When I woke up the next morning, my head was throbbing.

After my brief interaction with Liam (which I was highly embarrassed of now that I could think clearly), my discovery of Harry’s knowledge of my university plans (or lack thereof), and Niall’s horrendous dancing, I decided that the only way to salvage the night was drink my face off. Niall was more than happy to oblige and I remember at one point going head to head with him on Irish Car bombs…big mistake considering he is, in fact, Irish, and therefore a champion drinker to begin with.

Luckily for me, I rarely get sick when I’m hungover - I just usually want nothing more than an Advil and a carton of orange juice - but I did lay in bed for quite a while after I woke up, slightly dreading seeing Liam again. It had been my first interaction with him in months and I had been drunk, slightly obnoxious, and then ignored him for the rest of the night. Brilliant.

There was a strange popping sound next to me, followed by a grunt. Confused, I lifted my sore head up and looked on the other side of my bed. Propped up near my head on the other pillow was a pair of pale, foul smelling feet. At the other end of the bed, with his arse in the air and mouth open, drool dripping onto my duvet, was Niall, sleeping like a baby.

He farted again and I kicked him in protest. Grunting and curling into a fetal position, he slept on.

Bastard.

Rolling off the bed, I took a minute to take in my surroundings. Luckily, my room wasn’t a complete disaster area, but it seems in my haste to get into pajamas (which I still couldn’t find), I seemed to have gone through my whole suitcase. In my drunken haze I settled for an old Chelsea jersey and a pair of compression shorts. Whatever works, I guess.

Throwing my disastrous hair up into a bun, I went to bathroom and splashed some water on my face, stepping over various cups, beer bottles, and clothing items along the way. Staring at myself in the mirror, I decided that I really didn’t look as ghastly as I might have, a realization which made it perfectly acceptable for me to head out into the kitchen, where I could smell some food cooking. I made the assumption that it was Harry, since I knew Louis despised cooking, but I had forgotten that Eleanor was here.

When I entered the kitchen, Louis looked up at me from his computer, while Eleanor gave me a smile from her place at the stove.

“Morning, JJ,” she said, flipping some eggs in the frier. “Can I make you something for breakfast?”

“That would be amazing, El, thanks,” I replied gratefully, before heading for the fridge and getting out my own personal carton of orange juice. I had made sure to buy an extra one at the store, since I knew I would need it all to myself.

“Sleep well?” I asked Louis, cheekily, as he sipped his tea.

“Barely slept at all, actually,” he replied with a smirk, before giving his girlfriend a light tap on the bum. She, in turn, gave me the first helping of eggs, much to his chagrin.

“So, what are your plans for the day?” I asked, through a delicious mouthful of food. El really was a marvelous cook.

“I have to head back home after dinner,” she replied sadly. “So we thought we would just maybe go for a walk, hang out, watch a movie…”

“Shag each others brains out?”

Eleanor blushed and Louis grinned excitedly. The two of them really balanced each other out well, I thought, as I enjoyed some more eggs and grabbed a croissant from the bag. Louis was definitely the more outgoing of the two, the one who made all the jokes. But Eleanor could give just as good as she got and was always up for some fun. She was one of the few people I knew who could keep up with my high-energy brother for long periods of time, as well as bring him down to earth when she needed to.

“I’m going to go take a shower,” Eleanor said, turning off the stove and kissing the top of Louis’s head.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” I asked, as she headed down the hallway.

“I had some fruit earlier,” she replied over her shoulder, before disappearing into the bathroom.
For a moment, I felt guilty about digging into my second croissant, but I told myself I would go to the gym at some point in the future, and so grabbed another. Eleanor was the model, after all, not me.

“We have to talk,” I said to my brother, once she was out of sight. He looked up at me from his phone. Mine buzzed a moment later with a Twitter update from him.

“About what?”

“About the fact that you told Harry about me and the whole not-applying-to-university business.”
Louis looked at me, eyebrows raised. “You aren’t upset about that, are you? He wanted to know what your plans were, why you were coming with us instead of school.”

“I’m a bit upset,” I replied, taking a large bite of my croissant. “Cause you know Harry- he’s not going to let me forget about it.”

“Forget about what?”

The man in question entered the kitchen, looking about as bad as I felt. His hair was all over the place, he had dried drool running down his chin, and he was wearing nothing but a wrinkled pair of gray boxer shorts.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I cried, slapping my hands across my eyes, feeling like I had had acid dumped on my face. “Cover it up, Haz!”

“What?” he asked groggily. “It’s morning, I can’t help it.”

“Styles,” Louis reprimanded. “What did I tell you about wearing clothing while my sister is around?”

“What?” He asked again, sounding offended. “I knew we had guests over, so I put on pants, you see.” As if that made everything okay. I, on the other hand, felt like I was going to be scarred for life.

Luckily for me, Harry sat down then and I was able to open my eyes again.

