(Harry's P.O.V)

It had been mildly surprising for the girl at the coffee shop, Megan, to react the way she did. In fact, she had no reaction at all. I was used to girls screaming at the very sight of me, but she didn't even seem to notice that I had tried to hit on her. She was cute, you have to admit.

I pushed aside thoughts of the new girl and focused on my footsteps on the sidewalk. There weren't many people outside at the moment, so I figured I was safe for now and was perfectly content to just walk. However, my phone and whoever was calling clearly had a different idea. I nearly jumped out of my skin when it rang, answering it irritably. "Hello?"

"Harry." It was Zayn.

"What?" I growled. "I'm busy right now. Whatever it is, you can handle it on your own."

Zayn was quiet a moment. "We need you to come home."

Just a few weeks ago, management had moved us all into a house together. "Expenses" was the only reason they gave us for doing this, though it made no sense at all. Nevertheless, we were forced to try and live together, which hadn't been going to well lately. I often would leave in the mornings just to avoid my bandmates' early morning bad moods. Which is why I didn't fancy having to rush home; most likely, Liam and Niall would be at it again about something stupid.

"Why?" I answered as briskly as possible, hoping Zayn would get the picture that I didn't want to.

"Harry, it's serious." Zayn insisted, his voice full of worry.

"It can't be that bad." I said, getting ready to hang up on him.

"It's Louis."

I froze, stopping in my tracks. "Louis?" A million awful thoughts flooded my head, making it spin. "What's happened? Is he okay? Is he hurt? Why do you need me?!"

"Calm down, he's fine." Zayn said softly; I could tell he didn't want anyone to overhear the conversation. "But you need to talk to him. He's locked himself in his room again."

"Not again." I murmured, starting to walk again, but this time, faster. Suddenly, this wasn't such an inconvenience. "I'll be that in a moment Zayn. How bad do you think it is?"

Zayn hesitated. "Uh...well..." he sighed heavily. "Bad. Just please, hurry. I don't want to worry Liam and Niall; I told them he was just still sleeping because you know how they get when he acts like this."

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm on my way, hold tight."

Without waiting for Zayn to respond, I hung up the phone and pocketed it once more. Walking with a much brisker pace, I turned around and started heading home. Lately, if anything had to do with Louis, I was there. We were really worried about him. Well, at least Zayn and I were; Niall and Liam didn't know how badly he was dealing with all of this, mostly because we didn't want them to worry like we were.

A month ago, Louis' girlfriend Eleanor died in a car accident. Even since then, he had been on edge. He was constantly getting himself drunk, he'd lock himself in his room for hours at a time and Zayn was convinced he'd started cutting himself, but I doubted that. He was always angry and hardly ever showed his face unless we forced him to. He was the main reason that things were unpleasant around there. Still, despite his awful attitude, we had to be careful that Louis didn't flip out and do something he would regret.

It took me ten minutes to walk home and, by then, I had already thought of all the horrible things that could have happened while I was gone. The moment I opened the door, Zayn stood up from the couch and looked worriedly at me. He motioned for me to follow him upstairs to Louis' bedroom.

"Hi Harry." Niall said without looking away from the TV.

"Hi." I said briskly, following Zayn up the steps.

"Harry, wait." Liam called. "Where are you going?"

I stared down at my bandmate from halfway up the stairs. He looked back up at me, his face confused. I shot a glance at Zayn, then looked back at Liam. "To wake up Louis."

Hoping to avoid more awkward questions, I sprang up the last few steps and joined Zayn at Louis' closed door. There was no sound coming from the other side, which unnerved me.

"Lou?" I gently knocked on the door. "Can I come in?"

There was silence for a long time, then Louis answered, to my relief, "Whatever."

We heard the door click, signaling that he had unlocked it and I quickly slipped inside. Zayn waited in the doorway.

I turned to face Louis and was surprised to see that he looked decent, though I could tell he was drunk, and not just by the beer bottles scattered around on the floor. He was leaning against the wall, looking expectantly at me, his hair slightly ruffled and his eyes rimmed with faint dark circles.

When I said nothing, Louis growled, "Yes...? I'm waiting." His voice was slightly slurred.

"I was just making sure you were okay." I said cautiously, watching him closely.

Louis snorted. "I'm fine, Harry." He turned around and dropped down onto the bed, flopping backwards onto his back so he was staring at the ceiling. "Don't you ever think it's stupid how people pray to the ceiling? I mean, it's just a ceiling. It's not as if anyone can hear you through it."

I rolled my eyes. "You're drunk, Louis." Nevertheless, I joined him on the bed, frowning sadly down at him.

"No, I'm not." Louis fell quiet for a while, then turned to me, sitting up. "Can she hear me through the ceiling when I talk to her, Harry?"

I looked at Louis for a while, wishing I could answer that question. I looked to Zayn, who had his head bowed; Eleanor's death hadn't only affected Louis. We all missed her nearly as much, not to mention we had to see our bandmate suffer.

Slowly, I looked back to Louis. "I don't know, Lou." I hesitated, then continued, "You really loved her, didn't you." It was more of a statement than a question.

Louis looked blankly at me, then at his hands. He said nothing at all. Eventually, I assumed that I should just leave him alone, so I stood up. "I thought we told you no more." I said softly, lightly kicking an empty beer bottle.

"You're too stupid to realize I had more hidden in here." Louis said snidely. I ignored him.

"Come on Zayn. He's fine." I muttered, grabbing Zayn's arm and dragging him away. Zayn shut Louis' door behind us, but stayed still, not moving.

"Harry, we need to tell Liam and Niall." he said worriedly. "They need to know."

I was quiet for a moment, thinking this over. They should know, but part of me thought Louis should tell them. After all, it was Louis' problem. "Have Louis tell them." I brushed past Zayn. "I'm going out again."

"You're always going out." Zayn whined. I turned back to look at him, confused. "Even since Eleanor died, you're always leaving, Louis' either hiding in his room, drunk, or so grumpy that he's no fun to be around and Liam and Niall don't move from the couch. I feel like we're falling apart!"

Zayn's words struck a nerve somewhere and I glared at him, not knowing why I was so angry. Without responding, I spun around and left, stomping down the stairs and making sure to slam the door extra hard on my way out of the house. Why had that bothered me so much? Was it because I knew it was true? Were we really falling apart?

Notes

This chapter really sucks, but I didn't know what to write so I had my friend help me. They'll get better, I promise!