Someone Like You (Liam/Louis) 1/3
Title: Someone Like You
Fandom: One Direction
Liam/Louis, with background everyone-loves-and-gropes-everyone
28,000 words | PG
A high school AU in which no one goes to school, ever. Liam has a crush, and then he runs into his crush at a party, and everything gets very complicated.
Thank you to Torakowalski and Elucreh for beta-ing and Brit-picking. Remaining mistakes are all my own.
Standard disclaimer applies: It's not meant to be about or imply anything about these actual people, just fictionalized versions of their public personas, ie, if Sorkin got to write a movie about Mark Zuckerberg, I get to write this fic. But please don't share this fic with anyone portrayed in it.
Liam and Niall collapsed on the grass, groaning. Niall was sweaty and red-faced and still only looked about half as tired as Liam felt after an hour of playing football really badly. It was an excellent way to work off stress after school, except for all the bruises Liam had got from getting tackled and tripped.
"Well," said Niall, chest heaving. "That was terrible. We're like old men."
"I'm too young to be an old man," said Liam, but he lay back in the grass to stare at the sky. His heart was trying to pound out of his chest. He'd been lax in going for runs lately because he had so much work to do for his music A-level, and it was clearly catching up with him.
"You know what we should do?" Niall asked.
Liam groaned. "We should study," he said. "I've got that stupid essay to write on baroque musical forms."
"No," said Niall. "That is what we should definitely not do. We should go and get some chips. And Friday we should go to that house party that Sam's having."
Chips sounded nice. Sam's party sounded less so; Liam wasn't a huge fan of house parties, or parties in general. "Right, but I-"
Niall turned to give him a little glare. "You aren't spending Friday night on your computer; I swear to god, I'll drag you out of the house myself."
"I've got work to do-"
"No," said Niall firmly. "Anyway you aren't doing work on a Friday night. You're chatting to strangers on twitter and watching youtube videos, aren't you? You can chat to people in real life instead, that'd be a change."
"Well," said Liam, and then trailed off. He'd been friends with Niall forever; Niall ought to be able to finish the rest of that sentence without Liam's help. Anyway, Niall wasn't wrong, exactly. Liam did have a tendency to refuse to go to parties, and he did have a tendency to spend his Fridays on the internet. "And anyway, what's the point?" Liam finished, as if they'd had a conversation.
"The point is you not spending another Friday sitting in your room by yourself. You aren't even looking at porn, Liam. At least you could be looking at porn."
Liam leaned over and gave Niall a smack on the arm and Niall smacked him back. Liam had to sit up so he could properly give Niall a shove. "Just because you're a pervert-" Liam started.
"S'not perverted, mate, it's normal. It's you we should be worried about. You know who doesn't look at porn? Serial killers."
Somehow this conversation had spiraled wildly out of Liam's comfort zone. "Hang on," he said. "I look at porn! I am not a serial killer."
"I'm just saying," said Niall, with a shrug. "If you're blowing me off you should at least be watching someone blowing something."
Liam snickered. "I'm not the one of us who was caught looking at porn on his phone in the common room, am I? I think that means I'm doing better than you are."
"Better at what?" Niall asked philosophically. "Anyway, that's the only possible excuse I'd accept, so you'll just have to come with me to Sam's."
"Ugh," said Liam. "I repeat: what's the point?"
"You're more fun than y'think y'are," said Niall. Liam pulled a face, because he definitely wasn't. "You might meet someone," Niall said. "You might accidentally have a fantastic time. Oh, and Harry's band is playing, you won't want to miss that."
Liam looked very, very hard at the grass they were sitting on for a minute, waiting for Niall to follow that up with the obvious teasing joke, but Niall was just sat there smirking. Liam counted to ten and then to ten again until he was relatively sure his expression was neutral and normal. "Oh," he said. "Are they?"
"They will," said Niall. "I heard they're getting good, actually. Gonna be playing at the battle of the bands. You should be playing that, too."
"I'm not a band," said Liam.
"No, but it'd be an excuse to hang about with other musicians. I'm just saying. If you happen to become friends with Harry that almost definitely means you might bump in to -"
"Shh," said Liam, putting his hand over Niall's mouth. There were a load of younger kids playing football on the field, and none of them were likely to hear their conversation or care, but it was still enough to make Liam's stomach flip flop.
Niall licked Liam's hand, and Liam pulled his hand away with a little yelp. "Right," said Niall. "My mistake. You wouldn't want to accidentally talk to Louis and let him know you're a person who's alive."
"I wouldn't," Liam agreed, trying to sound dignified. "He wouldn't… He's always doing those stupid pranks. I don't need to be in one of his youtube videos getting flour poured on my head or whatever. Anyway, he doesn't even go to our school."
"I know," said Niall, "which is why you should come to this party. You can sit on the couch and stare at him all you want, which is kind of a lot, mate. I'm not making fun but it's a little weird."
"I'm not - I don't - Ugh, it's not like that," said Liam.
Niall gave him what was definitely a pitying look. "Okay," he said. "Sure. But you're still coming to this party with me and Zayn. You owe me."
"Oh my god, not this again," Liam groaned, flopping back on the grass again. "It's been years."
"You're going to owe me for the rest of your life, Payne. Remember that. Remember, remember, the fifth of November," Niall intoned seriously.
"It was spring, you are such an idiot," said Liam, punching him in the leg.
"Then remember the fifth of something in spring, when I saved your life," Niall said. He punched Liam back and Liam laughed and hit Niall properly this time. They spent a couple of minutes trying to shove each other over and then the football got out of Niall's lap and rolled over to where a bunch of year seven kids were playing and Niall had to jog off to fetch it back.
"Come on, chips, I'm starved," said Niall, offering Liam a hand up. "You've got money, right?"
A large part of being friends with Niall since they were kids was buying him food. Liam had got used to that, and his mum tended to slip him an extra pound or two when he and Niall were going out. "He's so skinny," she'd fret, as if Niall didn't have the world's loudest and largest family constantly trying to feed him up.
Liam gave Niall a half-hearted shove and then a one-armed hug that was more strangulation than affection. Niall laughed. "And you're still coming with us on Friday, don't bother pretending to be ill," Niall added.
Liam sighed, which they both knew meant Niall had won.
--
"Have you done the essay for general studies?" Zayn asked hopefully later, sprawled on Liam's bed.
"The one about 'Is global warming real?'" Liam asked.
"Yeah," said Zayn.
Liam always expected Zayn to try and copy his work. It was nice that he was only taking two A-levels with Zayn because it cut down tremendously on the number of times a week Zayn used his hopeful face to try and get Liam's essays. At least Liam could be sure Zayn would pass those two subjects. "Not yet," said Liam.
"But you've got notes and, like, you started research, right?"
"You could do it yourself-" Liam started.
Zayn's phone buzzed. "Hang on," he said, and started texting furiously.
That was the other problem with Zayn. His mobile was basically fused to his hand and he could barely go a minute without getting a text from someone. Usually a girl. It was absolutely unfair how many girls Zayn got texting and calling him. Zayn was just as big a dork as Liam, except he had really long eyelashes and a wistful, pouty expression when he stared off into space. He read comics, for god's sake. Not that he read them at school or when girls were around.
"You can't copy my notes," Liam said, mostly for the sake of having said it. Zayn would definitely steal his notes at some point before the essay was due.
"Okay," said Zayn, waving a bit and sending another text. "My little sister says hi. She's really gone a bit Ginny Weasely on you, hasn't she?"
"I think it's sweet," said Liam. He did, mostly, except for how they could never go to Zayn's house to do anything because his sisters were always fighting and the youngest one tried to follow them from room to room pleading to know what they were doing. When they were at Liam's his sisters left them mostly alone, although he'd overheard one of them saying Zayn was fit, and nearly thrown up from horror. Ruth had a boyfriend and a baby; she had no business ogling Liam's friends. "You could do your own homework if you weren't always on your phone," Liam said.
Zayn snorted. "What a brilliant idea, Liam. I'll get right on that. That sounds like fun."
Liam sighed and went back to his laptop. He'd accidentally found video of Harry's band performing at a party and they did, in fact, sound a lot better than when he'd heard them last over the summer. Despite not going to their school, Harry's band was one of those things that everyone knew about. Harry and Louis were the type of boys that everyone knew as well. Niall was friends with them, in point of fact. But then, Niall knew everyone.
"You're coming on Friday, yeah?" Zayn said. "Niall said you were, but Niall always says you are."
"Not if I fall off a cliff or something," Liam said. "But otherwise, I suppose."
"Good," said Zayn, texting. "I've got some girls I'm inviting and they think you're cute."
"What?" Liam spun his chair around to frown at Zayn. "Really?"
"They saw you playing your acoustic guitar at Nelson's and thought you were really artistic and lovely. I am quoting, by the way. So since we're friends obviously I'm artistic and lovely as well." Zayn waggled his eyebrows a bit.
Liam laughed. "Oh, I see. Using my fame from my unpaid café shows."
"Listen, mate, you keep playing and singing and eventually you get famous, and I get to be the friend who stuck by you all along. I'll take all the girls you don't want." Zayn stopped and considered for a moment. "Maybe I'll take some of the girls you do want, as well. Not deliberately, obviously, because I love you."
"Deliberately? Someone swallowed a dictionary," said Liam. "Anyway I'll never have groupies because I'm going to spend the rest of my life playing Beatles covers at Nelson's and not getting paid for it."
"You could play the songs you wrote yourself. And you could ask him to pay you. You know a load of girls go there every Saturday afternoon to drink coffee and stare at you. You're good for business. Hang on." Zayn's phone buzzed again and he went back to texting.
Liam sincerely doubted that a load of girls came to Nelson's to stare at him, although there were some girls he recognized as being there nearly every week. They were awfully young, which made Liam feel a little strange about the whole thing. And he was fairly sure they were there to stare at Niall and Zayn as much as him. Niall always came down and ate half of Nelson's cakes, while Zayn sat on one of the couches and got chatted up by older ladies.
"Anyway, even if you never get famous I'm still going to follow you around forever. What would I do without you?" Zayn said, half-shouting in mock despair.
"I don't know," said Liam, trying not to laugh. "Your own homework?"
"Don't leave me," Zayn said, reaching over to grab Liam's arm. "You can't ever leave me, Liam!"
Zayn tended to get really loud when he was being silly, and in a minute Liam's sisters would come to see what all the shouting was about, and give him crap about all his friends being so incredibly strange all the time. "I won't," said Liam, trying to take his arm back. Zayn was being particularly clingy, though, so Liam ended up just dragging him mostly off the bed and onto the floor. "Zayn! I can't type with one hand."
Zayn threw his arms around Liam's neck and pretended to cry, and it was so stupid that Liam couldn't stop himself from laughing. That just encouraged Zayn to be even more ridiculous. "Why haven't I got any normal friends?" Liam asked no one.
"Dunno." Zayn shrugged and squinted at Liam's laptop. He never wore his glasses when he ought to. "Is that Harry's band?"
"Yeah, they sound pretty good."
"I could introduce you, you know," said Zayn. "At the party on Friday, I mean."
Liam definitely didn't want that. Well. He did. But he also didn't. It was complicated and embarrassing, and he tried to squirm away from Zayn, but Zayn still had his arms around Liam's neck. "No, thanks," said Liam.
"They're cool guys," said Zayn.
"No, they're - They're - They're rivals," Liam said, trying to think of a halfway decent reason he didn't want to hang out with Harry, and by extension of all Harry's friends. "They'll probably go on X-Factor and get famous and I'll still be playing Here Comes The Sun at Nelson's."
Zayn looked mildly puzzled. "So… D'you want me to pretend I hate them? I can. Ugh, they're so annoying, Harry's really cheeky and Louis's obnoxious and not at all hilarious."
Liam rolled his eyes and tried not to laugh. "No. I just. I don't think it's a good idea for us all to hang out. I'm really horribly jealous."
Zayn laughed. "Right," he said. "That sounds like you." His phone buzzed and he threw himself back on the bed to check his messages.
"I might be jealous," Liam grumbled, going back to his laptop. He hit play on the video of Harry's band and tried to work up some jealousy, but mostly he was impressed by how Harry flipped his hair around and how really decent his voice sounded.
