“What was that Harry?” Louis’ voice sounded from behind me as I watched Cameron lead Dawn up the steps of his bus.

“Part of not speaking to you, Louis, is in fact not speaking to you.” I said, dropping my smile and walking right past him. Just because Dawn and I were doing better didn’t mean all was forgiven with Louis.

“Whatever you say mate,” He just began following me, ignoring the face that I was trying to stay away from him. “What was Dawn talking about back there? What did she tell you last night?”

It really wasn’t any of his business and I wasn’t about to tell him anything.

Wait.

How did he even know about that?

That whole conversation was away from everyone else.

“Were you eavesdropping?” I spun around to face him with narrowed eyes and a frown, my finger pointed out accusingly.

“No.” He said holding up his hands in defense. “You two weren’t exactly being quite and I was walking by.”

I eyed him for a moment before turning my back on him and walking again. “I don’t believe you.”

I heard him follow behind me. “Harry, what was Dawn talking about?”

“Nothing Louis. Leave it alone.” Why didn’t he understand that I didn’t want to talk to him.

His hand wrapped around my arm stopping me from climbing the steps to our bus.

From this distance I could see some fans who had snuck around the building whispering giddily at each other and pointing at us. Just great. No doubt a few rumors would come of this.

I glared at him and nodded towards them, causing him to release my arm but I stayed facing him. No need to give them something to talk about. Besides, it was too hard trying to evade Louis anyway.

“Harry, I’m sorry you’re mad at me. I know it was wrong of me to force you to kiss Dawn, but I’m not sorry I did it. Did you not notice how fast she got out of there? She had to have felt something, right?”

“She did.” I mumbled under my breath.

Louis’ eyes widened, he clearly heard me. “That’s what you two were talking about.” He smiled widely practically bouncing in his spot. “She told you she felt something. That’s wonderful.”

“It’s not.” I corrected, turning once again to take steps.

“What do you mean?” It must have register with him that Dawn, had in fact, just gone with Cameron and wasn’t here with me. “What happened?”

I took a deep breath. I knew Louis wasn’t going to like this at all. “I, um, I may have told her we would be better as friends.”

For a moment Louis just stared at me with a dumb look on his face. I stared back wondering if he had heard me at all.

And then it processed.

“You WHAT?!?!” He shouted.

Luckily we were already on the bus but at the loud noise the others quickly rushed out of the back room to watch as Louis let me have it.

“How could you do that Harry? She finally realized that you were right there and you just fucking blow her off. What is wrong with you?”

I was sick of being yelled at. I had only been up for a few hours and already I had been screamed at twice. Granted Dawn had a good reason but I didn’t need Louis yelling at me.

“Fuck you Louis. This is your fault. If you would have just kept your stupid little game to yourself this wouldn’t be half as complicated as it is now. I just barely made it work again. She was pissed off at me, you know?” I yelled back narrowing my eyes dangerously at him.

“She damn well should be. What are you going to do when she finds out Harry? You know her as well as I do. She isn’t going to take well to you having LIED to her. And there is absolutely nothing about this that is working. BOTH of you are delusional, thinking this is working, so don’t go blaming this mess on me.”

“What is going on?” Liam finally decided he had enough with the shouting and cut me off before I could yell back a Louis.

Louis glared at me waiting for me to explain to Liam and the others but when I didn’t speak fast enough for him, he went ahead and did the talking for me.

“It appears our dear friend Harry finally had the girl we have all had to watch him pine over tell him she had feelings for him. And what does our friend do... he rejected her, sending her back to her boyfriend that, we all know, isn’t right for her.”

“Harry.” Zayn spoke softly looking at me with a hint of disappointment that was mirrored in Liam and Niall‘s eyes as well.

Screw them. They didn’t understand. This whole situation was just proving my point anyway. I didn’t know how to work relationships, friendship or otherwise. I was pretty much on the outs with just about everyone I knew.

I turned my angry eyes back to Louis. “It’s none of your business,” I then looked around at the others. “Any of you.”

With one last glance around at them I walked passed them all and straight to my bunk, just waiting for the busses to pull out. This was too small a space to have to share with people I didn’t even feel like looking at, let alone talking to.

It wasn’t long after that the curtains to my small sleeping space were yanked back. I would have started to curse who ever it was but when I looked over some one I wasn’t expecting was there.

Across from me, sat on the edge of the bunk Dawn normally slept in, was Jena. Her legs stretched across the small space in between resting on the side of my bunk, her elbows on her thighs, and her dark eyes staring at me with her chin in her hands.

“Are you alright?” She asked simply.

I shrugged feeling very much like a child speaking to his mother.

She just watched me for a moment.

“Dawn’s not very happy with me right now. I think it has something to do with you coming to me last night.”

I laughed humorlessly. “Yes, well, a lot of people aren’t very happy with me right now so you can join the club babe.”

Her leg stretched up slightly to gently kick my side. “They are worried about you Harry. I am too. I know it’s not my business, but why wouldn’t you just say something to her?”

Oddly, it didn’t bother me half as much when Jena was asking. Maybe it was because she didn’t sound like she was judging me, just genuinely curious.

