ONE

Just like every other morning, I found myself behind my desk, looking down to the streets of London.

I was buried in paperwork from some case one of the lawyers passed to me to find the loopholes on some shady contract.

Always doing their dirty work.

I blinked slowly, arranging my reading glasses and refocusing on the tiny letters imprinted on the paper.

I was used to this.
Thousands of papers, folders, envelopes.
Marking the errors with my pen, underlining the important parts, letting everything served for the real lawyers to do their job at the tribunals.

It was a good salary though.
So I never complained. It was all part of the plan.

One more page of countless words, one more time my reading glasses slide down my nose, one more time I thanked the God above I had finished my cup of tea because otherwise it would be all over the desk by now.

My personal phone rang, snapping me out of my reading.

Brianna.

"What the fuck? Is it my day today?" - I whispered to myself before picking up, then I heard her annoying voice on the other side of the line.

"Louis!"

"What?"

"I need you to please go pick up Freddie from school."

"It's not my day today, I'm at work."

"And I'm busy too, Louis." - She said, sternly. - "His teacher just called, he's not feeling well, he just threw up."

"I can't leave the office."

"And I can't leave the studio either. I'm in the middle of a shoot."

"I'll call Niall to pick him up then."

"Niall's not the father, you are!"

"Yeah, and I'm working to pay his fucking expensive school and your house, and everything else, so excuse me, but I can't leave work."

"Fine. Call Niall or do whatever. But it's on you now. Your son is throwing up at school and someone needs to take him to the doctor."

"Fine." - And so I hung up the phone, huffing in annoyance.

Picking the phone again, I called Niall.

It was pretty early in the morning yet, so, I doubted he would be up, working overnight, he usually slept until midday.
So, I was surprised when he picked up almost immediately.

"Lou?" - I heard a sobbing voice.

"Niall? Are you alright, mate?"

"No." - I heard him sobbing.

"Are you crying? What's wrong?"

"Lila broke up with me."

Oh, that bitch.

"Okay. Fuck. Okay. Hang in there, mate. I'll come pick you up in ten minutes, okay?"

"What for?" - He sobbed.

"Uhm, boys adventure." - I lied, improvising.

"Okay?"

"Yeah. Put some clothes on. I'll be there soon."

I hung up and hit my forehead against the desk.
A sick son and a heartbroken best friend.

Great way to start the week.

I stood up from my desk, gathering my things quickly and making my way to my boss's office, knocking softly.

"Come in " - I heard.

"Hello, Sir." - I said, walking in.

"Tomlinson, good morning. Everything alright?"

"Actually no, my son is sick and I need to pick him up from school. Can I take today off?"

"It's an emergency, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Then of course you can. Just make up for the lost hours on the weekend, alright?"

"Sure. Thank you." - I said, quickly getting out of the room and exiting to the parking lot where I found my beloved car.

My only ally in this mess of life.

Turning the engine on, I rushed to pick a crying Niall from his flat and then drive straight to the nursery.

Niall was honestly a mess, curled up on the backseat, sobbing and whining while rambling about how much he loved Lila and how much it hurt when she said she wanted to end things.

So now, here I was, driving my car with my crying best friend laying on the backseat, heading to my son's school.

It was going to be a long day.

"Mate, please stop crying, okay. She didn't deserve you." - I said, looking at him through the reviewer mirror.

"But I love her! She told me she loved me just yesterday! Why did she break up with me? It doesn't make sense!" - He cried.

"I know, buddy. I'm sorry, yeah?"

"Maybe she was seeing someone else? Oh my God! What if she cheated on me?!" - He cried harder and I sighed.

"Don't think that, yeah?"

"But what if...? What if she found someone better?"

"No one is better than you. It's her loss, okay?"

"You're just saying that because you're my friend." - He huffed, sitting up on the backseat to look at me with a frown.

"Maybe." - I smiled, shrugging.