Someone threw a bra at Harry-on-the-computer and he laughed and threw it back, and the camera phone recording the whole thing turned and zoomed in on Louis, standing right by the stage and waving the bra around his head and cheering. It was ridiculous and definitely not attractive or hilarious or clever. Liam could never in a million years imagine himself being so spontaneous and loud and silly, but he wished… Well. He wished a lot of things, looking at Louis.
"Riiiiiight," said Zayn. "You're watching Harry."
Liam closed his laptop. "Shut up. I just. I'm just… It's not him. It's the idea of him, and being really loud and silly and confident and popular and…. I mean, it can't be him, I don't even know him."
"Oh, Liam," Zayn, sending another text. "I can pretend if you like, but you don't even believe that."
"I do," Liam insisted, but he let Zayn distract him with the newest hip-hop album he'd downloaded to his phone so they wouldn't have to talk about it anymore.
--
Niall was almost exactly a month younger than Liam, but Liam still found himself feeling generally big-brotherly toward him. It wasn't a problem except that Niall had a tendency to drink too much at parties and then get sick and miserable, and Liam always had to stop himself lecturing him about it. Liam got a lot of late-night phone calls from Niall, drunk and needing someone to walk him home. Liam enjoyed that, actually.
Niall and Zayn had brought cider with them to drink on their way over to Liam's house, and then had to pretend to be sober and polite while Liam's mum asked them if they'd like a snack. She ruffled Liam's hair in a way that would have been terribly embarrassing if she hadn't tried to do the same to both of them. Niall laughed but Zayn looked honestly horrified that anyone would try and touch his hair, and Liam had to distract his mum so she wouldn't get offended.
"Have fun," she said. "And be good."
Niall dragged Liam out the door as if he were afraid Liam would make a break for it. "You're not supposed to tell your parents you're going to a party, you know," he said. "Why can't you tell them you're off to mine to study and then sneak out like a normal person?"
"They'd worry if I lied," Liam said reasonably.
"Not if they didn't know," said Zayn. "Cider?"
"No, thanks," said Liam. "You can't drink that on the bus, you know."
"I can't get caught drinking it on the bus," Zayn corrected him.
It wasn't especially far to Sam's house, and it wasn't entirely dark yet. They could hear music from the street, and there were already kids standing around outside and smoking. "Sam's parents have gone to Mallorca," said Zayn. "Some kind of holiday for parents who want to get away. It sounds like a swingers party, doesn't it?"
"Please don't ever suggest that about anyone's parents," Liam said, and then Zayn got dragged away by a load of girls who wanted to show him the new tattoo that someone called Jenna had got.
"Have a cider," said Niall. The kitchen was full of people but the party clearly wasn't in full swing yet. If Liam leaned around he could see Harry and some of his friends setting up a speaker in the front room. Sam's parents were pretty well-off and his house was airy and spacious. There was enough room for a band to set up, as long as it was mostly just a couple of boys with speakers and guitars.
"I don't want a cider," said Liam, frowning at Niall. Niall knew that perfectly well.
"No, I'm saying hold the cider," said Niall, pushing a slightly warm can into Liam's hand. "That way no one'll offer you another drink."
That was a really clever idea, actually. "Cheers," said Liam.
Niall stared at him for a minute. "You've got to at least open it, mate," he pointed out. "And drink a little or it'll be full and you'll spill it all over."
Liam was starting to suspect this was less Niall being kind and more Niall's long-standing desire to get Liam trashed with him. "I thought the point was not to drink," he said, but Niall gave him That Look and Liam sighed and let Niall cajole him into having a couple of swallows.
"I'm gonna go and find some food," said Niall. "Don't go home without telling me, okay?"
"Don't drink too much," Liam countered. Niall laughed and disappeared into the crowd.
Liam felt a little abandoned. He knew some of the people crowded into the kitchen, there were a few from his school and a couple he knew from playing here and there around town. He just didn't know any of them very well, and Liam was friendly but he wasn't tremendously good at inserting himself into other people's conversations.
Somehow he found himself wandering out of the kitchen to where Harry and his friends were plugging in amps and pedals. "S'hooked up wrong," said Liam to one of them, pointing to a wire that was in the output socket by mistake.
"What? Which one?"
"That one, it's… Here, I can fix it," said Liam. He put his cider down and pulled the plugs out, putting them back in the right spots. "See?"
"Cheers," said Harry, flipping his hair out of his eyes. "You wanna help us with the rest of this crap? We're really shit at figuring out what plugs in where."
Liam hesitated for a minute, but his urge to make things go correctly overwhelmed his sense of self-preservation, which was telling him to avoid Harry in case other people came by. Maybe he could just fix everything and then sneak away. "Yeah, okay," said Liam. "The pedal's backwards, too. This is all… You must have nothing but feedback all the time."
Harry grinned at him. "It's very rock-n-roll," he said, and Liam laughed.
Harry wasn't kidding; he'd hooked up a bunch of things wrong, and Liam tut-tutted to himself and crawled around the back of the amp to correct everything. He wondered if Harry had any idea about levels, and decided he probably didn't. Liam was methodical and got itchy when everything wasn't just right, where clearly Harry and his band had been shoving plugs into whatever was nearest. Which, if Harry's reputation with the girls was even half-true, was also his life philosophy.
"What's this?" demanded someone loudly. "Have you got a roadie, Harry?" Liam popped his head out from behind the amp and saw Louis looking at him curiously. Liam froze, feeling oddly like he'd been caught doing something naughty.
"He volunteered," said Harry.
"And who wouldn't offer to help you, with this beautiful face?" Louis asked, grabbing Harry's chin. "That was awfully nice of him." He sounded vaguely suspicious, like maybe other people weren't allowed to offer to help Harry.
"Er," said Liam. Louis was looking at him. There were at least fifty other people milling around Sam's house; surely Louis could have found someone else to look at. Louis's stare was highly disconcerting. "I could stop, if you'd like?"
"Why would we like that?" Louis asked, tilting his head quizzically.
"I don't know," said Liam.
Louis laughed. Liam had seen him laugh bunches of times, Louis laughed basically non-stop when he was out with Harry or making his stupid prank videos. It was more dramatic up close, though, a bit more like watching the sun rise from the actual surface of the sun. Liam's cheeks were going to start going red in a second, and then he'd have to kill himself. This was exactly what was not supposed to happen.
"Don't scare him away; he knows how the thingies work," said Harry.
Louis said, straight-facedly, "Do you mean penises? I keep telling you to use the proper word, Harry." Harry laughed and shoved him and Louis laughed and shoved him back, and while they seemed distracted was clearly an excellent time for Liam to go and find Niall.
Liam got as far as getting back on his feet and starting to edge away when he was suddenly and violently accosted by Zayn. "There you are! I thought you'd run away," Zayn said. He wrapped an arm around Liam's waist and hooked his chin over Liam's shoulder. "You vanished." Zayn smelt distinctly of cider and was starting to seem cuddly in the way that meant he'd drunk too much too quickly.
"You vanished," Liam said.
"Hey!" said Louis, and Zayn let go of Liam to go and hug him and then Harry. It was all very sweet, and Liam took another small step toward the kitchen where presumably he wouldn't have to be part of this conversation.
"Hang on, have you met Liam?" Zayn asked, catching Liam's hand. "We go to school together. Liam, this is Harry and Louis."
"Hi," said Liam, waving a little awkwardly with his free hand. Of course Zayn knew them, too. They were probably all always at parties together.
"Our Liam's really clever," said Zayn. He smiled at Liam, his particularly fond and drunk smile.
"That's why you copy my homework," Liam said, but smiling. Zayn squeezed his hand.
"Liam's doing a music A-level, he knows everything about everything."
Harry and Louis were looking at him speculatively, it was more kinds of awful than Liam could list. Normally Zayn was quite quiet and reserved; why was he such a chatty, friendly drunk? "No, I - I mean, unless you want to know the history of the Baroque period, I could tell you all about Bach and Handel and Vivaldi, but-"
"I don't," said Louis definitely, pulling a face. "But you were fixing Harry's pedals, so you must know loads."
"More than us," shrugged Harry. "I'm gonna go and get the other guitars."
"Yeah, alright," said Louis. "Catch you later." He waved to Zayn and followed Harry outside.
Liam blew out a long breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"Nice," said Zayn. "I thought you weren't here to meet-"
"Shut up!" said Liam. God, he needed new friends. "I wasn't, just, it was plugged in wrong, and it would probably have exploded or something, and I can't-"
Zayn laughed. "You've gone all red, it's really cute."
"It's not, stop, oh my god," said Liam, hiding his face against Zayn's shoulder. Zayn patted him consolingly on the back.
"Come on; those girls I told you about want to talk about the Beatles," Zayn said. "We can go upstairs where Harry and Louis will definitely not be. You just use your really sincere face, and I'll take care of the girls."
"What really sincere face?" Liam asked, frowning.
"That one," said Zayn. "Perfect."
Liam sighed a little, but talking about the Beatles with a bunch of girls did sound a lot better than saying stupid things to Louis and Harry, so he followed Zayn upstairs through the crowd.
--
The girls were called Katie and Sarah and Sidika, and they had seen Liam playing at Nelson's at least twice. "You've got fans, mate," said Zayn. Liam wasn't sure how to deal with that, so he smiled and shrugged. They all ended up sitting on the floor of Sam's parent's room. Liam could hear Harry's band messing around with their guitars underneath all the people shouting and running through the halls.
"Do you sing?" Katie asked Zayn, and he shook his head and looked down and it was all so completely ridiculous and put-on that Liam almost laughed at him.
"He does," Liam assured them, and then they all wanted him to sing something and Liam got a chance to make fun of Zayn, which was a nice switch. "He's just terribly modest, aren't you?" He elbowed Zayn in the side.
"Oh, well," said Zayn, looking mostly at the floor, with the pouty, distant, shy look he had perfected whilst Liam was revising for his GCSEs. The girls cooed at him. It was hilarious.
The band started playing loudly. All Liam could make out was the bass line and a noise that was meant to be singing. There was a general cheer from people downstairs.
"Why aren't you playing?" Sidika asked Liam, putting her hand on his leg.
"Oh," said Liam, and then, "Um," and "It's not really my party, I suppose? I barely even know Sam." There wasn't really room for him to move away from her. Zayn had Sarah mostly in his lap, and he was sitting so close to Liam that Liam couldn't move that way, either.
"Hello!" shouted Niall, appearing in the doorway. "I've found cupcakes!"
"Yes, please," said Liam, scrambling up a little rudely. Zayn said something but Liam pretended not to hear, stepping over Sarah to get to Niall. "Let's eat them somewhere… somewhere else?"
Niall scrunched up his face at Liam with hilarious dubiousness, then shrugged at Zayn. "Here," he said. "Pink icing."
"Right," said Liam, "cheers."
"I'm starving," Niall groaned, eating half of his cupcake in one bite. "I was trying to convince Sam to order a pizza."
The hallway was crowded and loud and people were drinking and shouting and running back and forth. Someone nearly knocked Liam's cupcake out of his hand. "Just one pizza?" said Liam. "What'll everyone else eat after you get done with it?"
"I'm a growing boy," said Niall happily. "Can I have yours?"
"You just had your own," Liam grumbled, but he handed his cupcake to Niall. It hadn't really ever been for him anyway.
"Hey there!" said someone behind them, and Liam turned only to find himself nose-to-nose with Louis. Louis smiled at him, and it was just as disconcerting as it had been before. Liam's stomach did a strange flip and he edged backward a step or two. "You left your cider," Louis said, offering Liam the can.
Liam's brain had absolutely stopped. It didn't make sense that he was seeing Louis upstairs when Harry was downstairs singing. Also, he'd run through several hundred different scenarios of what he'd say if he were ever forced to talk to Louis, and now they were all missing, presumed too stupid to actually say. Maybe Louis was just looking for Zayn? That at least would make a little bit of sense.
"It is yours, isn't it?" Louis asked, holding the can up. He looked a little tentative.
"Zayn is in the bedroom," Liam blurted.
