ANNA’S POV:
“Hey, Anna! We were all gonna go do something after school since we don’t have morning classes tomorrow. You up for it?” Molly raced up behind me after Pre Calculus. I felt terrible; I hadn’t really talked to Molly, or anyone else at school for that matter, in what felt like forever.
“Oh, I’m really sorry. I actually busy. But next time, I swear!”
“Didn’t he leave this morning?” She asked in a slightly lower voice.
“Uh, yeah. I’m hanging out with Elle and Danielle.” I noticed her expression change.
“Oh, okay. Well- have fun then.” She said, slightly bitterly, before walking away.
I felt bad, I really did. But I didn’t know what I could do to fix everything with Molly, besides cancel my plans with Danielle and Eleanor, which I really didn’t want to do. They were really the only people who could totally understand the situation I was in right now, I felt like I kind of needed them to help me with this. They’ve been through it before; I however, was dealing with all of this for the first time.

“Alright, so tell me newbie, how have things been so far?” Eleanor asked me. We were sitting in her little apartment, eating snacks and taking turns drinking from a bottle of vodka.
“What do you mean?” I asked, only half-feeling the effects of the alcohol.
“I mean, how does it feel to now be the girlfriend of a member of the biggest boy band in the country?” She asked as if to say ‘um, duh.”
“Oh, I dunno. It’s good. It’s not like I’ve had a lot of time to figure things out yet. If you haven’t noticed, they’re sort of a bazillion miles away!” I yelled jokingly.
“Yeah, well… It can be hard. I’m just so glad to have other people to talk about it with.”
“Yeah that’s what I was thinking today. My friend Molly was sort of pissed that I was hanging out with you guys tonight. And I feel bad, but I just feel like there isn’t much that I can talk to her about.”
“You’ll quickly realize that a lot of people aren’t gonna understand. Either that or you’ll start getting a load of new best friends.”
“But it isn’t like people know about me and Harry.”
“Oh just you wait girlie…” Danielle said, giggling.
“Okay, I’m bored. WHO WANTS TO PLAY TRUTH FO DARE!?”
Eleanor and I responded with a chorus of cheers.
20 minutes later I had been forced to fit as many marshmallows into my mouth as possible, Danielle had been dared to chug a disgusting mixture of whatever we could find in the fridge, and Eleanor had gotten through with a boring Truth question.
“Alright, Anna, it’s your turn! I dare you to….. call Harry!!!” The two girls bopped up and down giddily.
“What! No way! I’m drunk!”
“EXACTLY!!” they grabbed my phone before I could get to it and dialed the number.
It rang twice before he picked up; “Hey babe.” I heard him say, his voice groggy.
“Hey! Aww I’m sorry, were you sleeping?” I said, a little too loudly.
“Uh, yeah. But it’s okay-“
“I’m with Danielle and El.”
“Sounds fun- Anna, are you by any chance drunk?” He said, a slight chuckle in his voice.
“What?! ME!! No, of course not!” I giggled, not able to control myself.
Harry just responded with a laugh, “Y’okay? Don’t let those girls be a bad influence on you.”
“I would do no such thing. I was just calling…to say hi…and….yeah.”
“Well hello to you too.”
“Alright, go back to sleep!” I said.
“Mmkay, night love. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He hung up and all three of us broke into a fit of giggles, even though there was really nothing that was THAT funny.

I woke up the next morning with my head feeling like it was under a pile of really heavy textbooks, my mouth as if I hadn’t drank in ages, and my hair quite perfectly resembling a birds nest. The two other girls were still asleep when I left. Lucky for them, they didn’t have to go to school.
When I got back to school I was able to shower, blow dry my hair, and put on a little makeup before I decided I was in desperate need of food.
I immediately spotted Molly and the others sitting at our regular table.
“Hey guys!” The all responded quite unenthusiastically, barely looking up from their breakfasts.
“Um, everything okay?” I asked, taking a seat.
“Honestly? Not really. What’s been going on with you?” Oliver said suddenly, an edge to his voice that I’ve never heard before.
“Wh-What do you mean?” I knew what he meant.
“You’ve been blowing us off for weeks. None of us have seen you, you haven’t even been sleeping here. Where the hell have you been?”
“I-“ I glanced at Molly, wondering if she had told anyone. She didn’t look at me, just stared down at her yogurt and toast. “I just, made a few friends outside of school. Is that a bad thing?” I didn’t know what to say. But I did wish what I HAD said had come out a little less cynical.
“No, it’s fine. We just all feel like you’re lying to us.” He said. That made my heart lurch. Ugh, if only they knew….
“Look, I’m sorry if it seems like I’ve been ignoring you guys. I didn’t mean to. I guess I just got a little too wrapped up in other things. I just, I don’t know what to say…” I said honestly.
“If there isn’t anything you have to tell us, then I guess there’s nothing you need to say.” Oliver said again, getting up from the table and walking out of the dining hall.