I sighed bringing my hands up to rub my face. “She wants things to go back to normal. She’s scared of whatever it is and it was almost like the idea of us being anything other then friends was wrong to her.”

“She wouldn’t have said anything if that was the case, Harry.” Jena soothed, flicking her long hair behind her shoulder.

I raised an eyebrow and smiled bitterly. “That’s the thing. I kind of forced her to tell me. And then she did and I should have been happy. But all I could think was, this isn’t how its supposed to be. There isn’t supposed to be that undertone of doubt, not just from her but from me too. What if I ruin this? Like everything else. Currently Dawn is the only friend I’m on decent terms with and even that is shaky. What if something did happen and I messed it up? It would kill me to lose her.”

Jena stared at me, trying to figure me out. “There is always a risk with anything Harry. You just have to figure out if the risk out weights the benefit. From what you told me, I thought you thought the benefit was worth it, but now you’re saying that you would rather be here, stuck in this rut then take that chance. That’s no way to live Harry. Youlove her. You don’t just get over things like that. You fight for them.”

I thought her words over , both of us just sitting in silence before she spoke again.

“And as far as everyone else, you haven’t ruined anything.” She giggled pointed to the closed door that the others were behind. “Do you know that as soon as I came on this bus I was greeted with those four out there panicking. They are so worried about you Harry. You five are like brothers and they are just tired of seeing you hurt. It’s hard for them because Dawn means a lot to them too but so do you and they don’t know what to do about it, so cut them a bit of slack. Especially Louis. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he’s been moping around here like a child since you decided you didn’t want to speak to him. Don‘t get me wrong I understand why you did, but you should try to see it form his point, he thought he was helping. In his own, messed up, slightly mislead way.”

I looked up at the top of my bunk. I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss Lou. And maybe I could understand why he did it, not that I particularly liked it.

Turning back to Jena I smiled weakly. “You’re a good friend Jena. I’m really glad you are here.”

She beamed at me before hopping down from the bunk and patting my arm. “Thank you. I’m glad I’m here. Now come on, go talk to those boys before they start pulling out their hair. I’m already on Dawn’s bad side, if she finds out I idly sat by while your friends all became bald she would for sure kill me or worse, fire me.”

I hopped out of the bunk and pulled her into a hug she was obviously not expecting as her eyes widened considerably. “Thank you.” I repeated.

She blushed slightly as she pulled away.

My eyebrows knit together as something she said came back to me. “Why is Dawn upset with you?”

Jena laughed. “I suspect she was a bit jealous.”

Then the memory of what Dawn had said flashed back to me making me smile despite myself. “Yea I think she was.”

Jena chuckled as she smacked my shoulder. “Don’t gloat about it. I know it just pleases you immensely that she would be jealous of you talking to another girl but I still need to figure out how to get back on her good side.”

I smiled cheekily at her as we both began to walk towards the door. “Do you think that if I pretended to date you she would throw a fit.”

Jena’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline. “Does that mean you actually want to try to do something about what she told you?”

I sobered at that, sighing deeply.

No, the idea was a nice one. Dawn finally being jealous of what I was doing instead of the other way around but no. I wasn’t planning on doing anything in that sense.

Things were going to work out the way they were now... I hoped anyway.

“That look tells me you haven’t changed your mind at all.” She said softly, pointing at me with a barely concealed look of disappointment.

“No it was just a silly thought.” I opened the door and stretched my hand out before her. “Shall we go mend things here, then?”

She nodded and walked out the door. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the talk that was to come. I did know it was from a good place but it was still hard to hear.

Louis was the first to look up at me but none of them spoke.

I shove my hands into my pockets and rocked on my heels for a moment before looking up at them. “I’m a dick.”

Nothing.

Louis stood up and walked towards me. I looked at him as he stood in front of me. And then a smile broke out on his face. “Well we knew that already.”

I couldn’t help the grin that spread on my own face.

“Harry, I’m sorry about everything. I just thought it would help if-”

“I know.” I cut him off. “You’re my best friend Lou and I know it’s been hard because Dawn is one of your closest friends too,” I looked over his shoulder to Jena who winked at me from her spot on the sofa near Niall. “It’s just better this way.”

He opened his mouth to protest but I cut him off.

“I need you to just leave it like this, at least for now. Be my friend and just leave it alone.”

Again he just stared at me and then, reluctantly, he nodded. “Alright.”

I smiled and punched his shoulder before looking at the others. “Sorry. We alright?”

They all nodded responding with varying answers in the positive.

Jena looked around as we all took seat in the front lounge, as if nothing had happened.

“That’s it? All that pacing and pouting and a quick sorry did it?”

We all looked at each other and then to her nodding.

“It’s on of the perks of being a man.” Niall said throwing his arm around her shoulder.

“That and being able to pee standing up.” Louis agreed nodding at her.

Jena pulled a face. “Ugh boys disgust me.”

Notes

Some Jena Harry moments there after some Hawn moments in the last chapter. I am also going to post a set of one-shots I have that are like a prequel to this story. Its a bunch of moments in Dawn and Harry's friendship before all this drama started. It'll be titled Before The Mess and i'll have it up later today.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter <3 let me know what you think.