Together On The Field - l.s

seven

Harry firmly believes that, unless he has a match scheduled for that day, Sundays are purposely made to sleep undisturbed until lunchtime and beyond. Sundays are definitely made to grumpily wake up and have lunch with some strong coffee to recover from the night before (even though this is not the case, because he just watched some movie with Zayn) and laze about in the hall of residence the whole day, driving the staff crazy. Sundays are also made to snuggle onto the couch in the common room and solve some crosswords from the newspapers he finds scattered around, while Liam texts Sophia non-stop and Zayn tries to watch some football.

In this case, Harry has already planned to wake up as late as he can, then move his body from the bed to the couch and mope for the rest of the day, annoying as many people as he can. He's actually been moping for a week now, and Zayn has banned the word Louis from conversations, so Harry settled for non-committally sighing and sobbing and they just know why anyway. Louis has texted him several times during the week, and he also invited him over with Niall and Barbara to watch a match at his house, but Harry never answered. He wouldn't know what to say, anyway, and he surely doesn't want to see him just yet. He's too embarrassed and hurt, and he doesn't want to see Louis act like nothing happened and having to play along, making the rejection effective. He liked to think of himself as a mature person, who knows how to get over heartbreaks and unrequited love with no drama involved, but he's come to realise he's really, really not, and he doesn't know how much of his friend's comfort, in the form of nights out and warm tea, will take to make it all better.

This is why his plan of a typical Sunday sounds just about perfect. Clearly, though, he must have done something extremely wrong and debauching in a past life, because he is getting his reward in the form of a stubborn phone ring early in the morning. Like, seriously early.

Harry thinks that maybe this could be just a nightmare, and if he squints his eyes hard enough and tries to ignore it, the ringing will go away.

So he tries. But of course it doesn't work.

"Will you take the fucking call?" he hears Zayn grumble from his bunk bed, and he figures that unless him and his roommate have taken to share their dreams in addition to the room, then the call must be real. Harry sighs and fumbles under the pillow, finally fetching his phone. He stifles an assertive yawn before answering the call, not even bothering to flash a look at the screen.

"Mhh?" he growls, still unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Oh God, I hate when people answer the phone like this."

Of course it's Barbara. Who else would be awake at this time in the morning. Either her or Harry's mother, but his mum has raised him and knows that Sundays are sacrosanct to Harry, so she has given up on calling him a long time ago.

"What about people who call you at five in the morning on a day off?" he mumbles, voice filled with as much indignation as someone who's still half-asleep can manage.

"Oh, piss off. It's already eight and I've already been to the gym and showered," retorts Barbara tauntingly. She's impossible. And Harry doesn't have the strength to engage in a debate that he knows he would end up losing anyway.

"I'm glad you called to inform me about your morning achievements, Babs. I would like to go back to sleep now, if you're finished," he says hoping Barbara will get the drift, burying his head under the pillow, phone still pressed to his ear.

"Don't even think about that! We're going out to grab some breakfast," she says bossily. "I'm actually in a car outside the hall of residence and I'm giving you ten minutes to join me before I barge inside and drag you out in your pyjamas," she threatens.

Which, given he sleeps almost naked, uhm. No. And what? Harry's pretty sure this borders on harassment.

"Are you serious?" he asks bewildered in a groan, trying to give sense to her words. Why does she have to be so pesky and show no pity for someone who's just asking to be left sleeping?