It's been a week since I officially moved into my new apartment and I couldn't be happier. This place is so amazing, it has amazing views, a nice public garden filled with flowers that burst with colour, it's close to work. I really couldn't have gotten much better, and to top it all off, my friends are in the same building. Louis and Zayn above me on the fourth floor and Liam and Niall on the second floor below me, if we ever need each other we can just go to the front doors directly, with no hassle. It's so convenient. Perfect for me.

I've had to refurbish the entire place but that hasn't been much trouble, shopping for furniture was quite fun actually. Although I'm not good at matching colours, the lads had to help out on that one, but the majority of the apartment was designed by me, which I'm very proud of. I've gone for neutral and earthly colours; in the living room my couches are a cream and chocolate brown, my coffee table is standard dark wood and my rug is shaggy, and soft to the touch. There are vintage canvas' on the wall and modern art decor on one of the side tables. My kitchen acquired with dark coloured wood, metal cooking appliances and a hardwood flooring. Whereas my bedroom is more warming, containing a plain cream coloured bed with a coffee coloured throw to decorate, a soft cream carpet with a large rectangular brown rug and a white bookshelf filled with all of my favourite books and films.

The only thing I need to do now, is actually paint the walls of the apartment. I know the names of the colours I need and what goes where, the last thing I need to do is go to the shop and pick up the right paint.

Taking into consideration the fact that my apartment is huge and if I did it on my own it would probably take me a week, the lads have kindly volunteered themselves to help me re-paint the entire place, as long as I buy the food. Which I thought was a fair deal.

So now all five of us are in my Range Rover and on our way to the department store to pick up the paint. I am currently driving whilst Zayn sits beside me on his phone; Liam, Louis and Niall all perched contently in the back as they sing loudly to the radio. "You guys should've been singers." I speak mockingly towards them as they belt out the notes carelessly. The truth is, they are actually brilliant singers, all four of them, they all have their own individual style that suits them but when you put them all together they sound amazing. I know I may joke about it and take the mick out of them from time to time but they genuinely are amazing singers.

As we arrive at the large department store we raid the aisles searching for the right paint. Me and Zayn going in one area whilst Lou, Liam and Niall head in the other, using our phones to communicate if we need to. As we reach the right aisle I take the cream coloured paint in my hand, grabbing the coffee colour in my other hand. "I think we need a trolley." I tell Zayn, knowing that I don't have enough hands to carry more paint. He kindly goes and grabs a trolley, allowing me to place both of the tins of paint in there, along with another two of the same colours. My apartment is huge and I'm going to need a lot of paint, believe me.

"So are you excited about all of this?" Zayn asks me, still pushing the trolley, the dodgy wheel squeaking as we walk.

I take in a large intake of breath and exhale before I answer him, "Yeah I really am, the whole redecorating is going to take a while and it'll be stressful but I'm excited. With you guys helping it should only take today, I mean I know it's a big apartment but we'll be able to do it."

"Yeah if we get our heads down it won't take long. It's not like we haven't done it before." he replies referring to when we had to repaint all of their apartments in the past.

After we get the gloss for the doors and skirting boards, Zayn and I make our way around the store to find the other lads; we turn a corner and hear a loud crash about two aisles away. "What the hell was that?" I question, a small feeling in the pit of my stomach hoping it isn't the other lads.

"I have a feeling it's Louis." Zayn mumbles, reading my mind.

"Same." Our thoughts are answered when we turn the corner to find Louis sat inside a trolley, Niall at the handles and Liam attempting to stifle a laugh at all of the toppled over cans of paint. I roll my eyes not really expecting much else, "We shouldn't have split up should we?" I murmur to Zayn already knowing his answer.

"Nope." he replies popping the 'p' as we make our way over to the three guilty lads.

•••

After apologising profusely to the staff at the department store for the mess, we paid for our purchases and left immediately. We ended up getting two cans of cream paint, two cans of coffee coloured paint, two cans of mink coloured paint, one can of gloss, five large rollers and three paint brushes. All of that and some of the left over implements from painting the lads apartments should be enough for the job.

It didn't take us long before we were pouring the paint into the trays and started rolling the colours onto the walls. This morning we decided to move all of the furniture into the centre of each room and cover it with a plastic sheet so no paint would splash onto it; we also decided to start in separate rooms so the job would be done quicker. Louis did the smaller rooms like the bathrooms and kitchen, Niall did my bedroom, Zayn did the guest room, Liam did my office and I was left with the biggest room of all. The living room and hallway.

I'm not complaining though, they have taken their spare time to come and help me out, so I don't mind doing the biggest room. And it means that when they have painted and glossed the entirety of their individual rooms, they can come and help me do the living room and hallway.

So far I have done three out of four walls of the living room, I had to trace the entire outline of the room before I could actually start with the roller but it's easy with the roller now. "Need any help mate?" I hear Liam ask as he walks through from my office and into the living room.

"Yeah actually, could you start outlining the hallway please?" he happily nods his head and picks up a paintbrush as he starts on outlining the hallway for me. "Thanks mate."

