I are married," I say, "sorry, I'm not thinking about it now. I just wanted to tell you aha, sorry for getting your hopes up.

"It's cool," he shrugs, "I also wanted to apologize for what I said at Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever."

"What was that?"

"That you've only been gay for three months. As if the struggle hasn't affected you. I mean it hasn't, but it was still rude of me to say."

"It's fine," I wave it off, "that was so long ago, it's fine brother."

He nods, laying back down in the bed and cracking his back,

"What are you gonna do when you get back?"

"New job my friend, gonna start a few days after our return."

"Right right," Louis takes a few fries from one of our many plates, "keep forgetting that, you big shot."

"How has it been with the fashion industry?" I ask him.

"Sales have been increasing madly," he repeats the statistics as if they're off the top of his head, "got our own commercial, and stores worldwide have been filling up faster every day."

"See?" I chuckle, "You're a big shot too!"

"Yeah, but Gigi Hadid fucking turned down my modelling offer," he snorts, rolling his eyes. I giggle, throwing a couple fries at him before talking again,

"Her loss."

"Damn straight son."

"Oh my god! Stop trying to be hip, it's not working."

He flips me off before looking back at Whiplash,

"J.K. Simmons scares the shit out of me in this movie."

"I think he scares everyone," I confirm for him as we watch the actor throw a chair at Miles Teller. The movie itself is incredible but in my many times of watching it, I have never been more frightened in my life.

"He reminds me of Stan..." Louis suddenly mumbles and I look to him almost immediately, worry clouding over me,

"Should I turn it off?"

"No no, it's fine..."

"Louis I'll turn it off--"

"Niall I'm fine."

I stare at him helplessly, wanting to know what's going through his head because even after all this time, I'm sure Stan still hurts him from within.

"I'm sorry, I just never want to see you like that ever again."

"I know you don't..."

"When do you think they're gonna come back?"

"It's like eight o'clock now...they probably went out to eat, gave us time to ourselves."

"Right..." Louis repeats, "I'm fine really... I just think that maybe we should just move on from him. I'm ready to do it and I think we both need to do it. No more stress, not even a mention of his name. Okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I think that's a good idea," I smile, knowing that this is the best for the both of us, "It's good to see you finally moving on."

"It's time for you to do so as well."

"What--"

"You can be friends with Tiffany."

"I know..."

"But actual friends. Let the past be the past."

"I am--"

"No. For real."

"Fine fine Louis. I will, for you."

"Thanks Ni, you're still my best friend after all these years and it really shows."

chapter 54 tomorrow!