After the End: Book 4

34. Out of Place

Harry's POV

I woke up with a stomach turning feeling that was all too familiar. My throat burned hot like acid and my head throbbed. I didn't even really have time to deduce the conditions of my surroundings. I just sprang up from my curled up position at the foot of the bed without a second thought and sprinted for the door. If I wasn't about to vomit all over the floor, I'd probably have noted that someone had opened it in when I was asleep. Instead, I flew straight past it and found myself hunched over the bathroom toilet releasing the unfortunate contents of my stomach, which happened to be little more than tequila and pineapple cubes. It was an unpleasant cocktail.

It was while I was retching over the toilet, that the memories of the previous night started seeping into my brain. Louis had showed up. I vaguely remembered seeing him in passing as I'd darted out of the room. He'd been asleep in the chair. Either I was having really weird dreams, or we'd gotten drunk together locked in the bedroom. Phoebe had probably opened the door sometime while I was asleep. That was her usual move.

The vomiting stopped as abruptly as it had started, and I collapsed against the wall of the bathroom on the floor for a moment to catch my breath. I needed a pause.

I had talked to Louis. Louis and I had talked for hours. It was the first time I felt like I'd had an honest conversation with him in a year. Everything we had discussed felt random and incomplete and I knew we had several more really long conversations to go. It seemed like the accountability thing was maybe catching up with me.

I'd told Louis I was getting sober. I guess that wasn't news considering how I'd spent the preceding week getting clean (although heavily coerced), but that felt different. I'd been verbally non committed the entire time towards Pheebes beyond agreeing to try. I'd refused to talk about the future. I still hadn't really talked about the future. Louis had probably intentionally saved that for a sober conversation.

I'd told him a lot of other things. Deeply personal things. Embarrassing things. I'd drunkenly told him about things I'd never planned to tell him, like kissing Cory and about my brain soup. I thought telling him those things would make me feel shitty and vulnerable, but that wasn't the case. By contrast, things felt more peaceful than that. I wasn't comfortable by any means but the fact that Louis was still asleep in his chair in the bedroom with all of the knowledge I'd given him... it was somehow a non-panic inducing thought.

When I was pretty sure I wasn't about to start vomiting again, I flushed the toilet and rose to stand infront of the sink. Standing induced more nausea, but my stomach stayed settled. It seemed like I was just living under a shitty hangover. I made a point of not looking in the mirror, splashing cold water on my face and locating my tooth brush. I tried not to think about how the previous night, I'd come into the bathroom right before dramatically blowing my sobriety up in a fit of panic tailored just for Louis. I brushed my teeth instead.

I was splashing cold water on my face for the second time when I felt the slightest tug on the leg of my sweats. I flinched in alarm, blinking the water out of my eyes and turning to see something I certainly didn't expect.

I'd left the bathroom door open on my run in to come vomit. I didn't think it mattered because the only people in the house consisted of Louis and Phoebe. Apparently I was wrong. Standing just a foot away from me, my eyes met the familiar wide and startlingly blue eyes of Oliver.

"Hi!" He exclaimed. The smile on his lips was wide and alert. He seemed incredibly happy to see me, which was startling. I unconsciously took a step back, grabbing a hand towel off the counter as I went to dry off my dripping face.

I looked over the toddler into the hallway. Nobody was immediately coming to retrieve him which seemed odd. Why was he even here? If he was present, that meant that Naomi was around, right? I knew she'd been nearby, but I didn't think she was coming over. Certainly, she wasn't supposed to be letting her child wander the house with my presence, right?