You Know What They Do To Girls Like Us

“You can’t be serious,” I question incredulously.

“It’s true!” Harry laughs. He scoots right up next to me to point to a small turret high above us. “Right about there. The knickers were just flapping in the wind without a care. Security actually thought it was a personal climbing the turret and started firing at it, so the boxers had a bunch of holes in them when we got them back.”

His curls tickle my cheek as I laugh. Resisting the urge to lean my head on his shoulder, I focus on how the moonlight hits the curves of his face instead. I can almost see the reflection of the stars above in his eyes. The crescent moon aligns perfectly with the edge of his iris until it shifts to look straight into mine. I look away quickly.

“We should be getting back inside,” I clear my throat and squint my eyes at the glass doors. It’s completely dark inside.

Harry walks over to open the doors, but after a few tugs at the handles, he looks back at me.

“It’s locked,” he shrugs. “Party must have ended a while ago.”

“God,” covering my face, I sigh. Was I really that distracted that I didn’t even notice when the ball had ended. What if Louis notices that I spent the entire time with Harry?

“Don’t worry,” he has a glint in his eye when I look up at him. “I know a way.”

“If this involves climbing, then you can just forget it,” I raise my eyebrows.

“Okay,” he hops up onto the marble railing. “You can stay out in the cold if you want.”

He smirks at my glare when I reluctantly walk over. I take the hand he offers to climb up to his level. After he hops down to the grass, he extends his arms to brace my slight fall.

“We’re going to go up a floor, so make sure you don’t let go of my hand,” the tone of voice is serious.

Well isn’t that something – he cares if I get hurt. I guess he meant it.

Taking my heels off, we begin the journey from railing to railing. Harry manages to open a window on our floor. We both fall into the hallway and I have about had it with this giant puff of a dress.

“Um,” Harry mumbles as I start walking towards my room. “I think you’ll have to spend the night in my room.”

“Excuse me?” Maybe Harry hasn’t changed after all.

“Jesus, would you just – ” he rolls his eyes. “You can’t get into your room because they lock all the doors after 12am. I can get into my room because I have a keypad for my door.”

“Oh,” my voice is small as he turns to unlock his door.

I follow him into his room and am surprised at what it looks like. I expected a sort of bachelor pad theme, but what I see is just a suite that looks like it’s fit for royalty. All the furniture looks plush, a large fireplace crackles at one end of the room, and everything looks expensive. The overall deep purple color of the room reflects his seemingly dark persona.

“I’ll get you a change of clothes,” he mumbles and disappears into a huge closet.

I fold my hands and stand in place awkwardly.

He comes back with a large grey t-shirt and some black boxer shorts.

“This was the closest I could find to remotely fitting you,” he extends the clothes to me and I take them gratefully.

I head to the bathroom. The cold of the tiles hitting my feet reminds me of the first night I spent with Harry. I shut my eyes at the terrible memory. How can he be that same person? I change into his clothes and I can’t help pausing to take in the scent of his shirt. It’s so warm and comfortable that I don’t mind if it’s two sizes too big.

Rolling up the waistband of the shorts, I step back into the bedroom.

“You take the bed,” Harry has already laid sheets on a couch. “I’ll take the couch.”

Tucking my hair behind my ear, I nod in agreement.

I pull back the sheets on the king sized bed and slip in. My eyes can’t pull away from Harry’s peaceful form on the couch. He is the last thing I see before I fall asleep.

“Louis, please,” I beg as I look up desperately into Louis’ eyes. “Just pull me up.”

I cringe at his dark laughter. Looking down, I see that I’m hanging off the railing of the House. The only thing keeping me from falling is Louis’ hand holding firmly onto mine.

“Why would I let you live? What if I just…” he releases his grasp ever so slightly making me slip a bit.

“Louis!” I yelp.

“What’s stopping me from letting go?” he asks tauntingly.

“I…” I struggle to find a reason.

“Tell me you love me,” his voice shifts, but I can’t place the emotion in it.

“Louis,” my voice quivers.

“Bitch,” he spits. My eyes widen in shock at his word and I feel his hand slowly letting go.

“NO,” I panic as I feel myself falling. “No, Louis!”

My eyes fly open to meet Harry’s frantic eyes.

“Robin, are you okay?” he holds my shoulders steady.

“Yeah,” I shudder and realize that I must have been screaming in my sleep again. My legs are tangled in the sheets and it takes me a few seconds until my breathing goes back to normal.

“Another nightmare?” Harry’s face is beyond worried.

“Yeah,” I mumble again. I am suddenly aware that his hands are still on my arms.

“Alright, well,” he shifts and starts to get up. “I just – ”

“Can you…” I trail off, sensing that Harry knows what I mean. I look down at my hands. “If you want.”

“Sure,” he answers softly as he slides under the covers next to me.

I turn on my side away from him, but I am careful not to move far from him. His arm tentatively wraps around my waist and his chest is comfortably against my back. He breathes against my neck, but I don’t mind. Despite the past few months, I feel safe again in his hold.

Notes

Update = yayyyy.
Sorry once again for the long wait! School has been making me want to stab a pencil through my eye. Not to mention choir competitions on the weekend. And I have a solo which I'm kind of panicking about because I just started practicing for it.
Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! Comment your thoughts, I love hearing from y'all. :)
~christi ellie