"Little shit." - He whispered, wiping his tears and looking out of the window.

I laughed and drove past the school, parking on the first place I found free, near the end of the street.

Once I parked my car, I told Niall to stay inside and wait for me, he looked confused for a second, but I locked the doors and winked at him, which only earned me a flip of his middle finger.

At the main entrance of the nursery, I rang the doorbell, waiting until a girl showed up to open the door.

"Yes?" - She smiled.

"I'm here to pick up Freddie Tomlinson."

"Sure, come with me." - She said after checking a little notebook she had by the door.

She led the way to the kindergarten playground and she told me to wait as she went to get Freddie's teacher.

A few minutes later, the blue door of one of the salons opened and a man appeared.
He was wearing a blue smock, a wonderful bright smile and his hair pushed back almost effortlessly.

I frowned, it being the first time I saw such a gorgeous man.
And he was holding my son in his arms.

Freddie, was half asleep on this man's shoulder, and one of his little hands was holding his own tummy, scrunching his face on his sleep.

Poor lad, it really seemed like he wasn't okay.

"You must be Freddie's dad." - The gorgeous man said, with quite an hypnotizing voice said. - "I think we hadn't met before."

"No, sorry." - I snapped out of my thoughts. - "You are?"

"I'm Harry, Freddie's teacher." - I stared at him for a while, I swear he had the most beautiful green eyes I had ever seen. - "Nice to meet you."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought... Nevermind." - I shook my head. - "Nice yo meet you too. I'm Louis by the way."

"Nothing to be sorry for, Louis." - Harry smiled. - "So, Freddie started throwing up about forty minutes ago, and he was crying a lot too. I calmed him down a bit and he fell asleep for some minutes until now, but he definitely needs to go to the hospital, just to be sure he's fine."

"Sure, I will take him." - I said as I took Freddie off Harry's arms. - "Thank you very much, Harry."

"It's my job" - He smiled. - "This are his things." - Harry handed me his little blue bag. - "I hope he is feeling better for tomorrow, we have the family day and he was quite excited to spend the day here with his mother."

"Family day?"

"Yes." - Harry grinned. - "We usually do some parents-children activities."

"Really? His mother didn't say anything about that."

"Oh, I'm sorry. You are invited as well, of course. The more the merrier."

"Okay." - I said, Harry's eyes keeping me captive until I finally broke the eye connection and looked down at the whining kid in my arms. - "I'd better get going. Thank you again, Harry."

"My pleasure, Louis. I'm glad I finally met you. Your son is one of the best in the classroom." - Harry smiled again, leading me out of the nursery.

"He's a smart kid, yeah." - I replied and Harry nodded, keeping the door open for me to get through.

"Hopefully you'll be able to be here tomorrow?" - Harry asked me as I stepped out of the building.

I turned around to face him and nodded.

"I'll try."

Harry nodded again with a smile and I turned back around, walking towards my car where Niall was looking at me through the windows.

He wasn't crying anymore, thank God.
But he seemed pissed.

"You're going to seat with your uncle Niall, Okay little lad?" - I said to Freddie who nodded slowly.

"Tummy hurts."

"I know. Well get you to the doctor and you'll feel better."

I opened the backseat door and handed Freddie to Niall who took him in his arms and raised an eyebrow at me.

"What's wrong with him?"

"He's sick."

I slammed the backseat's door closed and got into the driver's seat to get to the hospital as quickly as I could.

"Thought this was a boys adventure." - Niall frowned.

"It is." - I smirked through the mirror.

"Oh fuck!" - Niall shouted.

"What?"

"He just puked on me." - Niall said, disgusted.

"Sorry Uncle Niall." - Freddie mumbled.

"It's a boys adventure to the doctor!" - I said, containing my laugh as Niall intended to clean his shirt with a tissue.

"I freaking hate you." - He groaned.

"But you forgot about, Lila, right?" - I smirked.

"That's it. You're the worst best friend in the world."