Hiya snowflakes :)

Here's the chapter :*

~Liam~

I woke up to P!ATD blaring in my ear. My ringtone. I groaned and brought my phone to my ear.

"Liam? Why the hell won't you pick up your phone." Stacey yelled.

"I was sleeping." I croaked.

"Sleeping? You told me you usually wake up by 8. It's a little over 10 now." She said.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and glanced at my alarm clock. 10:05.

"Hello? Liam are you there? Hello?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and cleared my throat.

"Yeah." I said, rubbing my eyes. "How are you now?"

"Much better, thank you. I'm sorry I couldn't come yesterday" she said guiltily.

"It's alright." I reassured.

She laughed and then let out a little 'hmm'. Silence descended upon us.

"Soo.." I trailed.

"Soo.."she mimicked and I had a sudden rush of deja vu.

"Did you call to chit-chat?" I joked, rubbing my eyes. She laughed.

"No. Actually.. Kriti wasn't picking up her phone. Is she with you guys? Is she okay?" she asked worriedly. I was going to call the police but then I tried Zayn's phone and he had mumbled something about her being there. He didn't sound too.. awake though. Is she with you?"

"Woah, woah. Slow down, Stace. Stacey? It's okay. She's okay. She's here. She must be sleeping. But don't worry she's okay."

There was a short pause "Okay, I trust you." she said and it sounded more like a warning

"Sure you do." I said sarcastically "look, I promise she's okay. She'll be there soon."

There was a sigh "Okay. Well tell that knucklehead to call me." there was a click and just like that, she'd hung up on me.

No wonder they were related.

"Okay." I muttered anyway and got off the bed. The tiled floor was cold and I shivered slightly when my feet came in contact with it. I think I forgot to turn on the heat last night.

The house looked eerily quiet. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and headed towards a room.

"Hello?" I said, poking my head into the room.

"Ugh. Not so loud." someone moaned from under the bed. What the hell?

I headed in, not caring to be quiet and crouched to look under the bed.

"Harry, what the f*ck?" I yelled earning a groan.

"I said not so loud." He whined covering his ears. But I ignored his plea.

"How on earth did you get under the bed?" I said incredulously, touching his arm slightly. It was freezing cold. Great.

"Get up." I demanded, louder than intended.

He sat up quickly, banging his head against the bed in the process, and then fell back groaning in pain.

I sighed in frustration and pulled him from under the bed. I grabbed a blanket and wrapped his freezing body with it.

"Are you crazy?" I yelled, slapping him upside his head.

"Oww!"

"Dude, shut up." I heard the person on the bed exclaim. Niall.

"Niall? This is Zayn's room, right? Where is he?" I asked, puzzled.

"In Timbuktoo for all I care." He grumbled, as he threw the blanket over his head. A tuft of black hair peeked from the other side of the bed.

Zayn.

"Wait one is missing." I muttered "where's uh.. Louis?"

"In Tumbuktoo for all--"

I yelled in frustration. Why was this happening to me? I took a deep breath and pinched the corners of my eyes.

"I'll ask one more time, where's Louis?" I asked as calmly as I could.

"Maybe he went for his morning run thing." Niall slurred "just quit yelling. Talk about commitment.

I next headed straight to the kitchen and found some Adol. Why am I doing this? I asked myself.

Because you are the responsible one, my conscience whispered.

Sighing, I filled some glasses with water next and headed back to the room.

"Here Harry, Niall." I said dryly, handing them each a glass of water and an Aspirin.

Niall did as I told but Harry kept staring at the tablet in his hand like a scientist staring at a new specimen.

"Harry...?" I trailed. I considered shoving the tablet into his mouth myself.

He muttered something incoherent, increasing my annoyance.

"What did you say?"

"I KINDA HAVE TO PEE." he yelled, still looking at the tablet.

"THEN GO PEE!" Niall yelled before I could reply. I slapped my forehead in frustration. Jesus Christ.

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO." Harry screeched ridiculously.

"I WILL IF I F*CKING WANT TO."

"WELL IT'S MY F*CKING BLADDER AND I'LL EMPTY IT WENT I WANT TO"

"FINE! SEE IF I CARE WHEN YOUR BLADDER BURSTS."

"FINE"

"FINE"

"FINE"

"FINE"

"FI-- HEY!!" Harry exclaimed while I pushed him towards the bathroom door.

"Just go. Before my head bursts." I yelled, unlocking the door shoving him in. A few seconds later, I heard him scream.

"Harry is everything alright in there?" I yelled, banging the door. The door clicked open to reveal a scared looking Harry.

"There's someone there. Inside the bath tub, sleeping." he whispered, pointing towards the door. He better not be kidding.

"But the bathroom was locked from the outside, right?" Niall questioned, getting off the bed.

"Yeah." he gulped, looking very sober now.

It didn't look like he was lying. So there really was an intruder in the house. Must've entered the bathroom through the window. Shit.

I'd read something similiar to it in the papers a few days ago. About homeless people breaking into houses. I quickly formulated a plan.

"There is clearly an intruder in the house. So here's what we'll do. Since Louis is not here and Zayn is dead asleep we three will have to do." I sighed.

"The person inside could be armed. So I suggest all of us go in there at once and just launch ourselves at him.. or her."

"It was definitely a him." Harry interrupted, nodding.

"Okay. Him. Launch yourself at him and see that he doesn't do anything dangerous. We will then restrain him up and call the police. Okay?"

They nodded in unison and got up.

"Here, take this." Harry said, handing me his football.

I raised my eyebrow at him questioningly and he shrugged. I sighed and put my finger on my lips signalling them to be quiet.