“Don’t pretend you’re not impressed,” he drawled, reaching over for some of my eggs. I smacked his hand away. “Well, that’s not very friendly, JJ.”

“Get your own food, Styles,” I replied, pulling my plate closer to me. Louis chuckled at us.

“I’m so glad my two best friends get along so well,” he hummed, before drinking some orange juice straight from the carton.

“Oh, JJ,” Harry continued, grabbing some food for himself. “Did you know there is an Irishman in your bed?”

We both looked over at Louis – Harry was hoping for a reaction, while I was dreading one.

“Nothing happened,” I affirmed quickly, but Louis seemed unperturbed.

He gave a dismissive wave. “I’m not worried about Niall.”

Harry and I looked at each other then, and shrugged.

“Okay, then.”

We ate in silence for a bit longer, all of us nursing our hangovers with fatty breakfast foods and exorbitant amounts of juice. The flat was a complete disaster, but no one seemed overly concerned about it and I assumed that the cleaning lady would be coming around later in the day (I definitely pitied her now).

“Oh, JJ,” Harry said, moving to throw his rubbish away. “All of my dirty clothes are in the hamper in my bathroom.”

I averted my eyes from him, so as not to see too much. “I’m really proud of you, Haz. Glad you figured out where to put it.”

Harry smiled at me, as if I were a four year old. “I’ll need it all packed up by tomorrow, Ass.”

“Oh, mine too,” Louis agreed, standing up as Eleanor got out of the shower and walked by in a towel, looking over her shoulder at him. “I’ll throw the stuff into the corridor!” he called over his shoulder and he jogged after her. I rolled my eyes.

“You’re seriously making me do your wash?”

“Isn’t that what assistants do?” Harry asked, still smiling. “It’s either that, or you come with me to my doctor’s appointment. I have to get my flu shot and need someone to hold my hand…”

“Nope, hate needles. I’ll do your bloody wash, but don’t complain when all of your whites turn pink. I’m rubbish at laundry.”
I stood up and left Harry in the kitchen, going back to my room.

I had, honestly, forgotten that Niall was there. He was still asleep, curled up into a cute little ball and snoring softly. I felt bag waking him up, as he looked so comfortable, but I really wanted to shower and get dressed.

“Niall,” I said softly, pushing his shoulder a bit. “Nialler, wake up…”

“Spaceships,” he muttered, swatting my hand away.

“Right. Spaceships….NIALL!” I cried and he jumped about a foot in the air.

“Holy fuck bags! JJ, what the – what the hell?”

“I need to get dressed,” I replied, motioning to my outfit.

Niall looked me up and down and nodded. “Oh, right.” But he didn’t make any move to get off the bed. Instead, he looked around awkwardly, avoiding eye contact. “Uh, listen, JJ,” he began. “About last night…”

“Wait,” I cut in, my stomach dropping suddenly. “What do you mean ‘about last night’? We didn’t…did we?”

“What? Oh, no, no,” He replied quickly eyes wide. I could suddenly breathe again. “No, I just meant…wait, you don’t remember?”

To be honest, I couldn’t remember much beyond making up a particularly raunchy dance to ‘The Bad Touch’, which I knew to be a few good hours before the party ended.

“Remember what?” I asked, still slightly nervous. What had I told him? My feelings for Liam?

“Never mind,” Niall said quickly, jumping off the bed. He might have gotten away too, had he not been so hungover. Instead he swayed heavily and banged into the door.

I grabbed his arm and pushed him back onto the bed. “Talk, Irish,” I ordered and he laughed nervously.

“Nothing, I swear. It was…it was just you told me about University,” he said quickly.

“Oh.” Well, that wasn’t so bad.

“Yeah,” Niall nodded, getting back up. “Sorry to make you think it was more.”

“It’s okay,” I replied quietly, wondering why I was disappointed that that was all it was.

“Right, well, I guess I’ll see you later, then.”

“Okay. Yeah. Bye, Niall.” He left then and I was on my own. I was going to have to definitely not drink that much anymore. I couldn’t afford to not remember the drunken conversations I had.

I spent the rest of the day doing what I could to clean up the flat a bit before Maria, the cleaning lady arrived, since I felt so guilty about the state it was left in. I did the boys’ laundry, making sure I knicked some t-shirts and shorts for my pajamas (it was official, I had forgotten to pack my own), as well as incredibly comfortable purple Jack Wills sweatshirt from Harry.

Louis and Eleanor were holed up in his room for the entire day, so I spent my free time with Harry, watching America’s Next Top Model and being incredibly judgmental. The one time we did leave the flat was to go to Milkshake City with Josh Devine and Zayn. Overall, it was a pretty solid day.
Until the end.

“So,” Harry said, as we watched the football highlights from the weekend. “Ready for your meeting with Management tomorrow?”

I didn’t sleep much that night.