Another World

Chapter 3

The moment I wake up, I can feel that I am already having a massive headache. Perhaps I had one too many drinks yesterday at the pub. I can not remember at what time we got back to the flat, but I know it was pretty late. After Michaela and Sophie showed up to join our little group, we ordered in a bottle of Jägermeister to the table. I showed Liam how to do a jägerbomb, when you pour jäger in a shot glass and then sink the whole thing into a glass of beer. Yesterday Liam though that it was the most brilliant idea ever, I am not sure he will still see it that way this morning. 

I bring myself to open my eyes and glance over to the clock on the wall. It is almost noon. I sit up on my bed and the throbbing in my head is almost unbareble, but I need to get up for some water. I slowly walk out of my bedroom and notice that I am still fully dressed. Apparently I was too scuttered last night to take of my clothes before I passed out on my bed. I look over to where Liam is scattered out on the couch, he is also still dressed. He is even wearing his shoes.

"Hey, Liam." I say, my voice raspier than I could imagined. "Wake up, man." I say and open the fridge to take out two bottles of water.

He lets out a groan and shifts on the couch, trying to block out the disturbance.  

"How ya feeling?" I ask and crack open my bottle.

"Oh, shut it." Liam groans, still not opening his eyes. "What happened last night?" He furrows his eyebrows in a frown, feeling his own headache I believe.

"Jäger bombs, man. jäger bombs." I say and can not help but let out a raspy laugh at Liam's face at the reminder, as he finally opens his eyes. It was the pure reflection of regret.

"And also, you were sucking face with Michaela all night" I say and sit down on the armrest of the couch, almost tipping over before I find my balance.

After a few hours of drinking with the group, I found Liam snugging with Michaela in the toilet line. The rest of the night they were all over each other. I am a little surprised to find him here on my couch actually.

"Oh, yeah." He says with a pensive look on his face, scratching the stubble on his chin.

Liam can be a real ladies man, and is often hooking up with girls. He is not a douche or a player or anything like that, girls just really like him. He is pretty good looking and also very charming in a very Liam way. I bet that his English accent helped with Michaela as well.

Trish never showed up to the pub, and when I check my phone I find that I have a few missed calls and text messages from her. She is surely upset about me not inviting her to come out with us yesterday. But I do not feel like talking to her right now, so I put my phone away to take a shower. 

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We head out of the apartment about two hours later, when we both have showered and had a little too eat. My headache is a lot better after I got some water and food into my system. Liam seems to be feeling a lot better as well. We take a long walk so I can show Liam a little bit more of Mullingar. I tell him about the places we pass, and point out things that can be fun for him to know about. I show him where I went to school when I was younger. I attended St. Kenny's when I was in primary school, and then I went to an all-boys, Catholic High school. Liam find it very amusing that I went to an all boys school, and start to explain how he could not imagine going to a high school with no girls around. I have never really cared much about girls, and going to an all boys school did not bother me one bit. I don't tell Liam that though he might find it strange.

I show him the football court where I used to come and play football every day after school. I really enjoyed it, and used to play for the local boys team for many years. Sadly I injured my knee when I was 16 and got diagnosed with floating kneecap. That put an end to my football career because the problem recurred several times after that. I even had to get a major reconstructive knee surgery a few years ago.

I still get together with my friends sometimes to kick the ball around, but nowadays I mostly stick to golf.  

A group of kids are playing on the court and we sit down on the small bleacher next to it to catch our breaths, still feeling our hangovers. We sit in silence for a while just watch the kids playing around in a friendly game of 4 against 4. The sun is shining and the air is pretty warm to be the end of august. The summer have gone by so fast and soon autumn will be upon us.

"I've got myself a job in London." Liam says after a while. 

"Really? That's great man!" I know he has been searching for one all summer. "What is it?" I look over at him and can see the pride and excitement in his browns eyes.

"It's a ............."

"Wow Liam, congrats!" I praise him with a smile. He continues to tell me all about it, and that he will be starting in about two weeks. 

"Where ya gonna live then?" I ask him when he is done telling me about....+. Knowing that it is not the easiest thing getting a flat in central London. 

"My pal Kyle is going to Australia for a year, and need someone to rent his place when he's away." Liam explains. "So my dad will help driving my stuff there early next week."

"That's really great." I say giving Liam a pat on his back. His dream about moving to London is now coming true. 

"What about you, man?" Liam turns to me. "What are you gonna do? You can't work at the movies forever." He says and give me a playful nudge to the side.

"I don't know." I let out a sigh. "I haven't figured out what I want to do with my life yet I guess." Thinking about my future give me so much anxiety that I just try to avoid it as much as possible. I mean, I am 26 years old and still have nothing figured out for myself.

"What about your dreams, don't you have any?" Liam pushes. 

"Na, not really." I shrug and hesitates for a moment before I continue. "This is super embarrassing but my childhood dream was actually to be a singer." I can not believe that I am telling him this. "I wanted to work with music, ya know." I can literally feel my face heating up little by little.

"Well, you should!" Liam exclaims. "I've heard you playing that guitar of yours, you're really good." He says and gives me a meaningful look to show me that he is serious. 

"Oh yeah? Just quittin' my job and becoming a singer then?" I can not help but to laugh at how silly it sounds. He must be kidding me. "That's real rich, Liam."

"No, I meant the part about you working with music." Liam say, still keeping a serious face. "You should give it a go."

Maybe he really is serious. Liam must read the hesitation on my face because he starts to explain it further.

"I know a lad who's a junior manager at a record company in London. I can give him a call, see if he has something for you. Just to get a foot in the business, ya know?" Liam says with excitement written all over his face. 

I literally don't know what to say. Me, working at a record company, in London. This is too much to wrap my head around. It do not sound as ridiculous as me becoming a singer, I have to admit that. And it sure seems more interesting than working graveyard shifts at the movie theater. I also do not want to be stuck in Mullingar for the rest of my life.

"But.. how would that even work?" I ask him after some time battling with myself. "Like, where would I live?"

"With me, man!" Liam exclaims right away, clearly very exalted. "I would've got to get a roomie anyway, prices in London are ridiculous!" 

 After a while of Liam preaching about how brilliant it would be to live together in London, we get up and start walking back home. I finally decide to give it a try, if it is not for me then I'll just move back home. 

"Alright then, sham." I say to Liam, who lights up immediately . "Give your friend a call." 

We walk back out on the pavement. .......

"What's your friends name? I ask Liam.

"Louis, Louis Tomlinson."