Chapter 34:
Harry’s POV
“Go away, Liam, I feel like shit.”
“I’m not Liam.” Nell was lying on her bed, facedown, the covers pulled over her head. It was almost one in the afternoon, the day after our ‘guys day’ and their shopping, and Liam and I wanted to take her out for lunch while the other three nursed their hangovers. I tried to pull her blankets off, but she pulled them back on and cursed at me. I sighed. “If you don’t get up, I’m going to bring Niall in here and we’re going to talk about two nights ago.
She shot up, looking me in the eye. “You wouldn’t dare, Styles.”
“Try me.” I laughed. I reached out and ruffled her hair, and she rolled her eyes, pushing the blankets aside. “Okay, fine, I’m up. You win. But just for that, I’m going to take extra-long getting ready.” She climbed out of bed and stretched, and I smirked at the sight of her in just a t-shirt. I could see her underwear peeking out when she raised her arms (white with red cherries—I’m sure there was irony there) and I felt myself getting slightly (very, very slightly) excited. She noticed me looking and pulled her arms down, giggling. “Styles, you perv, get out of my room.”
I threw my hands up in defeat and grinned at her. “It’s your own fault for not wearing pants. Liam and I will be waiting in the living room. And if you don’t hurry up, I will follow through with my Niall threat.”
She groaned at me and rolled her eyes. I only flashed her a grin and closed her door on the way out. “Liam, she’s out of bed! I yelled. We should be ready to go in fifteen.” Liam emerged from his room, staring at his phone, and Niall yelled through his door. “Harry, you dipshit, my head is pounding enough. Stop yelling!”
“Give over, Ni!” I yelled one last time, and Liam punched me in the shoulder. “Let the poor bastard alone. He had god knows how much to drink last night and if he ever wants to stand again he’s going to need some quiet.”
I smirked. “See, Li, we’re the sensible ones. We didn’t drink too much!”
Liam chuckled. “Harry that’s because I can’t drink too much, and Louis kept taking your beers. You’re not in your room with a killer headache because of pure luck.” We sat down on the couch and he flipped on the TV, skimming through the channels until we found one about news. The whole time, they talked about the weather. It took Nell about fifteen minutes to get dressed. I was just about to get up and tell her to hurry up when she emerged from her room. “Hey, lads. I’m ready. Do I look okay?” She asked, smiling at us. (Nell’s outfit: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=78218245)
The two of us sat there, gaping, until Liam snapped out of his haze. He stood up and walked towards the door. “I have a girlfriend that I love very much, so Harry, you are taking that question.”
Nell raised her eyebrows and looked at me. I put a grin on my face. “You look fantastic, love. Stunning.” She rolled her eyes and punched my shoulder.
“You’re such a flirt, Harry. Let’s just go. Where are we eating?”
“Nando’s. Don’t you dare tell Niall or he’ll be out for our blood.” She laughed. Liam was waiting at the door, twirling his keys around his fingers.
“Quit flirting you two. Let’s go.” He stretched out the last syllable and snickered as Nell elbowed his ribs.
We got down to Nando’s relatively quickly, thanks to Liam’s foresight. He had called Paul, and he had someone from waiting for us in the lobby of our building. Whenever the fans got close, we would stop for a picture or to sign an autograph, but they were quickly ushered away by our security guard. I mentally thanked Liam for thinking to bring him.
Our guard decided to wait in the coffee shop next to the restaurant, so the three of us came in and were seated quickly by a young brunette girl. I gave her a cheeky smile and she looked like she was about to faint. Nell rolled her eyes at me and sat next to me after I clambered into the booth, Liam across from her.
“Hello, my name is Daniel! I’ll be your server today. What can I get you to drink?” We ordered our drinks, and started looking at the menu. Liam excused himself to go to the bathroom, and the two of us were discussing the last season of Premiere League when a guy who looked to be about twenty came over to us.
Nell looked up and smiled. “Hello!”
The guy, who was admittedly very attractive, grinned. “Hi! My name is Matt. I’m here with a friend of mine, and I couldn’t help but notice that you’re a very pretty girl.”
Nell smiled up at him, and I did my best not to glare. “Thanks! My name is Nell.”
“So,” Matt twiddled his thumbs a bit. “What do you do here in the city?”
“Well, I’m actually just living here for a couple months, but I’ll be going to Oxford in the fall for my first year.” I kicked Nell’s feet at the table and shot her a look, which was ignored. I didn’t like her talking to this guy. I actually didn’t like her talking to any guy.