"No problem, I know Zayn and Niall are just finishing up the glossing in their rooms, then they'll be in here as well." he concludes, his brush making a precise sweep just above the skirting boards.

"This is so boring!" Louis exclaims and lies like a starfish on the floor. A short huff escaping his lips as his back abruptly hits the floor, knocking the air out of him.

"Have you finished?" I ask curiously, I thought that Lou would be the last to finish out of all of the lads.

"Yeah, of course I have!" he smirks happily, clearly proud with his achievement. Little does he know he has to help me and Liam with the living room.

"Good, you can help us then. Grab a brush and start outlining." Liam takes the words from my mouth and smirks slyly at Lou, who just responds by rolling his eyes.

Louis begins to mumble to himself, only allowing me to catch certain words or phrases things like, 'I didnt sign up for this' or 'mr bossy pants'.

"Lou could you open the front door while you're up please, and be careful because I've done over there." I instruct him, watching out of the corner of my eye as he gets up and opens the front door, allowing fresh air into the apartment.

"Cheers mate." My arm continues to effortlessly roll on the paint, aches shooting up as I press harder and harder wanting to get this job over and done with.

"Right we're both done, this is officially the only room left!" Niall enters with Zayn behind him. Considering that the living room is connected to the hallway, we just count it as one big room. The living room walls are now completely done, which means I will start on glossing the skirting boards while the other lads start on the hallway.

"You know, I don't think you realise how big these apartments are until you have to paint them." Louis pipes in, expressing the thought we are all thinking.

I've gone for a very modern look for this apartment, all very neutral and homely. "This colour looks good Harry." Niall refers to the mink colour.

"I know yeah, I saw it in one of those decorating magazines with these other colours and it looked good so I thought I'd use it."

"Yeah, I like-" Liam it cut off as a paintbrush is flung at his already dirty and paint ridden tee.

Our eyes all flit to the only possible culprit, knowing exactly who it is without having to think. Louis sits with a guilty smile on his face, his eyes glimmering with mischief as he sits cross-legged on the floor like a child. No words are uttered. But we all know exactly what is going to happen, Niall confirming it seconds later...

"PAINT FIGHT!!" he screams standing from his position.

We all stand and place our hands in the paint tins or in the roller trays, running towards the centre of the room and covering each other in the mink coloured paint. Our faces now ridden with paint as we run to a different tray and pick up a different colour, doing the same thing as before and splattering it all over each other. "Ah it's in my eyes!" I laugh as Zayn smashes some paint onto my face. I wipe it from my view and smear some in his hair, laughing at his whining reaction.

I glance over to find Niall and Liam teaming together and attacking Louis; unable to control my laughter I burst out laughing and keel over, Louis completely covered in paint.

"WAIT STOP!" Louis shouts, making us all pause in position to listen to him, "We should all put our hands in the cream paint and then place them on the coffee coloured wall so Harry has our handprints." He explains to us all cleverly.

"Sounds good to me." I smile, liking the fact that my four best mates will be part of my flat and that we won't ever forget this day. Together, we all pile over to the cream paint and carefully dip our hands in, allowing any excess paint to drip off and back into the tin. I choose the thin strip above my apartment door to place our wet hands.

"How good does that look!" Louis asks rhetorically, all of us glancing in awe at our handprints.

"I know yeah, it looks ace." Zayn adds.

A comfortable silence takes over the apartment before Niall decides to pipe in, "Bloody hell Harry how big are your hands!" We all laugh at my large handprint next to the others, knowing full well that he is right.

"Well you know what the say about big hands." I smirk at them all cheekily.

"Yeah, big gloves." Louis laughs, making us all erupt in laughter at our conversation.

"Why don't we all get cleaned up, I'll order pizza and then we'll carry on afterwards. There's only the hall to do now." I offer, knowing the lads can't turn down food.

"Alright we'll be back in a bit." I stand at my front door and watch as Louis and Zayn head upstairs and Niall and Liam head downstairs to their individual apartments, already racing to come back for the incoming food.

I chuckle at my four best friends, they never struggle to make me laugh, no matter what we are doing or what situation we are in, we always manage to laugh and have a good time with each other; we are brothers and not once have they ever let me down. I'm about to close my door when a small slim figure catches my green eyes.

She takes out her keys and stands at the door opposite mine, trying to find the correct key for her apartment door. I observe her quietly, my shoulder leaning against my doorframe in interest. Her untamed ringlets fall down her back, the ends dyed a lighter colour, ombré I think it's called when they do that, and her body covered with a khaki coloured coat and dark wash skinny jeans. Her figure is slim, an hourglass, and she's probably five foot six, a good six or seven inches shorter than me considering I'm around about six foot. Her back is facing me but I can already tell she's beautiful, I don't even need to see her face to know that, she just gives me that feeling that she is incredibly stunning.

After a good few minutes she successfully opens her apartment door and walks through, closing the door behind her. This is the first time I've seen her in the three years I've been coming in and out of this building to see the lads; hopefully now that I'm her neighbour I'll get to see her a bit more...

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- Pianogirl56