Niall rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's his, cheers," he said, taking the cider out of Louis's hand. "He's already drunk, sorry."
"What? No, I'm -" started Liam. Niall stepped on his foot and it occurred to Liam belatedly that claiming to be drunk would save him from sounding like an idiot.
Louis grinned. It was so friendly; why was he being so friendly? "I thought it was funny you helped set up and then ran off. You're not… I mean, Zayn's hanging out up here, right? But you should come and hear the band."
Liam's brain just kept telling him that Louis was looking for Zayn, in the absence of any other logic. "He is, he's in there with some girls," Liam said, nodding toward the bedroom.
Louis frowned a little.
"He'd love to hear the band, he's a big fan," said Niall, giving Liam a shove toward the stairs that almost sent him tripping into Louis. Liam gave Niall a really stern glare, which Niall grinned at. "Aren't you?"
"I can hear them from here," Liam said.
For a second Louis's expression changed to something a little… Flatter? Liam didn't know him well enough to be able to guess what he was thinking. "I can get you a good seat. I know the band," Louis offered, and then he winked.
He winked. Liam laughed, more startled than anything else. He didn't even know Louis; there was no call for him to go around winking at people. Especially not Liam, who was discovering that his up-until-now hypothetical crush was an actual horribly real crush that made him feel slightly ill. Liam wondered if Louis would think he was really strange if he just made a run for the door.
Louis clearly took Liam laughing as encouragement, because he said, "Come on," and tugged on Liam's sleeve. Liam started to freeze up because seriously, what was happening, but Louis had grabbed him with the express purpose of pulling him down the stairs.
Liam looked back over his shoulder, trying to give Niall a look that would say clearly This isn't funny, and, Is this some kind of prank? and What is going on? Niall just grinned and stuffed the cupcake into his mouth and didn't follow them.
Niall was disowned, or whatever you did for best friends who betrayed you. "Look out, make way, step aside!" said Louis, shoving his way through the crowd. People laughed and moved, and Liam found himself being towed along until they were at the couch, right next to where the band were playing. Louis found a spot to sit down, somehow, crowded between a girl Liam vaguely recognized from school and a boy who Liam had definitely played football with once. "Sit down!" Louis shouted over the band, but Liam couldn't see anywhere that wasn't already twice as full as it should have been so he just shook his head and laughed again and crossed his arms.
Harry and his band sounded as good as a bunch of teenagers playing in someone's living room possibly could; Liam tried to listen and concentrate but he was distracted and he kept accidentally looking at Louis instead of at Harry. If Louis turned out to want to talk to Liam, Liam was going to have to pretend he hadn't spent the last year collecting random facts about Louis from other people's conversations. It would be pretty horrifically embarrassing to accidentally say that he knew Louis's favorite chip shop in town, or that he knew Louis had a bunch of younger sisters. Liam had gone out of his way not to talk to Louis, ever, avoiding a couple of times when he might have had the opportunity, and now he was…
Well. Louis looked up at him with an encouraging sort of grin and Liam smiled back out of reflex, and Louis leaned over and patted Liam's leg, which was the closest thing at hand for him. It still made Liam feel like he was jumping out of his skin.
The band finished up on a triumphant, and insanely loud, chord, and Harry shouted, "I need a beer, be back in a few!" There were cheers and some clapping; Liam clapped, because he was polite, and because they sounded really decent. The crowd that had been standing around the living room surged forward a little, to chat to the band, and Liam tried to step out of the way.
It didn't really work, because Harry immediately shoved through all the people to throw himself on Louis's lap. "Get us a beer," said Harry.
"Can't. Got a lump of boy on my lap," said Louis. "Liam, would you get this lazy bastard a beer? And me as well." He put his fingers in Harry's sweaty hair and began petting him.
"Yeah," said Liam, "of course." He wasn't very good at making conversation, but he could be helpful. He had to elbow his way through a load of people who all wanted to talk to Harry - and by extension Louis - to find where Niall's friend Roger was standing guard over the beer. Saying "Niall's friend" was a bit of a misnomer, though, because Niall considered himself friends with every single person he'd ever met in his entire life, and was perfectly comfortable talking to any of them about anything.
"Really?" Zayn asked, appearing out of the mass of people. "You're getting two beers?" He'd lost all the girls somewhere, but presumably he'd be looking for them again later.
"Louis asked me to," Liam said helplessly.
Zayn started laughing. "Ohhhhh, did he?"
"You take them to him," Liam said, trying to shove the bottles at Zayn, but Zayn held his hands up and shook his head.
Getting back through the crowd without spilling anything was tricky. Liam didn't especially want to shove through, but he also couldn't imagine himself not bringing beers back when he'd been asked for a favor. "Let Liam through!" Louis hollered, and some of the kids magically moved aside. It was amazing.
"You didn't get one for yourself," said Harry, giving him a little nod of thanks. He flipped his hair out of his eyes and one of the girls from Liam's form giggled and had to clap her hand over her mouth.
"No, I don't drink," Liam said.
Louis frowned at him. "I thought Niall said you were drunk?"
"I… Oh," said Liam. "Well. I could be drunk on life?"
"Could be," said Harry agreeably. He was still getting a scalp massage from Louis's free hand, and he leaned back into it, closing his eyes. Some of the girls from Liam's school definitely began giggling again. Liam wasn't sure what to make of it; everyone knew that Louis-and-Harry was a thing that happened, and as far as Liam knew no one entirely understood it.
A light bulb in one of Sam's lights fizzled and cracked, dropping half the living room into darkness. There was a gasp and then a cheer. "What the hell?" Louis said.
"Probably we overloaded a circuit," said Liam. The band had brought an awful lot of extension cords and power strips with them. Liam wasn't entirely certain that light bulbs and power strips ran on the same circuits, but it was possible.
"S'not a proper house party until we ruin some stuff," said Harry.
"And if all the lights went out, we'd be delighted," said Liam. He snickered a little at himself.
Louis gave him a look that was absolutely incredulous. "What?"
"Sorry, I… It's a pun, you know. No lights. Delighted." Liam laughed at himself again self-consciously. "Sorry, that was awful."
"A pun," Louis echoed, eyebrows raised.
"It was awful," said Harry gravely, and then laughed, which made Liam feel a bit better. Harry leaned in, whispering something in Louis's ear. Or possibly… kissing him? It was hard to tell from Liam's angle and when Liam whispered to his friends he didn't do it by looking so much like he was nibbling on their ears.
One of the other members of the band began playing again, and everyone in the living room cheered. Louis cheered, too, and shoved Harry off his lap. He gave Harry a smack on the arse as well, and then grinned cheekily at Liam, who had no idea why he was being grinned at.
--
Sometime later, when the band was done and nearly everyone in the house was drunk and loud and dancing in the front room or groping upstairs or passed out on the floor somewhere, Liam managed to track down Niall and Zayn. Niall was chatting to a bunch of people in the kitchen as if they'd all been friends for years, and Zayn was slightly drunk and entirely rumpled, with lipstick marks all over his neck.
"You were having fun, weren't you?" Zayn asked teasingly, wrapping his arms around Liam's neck.
Liam had spent most of the evening grateful it was too loud for Louis to try and say anything to him over the band playing. Even now that Sam's stereo was booming through the house it was too loud to hear much of anything.
Liam could feel his cheeks going red, but he shrugged it off. "No," he said. "I just… I was just stood there, wasn't I? It was awkward."
"You could have talked to him," said Niall.
"No," Liam repeated.
Niall made an incredulous face at him, but Zayn just leaned in and kissed Liam's neck. Liam laughed and tried to shrug him off. "Our little boy, all grown up," Zayn said, in his imitation of his aunts' accent.
"Oh for Christ's sake, Niall's drunk, can we take him home, please?" Liam asked, trying to squirm away from Zayn. He enjoyed how much his friends loved him, but people were staring, and Zayn tended to just get louder and louder.
"I'm not drunk!" Niall said loudly, and nearly walked into the wall.
They couldn't get through the crowds of drunk people in the living room without nearly running down Harry and Louis. They both looked wasted, Louis whispering something to Harry with his arm wrapped around Harry's neck, and Harry throwing his head back and laughing. Liam bit his lip and tried not to stare.
"Where's my coat?" Niall demanded.
"You didn't bring one," said Liam. "You can take my jumper if it's cold."
"Is it cold?" Niall asked, blinking owlishly at him.
"Not really, no," said Liam. He glanced over at where Louis was drunkenly leaning into Harry. Harry had his arm round Louis's waist, mostly holding him up while he talked to a blonde girl. "Um," said Liam.
"What?" Zayn asked. He'd given up on having both of his arms around Liam's neck, but only because it stopped him finishing his cider.
Liam tried really hard to sound as absolutely neutral as possible, but Zayn was drunk and probably wouldn't remember anyway. "Harry and Louis," said Liam. "I know that's what they do, but…" He trailed off, hoping Zayn would know what he was saying.
Zayn looked thoughtful. "I dunno," he said. "I mean, there are all those stories about Harry and half the girls at his school, and Harry and that teacher, and I think there was a thing with Louis and a girl for a while? But… I mean… I shouldn't say this, I suppose, but I definitely heard the two of them were seen snogging at a gay bar." Zayn held his hands up, sloshing cider on Liam. "Probably not, I mean, we haven't even got a gay bar in town! But I definitely heard about that from loads of people."
Liam's heart sank a little bit. Louis and Harry were holding hands, fingers linked together, drunkenly giggling at something someone else had said. It wasn't at all unusual behavior for Harry and Louis. And Zayn knew all the best, most recent gossip, so he was probably right. Liam had thought for half a minute that Louis had seemed… Well. Friendly. Possibly unusually friendly. But Louis was friendly with everyone. He laughed at something the girl Harry was trying to impress said, and then shouted something and everyone laughed.
"He's just a really friendly person," Liam said, mostly to himself.
Zayn gave him a one-armed hug and used his other elbow to start shoving Niall toward the door. "He is really, really friendly," Zayn agreed, "but I think he was being especially friendly with you. So that's something. You made a friend!"
Liam tried to imagine himself being friends with Louis and spending loads of time with him. It just seemed like it would be endless opportunities for Liam to embarrass himself. Spending all night smiling at him like an idiot hadn't actually made Louis seem any less charming or funny or insane. Liam had vaguely hoped that actually talking to Louis would change how ridiculous Liam felt about him, but… Mostly he just felt ridiculous in an entirely new way.
"S'not so bad as all that," said Zayn, staggering down the front step after Niall. "Cheer up, Liam."
"I'm cheerful," said Liam. He caught Niall before he fell entirely on the grass, both arms around Niall's chest, and hauled him upright again.
"Cheerful like The Cure," said Zayn.
Liam shrugged. He didn't feel tragically sad, just resigned. "You guys made me come to this party," he pointed out. "Worked out exactly as well as could be expected."
"Better," said Niall, flailing a little. "You've given us a load of things to make fun of you over."
"Oh, well," said Liam, "good."
--
Nelson's café wasn't anything very special, but Nelson let Liam play his guitar there over the weekend. Mostly no one listened, but Zayn stopped by to stand around looking soulfully at whatever women wandered by, and Niall often came by to eat baked goods. Mostly it was just Liam, though, and that was all he really wanted. Just the chance to play music and sing and get better.
He was playing Here Comes the Sun for a mostly-bored audience of two children who'd been left to watch him while their mum bought cake. That didn't bother Liam, he didn't mind them throwing Lego at him and shrieking, but then Harry walked into the shop and Liam missed a chord change.
Mostly it was because Harry gave him one of his sly grins and waved, and then sat down at the café to listen. It was weird. Liam started to think about that for just a moment and then stopped, because he couldn't think about what Harry was doing there and also play songs. Not even songs he'd been playing over and over since he'd got his first guitar. Liam ducked his head and let his fringe fall in his eyes as he stared at his hands changing chords, and managed not to miss any other words or chords.
Harry was the only one clapping at the end. Neither of the children seemed particularly impressed. Liam gave him a little smile and hoped he'd go away, but he didn't. Harry said, "When you get a minute," and then pulled out his phone and began texting. Liam didn't know what that meant, exactly, and he looked around for Zayn, but Zayn didn't seem to be anywhere around. Liam wasn't sure what else to do, so he started playing and singing Yesterday instead.
