◇eudaimon◇

1.

"Well that was boring" Niall said as he and Harry walked out of their phycology class room. They walked towards their lockers to keep their books back in there. "Tell me about it" Harry scoffed.

Harry and Niall have been best friends since 5th grade when harry accidentally bumped into Niall's girlfriend. They got into a small argument and Niall ended up being on Harry's side which gave his girlfriend a reason to break up with him. He was more than happy to finally get rid of her, because to Niall 'this whole dating this is not made for me. anyways wanna go to Nandos with me?' Those were the exact words by Niall and of course harry said yes and they started hanging out since then. They got accepted to the same university and moved in together to a fairly big apartment. They were way more than happy to have 2 bath attached bedrooms, a kitchen with an island counter and a pretty spacious living room.

"Let's go have lunch. I heard there's a new restaurant around the corner" Niall said excitedly as their last class of the day just ended.

"You go ahead Nialler. I have to go to work, I'm going to be late" Harry sighed. He works in a small bakery in the corner of a busy street. Dont get him wrong,he loved working there but managing both university and work at 20 is pretty exhausting but he did it for his sake. The people he worked with are really nice and caring. Besides he loved baking and cooking. He often had baking competitions with his sister, Gemma and his mom, Anne, back when he used to live with them. He even baked for Niall often and Niall is always more than happy to be his taste tester.

"Ugh you're always working, take a break. I'm sure Martha won't mind giving you a day off" Niall whined. They barely get anytime to hangout after school anymore. And he misses playing fifa with harry. They have always spent time together and since he got his job, that time has been cut out of his schedule. Though harry tries his best to make time to spend with Niall.

"Niall you know I'm broke and even one day's earnings mean a lot to me" Harry was infact broke. So broke that Niall has to pay more than half of their rent and buy most of the groceries. But Niall doesn't mind. His dad owns a really successful business and Niall gets a huge amount transferred to his bank account every month. He wouldn't mind paying for everything if it means he can have harry to spend more time with him, but harry is stubborn enough to refuse that.

"Ugh fine, at what time will you be home?" Niall asked, knowing harry won't take a day off because they've had this conversation many times and not once have harry given in to Niall. "I might be late, say 11 pm, i have to clean up the place before leaving" Harry replied. Niall nodded but he had a frown plastered on his face.

"hey how about we spend time together tomorrow right after school, my shift won't start until 3" harry smiled because he hated seeing his ebullient and bubbly friend with a frown. Niall smiled excitedly and they bid their farewell. The smile still lingering on both of their faces.

Harry walked to the bakery. He could take the bus, he had enough money for that with him but he likes to walk there. it's refreshing and he gets to see people go about their lives. Before he knew he was at the bakery. The bell chiming as he opened the door. Martha looked up and smiled being glad to see harry. Harry always managed to be everyone's favourite. And there was no exception with Martha.

"Good afternoon Harry, How was uni?" Harry sighed and kept his bag near the shelves. "exhausting, seriously education is so useless. I've been learning for more than 17 years and all i know is that mitochondria is the power house of a cell" Harry rambled and then smiled when he heard a chuckle from Martha. Martha was always a mother figure to him. She helped him with anything and everything and he knew he could trust her. 

Harry walked towards the back of the bakery and put his apron on taking the tray of muffins out of the oven on the way. He walked to the front of the shop and stuffed the muffin shelves while he rambled on about his day to Martha. 

He worked for hours and took a 5 minute break. He walked to the washroom and checked himself out in the mirror. Once he made sure everything looked fine except his curly ruthless hair, he sat on the cloed toilet sead and went on playing a game of Mario on his phone. When he was back, he could hear Martha speaking to someone and since the washroom was close to the counter he knew it could be a customer and all the other staffs must be working in the kitchen. He walked towards the counter, dusting his pants. He looked up to see that his prediction was true. There was a customer and Martha was taking care of him so harry quickly went by to do it.

"Sorry Martha did I take too long?" he apologized because maybe his 5 minute break ended up being 10 or maybe 15 but no one had to know, besides they don't have much customers at this time of the day. "No darling it's alright, now can you take his order I kept some cookies in the oven I'm going to check on them" harry nodded being thankful of how weet Martha was. He took his notepad out and walked towards the staff part of the counter. "Hello, what can i get you?" he looked up and saw a very hot guy. 

He had very pretty grey eyes and short curly hair. Broad shoulders that had a blue flannel hanging on them. He had a manly, peppered stubble and a stellar smile. he looked like the guy who would ask you out on a date and forget where he was going to take you. Harry looked back at his face only to see him smirk at him. harry flushed when he realized he got caught checking the other guy out. 

"I'll have a blueberry muffin and an iced coffee" The grey eyed boy who looked around harry age ordered and harry quickly nodded. Heturned around and walked ahead to make the iced coffee. he walked to one of the shelf and took a muffin and wrapped it with a brown paper. He walked towards the guy a who was sat in a seat in the far corner. He gave a small smile, settimg the guy's order on his table and started walking away.

"Why don't you come join me" he heard the man's dismally mournful voice say. He wanted to hang out with the new boy. Maybe they could be friends. Maybe even more. He slowly and hesitantly turned around and  looked towards the direction of Martha as if he's asking for permission. Martha smirked at him and nodded. He pulled and sat on the chair opposite to the guy.

"So what's your name, beautiful?" the guy asked before taking a bite out of his blueberry muffin. Harry blushed at the nickname and looked at his lap. he wasn't used to getting compliments, he rarely get those. He does get catcalled a lot but this was different

"Harry. you?" he replied in an almost whisper tone but loud enough for the guy to hear. "Noah." he replied. harry thought the name was short and cute. "I- um should get to work" he pointed to the kitchen and slowly got up. Before he left Noah gave his phone to harry. Harry raised his eyebrow, confused on why he was giving his phone to harry but then he realized that he wanted his number. Harry blushed and typed in some digits, saving it as 'harry :)'. 

"Bye." They both waved at each other before Noah left the bakery. He walked back to the kitchen to see if there was something he could do. "Someone's got a crush" Martha smirked and chuckled at harry. "Oh shut it" He got embarrassed and turned away. Martha handed harry a 50 dollar note. Harry's eyes widened. It may not be a huge amount to some people but 50 dollars is very much worth to harry.

"Your lover boy tipped you" Martha smiled. "What- I can't accept that. That's a lot- wait did you say lover boy he's not my lover bo-" he was cut of by Martha "harry just take it" but no matter what harry said Martha won and the 50 dollars ended up in Harry's pocket. 

Harry stayed another hour after ,artha had left so he could clean up the place. He picked up all the chairs and placed them upside down on the tables so it would be easier to sweep the floors. Once he was done he tied up the trash bag and took it with him through the back door, throwing it into the garbage bin. He made sure he locked both front and back door before leaving the place. He was quickly hit by the cold air when he stepped his foot out. It wasn't as cold as  when he left to throw out the garbage but it was still fairly cold. Harry shoved his hands to the pocket of his coats in hopes to warm them up. He was walking through the roads to go home because it was almost midnight and there was not a single soul out. Especially they road back to his home never being too busy. it was peaceful. calming. Relaxing.

He sat on the the road side bench so he could relax for some time. He breatehd in the cold air with his eyes closed. If only he had a cup of hot chocoloate to sip on. He was enjoying the quiet feeling so much that he didn't even notice a guy taking a seat next to him on the bench sitting  until he heard a pretty high voice that definitely belonged to a man. The voice sent shivers down harry's spine with its vibrations spreading through the empty street.

 "you shouldn't be sitting out here all alone, you know."