Can you call me when you have a minute? I need to ask you something.

Sure thing. Should I be worried?

No no it’s fine. Just something I would rather do on the phone.

“Hey there! You feeling a bit better than last night?” Harry said when he had called me.
“Ha ha. It’s all Danielle and El’s fault. They thought it would be fun to have a little ‘girls night’ or whatever. We ended up playing truth or dare and…. Yeah, so that’s how that happened. Sorry for waking you up.”
“It’s fine. Quite funny actually. So what did you want to talk to me about?”
I took a deep breath, becoming more and more nervous.
“Um, okay. Well…my friends at school got kind of mad at me today. They think I’m keeping something from them. They said I’ve barely been around which I mean, is true. But I was thinking maybe I should just tell them about everything. I think I can trust them not to blab. I just don’t know what else to do. I feel terrible lying to them, especially after they were so nice and welcomed me and everything-“
‘Anna, take a breath.” Harry interrupted.
“Sorry…” I said.
“It’s okay, you can tell them if you think it’s the right thing to do. I just don’t want you to be thrust into the spotlight or whatever. The paps can be terrible, brutal. And especially if I’m not there to help you…”
“I’ll just tell them that we met and are, friends? They don’t need to know about…us. I just don’t want to keep lying to them.”
“Alright sounds good. You’ll call me after? Tell me how everything goes?”
“I will.”
_____________________________________________________________________________

Can you get everyone to come to my room at 5:00?

Molly had never responded to my text, but I hoped that they would still come. It was 4:53 when I heard a knock on my door and I opened it to see Molly, Keenan, Oliver, and Bryce standing in front of me.
“Hey guys, that’s for showing up.” I smiled, trying to get some response out of them. They filed into my room, sitting on my bed and the small window seat.
“So, uh, I lied to you earlier today. When you said it seems like I’m hiding something form you; there is.” This got all of their attention, so I just continued; “ And when I tell you, I’m not even sure if you’ll believe me, but… I guess I have to at least try. Uh, you know the band One Direction?” They nodded, clearly confused as to where I was going with this. “Well, the night we all went out to the pub a while ago and I ended up leaving? I sort of met Harry Styles- And uh, we’ve been hanging out a bit.” I looked around at them.
“Are you bullshitting us here, Anna? Because if you are it isn’t funny.” Oliver said.
“No! I’m not, I swear!”
“So who else knows about this?” He asked accusingly.
“Just Molly” I said, looking over to her.
“She’s telling the truth guys, as crazy as it seems.”
“Harry fucking Styles!? Please tell me he can get me a date with Cher Lloyd!” Bryce suddenly burst out. I could help but crack up laughing.
“I’ll try my best.” I said, smiling over at him, extremely thankful for the comic relief.
“So you’ve been hanging around with One Direction?” Oliver said, that same edge to his voice as earlier.
“Well, uh, yeah, I guess.”
“Well glad to see you’ve traded up.” He was about to stomp out the door when I stopped him.
“Oliver come on, I’m trying to be honest with you guys.”
“After how long? Whatever Anna, I’m over it.” He said before leaving my room, slamming the door behind him.

HARRY’S POV:
We had only been here a little over a day and we were already getting down to work. The music video was being shot at the beach, which was brilliant. It was gorgeous out, which made this honestly seem more like a vacation than work.
“C’mon Harry! We’re gonna try and get a game in!” Liam shouted, throwing the black and white ball into the air and head butting it. The boys knew I was rubbish at football, but insisted I play. Probably just to make them look better.
“Yeah, alright.” Before we started, I pulled my phone out, hoping to see something from Anna. Nothing.
I wasn’t mad about her telling her friends. I understood why she felt she had to do it. I was just worried about her. If this got out to anyone in the press, they would be all over her. And especially with me not being there, that only made it worse. But if she trusted her friends, I trusted her.
“Come ON! You can call your girlfriend later!” Louis yelled.