Matt’s face lit up. “Are you serious? So am I! Maybe we could meet up for coffee sometime. If your, uh, boyfriend is okay with it.” He gestured to me.
“Oh! He’s—” I cut her off by putting an arm around her. Something about this guy made me dislike him. I glared at him, and shot her a look. “Her boyfriend doesn’t really like the idea. Maybe next time, pal.”
Nell looked at me, angrily. “I’m sorry about him.” She took her phone out of her purse. “Here, put your number in, and I’ll text you.” Matt grinned and tapped his number in, and I kept my arm around Nell. As soon as he’d gone, Nell turned to me again. “What the fuck, Harry?” She pulled my arm off her. “Why did you do that?”
“Why were you flirting with him?” I asked, glaring at her.
“Why is it any of your business who I’m flirting with?”
I didn’t mean to say it, but I did. “Because I like you! I like you a lot. I really, really do. And it sucks to see you with Niall, because I like you more than I’ve ever liked anyone, and I just don’t want you flirting with anyone because I want you to be flirting with me, and I don’t like him because I want to go on a coffee date with you and—” I stopped talking when I realized how close we were getting.
“Look, Harry, I don’t think I really understand…”
“Let me show you, then.” I leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips, disregarding the fact that there were people around, forgetting about the fact that there might be paps watching us. I had expected her to pull away, but after an initial moment of shock, she responded. I was just about to slip in some tongue when I heard Liam. “Uh, am I interrupting something here?” He asked.
I quickly pulled away to watch a smirking Liam sit down in the booth. “Can’t it wait, Hazza? You’re lucky we’re in the back and there’s not any paps around.” Nell sheepishly looked down at the table, wringing her hands. I reached over and grabbed one, squeezing it, and shot her a look that was meant to say, we’ll talk later.
“We were just…” Nell started, but trailed off. Liam started laughing. “You were just making out in a restaurant while I was in the bathroom. There’s really not too much to explain.”
He glanced at the menu, back at us, then shook his head and looked back to the menu. I slipped an arm around her waist and she rolled her eyes. “Won’t be the last time, Liam.” I grinned.
“Promises, promises!” She teased, and pushed my arm away. “Now get your hands off, Styles, before Matt looks over here and sees you.”
“Why do you even care about him?” I grumbled. Then, in a voice Liam couldn’t hear, I added, “Nell, I was being serious. What I said. Just think about it, okay?”
“Harry, I know you’re trying to be quiet, but I can hear you. Could you two not do this right here? Because you’re making it quite awkward for me.” Liam said without looking up from the menu.
I laughed and started looking for something to order.

-1 hour later-
“I always wonder how Niall can love Nando’s so much, and then I come here, and it’s like all of a sudden I understand.” Nell rubbed her stomach a bit. “You guys ready to go back?” Liam had just paid our bill, so I nodded and we stood up to leave. Nell waved goodbye to Matt, who grinned back at her, evidently having not seen our little show earlier. As we got outside, Liam phone rang, and he picked it up.
“Hey, babe!” He said. “Yeah, I can do that…I’ll drop it by your flat on my way home…okay, love you too. Bye.” He hung up. “That was Dani. She wants me to pick something up from the shops for her. Here, let’s go sit in the coffee place where Damian’s waiting.” Liam pointed to the shop, referring to our security guard. “We’ll call management and get another one to walk you two home.” He smirked at us yet again, and started walking into the coffee shop. “I swear, not an ounce of subtlety…” He mumbled as he opened the door.
I looked over at Nell and grinned cheekily, and realized she was blushing like mad. I whispered to Liam, “Give it a rest, mate. She’s embarrassed.”
He laughed as we sat down next to Damian. “Mate, I’m never going to give it a rest. I walked in on you two making out in a restaurant. Just face the fact that I’m going to make fun of you forever, now.”
Damian perked up. “Wait, Mr. Payne, did they…make contact?”
“I told you, Damian, just call me Liam, and yes, they did, but they didn’t get photographed, so don’t worry about it.”
“Liam, are you going to tell the rest of the guys?” Nell spoke quietly, sounding more worried than she should be over a kiss.