He finished that one and Zayn still hadn't reappeared, and Harry hadn't left. The kids got carted off by their mum, and a couple of girls from school came in. They mostly ignored him, which Liam was used to, but he was feeling unsettled anyway and it was just discouraging enough to make him stop after a couple of bars of Imagine.
Liam preferred to just rip plasters off anyway. He put his guitar back in the case, wiped his slightly sweaty palms off on his jeans, and sat down next to Harry. "You wanted something?" he said.
Harry didn't look up from his texting. "Yeah," he said. "One minute." Liam craned his neck, trying to work out where Zayn had vanished to. He hadn't seen any other girls come in, so Zayn shouldn't have vanished into a dark corner or the toilets with them. "So," said Harry, pocketing his phone. He smiled at Liam again, lazy and toothy and entirely too charming.
"Okay," said Liam agreeably, because he had no idea what Harry wanted.
"You sounded good," said Harry, nodding toward Liam's guitar. "You're here a lot? Zayn said you do this nearly every weekend. You get paid?"
"No," said Liam. "It's just for fun. For practice."
"Practice is fun?" Harry asked incredulously. "If you don't get paid you must get girls, right? Loads of girls?"
Liam glanced up reflexively at the girls who'd walked in, and they were definitely looking his way, but he was relatively certain that was because he was talking to Harry. "Not as such," he said. "Usually I've just got Niall and Zayn. I like getting to play, I suppose. I don't much care where."
Harry looked puzzled at that, and a little sleepy, but Liam was learning that Harry's default expression looked a little sleepy. "But the girls aren't bad, either," he said.
"Well," said Liam. "If they want to come by I don't mind."
Harry laughed at that, throwing his head back. "'Course you don't," he said. "When are you done here? You should come and hang out at ours."
Liam bit back the urge to say, What on earth for? "Just two musicians hanging out?" he joked instead, because he was entirely out of his depth and when he was entirely out of his depth he made terrible jokes or he lectured people.
"Well, Louis'll be there as well," said Harry with a shrug. Liam nodded as if he should have known that, and he probably should have; Harry and Louis were always together. "You're funny and you like music. Most of the people in this village are dead boring."
Liam laughed. It was just such a ridiculous thing to say. Liam was dead boring, especially compared to Louis and Harry. But Harry looked pleased to have made Liam laugh, so Liam didn't say Are you joking? Or You must be taking the piss. "Really?" Liam asked, half expecting Harry to say no.
"Of course," said Harry. "Are you finished?"
"I could be," said Liam.
"If you aren't getting paid I don't think they can make you stay, can they?" Harry asked.
That was a good point. But a better point was how utterly unready Liam was to spend time hanging about with Harry and Louis. "Let me just find Zayn," he said.
Zayn was outside having a smoke, as it turned out. "Hey, you shouldn't smoke," said Liam. "Harry wants us to go over to his house and hang out for a while." That was a bit of an oversimplification, but Harry was standing right behind him, and Liam couldn't think of a nice way to explain things otherwise.
He was counting on Zayn laughing or saying, "No way," so he'd have an excuse not to go, but Zayn just stubbed his cigarette out on the pavement and nodded. "Cool," he said. "Shall I call Niall to grab some drinks to bring along?"
"Definitely," said Harry.
Liam must have looked a bit panicked, because Zayn put his arm around Liam's shoulder. "Relax," he said, leaning in to whisper. "It's just lads hanging out. Best case, you can get to know them, eh?" He laughed a little and bumped Liam with his hip. "Worst case, they ask you to do some weird threesome shit and I'll pretend you've got an emergency at home." He clapped Liam's shoulder reassuringly.
Harry was giving them a mildly suspicious look, but Liam was fairly sure he hadn't heard that. And that Harry and Louis weren't going to invite him to a threesome. Liam wasn't honestly positive what he'd do if they did. Stutter until he passed out, probably. "Sounds great," Liam lied, smiling at everyone. Harry smiled back and flipped his hair out of his eyes. Liam was entirely confused by his life.
--
"I like you lot," said Louis loudly. "You're weird."
Harry's house was the poshest place Liam had ever seen in his life. Harry had a pool. No one had a pool. There was Harry's proper house, and then another little bungalow down the lane, where the pool was, and apparently no parents or anyone to stop them all sitting around outside drinking and being idiots.
Niall laughed. "You, callin' other people weird. Classic."
Louis attempted to look indignant at that. Everyone laughed. "A lot of people think my weirdness is charming," Louis said.
"'Course they do," said Zayn, saluting with his beer. "Whatever you say."
"Charming like a tumor," Harry drawled, and then giggled, and Louis jumped on him and… Well. It looked a lot like he was biting Harry, and Liam didn't know them well enough to be certain if that was an actual bite or a play bite or just the weirdest kind of making out he'd ever seen.
Louis shoved Harry off his chair and sat up. "We should jump in the pool. Who wants to jump in the pool with me?"
It was fairly warm out, but not hot enough to warrant jumping in the pool. And the sun was starting to set, which was going to make it even colder. Still, it sounded like fun.
Liam must have looked like he was considering it, because Louis grinned. "Liam'll come with me, won't you?"
"I…" said Liam. He was the sort of person who jumped in pools when someone dared him to; Liam liked doing mildly stupid things. But he was absolutely not going to jump in a pool with Louis while everyone else watched. "I will if Zayn and Niall come."
"I don't swim," said Zayn.
"He means he doesn't know how," Niall explained. Zayn pouted at him. Niall laughed. "And he means he doesn't want to get his hair wet after he spent hours getting it just perfect."
"Shut up," said Zayn, throwing an empty can at him.
"I could teach you," Liam said. He'd been trying to teach him to swim for years.
"Or he could just go in the shallow end where he can stand around and not get his lovely hair wet," said Louis dismissively. "Harry?"
"Yeah, of course," said Harry, shrugging.
Liam looked at Niall. He knew Niall would think it was hilarious to say he wasn't going and then try and bully Liam into going himself, but if he did that Liam was going to sneak into his house and murder him in his sleep, never mind their years of friendship.
Niall said, "Of course I will, can't let you go in and drown by yourself. You still owe me from last time I saved-"
Liam groaned. "Oh god, not again. Shut up. I'll drown you."
"I want to hear this story," said Harry, leaning forward.
"It's not much of a story-" Liam started.
"Not except for the part where I rescued you and saved your life!" Niall hollered.
Liam put his face in his hands and shook his head.
"See, when I first moved over here Liam was getting bullied by these kids at school. But then-"
"It wasn't that big a deal," said Liam. "I was just getting bothered a bit by older boys on my way to school, and one day Niall happened to be with me and he went completely mental at them-"
"They were making him cry, and I punched one of 'em right in the face," Niall interrupted with great relish.
"-and after that they left me alone." Liam sighed. Zayn was already laughing and Harry was starting to giggle. For about the millionth time, Liam thought about getting new friends.
"And I kicked the other one in the jewels." Niall grinned. "They never bothered you again, did they?"
Liam sighed. Louis just about fell over laughing. "I wasn't crying," he said, with absolutely no hope of being believed. "One of the boys had shoved me over and my knee was all bloody."
"The thing to keep in mind," Zayn said, "is that as short as Liam was, Niall was about half that size. God, I wish I'd been there."
"That is the loveliest, loveliest thing I've ever heard," said Louis, pretending to wipe tears out of his eyes. "The bonds of true friendship!"
"Yeah, well," said Liam, punching Niall in the arm. That wasn't the story that Liam ideally wanted Louis told the first time they hung out. Liam sounded like an idiot and a wimp, and he didn't want Louis picturing him at primary school with bigger kids making him cry. He strangled Niall a little harder than was strictly necessary.
"Brilliant," said Louis. "So if I ever need defending I'll come straight to you, Niall."
Niall puffed himself up a little bit, posing with his arms flexed. Liam tickled him under his ribs and Niall squeaked and batted his hands away.
"Absolutely ferocious," said Liam.
"Tougher than you," Niall retorted.
Louis stood up and stretched. Liam tried to ignore the way his shirt rode up, and then didn't have to worry about that anymore because Louis pulled his shirt off entirely. "Are we going in the pool or what, boys?" Louis had rather more defined abs than Liam had been expecting. Not quite a six-pack but… Not quite not one, either. Liam stared for just a second and then dragged his eyes away to something safer, like Zayn smirking at him.
"Yeah," said Zayn. "After you."
Harry looked at them for a second and then shrugged and pulled his own shirt off. Louis had his trousers off, as well, which meant Liam had to turn and look the other way entirely or risk embarrassing himself in the most obvious way possible. Liam tried to concentrate on taking his shirt off and not think at all about words like almost naked and wet. Except that they were all about to be almost naked and wet, and then Liam was going to be in a lot of trouble. At least if anyone noticed anything he could drown himself.
"Pants on, trousers off?" said Louis like a question, like they were all going to decide to get naked instead. Liam could have done with trousers on as well, but walking home in wet trousers would have been pretty awful. He tried not to look nervous, or anxious, or turned on. Especially not that last one.
It wasn't as bad as he'd feared once they had all jumped in the pool; Harry and Louis were busy trying to drown each other, and Zayn was genuinely trying to stay mostly dry while Niall splashed at him. For a while Louis chased Harry around the pool and Harry tried to hide behind Liam, who ended up unwillingly caught between Louis and Harry trying to drag each other under the water. Liam's vague plan of avoiding Louis as much as possible wasn't an option, so he went with his second; treat Louis exactly the way he would if he were any other friend.
Louis ducked under the water, caught Liam by the ankle, and attempted to drown him. Liam managed not to kick him in the face, but only just. When Louis surfaced Liam shoved his head right back under the water in retaliation. Louis came up again coughing and spluttering and with a look that promised vengeance in his eyes, but Liam just laughed and tried not to notice how good cross looked on him. Thank god Liam's crush wasn't bad enough to make him accidentally blurt that aloud.
"Watch out, Payne," said Louis, pointing at him.
Liam laughed again and splashed him. Louis spluttered in outrage, hair sticking up in every direction. Liam could do this; he could play with Louis as if Louis were just anyone. It helped that Harry was right there, giving Liam an approving look. He wondered how Harry would look at him if he knew what Liam was thinking about Louis being nearly naked and grabbing at him in the pool.
"Nice one!" shouted Harry gleefully, and Louis dived under the water and took off after him again, grabbing Harry and dragging him under. Liam ducked out of the way. His plan was only going to work if there wasn't quite so much groping going on whilst they were all mostly naked. Liam was going to have very vivid things to think about before bed tonight.
Zayn had already pushed himself out of the pool and was sitting on the edge. "You great baby," said Niall witheringly. Zayn shrugged and shook his hair out of his eyes.
"Arr!" shouted Louis suddenly. "Avast! Yarrrrrr! I'm a pirate!"
"You're an idiot," said Harry, but he sounded fond. They were touching each other rather a lot as they swam, or pretended to be swimming. Harry's hands vanished under the water and Louis shouted indignantly and grabbed at him, and there was a lot of splashing and possibly groping. Liam found the water cold, suddenly, and decided to get out and go sit with Zayn instead.
Zayn gave him a considering look. "What?" asked Liam.
"Nothing," said Zayn after a minute. "I could go for a smoke." He bumped Liam with his shoulder in a friendly sort of way, and Liam sighed and then smiled at him. His friends weren't entirely terrible. Sometimes they were pretty great.
Harry and Louis and Niall caused a small tsunami in the pool that nearly splashed Liam and Zayn. Zayn ducked behind Liam.
"Volleyball!" shouted Harry. "Niall's on my team!" He had a net to set up across the center of the pool, and a couple of volleyballs floating around at the far end.
"I've got Liam; he's tall," yelled Louis.
Zayn held up his hands. "I'm not getting back in the water," he said. "I'll keep score."
"Boo," said Liam, giving him a little shove. "You should play."
"Then the teams would be uneven," Harry objected.