The time difference was getting to be really tough for us. Either I was calling her late at night (London Time), or she was calling me at 3 AM.
Like, for example, right now,
“How’d it go?” I asked, trying to wake myself up.
“Sort of terribly.” She sounded upset, I could tell that right off the bat.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” I sat up in bed.
“My one friend Oliver got really pissed. I think- I mean, everyone said he sort of had a thing for me, but I always blew it off as not a big deal because I just didn’t feel the same way. And we had talked a while ago, I though everything was okay. But I guess not.” I felt immediately on edge, knowing there was some guy she was hanging around with every day that fancied her. I hoped more than anything that what Louis had said before we went away wasn’t true.
“But you don’t, I mean…”
“No! Harry, of course not! But he is my friend.”
“You’re too nice for your own good, you know that?” I heard he breathy laugh over the phone and I wished I could see her right now.
“I really miss you.” I muttered.
“I miss you too. Just a few more days though.”
“Too many…”
“No! Don’t say that. But really, is everything going well?”
“Yeah, it’s crazy. We started filming and it’s on a beach which is awesome. Louis has to drive this massive orange van which is just hilarious. We got pulled over. Twice.” She laughed again and I was glad I was able to make her smile.
“Alright well, go back to sleep. I’m sorry for waking you up- again.”
“It’s fine. You can call whenever you want.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye.”
“G’bye.”

The next day we were told we were going to be having some girls coming to the set for the video. Which obviously, Zayn and Niall were extremely enthused about. They arrived at around 1:00, after going through hair and makeup and wardrobe and all that.
“Hi, I’m Niall.” He said, giving his cheeky grin and sticking his hand out for them to shake.
“Hi, I’m Madison, and this is Lauren and Kiley.” Zayn sidled up with Niall, making conversation with the three girls. One of them came over to where I was sitting.
“Hi, you’re Harry, right?” She said.
“Yeah, hi, nice to meet you.”
“You too. So I hear the two of us are doing a scene together.”
“Oh, really?” I hadn’t been told about that.
“Yeah. So I thought maybe we should get to know each other beforehand…” The way she said it was sort of, suggestive.
“Um, alright… well we were all gonna go get something from craft services, you guys are welcome to come?” I stood up, ready to go with the boys.
“I was thinking maybe just the two of us….” She took a step closer to me. I was suddenly aware of what she was trying to do.
“Um, no offense, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” I mean, she was fit. But she had nothing on Anna.
“Seriously? I thought you were like the player of the group, the ladies man.”
“I think you’ve got it wrong. I’m just gonna go then.” I said, quickly bolting around her and grabbing Niall, knowing he was always up for free food.
“What the hell was that for?” He said, shrugging off the grip I had on his forearm.
“That girl Madison was like all over me, needed to get outta there.”
“Wow, look at you mate. You’re a changed man!”
“Not exactly. Just took the right girl to set me straight I guess. All the toying with girls and stuff, random hookups, it was fun. But I’m just not interested anymore. It sort of just got pretty old pretty damn quick.”
“Well good for you, I’m glad. And Anna’s great. You’re lucky. And I mean, now at least I’ll get all the game!” He said jokingly, taking three cookies off a platter, along with half a sandwich, and a can of Coke.

The rest of the day went pretty well, until I did end up having to do a scene with just me and the girl Madison.
“You ready for this?” She asked, putting one hand on my shoulder.
“Uh, yeah. Sure.”
It was during my big solo in the middle of the song, and I was supposed to get really close to her, singing to her, basically looking like a couple. And it wasn’t like I was going to say I wouldn’t do it or anything, I couldn’t. So I decided to just do it, get it over with, and then try and avoid her for the rest of the shoot. Which, I head learn throughout today, we pretty hard to do. She just seemed to be sort of, everywhere.
“AND…ACTION!” The director yelled, the track started-
We ended up having to do a few takes, every time Madison would do something different; whether it be trying to hold my hand, leaning in a little further than necessary… I felt really uncomfortable the whole time, and I was really glad when the director said we were done. I immediately walked over to where the rest of the boys were;
“Shit, mate. That girl won’t quit!” Zayn said, quietly enough for just us to hear.
“I know, its weird, right?”
“Why don’t you just tell her you’re taken?” Louis said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
“Because Anna doesn’t really want it getting out yet, and I don’t blame her. You know how hard it’s been for Danielle and Eleanor. And without me there, it would just be worse.” They nodded in agreement.
“Hey guys! You wanna go out and grab a bite tonight?” One of the other girls, Kiley yelled over to us. Zayn was quick to accept.
Louis immediately look at me with a strange look on his face and said sarcastically; “Well Harry, this should be quite an interesting evening, shouldn’t it?”