That Summer (One Direction Fanfiction)

Chapter 24: Best Friends

“Stop it Harry,” I squealed and covered my face as he flicked a spoonful of pancake batter at me. He had decided to go for round two on the breakfast thing, but this time he had enlisted me to help him. So far we had dropped three eggs on the floor, spilled a half the bag of flour, and made exactly zero pancakes.

“I think this batter is too runny,” Harry picked up the bowl and swirled it around, accidently dumping a good bit of it on the floor. “Woops.”

I laughed as I grabbed the bag flour and shook some out into the bowl. Harry grabbed a spoon and stirred it around until the batter looked smooth. I stuck my hand in the flour bag and gathered a handful, which I blew in Harry’s face when he looked up. His mouth formed a shocked O as the white dust settled onto his eyebrows and a few of his stray curls.

“You’re a mess,” I teased him. He wiped away most of the flour with the back of his hand then lobbed the entire bowl of pancake mix at me.

I shrieked and ducked. The bowl flew over my head and crashed into the wall, sending a goopy streak down the yellow wall.

“What are you doing?” Riley bellowed, stomping his way into the kitchen.

Harry and I exchanged guilty looks. I kept my eyes on my feet as I waited for Riley to explode. When nothing happened I glanced up slowly. His green eyes, a much more vivid color than Harry’s, were absolutely livid as he took in the mess we had made. I could see his jaw was clenched tightly under the flush of his tanned skin.

“Riley…” I stepped forward, laying a calming hand on his arm. He practically jumped out of his skin, pulling back as if my hand was on fire. “We’re sorry. We’ll clean it up.”

I saw him let out a deep breath, his chest expanding under the thin fabric of his tattered white tee-shirt. “Fine,” he turned on his heel and stormed out, leaving the air in the room a lot chillier than when he had arrived.

I made a ‘what’s his problem’ face at Harry, who returned it by squeezing his eyes shut and sticking out his tongue. We made faces at each other for the next few minutes before grabbing a roll of paper towels and a sponge and going to work cleaning the kitchen.

Marcus wandered in to the room in the middle of it and ended up on his hands and knees with us, scrubbing the drying pancake batter and eggs off the floor. The three of us were able to clean it up quicker than I had expected, but we were still exhausted when we finished.

I dropped down in one of the kitchen chairs, leaning my head on the table. “Ugh,” I moaned.

“Ugh is right,” Harry pushed me back into a sitting position before settling himself on my lap. I groaned at his added weight and wrapped my arms around his bare waist. He was still only wearing a pair of boxers, having ditched the frilly apron before round two of cooking.

Marcus sat down heavily in the seat across from us, running a hand through his tousled ginger hair. “I’m bored.”

“Me too,” I piped up from behind Harry, at the same moment he said, “As am I.”

“Let’s do something,” Marcus tossed a crumple wad of paper towels at the bin. “Something fun and random.”

“Golfing,” Harry blurted.

Marcus looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “You want to go golfing?”

Harry nodded solemnly, “I would very much so like to go golfing.”

“Fine by me,” Marcus shrugged. “Britt?”

“Sounds good.”

“Great,” Harry jumped off my lap before pulling me to my feet. “Let us get dressed.”