"No, because Zayn's so lousy at sport he'd probably hurt his team anyway," Liam said. Zayn pushed him into the pool.
part two
Fandom: One Direction
Liam/Louis, with background everyone-loves-and-gropes-everyone
28,000 words | PG
A high school AU in which no one goes to school, ever. Liam has a crush, and then he runs into his crush at a party, and everything gets very complicated.
Thank you to Torakowalski and Elucreh for beta-ing and Brit-picking. Remaining mistakes are all my own.
Standard disclaimer applies: It's not meant to be about or imply anything about these actual people, just fictionalized versions of their public personas, ie, if Sorkin got to write a movie about Mark Zuckerberg, I get to write this fic. But please don't share this fic with anyone portrayed in it.
Liam and Niall collapsed on the grass, groaning. Niall was sweaty and red-faced and still only looked about half as tired as Liam felt after an hour of playing football really badly. It was an excellent way to work off stress after school, except for all the bruises Liam had got from getting tackled and tripped.
"Well," said Niall, chest heaving. "That was terrible. We're like old men."
"I'm too young to be an old man," said Liam, but he lay back in the grass to stare at the sky. His heart was trying to pound out of his chest. He'd been lax in going for runs lately because he had so much work to do for his music A-level, and it was clearly catching up with him.
"You know what we should do?" Niall asked.
Liam groaned. "We should study," he said. "I've got that stupid essay to write on baroque musical forms."
"No," said Niall. "That is what we should definitely not do. We should go and get some chips. And Friday we should go to that house party that Sam's having."
Chips sounded nice. Sam's party sounded less so; Liam wasn't a huge fan of house parties, or parties in general. "Right, but I-"
Niall turned to give him a little glare. "You aren't spending Friday night on your computer; I swear to god, I'll drag you out of the house myself."
"I've got work to do-"
"No," said Niall firmly. "Anyway you aren't doing work on a Friday night. You're chatting to strangers on twitter and watching youtube videos, aren't you? You can chat to people in real life instead, that'd be a change."
"Well," said Liam, and then trailed off. He'd been friends with Niall forever; Niall ought to be able to finish the rest of that sentence without Liam's help. Anyway, Niall wasn't wrong, exactly. Liam did have a tendency to refuse to go to parties, and he did have a tendency to spend his Fridays on the internet. "And anyway, what's the point?" Liam finished, as if they'd had a conversation.
"The point is you not spending another Friday sitting in your room by yourself. You aren't even looking at porn, Liam. At least you could be looking at porn."
Liam leaned over and gave Niall a smack on the arm and Niall smacked him back. Liam had to sit up so he could properly give Niall a shove. "Just because you're a pervert-" Liam started.
"S'not perverted, mate, it's normal. It's you we should be worried about. You know who doesn't look at porn? Serial killers."
Somehow this conversation had spiraled wildly out of Liam's comfort zone. "Hang on," he said. "I look at porn! I am not a serial killer."
"I'm just saying," said Niall, with a shrug. "If you're blowing me off you should at least be watching someone blowing something."
Liam snickered. "I'm not the one of us who was caught looking at porn on his phone in the common room, am I? I think that means I'm doing better than you are."
"Better at what?" Niall asked philosophically. "Anyway, that's the only possible excuse I'd accept, so you'll just have to come with me to Sam's."
"Ugh," said Liam. "I repeat: what's the point?"
"You're more fun than y'think y'are," said Niall. Liam pulled a face, because he definitely wasn't. "You might meet someone," Niall said. "You might accidentally have a fantastic time. Oh, and Harry's band is playing, you won't want to miss that."
Liam looked very, very hard at the grass they were sitting on for a minute, waiting for Niall to follow that up with the obvious teasing joke, but Niall was just sat there smirking. Liam counted to ten and then to ten again until he was relatively sure his expression was neutral and normal. "Oh," he said. "Are they?"
"They will," said Niall. "I heard they're getting good, actually. Gonna be playing at the battle of the bands. You should be playing that, too."
"I'm not a band," said Liam.
"No, but it'd be an excuse to hang about with other musicians. I'm just saying. If you happen to become friends with Harry that almost definitely means you might bump in to -"
"Shh," said Liam, putting his hand over Niall's mouth. There were a load of younger kids playing football on the field, and none of them were likely to hear their conversation or care, but it was still enough to make Liam's stomach flip flop.
Niall licked Liam's hand, and Liam pulled his hand away with a little yelp. "Right," said Niall. "My mistake. You wouldn't want to accidentally talk to Louis and let him know you're a person who's alive."
"I wouldn't," Liam agreed, trying to sound dignified. "He wouldn't… He's always doing those stupid pranks. I don't need to be in one of his youtube videos getting flour poured on my head or whatever. Anyway, he doesn't even go to our school."
"I know," said Niall, "which is why you should come to this party. You can sit on the couch and stare at him all you want, which is kind of a lot, mate. I'm not making fun but it's a little weird."
"I'm not - I don't - Ugh, it's not like that," said Liam.
Niall gave him what was definitely a pitying look. "Okay," he said. "Sure. But you're still coming to this party with me and Zayn. You owe me."
"Oh my god, not this again," Liam groaned, flopping back on the grass again. "It's been years."
"You're going to owe me for the rest of your life, Payne. Remember that. Remember, remember, the fifth of November," Niall intoned seriously.
"It was spring, you are such an idiot," said Liam, punching him in the leg.
"Then remember the fifth of something in spring, when I saved your life," Niall said. He punched Liam back and Liam laughed and hit Niall properly this time. They spent a couple of minutes trying to shove each other over and then the football got out of Niall's lap and rolled over to where a bunch of year seven kids were playing and Niall had to jog off to fetch it back.
"Come on, chips, I'm starved," said Niall, offering Liam a hand up. "You've got money, right?"
A large part of being friends with Niall since they were kids was buying him food. Liam had got used to that, and his mum tended to slip him an extra pound or two when he and Niall were going out. "He's so skinny," she'd fret, as if Niall didn't have the world's loudest and largest family constantly trying to feed him up.
Liam gave Niall a half-hearted shove and then a one-armed hug that was more strangulation than affection. Niall laughed. "And you're still coming with us on Friday, don't bother pretending to be ill," Niall added.
Liam sighed, which they both knew meant Niall had won.
--
"Have you done the essay for general studies?" Zayn asked hopefully later, sprawled on Liam's bed.
"The one about 'Is global warming real?'" Liam asked.
"Yeah," said Zayn.
Liam always expected Zayn to try and copy his work. It was nice that he was only taking two A-levels with Zayn because it cut down tremendously on the number of times a week Zayn used his hopeful face to try and get Liam's essays. At least Liam could be sure Zayn would pass those two subjects. "Not yet," said Liam.
"But you've got notes and, like, you started research, right?"
"You could do it yourself-" Liam started.
Zayn's phone buzzed. "Hang on," he said, and started texting furiously.
That was the other problem with Zayn. His mobile was basically fused to his hand and he could barely go a minute without getting a text from someone. Usually a girl. It was absolutely unfair how many girls Zayn got texting and calling him. Zayn was just as big a dork as Liam, except he had really long eyelashes and a wistful, pouty expression when he stared off into space. He read comics, for god's sake. Not that he read them at school or when girls were around.
"You can't copy my notes," Liam said, mostly for the sake of having said it. Zayn would definitely steal his notes at some point before the essay was due.
"Okay," said Zayn, waving a bit and sending another text. "My little sister says hi. She's really gone a bit Ginny Weasely on you, hasn't she?"
"I think it's sweet," said Liam. He did, mostly, except for how they could never go to Zayn's house to do anything because his sisters were always fighting and the youngest one tried to follow them from room to room pleading to know what they were doing. When they were at Liam's his sisters left them mostly alone, although he'd overheard one of them saying Zayn was fit, and nearly thrown up from horror. Ruth had a boyfriend and a baby; she had no business ogling Liam's friends. "You could do your own homework if you weren't always on your phone," Liam said.
Zayn snorted. "What a brilliant idea, Liam. I'll get right on that. That sounds like fun."
Liam sighed and went back to his laptop. He'd accidentally found video of Harry's band performing at a party and they did, in fact, sound a lot better than when he'd heard them last over the summer. Despite not going to their school, Harry's band was one of those things that everyone knew about. Harry and Louis were the type of boys that everyone knew as well. Niall was friends with them, in point of fact. But then, Niall knew everyone.
"You're coming on Friday, yeah?" Zayn said. "Niall said you were, but Niall always says you are."
"Not if I fall off a cliff or something," Liam said. "But otherwise, I suppose."
"Good," said Zayn, texting. "I've got some girls I'm inviting and they think you're cute."
"What?" Liam spun his chair around to frown at Zayn. "Really?"
"They saw you playing your acoustic guitar at Nelson's and thought you were really artistic and lovely. I am quoting, by the way. So since we're friends obviously I'm artistic and lovely as well." Zayn waggled his eyebrows a bit.
Liam laughed. "Oh, I see. Using my fame from my unpaid café shows."
"Listen, mate, you keep playing and singing and eventually you get famous, and I get to be the friend who stuck by you all along. I'll take all the girls you don't want." Zayn stopped and considered for a moment. "Maybe I'll take some of the girls you do want, as well. Not deliberately, obviously, because I love you."
"Deliberately? Someone swallowed a dictionary," said Liam. "Anyway I'll never have groupies because I'm going to spend the rest of my life playing Beatles covers at Nelson's and not getting paid for it."
"You could play the songs you wrote yourself. And you could ask him to pay you. You know a load of girls go there every Saturday afternoon to drink coffee and stare at you. You're good for business. Hang on." Zayn's phone buzzed again and he went back to texting.
Liam sincerely doubted that a load of girls came to Nelson's to stare at him, although there were some girls he recognized as being there nearly every week. They were awfully young, which made Liam feel a little strange about the whole thing. And he was fairly sure they were there to stare at Niall and Zayn as much as him. Niall always came down and ate half of Nelson's cakes, while Zayn sat on one of the couches and got chatted up by older ladies.
"Anyway, even if you never get famous I'm still going to follow you around forever. What would I do without you?" Zayn said, half-shouting in mock despair.
"I don't know," said Liam, trying not to laugh. "Your own homework?"
"Don't leave me," Zayn said, reaching over to grab Liam's arm. "You can't ever leave me, Liam!"
Zayn tended to get really loud when he was being silly, and in a minute Liam's sisters would come to see what all the shouting was about, and give him crap about all his friends being so incredibly strange all the time. "I won't," said Liam, trying to take his arm back. Zayn was being particularly clingy, though, so Liam ended up just dragging him mostly off the bed and onto the floor. "Zayn! I can't type with one hand."
Zayn threw his arms around Liam's neck and pretended to cry, and it was so stupid that Liam couldn't stop himself from laughing. That just encouraged Zayn to be even more ridiculous. "Why haven't I got any normal friends?" Liam asked no one.
"Dunno." Zayn shrugged and squinted at Liam's laptop. He never wore his glasses when he ought to. "Is that Harry's band?"
"Yeah, they sound pretty good."
"I could introduce you, you know," said Zayn. "At the party on Friday, I mean."
Liam definitely didn't want that. Well. He did. But he also didn't. It was complicated and embarrassing, and he tried to squirm away from Zayn, but Zayn still had his arms around Liam's neck. "No, thanks," said Liam.
"They're cool guys," said Zayn.
"No, they're - They're - They're rivals," Liam said, trying to think of a halfway decent reason he didn't want to hang out with Harry, and by extension of all Harry's friends. "They'll probably go on X-Factor and get famous and I'll still be playing Here Comes The Sun at Nelson's."
Zayn looked mildly puzzled. "So… D'you want me to pretend I hate them? I can. Ugh, they're so annoying, Harry's really cheeky and Louis's obnoxious and not at all hilarious."
Liam rolled his eyes and tried not to laugh. "No. I just. I don't think it's a good idea for us all to hang out. I'm really horribly jealous."
Zayn laughed. "Right," he said. "That sounds like you." His phone buzzed and he threw himself back on the bed to check his messages.
"I might be jealous," Liam grumbled, going back to his laptop. He hit play on the video of Harry's band and tried to work up some jealousy, but mostly he was impressed by how Harry flipped his hair around and how really decent his voice sounded.
