Brother's Best Friend || l.s.

chapter 7

Harry hadn't the faintest idea why he had agreed to stay over Liam's house. It wasn't like he was in a position to say no, since Liam's mum had been so nice to ask them specifically whether they would like to, and he was too polite to decline the offer. Niall seemed ecstatic about staying the night, ranting on and on about all the things they could do, while the three of them sat in Liam's bedroom and waited for their pizza delivery to arrive.

"Niall, we do have to start work tomorrow morning at half past eight, in case you somehow forgot." Harry reminded him. He knew that he would be absolutely exhausted getting up at seven the next morning to get ready for work.

"We can just call in sick!" Niall grinned, continuing to try on each and every one of Liam's snapback hats, which were hung up on pegs along his wall. Harry rolled his eyes, both at Niall's response and action of squinting at himself in the mirror whilst modelling a bright red cap with New York stitched across it.

"Calling in sick seems to be your motto. I think it'd be a little bit suspicious to Ed if all three of his only Saturday employees threw a sickie." Liam disputed, strolling over to Niall in three strides and tearing the hat off him. "And leave my hats alone, you prat."

Harry laughed brightly at their interaction, laying back against the headboard of Liam's bed and crossing his legs at the ankles, hands clasped behind his head.

"Alright, Liam, no need to be a bully. Your hats look great on me, so I'm going to assume you're just jealous." Niall smirked, ruffling Liam's hair before falling back onto his swivel chair.

"Yeah, I'm completely jealous," Liam shot back, sarcastically, shaking his head and smiling to himself. "Couldn't stand seeing how great you looked in it."

Liam's bedroom door flew open all of a sudden, and Louis casually strutted in. Liam groaned in hatred.

"Fuck off, you prick."

Louis ignored him and smirked instead, and then his eyes fell onto Harry, who was still laid back in a stupidly relaxed position along Liam's bed.

"You look comfortable, Harry." He teased. Harry immediately shot into a sitting position, crossing his legs and placing his hands into his lap with a timid smile. Louis looked as though he loved how flustered he had made him, a celebratory glint in his eye.

"Why are you in here? What do you want?" Liam grilled, grabbing a rolled up sock from his bedroom floor and launching it at his older brother, hitting him on the collar bone.

"Calm down, I only came in to tell you the pizza is here. Unless you don't want it?"

Harry wanted it. Not the pizza, but something else altogether.

"Oh, yeah, we'll be down in a sec then." Liam dismissed. "Bye, Louis."

"Bye, you virgin." Louis mocked, before unceremoniously ambling out of the room with a slam of the door. Niall immediately cackled out his habitual laugh, head dipped slightly and clutching his stomach.

"'Bye, you virgin'," He restated, "He's so fucking funny!"

"He's not, you just find everything funny." Liam stubbornly said, folding his arms. "Anyway, pizza."

Harry felt self-conscious eating in front of Louis. He was constantly wiping around his mouth with the end of his sleeve, vigilant of any food around it, trying to eat in an urbane manner. Niall, on the other hand, was cramming slice after slice into his mouth, talking with his mouth full, with pizza sauce smeared around his lips.