Aria’s POV

I gently tapped Harry’s shoulder. He turned to me, smiling at me, “Yes, love?”

I tried to hold back my nerves. I knew that if I didn’t do this right now, I would chicken out later. I caught Perrie smirking at me by Zayn. I wanted to smack that smirk off her face, but I chose to ignore her. There were other things more important than dealing with her. I looked at Harry, keeping my expression calm, “Can we talk for a sec?”

He looked at me curiously, but nodded. He told the others he would be right back, and lead me downstairs to his room. He sat on the bed, patting it beside him. I was freaking out too much to hold still. I had no idea how I was going to say this to him, but I had to do it. I shook my head lightly at his offer. Before I began to speak, I shut the door behind me. A worried expression crossed his face, “Are you okay?”

His eyes bore into me, but I refused to meet mine with his. I stood there, awkwardly, running my fingers through my hair. Was I okay? Not really. I avoided his answer, choosing what I was going to say in my mind. He sighed, “Ari, you can tell me anything.”

I finally made eye contact, and I knew he was right. Yeah, I could tell him anything but it doesn’t mean it won’t hurt him. I sat beside him and he took my hand in his. “Harry,” my voice was shaky, “I need to tell you something.”

He didn’t say anything; instead he just looked at me reassuringly. “I’ve fucked up… Majorly. But I want you to know that it doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

His eyebrows knitted together, “Okaaay… What is it?”

My heart started to race and my mind started to spin furiously. Let’s face it; there was no nice way to tell him that I basically was playing him for information when we first met. So, instead of thinking, I just spoke, “I never told you why I quit my job. There was a reason for that and it was because I didn’t want you to be mad at me.”

He still looked confused but didn’t say anything. I continued, “My reason for quitting involved you.”

I stared at the ground, unsure on how to continue. “Why would that involve me,” he asked, his husky accented voice low.

I knew there was no point in beating around the bush. If I did that, it would all just make it worse. “After my interview with you and the boys, my boss heard that you were interested in me. She called me into her office, giving me a special assignment…”

His grip on my hand lightened and he stared at the ground. He cleared his throat, “What was the assignment?”

“I was supposed to pretend that I was interested in you to get information. She wanted me to play with your feelings. I knew it was wrong but at the time, I didn’t know you. I only knew what other people knew. I thought you were just another player who broke girls’ hearts for fun. But if I didn’t do it, she was going to fire me, Harry. I would have had to go back to Florida to live with my parents, and I couldn’t do that.”

I looked at him. His face showed no signs of emotion now, “So you agreed to do it? Because you thought I was player.”

I didn’t say anything and neither did he. “I started to get to know you, I started to develop feelings. My boss asked me for information and I wasn’t going to tell her anything. Then she reminded me about how easy it would be to just fire me, so I told her everything you had told me and every moment we shared. After I told her all I knew, she proceeded to say that there was no way you felt differently for me and that you were just using me for another booty call. She said I was nothing special. At that point, I was fed up and I wasn’t going to be insulted by her. So I quit. At that moment, I don’t care if I have to live in the streets, I will not go back to Florida and I will not be treated like I was.”

By the end of my rant, my voice had become emotional from me repeating her words. Harry withdrew his hand from mine and pushed the curls out of his face. His expression was grave, “Why are you telling me this now?”

I rubbed my sweaty palms on the thighs of my jeans, “Because she’s going to publish a New Years magazine with this on the front bag at Midnight in New York…”

Harry laughed without humor, “So, if she wasn’t going to publish it, you wouldn’t have said anything.”

His words weren’t a question, more of a statement. I knew lying would only make this worse. I really had no intentions of telling him unless I had to. My voice cracked when I spoke, “Har-“

He cut me off by standing up and looked down at me, “Why didn’t you tell me, Aria? Why keep this from me? It would have been different if you just told me. I would have tried understand. But you chose to keep this from me.”

I looked down at my hands in my lap. Tears stung my eyes because I knew he was right. It was wrong to keep it from him, but I didn’t know how he would take it. I kept silent while he stood there.

Harry’s POV

I tried to hide the emotions that were going through me. Her words at cut me, even if it wasn’t intentional. I was hurt that she was just using me at first, but really it was just the same for me. I didn’t expect love to come from it. But it did. I may not have been in love before, but I did know that when you loved someone, you don’t keep things like this from them. The fact that she didn’t tell me that day I asked her about why she quit, told me she was never going to tell me unless she had to. And I was right.

I couldn’t hide the anger any longer. I stared down at her, sitting on my bed, looking at her hands. The girl I loved, who had used me and then fell in love with me. The bands secrets and my love life would be all over the news and the girl who claimed to love me back, didn’t tell me what was going on. How was I supposed to react? I couldn’t just say, oh it’s okay. I had told her those things in confidence and she played my feelings to get them. The first time I had actually fell in love, it comes back at me like this.

I thought back to the few weeks we had been together. They had been perfect but somewhat built on lies. I didn’t know what to think or how to feel. I felt lost. I knew it was too quick to fall in love, but Louis told me to just go with it. Now I felt stupid for doing it. Our conversation from the night she told me about being raped went through my head. Her words finally making sense, I know you wouldn’t hurt me on purpose, Harry… But what if I hurt you? Another perfect moment to tell me, and she didn’t. The hurt part of me wanted her to feel the same pain I felt and the rational side told me to just keep my mouth shut. But before I could keep myself from saying anything, words just came out, “Maybe your boss is right. There’s no way a player like me could have actual feelings for someone.”

My voice had sounded harsh. She looked up at me, shock all over her face and tears streaking her cheeks. I instantly felt guilty. My expression softened and I reached out for her, “Aria, I’m so-.”

She stood up, anger filling her face as she slapped away my hands, “No. You know what? You’re right. This was all just a stupid mistake that would never work out.”

Her words stung again, “Aria, that’s not what I meant and you know it.”

She ignored me. She went over to her suitcase and began zipping it up. “What are you doing,” I asked.

She walked over to me with her luggage in tow, staring up at me with pain stricken eyes. She didn’t say a word as she let go of her luggage and reached behind her neck, unclasping the necklace I had given her. Before I could say or do anything, she grabbed my hand, putting the necklace in my palm. She stayed silent, grabbing her bags again, and walking out the door without looking back. In that very instance, my heart shattered. That image of her walking out and leaving brought back the images of my father leaving me and Gemma when I was little. But this? This hurt worse.

Notes

Directioners answer,

1) Do you think Aria approached it the wrong way?

2) What do you think about what Harry said to her?

3) Should he have went after her?