Someone threw a bra at Harry-on-the-computer and he laughed and threw it back, and the camera phone recording the whole thing turned and zoomed in on Louis, standing right by the stage and waving the bra around his head and cheering. It was ridiculous and definitely not attractive or hilarious or clever. Liam could never in a million years imagine himself being so spontaneous and loud and silly, but he wished… Well. He wished a lot of things, looking at Louis.
"Riiiiiight," said Zayn. "You're watching Harry."
Liam closed his laptop. "Shut up. I just. I'm just… It's not him. It's the idea of him, and being really loud and silly and confident and popular and…. I mean, it can't be him, I don't even know him."
"Oh, Liam," Zayn, sending another text. "I can pretend if you like, but you don't even believe that."
"I do," Liam insisted, but he let Zayn distract him with the newest hip-hop album he'd downloaded to his phone so they wouldn't have to talk about it anymore.
--
Niall was almost exactly a month younger than Liam, but Liam still found himself feeling generally big-brotherly toward him. It wasn't a problem except that Niall had a tendency to drink too much at parties and then get sick and miserable, and Liam always had to stop himself lecturing him about it. Liam got a lot of late-night phone calls from Niall, drunk and needing someone to walk him home. Liam enjoyed that, actually.
Niall and Zayn had brought cider with them to drink on their way over to Liam's house, and then had to pretend to be sober and polite while Liam's mum asked them if they'd like a snack. She ruffled Liam's hair in a way that would have been terribly embarrassing if she hadn't tried to do the same to both of them. Niall laughed but Zayn looked honestly horrified that anyone would try and touch his hair, and Liam had to distract his mum so she wouldn't get offended.
"Have fun," she said. "And be good."
Niall dragged Liam out the door as if he were afraid Liam would make a break for it. "You're not supposed to tell your parents you're going to a party, you know," he said. "Why can't you tell them you're off to mine to study and then sneak out like a normal person?"
"They'd worry if I lied," Liam said reasonably.
"Not if they didn't know," said Zayn. "Cider?"
"No, thanks," said Liam. "You can't drink that on the bus, you know."
"I can't get caught drinking it on the bus," Zayn corrected him.
It wasn't especially far to Sam's house, and it wasn't entirely dark yet. They could hear music from the street, and there were already kids standing around outside and smoking. "Sam's parents have gone to Mallorca," said Zayn. "Some kind of holiday for parents who want to get away. It sounds like a swingers party, doesn't it?"
"Please don't ever suggest that about anyone's parents," Liam said, and then Zayn got dragged away by a load of girls who wanted to show him the new tattoo that someone called Jenna had got.
"Have a cider," said Niall. The kitchen was full of people but the party clearly wasn't in full swing yet. If Liam leaned around he could see Harry and some of his friends setting up a speaker in the front room. Sam's parents were pretty well-off and his house was airy and spacious. There was enough room for a band to set up, as long as it was mostly just a couple of boys with speakers and guitars.
"I don't want a cider," said Liam, frowning at Niall. Niall knew that perfectly well.
"No, I'm saying hold the cider," said Niall, pushing a slightly warm can into Liam's hand. "That way no one'll offer you another drink."
That was a really clever idea, actually. "Cheers," said Liam.
Niall stared at him for a minute. "You've got to at least open it, mate," he pointed out. "And drink a little or it'll be full and you'll spill it all over."
Liam was starting to suspect this was less Niall being kind and more Niall's long-standing desire to get Liam trashed with him. "I thought the point was not to drink," he said, but Niall gave him That Look and Liam sighed and let Niall cajole him into having a couple of swallows.
"I'm gonna go and find some food," said Niall. "Don't go home without telling me, okay?"
"Don't drink too much," Liam countered. Niall laughed and disappeared into the crowd.
Liam felt a little abandoned. He knew some of the people crowded into the kitchen, there were a few from his school and a couple he knew from playing here and there around town. He just didn't know any of them very well, and Liam was friendly but he wasn't tremendously good at inserting himself into other people's conversations.
Somehow he found himself wandering out of the kitchen to where Harry and his friends were plugging in amps and pedals. "S'hooked up wrong," said Liam to one of them, pointing to a wire that was in the output socket by mistake.
"What? Which one?"
"That one, it's… Here, I can fix it," said Liam. He put his cider down and pulled the plugs out, putting them back in the right spots. "See?"
"Cheers," said Harry, flipping his hair out of his eyes. "You wanna help us with the rest of this crap? We're really shit at figuring out what plugs in where."
Liam hesitated for a minute, but his urge to make things go correctly overwhelmed his sense of self-preservation, which was telling him to avoid Harry in case other people came by. Maybe he could just fix everything and then sneak away. "Yeah, okay," said Liam. "The pedal's backwards, too. This is all… You must have nothing but feedback all the time."
Harry grinned at him. "It's very rock-n-roll," he said, and Liam laughed.
Harry wasn't kidding; he'd hooked up a bunch of things wrong, and Liam tut-tutted to himself and crawled around the back of the amp to correct everything. He wondered if Harry had any idea about levels, and decided he probably didn't. Liam was methodical and got itchy when everything wasn't just right, where clearly Harry and his band had been shoving plugs into whatever was nearest. Which, if Harry's reputation with the girls was even half-true, was also his life philosophy.
"What's this?" demanded someone loudly. "Have you got a roadie, Harry?" Liam popped his head out from behind the amp and saw Louis looking at him curiously. Liam froze, feeling oddly like he'd been caught doing something naughty.
"He volunteered," said Harry.
"And who wouldn't offer to help you, with this beautiful face?" Louis asked, grabbing Harry's chin. "That was awfully nice of him." He sounded vaguely suspicious, like maybe other people weren't allowed to offer to help Harry.
"Er," said Liam. Louis was looking at him. There were at least fifty other people milling around Sam's house; surely Louis could have found someone else to look at. Louis's stare was highly disconcerting. "I could stop, if you'd like?"
"Why would we like that?" Louis asked, tilting his head quizzically.
"I don't know," said Liam.
Louis laughed. Liam had seen him laugh bunches of times, Louis laughed basically non-stop when he was out with Harry or making his stupid prank videos. It was more dramatic up close, though, a bit more like watching the sun rise from the actual surface of the sun. Liam's cheeks were going to start going red in a second, and then he'd have to kill himself. This was exactly what was not supposed to happen.
"Don't scare him away; he knows how the thingies work," said Harry.
Louis said, straight-facedly, "Do you mean penises? I keep telling you to use the proper word, Harry." Harry laughed and shoved him and Louis laughed and shoved him back, and while they seemed distracted was clearly an excellent time for Liam to go and find Niall.
Liam got as far as getting back on his feet and starting to edge away when he was suddenly and violently accosted by Zayn. "There you are! I thought you'd run away," Zayn said. He wrapped an arm around Liam's waist and hooked his chin over Liam's shoulder. "You vanished." Zayn smelt distinctly of cider and was starting to seem cuddly in the way that meant he'd drunk too much too quickly.
"You vanished," Liam said.
"Hey!" said Louis, and Zayn let go of Liam to go and hug him and then Harry. It was all very sweet, and Liam took another small step toward the kitchen where presumably he wouldn't have to be part of this conversation.
"Hang on, have you met Liam?" Zayn asked, catching Liam's hand. "We go to school together. Liam, this is Harry and Louis."
"Hi," said Liam, waving a little awkwardly with his free hand. Of course Zayn knew them, too. They were probably all always at parties together.
"Our Liam's really clever," said Zayn. He smiled at Liam, his particularly fond and drunk smile.
"That's why you copy my homework," Liam said, but smiling. Zayn squeezed his hand.
"Liam's doing a music A-level, he knows everything about everything."
Harry and Louis were looking at him speculatively, it was more kinds of awful than Liam could list. Normally Zayn was quite quiet and reserved; why was he such a chatty, friendly drunk? "No, I - I mean, unless you want to know the history of the Baroque period, I could tell you all about Bach and Handel and Vivaldi, but-"
"I don't," said Louis definitely, pulling a face. "But you were fixing Harry's pedals, so you must know loads."
"More than us," shrugged Harry. "I'm gonna go and get the other guitars."
"Yeah, alright," said Louis. "Catch you later." He waved to Zayn and followed Harry outside.
Liam blew out a long breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"Nice," said Zayn. "I thought you weren't here to meet-"
"Shut up!" said Liam. God, he needed new friends. "I wasn't, just, it was plugged in wrong, and it would probably have exploded or something, and I can't-"
Zayn laughed. "You've gone all red, it's really cute."
"It's not, stop, oh my god," said Liam, hiding his face against Zayn's shoulder. Zayn patted him consolingly on the back.
"Come on; those girls I told you about want to talk about the Beatles," Zayn said. "We can go upstairs where Harry and Louis will definitely not be. You just use your really sincere face, and I'll take care of the girls."
"What really sincere face?" Liam asked, frowning.
"That one," said Zayn. "Perfect."
Liam sighed a little, but talking about the Beatles with a bunch of girls did sound a lot better than saying stupid things to Louis and Harry, so he followed Zayn upstairs through the crowd.
--
The girls were called Katie and Sarah and Sidika, and they had seen Liam playing at Nelson's at least twice. "You've got fans, mate," said Zayn. Liam wasn't sure how to deal with that, so he smiled and shrugged. They all ended up sitting on the floor of Sam's parent's room. Liam could hear Harry's band messing around with their guitars underneath all the people shouting and running through the halls.
"Do you sing?" Katie asked Zayn, and he shook his head and looked down and it was all so completely ridiculous and put-on that Liam almost laughed at him.
"He does," Liam assured them, and then they all wanted him to sing something and Liam got a chance to make fun of Zayn, which was a nice switch. "He's just terribly modest, aren't you?" He elbowed Zayn in the side.
"Oh, well," said Zayn, looking mostly at the floor, with the pouty, distant, shy look he had perfected whilst Liam was revising for his GCSEs. The girls cooed at him. It was hilarious.
The band started playing loudly. All Liam could make out was the bass line and a noise that was meant to be singing. There was a general cheer from people downstairs.
"Why aren't you playing?" Sidika asked Liam, putting her hand on his leg.
"Oh," said Liam, and then, "Um," and "It's not really my party, I suppose? I barely even know Sam." There wasn't really room for him to move away from her. Zayn had Sarah mostly in his lap, and he was sitting so close to Liam that Liam couldn't move that way, either.
"Hello!" shouted Niall, appearing in the doorway. "I've found cupcakes!"
"Yes, please," said Liam, scrambling up a little rudely. Zayn said something but Liam pretended not to hear, stepping over Sarah to get to Niall. "Let's eat them somewhere… somewhere else?"
Niall scrunched up his face at Liam with hilarious dubiousness, then shrugged at Zayn. "Here," he said. "Pink icing."
"Right," said Liam, "cheers."
"I'm starving," Niall groaned, eating half of his cupcake in one bite. "I was trying to convince Sam to order a pizza."
The hallway was crowded and loud and people were drinking and shouting and running back and forth. Someone nearly knocked Liam's cupcake out of his hand. "Just one pizza?" said Liam. "What'll everyone else eat after you get done with it?"
"I'm a growing boy," said Niall happily. "Can I have yours?"
"You just had your own," Liam grumbled, but he handed his cupcake to Niall. It hadn't really ever been for him anyway.
"Hey there!" said someone behind them, and Liam turned only to find himself nose-to-nose with Louis. Louis smiled at him, and it was just as disconcerting as it had been before. Liam's stomach did a strange flip and he edged backward a step or two. "You left your cider," Louis said, offering Liam the can.
Liam's brain had absolutely stopped. It didn't make sense that he was seeing Louis upstairs when Harry was downstairs singing. Also, he'd run through several hundred different scenarios of what he'd say if he were ever forced to talk to Louis, and now they were all missing, presumed too stupid to actually say. Maybe Louis was just looking for Zayn? That at least would make a little bit of sense.
"It is yours, isn't it?" Louis asked, holding the can up. He looked a little tentative.
"Zayn is in the bedroom," Liam blurted.