I then re-opened the bathroom door slowly and crept inside, Niall and Harry on my tail. The intruder had the shower curtains wrapped around him like a blanket.

I mentally counted till three before let out an involuntary war cry and launched myself at him, hitting him with the football repeatedly.

The intruder let out a startled yell and immediately sat up, untangling himself from the shower curtains.

"Louis?" I groaned in disbelief "what the hell, man?"

"What the hell, guys?" he whined back getting up, rubbing his eyes.

"How the hell did you get yourself locked up inside the bathroom? I thought you went out for a run." I asked tiredly.

"Zayn locked me in yesterday. I waited for him to open the door but I guess the idiot forgot about me." he groaned.

"It was getting really cold so I had to use his shower curtains. But I'm so not going to apologize" he muttered in annoyance.

Jesus. Why was all this happening to me? I hoped for a peaceful morning. But I guess God had other plans.

I sighed out loudly causing every head to snap in my direction.

"Now that this is all sorted, I am going to go back to my room." I announced.

"Wait. There is still one small problem though." Harry said.

"Now what?" I groaned in irritation.

"I still have to kinda pee."

*****

"You guys are unbelievable" I shook my head, pouring myself a glass of milk.

We were all sitting at the dining table having breakfast. Well, you couldn't call it breakfast because all we had in our kitchen pantry was a pack of bread and an egg. Poorly stocked is an understatement.

None of them had wanted raw bread so after a huge fight, a game of rock-paper-scissors and arguing on who would get to have the egg, it was Louis who'd won.

"But you have to admit, locking Louis in the bathroom was f*cking hilarious." Zayn snorted, sipping his coffee. We all sat at the dining table, nibbling onto our 'breakfast'.

"Ha ha ha." Louis muttered humourlessly, shoving a small spoonful of eggs in his mouth rolling his eyes.

"Oh I suddenly remember, was that crazy girl from the party here? I remember seeing her." Niall muttered, nibbling onto a piece of bread and making a face.

"Yeah I did too. She has a name you know." Zayn said "what was she doing here?" he asked, looking at me suspiciously "did you two..?"

"Don't even go there." I warned "a lot of shit happened yesterday and some it was pretty late, I asked her to stay the night."

"But.. where is she?"

I froze, suddenly realizing where she was. Half a second later, I realized I had locked the door.

Shit.

"Ah, shit!" I yelled "Shit shit shit shit freaking shit." I yelled, getting up.

"Not in the dining room, Liam!" Louis exclaimed but I ignored him and bolted out and hurried up the stairs.

I threw open the guest room door, expecting her to yell in my face but instead I was greeted by an empty bed. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

Maybe she is in the bathroom, I thought to myself.

"Kritika, are you in there?" I called, knocking at the bathroom door only to be greeted by silence.

"Help!"

I froze, not sure if I was imagining or not.

"Somebody freaking help!"

Definitely not hallucinating.

The cries where coming from the balcony. I rushed out only to realize there was no one on the balcony.

"Liam, you moron! I'm down here."

My eyes trailed down and they bulged in surprise. Kritika was hanging off the tree in our backyard in a very weird way.

"Kritika?!?" I exclaimed.

"Liam, save me! I don't want to die." she shrieked, clinging onto the branch.

"I- I'm coming. Hang on." I stuttered and ran out of the room.

"Guys. You need to come with me." I yelled. Zayn came rushing towards me.

"What happened? Why did you bolt off without warning? Why are you yelling? Where is she?" he questioned on and on.

"Outside. No time to explain." I said, dragging him with me to the backyard.

"What on earth?!?" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Hi Zayn!" She yelled and I rolled my eyes in disbelief.

"Hi!"

I slapped my forehead for the nth time this morning. Was this seriously happening?

"My hands are slipping." she shrieked all of a sudden.

"Don't worry." I yelled, positioning myself under the branch. "I'll.. how about this? I'll try and catch you."

"What am I, a cricket ball?" She yelled incredulously. "There's no way in hell I'm letting go."

"Just let go." Zayn urged.

"No." She yelled.

"Kritika." I groaned.

"Liam." She mimicked.

"You have to trust me on this." I yelled.

She stayed silent for a while and then she sighed loudly.

"I'm gonna let go now. If I die, I'm going to haunt your sorry butt forever." she threatened and suddenly let go.

She landed onto me with an 'oof' and I caught her right in time. She wiggled out of my hold and landed on the grass with a thud. She sat silently for a moment, looking at the grass around her in a look of almost.. disbelief.

"Am I on the ground?" she asked no one in particular.

"Yes."

"So I'm not dead?" she asked.

"You look very alive to me."

She looked at me and I saw a smile blooming on her face

"I'm not dead!" She yelled, jumping around.

She grabbed Zayn's hands and soon they were both jumping around the backyard yelling 'yay' over and over. I was too stunned to comment.

"Why aren't you jumping with us?" they yelled in perfect sync.

I shook my head and squatted down in the grass, my head in my hands.

"Looks like I could use an Adol myself now." I muttered.

xxxxx

Liked it? Hated it?

I wrote and edited the entire chapter on my phone lol.

<new achievement unlocked>

Lol

Excuse the typos :*

Oh and Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim readers :)

It's Eid here in India today so.. Yeah.

Eid Mubarak :)

Stay Beautiful ❤

Kay ❤

P.S. I'm sorry for the late update. I was kinda designing a new cover for the book.

I wasted too much time on it. Oh and I wasn't happy with any of them. So.. Currently.. This book doesn't have a new cover.

God .-.

P.P.S. Shoutout to @Aliya_96 and @Just_Anamika for pestering me to update xD

Love you both :*

P.P.P.S. Another shoutout to @rememberitsnotreal. Didn't think you could stay incognito forever did you? :)