Niall rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's his, cheers," he said, taking the cider out of Louis's hand. "He's already drunk, sorry."
"What? No, I'm -" started Liam. Niall stepped on his foot and it occurred to Liam belatedly that claiming to be drunk would save him from sounding like an idiot.
Louis grinned. It was so friendly; why was he being so friendly? "I thought it was funny you helped set up and then ran off. You're not… I mean, Zayn's hanging out up here, right? But you should come and hear the band."
Liam's brain just kept telling him that Louis was looking for Zayn, in the absence of any other logic. "He is, he's in there with some girls," Liam said, nodding toward the bedroom.
Louis frowned a little.
"He'd love to hear the band, he's a big fan," said Niall, giving Liam a shove toward the stairs that almost sent him tripping into Louis. Liam gave Niall a really stern glare, which Niall grinned at. "Aren't you?"
"I can hear them from here," Liam said.
For a second Louis's expression changed to something a little… Flatter? Liam didn't know him well enough to be able to guess what he was thinking. "I can get you a good seat. I know the band," Louis offered, and then he winked.
He winked. Liam laughed, more startled than anything else. He didn't even know Louis; there was no call for him to go around winking at people. Especially not Liam, who was discovering that his up-until-now hypothetical crush was an actual horribly real crush that made him feel slightly ill. Liam wondered if Louis would think he was really strange if he just made a run for the door.
Louis clearly took Liam laughing as encouragement, because he said, "Come on," and tugged on Liam's sleeve. Liam started to freeze up because seriously, what was happening, but Louis had grabbed him with the express purpose of pulling him down the stairs.
Liam looked back over his shoulder, trying to give Niall a look that would say clearly This isn't funny, and, Is this some kind of prank? and What is going on? Niall just grinned and stuffed the cupcake into his mouth and didn't follow them.
Niall was disowned, or whatever you did for best friends who betrayed you. "Look out, make way, step aside!" said Louis, shoving his way through the crowd. People laughed and moved, and Liam found himself being towed along until they were at the couch, right next to where the band were playing. Louis found a spot to sit down, somehow, crowded between a girl Liam vaguely recognized from school and a boy who Liam had definitely played football with once. "Sit down!" Louis shouted over the band, but Liam couldn't see anywhere that wasn't already twice as full as it should have been so he just shook his head and laughed again and crossed his arms.
Harry and his band sounded as good as a bunch of teenagers playing in someone's living room possibly could; Liam tried to listen and concentrate but he was distracted and he kept accidentally looking at Louis instead of at Harry. If Louis turned out to want to talk to Liam, Liam was going to have to pretend he hadn't spent the last year collecting random facts about Louis from other people's conversations. It would be pretty horrifically embarrassing to accidentally say that he knew Louis's favorite chip shop in town, or that he knew Louis had a bunch of younger sisters. Liam had gone out of his way not to talk to Louis, ever, avoiding a couple of times when he might have had the opportunity, and now he was…
Well. Louis looked up at him with an encouraging sort of grin and Liam smiled back out of reflex, and Louis leaned over and patted Liam's leg, which was the closest thing at hand for him. It still made Liam feel like he was jumping out of his skin.
The band finished up on a triumphant, and insanely loud, chord, and Harry shouted, "I need a beer, be back in a few!" There were cheers and some clapping; Liam clapped, because he was polite, and because they sounded really decent. The crowd that had been standing around the living room surged forward a little, to chat to the band, and Liam tried to step out of the way.
It didn't really work, because Harry immediately shoved through all the people to throw himself on Louis's lap. "Get us a beer," said Harry.
"Can't. Got a lump of boy on my lap," said Louis. "Liam, would you get this lazy bastard a beer? And me as well." He put his fingers in Harry's sweaty hair and began petting him.
"Yeah," said Liam, "of course." He wasn't very good at making conversation, but he could be helpful. He had to elbow his way through a load of people who all wanted to talk to Harry - and by extension Louis - to find where Niall's friend Roger was standing guard over the beer. Saying "Niall's friend" was a bit of a misnomer, though, because Niall considered himself friends with every single person he'd ever met in his entire life, and was perfectly comfortable talking to any of them about anything.
"Really?" Zayn asked, appearing out of the mass of people. "You're getting two beers?" He'd lost all the girls somewhere, but presumably he'd be looking for them again later.
"Louis asked me to," Liam said helplessly.
Zayn started laughing. "Ohhhhh, did he?"
"You take them to him," Liam said, trying to shove the bottles at Zayn, but Zayn held his hands up and shook his head.
Getting back through the crowd without spilling anything was tricky. Liam didn't especially want to shove through, but he also couldn't imagine himself not bringing beers back when he'd been asked for a favor. "Let Liam through!" Louis hollered, and some of the kids magically moved aside. It was amazing.
"You didn't get one for yourself," said Harry, giving him a little nod of thanks. He flipped his hair out of his eyes and one of the girls from Liam's form giggled and had to clap her hand over her mouth.
"No, I don't drink," Liam said.
Louis frowned at him. "I thought Niall said you were drunk?"
"I… Oh," said Liam. "Well. I could be drunk on life?"
"Could be," said Harry agreeably. He was still getting a scalp massage from Louis's free hand, and he leaned back into it, closing his eyes. Some of the girls from Liam's school definitely began giggling again. Liam wasn't sure what to make of it; everyone knew that Louis-and-Harry was a thing that happened, and as far as Liam knew no one entirely understood it.
A light bulb in one of Sam's lights fizzled and cracked, dropping half the living room into darkness. There was a gasp and then a cheer. "What the hell?" Louis said.
"Probably we overloaded a circuit," said Liam. The band had brought an awful lot of extension cords and power strips with them. Liam wasn't entirely certain that light bulbs and power strips ran on the same circuits, but it was possible.
"S'not a proper house party until we ruin some stuff," said Harry.
"And if all the lights went out, we'd be delighted," said Liam. He snickered a little at himself.
Louis gave him a look that was absolutely incredulous. "What?"
"Sorry, I… It's a pun, you know. No lights. Delighted." Liam laughed at himself again self-consciously. "Sorry, that was awful."
"A pun," Louis echoed, eyebrows raised.
"It was awful," said Harry gravely, and then laughed, which made Liam feel a bit better. Harry leaned in, whispering something in Louis's ear. Or possibly… kissing him? It was hard to tell from Liam's angle and when Liam whispered to his friends he didn't do it by looking so much like he was nibbling on their ears.
One of the other members of the band began playing again, and everyone in the living room cheered. Louis cheered, too, and shoved Harry off his lap. He gave Harry a smack on the arse as well, and then grinned cheekily at Liam, who had no idea why he was being grinned at.
--
Sometime later, when the band was done and nearly everyone in the house was drunk and loud and dancing in the front room or groping upstairs or passed out on the floor somewhere, Liam managed to track down Niall and Zayn. Niall was chatting to a bunch of people in the kitchen as if they'd all been friends for years, and Zayn was slightly drunk and entirely rumpled, with lipstick marks all over his neck.
"You were having fun, weren't you?" Zayn asked teasingly, wrapping his arms around Liam's neck.
Liam had spent most of the evening grateful it was too loud for Louis to try and say anything to him over the band playing. Even now that Sam's stereo was booming through the house it was too loud to hear much of anything.
Liam could feel his cheeks going red, but he shrugged it off. "No," he said. "I just… I was just stood there, wasn't I? It was awkward."
"You could have talked to him," said Niall.
"No," Liam repeated.
Niall made an incredulous face at him, but Zayn just leaned in and kissed Liam's neck. Liam laughed and tried to shrug him off. "Our little boy, all grown up," Zayn said, in his imitation of his aunts' accent.
"Oh for Christ's sake, Niall's drunk, can we take him home, please?" Liam asked, trying to squirm away from Zayn. He enjoyed how much his friends loved him, but people were staring, and Zayn tended to just get louder and louder.
"I'm not drunk!" Niall said loudly, and nearly walked into the wall.
They couldn't get through the crowds of drunk people in the living room without nearly running down Harry and Louis. They both looked wasted, Louis whispering something to Harry with his arm wrapped around Harry's neck, and Harry throwing his head back and laughing. Liam bit his lip and tried not to stare.
"Where's my coat?" Niall demanded.
"You didn't bring one," said Liam. "You can take my jumper if it's cold."
"Is it cold?" Niall asked, blinking owlishly at him.
"Not really, no," said Liam. He glanced over at where Louis was drunkenly leaning into Harry. Harry had his arm round Louis's waist, mostly holding him up while he talked to a blonde girl. "Um," said Liam.
"What?" Zayn asked. He'd given up on having both of his arms around Liam's neck, but only because it stopped him finishing his cider.
Liam tried really hard to sound as absolutely neutral as possible, but Zayn was drunk and probably wouldn't remember anyway. "Harry and Louis," said Liam. "I know that's what they do, but…" He trailed off, hoping Zayn would know what he was saying.
Zayn looked thoughtful. "I dunno," he said. "I mean, there are all those stories about Harry and half the girls at his school, and Harry and that teacher, and I think there was a thing with Louis and a girl for a while? But… I mean… I shouldn't say this, I suppose, but I definitely heard the two of them were seen snogging at a gay bar." Zayn held his hands up, sloshing cider on Liam. "Probably not, I mean, we haven't even got a gay bar in town! But I definitely heard about that from loads of people."
Liam's heart sank a little bit. Louis and Harry were holding hands, fingers linked together, drunkenly giggling at something someone else had said. It wasn't at all unusual behavior for Harry and Louis. And Zayn knew all the best, most recent gossip, so he was probably right. Liam had thought for half a minute that Louis had seemed… Well. Friendly. Possibly unusually friendly. But Louis was friendly with everyone. He laughed at something the girl Harry was trying to impress said, and then shouted something and everyone laughed.
"He's just a really friendly person," Liam said, mostly to himself.
Zayn gave him a one-armed hug and used his other elbow to start shoving Niall toward the door. "He is really, really friendly," Zayn agreed, "but I think he was being especially friendly with you. So that's something. You made a friend!"
Liam tried to imagine himself being friends with Louis and spending loads of time with him. It just seemed like it would be endless opportunities for Liam to embarrass himself. Spending all night smiling at him like an idiot hadn't actually made Louis seem any less charming or funny or insane. Liam had vaguely hoped that actually talking to Louis would change how ridiculous Liam felt about him, but… Mostly he just felt ridiculous in an entirely new way.
"S'not so bad as all that," said Zayn, staggering down the front step after Niall. "Cheer up, Liam."
"I'm cheerful," said Liam. He caught Niall before he fell entirely on the grass, both arms around Niall's chest, and hauled him upright again.
"Cheerful like The Cure," said Zayn.
Liam shrugged. He didn't feel tragically sad, just resigned. "You guys made me come to this party," he pointed out. "Worked out exactly as well as could be expected."
"Better," said Niall, flailing a little. "You've given us a load of things to make fun of you over."
"Oh, well," said Liam, "good."
--
Nelson's café wasn't anything very special, but Nelson let Liam play his guitar there over the weekend. Mostly no one listened, but Zayn stopped by to stand around looking soulfully at whatever women wandered by, and Niall often came by to eat baked goods. Mostly it was just Liam, though, and that was all he really wanted. Just the chance to play music and sing and get better.
He was playing Here Comes the Sun for a mostly-bored audience of two children who'd been left to watch him while their mum bought cake. That didn't bother Liam, he didn't mind them throwing Lego at him and shrieking, but then Harry walked into the shop and Liam missed a chord change.
Mostly it was because Harry gave him one of his sly grins and waved, and then sat down at the café to listen. It was weird. Liam started to think about that for just a moment and then stopped, because he couldn't think about what Harry was doing there and also play songs. Not even songs he'd been playing over and over since he'd got his first guitar. Liam ducked his head and let his fringe fall in his eyes as he stared at his hands changing chords, and managed not to miss any other words or chords.
Harry was the only one clapping at the end. Neither of the children seemed particularly impressed. Liam gave him a little smile and hoped he'd go away, but he didn't. Harry said, "When you get a minute," and then pulled out his phone and began texting. Liam didn't know what that meant, exactly, and he looked around for Zayn, but Zayn didn't seem to be anywhere around. Liam wasn't sure what else to do, so he started playing and singing Yesterday instead.
He finished that one and Zayn still hadn't reappeared, and Harry hadn't left. The kids got carted off by their mum, and a couple of girls from school came in. They mostly ignored him, which Liam was used to, but he was feeling unsettled anyway and it was just discouraging enough to make him stop after a couple of bars of Imagine.
Liam preferred to just rip plasters off anyway. He put his guitar back in the case, wiped his slightly sweaty palms off on his jeans, and sat down next to Harry. "You wanted something?" he said.
Harry didn't look up from his texting. "Yeah," he said. "One minute." Liam craned his neck, trying to work out where Zayn had vanished to. He hadn't seen any other girls come in, so Zayn shouldn't have vanished into a dark corner or the toilets with them. "So," said Harry, pocketing his phone. He smiled at Liam again, lazy and toothy and entirely too charming.
"Okay," said Liam agreeably, because he had no idea what Harry wanted.
"You sounded good," said Harry, nodding toward Liam's guitar. "You're here a lot? Zayn said you do this nearly every weekend. You get paid?"
"No," said Liam. "It's just for fun. For practice."
"Practice is fun?" Harry asked incredulously. "If you don't get paid you must get girls, right? Loads of girls?"
Liam glanced up reflexively at the girls who'd walked in, and they were definitely looking his way, but he was relatively certain that was because he was talking to Harry. "Not as such," he said. "Usually I've just got Niall and Zayn. I like getting to play, I suppose. I don't much care where."
Harry looked puzzled at that, and a little sleepy, but Liam was learning that Harry's default expression looked a little sleepy. "But the girls aren't bad, either," he said.
"Well," said Liam. "If they want to come by I don't mind."
Harry laughed at that, throwing his head back. "'Course you don't," he said. "When are you done here? You should come and hang out at ours."
Liam bit back the urge to say, What on earth for? "Just two musicians hanging out?" he joked instead, because he was entirely out of his depth and when he was entirely out of his depth he made terrible jokes or he lectured people.
"Well, Louis'll be there as well," said Harry with a shrug. Liam nodded as if he should have known that, and he probably should have; Harry and Louis were always together. "You're funny and you like music. Most of the people in this village are dead boring."
Liam laughed. It was just such a ridiculous thing to say. Liam was dead boring, especially compared to Louis and Harry. But Harry looked pleased to have made Liam laugh, so Liam didn't say Are you joking? Or You must be taking the piss. "Really?" Liam asked, half expecting Harry to say no.
"Of course," said Harry. "Are you finished?"
"I could be," said Liam.
"If you aren't getting paid I don't think they can make you stay, can they?" Harry asked.
That was a good point. But a better point was how utterly unready Liam was to spend time hanging about with Harry and Louis. "Let me just find Zayn," he said.
Zayn was outside having a smoke, as it turned out. "Hey, you shouldn't smoke," said Liam. "Harry wants us to go over to his house and hang out for a while." That was a bit of an oversimplification, but Harry was standing right behind him, and Liam couldn't think of a nice way to explain things otherwise.
He was counting on Zayn laughing or saying, "No way," so he'd have an excuse not to go, but Zayn just stubbed his cigarette out on the pavement and nodded. "Cool," he said. "Shall I call Niall to grab some drinks to bring along?"
"Definitely," said Harry.
Liam must have looked a bit panicked, because Zayn put his arm around Liam's shoulder. "Relax," he said, leaning in to whisper. "It's just lads hanging out. Best case, you can get to know them, eh?" He laughed a little and bumped Liam with his hip. "Worst case, they ask you to do some weird threesome shit and I'll pretend you've got an emergency at home." He clapped Liam's shoulder reassuringly.
Harry was giving them a mildly suspicious look, but Liam was fairly sure he hadn't heard that. And that Harry and Louis weren't going to invite him to a threesome. Liam wasn't honestly positive what he'd do if they did. Stutter until he passed out, probably. "Sounds great," Liam lied, smiling at everyone. Harry smiled back and flipped his hair out of his eyes. Liam was entirely confused by his life.
--
"I like you lot," said Louis loudly. "You're weird."
Harry's house was the poshest place Liam had ever seen in his life. Harry had a pool. No one had a pool. There was Harry's proper house, and then another little bungalow down the lane, where the pool was, and apparently no parents or anyone to stop them all sitting around outside drinking and being idiots.
Niall laughed. "You, callin' other people weird. Classic."
Louis attempted to look indignant at that. Everyone laughed. "A lot of people think my weirdness is charming," Louis said.
"'Course they do," said Zayn, saluting with his beer. "Whatever you say."
"Charming like a tumor," Harry drawled, and then giggled, and Louis jumped on him and… Well. It looked a lot like he was biting Harry, and Liam didn't know them well enough to be certain if that was an actual bite or a play bite or just the weirdest kind of making out he'd ever seen.
Louis shoved Harry off his chair and sat up. "We should jump in the pool. Who wants to jump in the pool with me?"
It was fairly warm out, but not hot enough to warrant jumping in the pool. And the sun was starting to set, which was going to make it even colder. Still, it sounded like fun.
Liam must have looked like he was considering it, because Louis grinned. "Liam'll come with me, won't you?"
"I…" said Liam. He was the sort of person who jumped in pools when someone dared him to; Liam liked doing mildly stupid things. But he was absolutely not going to jump in a pool with Louis while everyone else watched. "I will if Zayn and Niall come."
"I don't swim," said Zayn.
"He means he doesn't know how," Niall explained. Zayn pouted at him. Niall laughed. "And he means he doesn't want to get his hair wet after he spent hours getting it just perfect."
"Shut up," said Zayn, throwing an empty can at him.
"I could teach you," Liam said. He'd been trying to teach him to swim for years.
"Or he could just go in the shallow end where he can stand around and not get his lovely hair wet," said Louis dismissively. "Harry?"
"Yeah, of course," said Harry, shrugging.
Liam looked at Niall. He knew Niall would think it was hilarious to say he wasn't going and then try and bully Liam into going himself, but if he did that Liam was going to sneak into his house and murder him in his sleep, never mind their years of friendship.
Niall said, "Of course I will, can't let you go in and drown by yourself. You still owe me from last time I saved-"
Liam groaned. "Oh god, not again. Shut up. I'll drown you."
"I want to hear this story," said Harry, leaning forward.
"It's not much of a story-" Liam started.
"Not except for the part where I rescued you and saved your life!" Niall hollered.
Liam put his face in his hands and shook his head.
"See, when I first moved over here Liam was getting bullied by these kids at school. But then-"
"It wasn't that big a deal," said Liam. "I was just getting bothered a bit by older boys on my way to school, and one day Niall happened to be with me and he went completely mental at them-"
"They were making him cry, and I punched one of 'em right in the face," Niall interrupted with great relish.
"-and after that they left me alone." Liam sighed. Zayn was already laughing and Harry was starting to giggle. For about the millionth time, Liam thought about getting new friends.
"And I kicked the other one in the jewels." Niall grinned. "They never bothered you again, did they?"
Liam sighed. Louis just about fell over laughing. "I wasn't crying," he said, with absolutely no hope of being believed. "One of the boys had shoved me over and my knee was all bloody."
"The thing to keep in mind," Zayn said, "is that as short as Liam was, Niall was about half that size. God, I wish I'd been there."
"That is the loveliest, loveliest thing I've ever heard," said Louis, pretending to wipe tears out of his eyes. "The bonds of true friendship!"
"Yeah, well," said Liam, punching Niall in the arm. That wasn't the story that Liam ideally wanted Louis told the first time they hung out. Liam sounded like an idiot and a wimp, and he didn't want Louis picturing him at primary school with bigger kids making him cry. He strangled Niall a little harder than was strictly necessary.
"Brilliant," said Louis. "So if I ever need defending I'll come straight to you, Niall."
Niall puffed himself up a little bit, posing with his arms flexed. Liam tickled him under his ribs and Niall squeaked and batted his hands away.
"Absolutely ferocious," said Liam.
"Tougher than you," Niall retorted.
Louis stood up and stretched. Liam tried to ignore the way his shirt rode up, and then didn't have to worry about that anymore because Louis pulled his shirt off entirely. "Are we going in the pool or what, boys?" Louis had rather more defined abs than Liam had been expecting. Not quite a six-pack but… Not quite not one, either. Liam stared for just a second and then dragged his eyes away to something safer, like Zayn smirking at him.
"Yeah," said Zayn. "After you."
Harry looked at them for a second and then shrugged and pulled his own shirt off. Louis had his trousers off, as well, which meant Liam had to turn and look the other way entirely or risk embarrassing himself in the most obvious way possible. Liam tried to concentrate on taking his shirt off and not think at all about words like almost naked and wet. Except that they were all about to be almost naked and wet, and then Liam was going to be in a lot of trouble. At least if anyone noticed anything he could drown himself.
"Pants on, trousers off?" said Louis like a question, like they were all going to decide to get naked instead. Liam could have done with trousers on as well, but walking home in wet trousers would have been pretty awful. He tried not to look nervous, or anxious, or turned on. Especially not that last one.
It wasn't as bad as he'd feared once they had all jumped in the pool; Harry and Louis were busy trying to drown each other, and Zayn was genuinely trying to stay mostly dry while Niall splashed at him. For a while Louis chased Harry around the pool and Harry tried to hide behind Liam, who ended up unwillingly caught between Louis and Harry trying to drag each other under the water. Liam's vague plan of avoiding Louis as much as possible wasn't an option, so he went with his second; treat Louis exactly the way he would if he were any other friend.
Louis ducked under the water, caught Liam by the ankle, and attempted to drown him. Liam managed not to kick him in the face, but only just. When Louis surfaced Liam shoved his head right back under the water in retaliation. Louis came up again coughing and spluttering and with a look that promised vengeance in his eyes, but Liam just laughed and tried not to notice how good cross looked on him. Thank god Liam's crush wasn't bad enough to make him accidentally blurt that aloud.
"Watch out, Payne," said Louis, pointing at him.
Liam laughed again and splashed him. Louis spluttered in outrage, hair sticking up in every direction. Liam could do this; he could play with Louis as if Louis were just anyone. It helped that Harry was right there, giving Liam an approving look. He wondered how Harry would look at him if he knew what Liam was thinking about Louis being nearly naked and grabbing at him in the pool.
"Nice one!" shouted Harry gleefully, and Louis dived under the water and took off after him again, grabbing Harry and dragging him under. Liam ducked out of the way. His plan was only going to work if there wasn't quite so much groping going on whilst they were all mostly naked. Liam was going to have very vivid things to think about before bed tonight.
Zayn had already pushed himself out of the pool and was sitting on the edge. "You great baby," said Niall witheringly. Zayn shrugged and shook his hair out of his eyes.
"Arr!" shouted Louis suddenly. "Avast! Yarrrrrr! I'm a pirate!"
"You're an idiot," said Harry, but he sounded fond. They were touching each other rather a lot as they swam, or pretended to be swimming. Harry's hands vanished under the water and Louis shouted indignantly and grabbed at him, and there was a lot of splashing and possibly groping. Liam found the water cold, suddenly, and decided to get out and go sit with Zayn instead.
Zayn gave him a considering look. "What?" asked Liam.
"Nothing," said Zayn after a minute. "I could go for a smoke." He bumped Liam with his shoulder in a friendly sort of way, and Liam sighed and then smiled at him. His friends weren't entirely terrible. Sometimes they were pretty great.
Harry and Louis and Niall caused a small tsunami in the pool that nearly splashed Liam and Zayn. Zayn ducked behind Liam.
"Volleyball!" shouted Harry. "Niall's on my team!" He had a net to set up across the center of the pool, and a couple of volleyballs floating around at the far end.
"I've got Liam; he's tall," yelled Louis.
Zayn held up his hands. "I'm not getting back in the water," he said. "I'll keep score."
"Boo," said Liam, giving him a little shove. "You should play."
"Then the teams would be uneven," Harry objected.
"No, because Zayn's so lousy at sport he'd probably hurt his team anyway," Liam said. Zayn pushed him into the pool.
part two