He looked at her, seeming to realize that she was nervous about it, and shook his head. “Your secret is safe with me. But we’re going to talk later, miss.” He looked out the window, and saw another Modest agent coming inside. “That’ll be Lance, for you two. Go on. Get home. And please refrain from snogging until you get inside. Am I clear?” I nodded and rolled my eyes. “Okay then. Have fun.” He winked at us, and we left. I tried to keep my head down as we met up with Lance, our guard, but a few girls saw me, and came over for pictures. I did the usual, smiling and being friendly, until they were pushed away by a very annoyed looking Lance.
We started walking the three blocks to our flat, with Lance a few steps in tow. We took an alternate route, through a park, to avoid being seen by fans, and I only had to smile and wave a few more times before we were free. Nell and I didn’t say a word to each other until we got inside. We all went in, and I bid Lance goodbye. “Thanks, mate. We’ll see you later, eh?”
“Of course Mr. S—er, Harry. Don’t forget, you lads are back in the studio tomorrow. You lot have had enough days off, it’s time to get back to work. Also, I think Simon has some news for you. It’s…well, it’s big. See you then.” He turned and left, leaving me wondering what Simon had for us. I shook my head and turned to Nell, who was looking at me with her eyebrows raised.
“So…” I pointed towards the elevator. “Should we head up?”
“Yes.” She answered. “Alright, Harry, talk.”
“About what?”
“For fuck’s sake, Styles, you kissed me in the restaurant. What are you playing at?”
I sighed. “I don’t know, I just…I saw you flirting with Matt—”
“I wasn’t flirting.”
“Yes, you were, you were flirting, and I got jealous. So, I kissed you, because I’m a flirt and that’s what I do.”
She stared up at the ceiling of the elevator. “You’re so confusing, Harry…every time I think I have you figured out…”
“What did you think of me, then?” The elevator came to a halt at our floor, and we got out, me twirling my keys around my finger. She was about to open the door to our flat when I grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Tell me before we go in.”
“I thought…I thought you only liked me behind closed doors. Hell, I didn’t even think you’d look twice at me. And I thought, well, I suppose I think, that you are really only doing this because you want to beat Niall.”
I thought about that for a moment. It was true that a lot of my motivation for wanting her had come from watching her and Niall together, but it was more than that. It was more than just some stupid competition with him. “No. That’s not it at all. I like you because you’re amazing and cool and you make me feel different. So no, I don’t just like you behind closed doors, I actually really want to be allowed to kiss you outside, but I know you won’t let me, and of course I looked twice at you. How can I not, especially when you’re wearing that?”
She smiled a bit, and I decided to just go for it. I put an arm around her waist and pulled her up to me. Grinning a bit, I got close to her. “You’re amazing.” I whispered.
“What happened to not being smooth around people you liked?” She teased.
“Can’t you tell I’m shaking?” And I leaned in. Our lips connected, and I tasted her strawberry lip gloss. It wasn’t a very long kiss, but I pulled away smiling. “So…yeah.” I said, not being able to think of anything to say.
She smiled and rolled her eyes at me. “Let’s go in the flat, Harry.” She pulled open the door and detached herself from me, jumping onto the couch next to Zayn.

Zayn’s POV
Nell hopped on the couch next to me, Harry trailing behind her. I grinned over at her. “Where’ve ya been? I’ve missed you.”
“Oh, you know…lunch. With Harry and Liam.”
“You should have woken me up! I would have come with.”
“I thought you had a hangover.” She teased.
“I hardly drank last night! Liam, that bastard…he knew that! Whatever. Here, let’s go to dinner tomorrow. We can catch up. I haven’t talked to you in ages.”
She laughed. “Alright, that sounds good.”
I looked around, and noticed Harry staring at her. We were watching a football match. Niall was on the armchair, oblivious to what was going on, due to his massive hangover, and Louis and Harry were whispering to each other on the couch. I lowered my voice and whispered to her, “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
I nodded. “Niall, mate, get your head up. Nell and Harry are back.”
Niall groggily turned around. “Hey, Haz, mate. Hey—damn, Nell, you look bloody amazing!”
She smiled at him, nervously. “Thanks, Ni. You sound awful. How much did you drink last night?”
“Oh, maybe three, or four, or eight pints. I drank myself into oblivion. It might have been more than that.”
“I’m guessing you’re regretting it now?”
“Not at all.”
She rolled her eyes and turned back to me. “What’s up with them?” I asked, pointing to Harry and Louis.
“Well…I think it’s fair to say that Harry just told Lou what happened.”
“Which was?”
“You did what? Harry, you’re such a who—” Harry’s hand clamped over Louis mouth before he could finish his sentence. Louis was grinning cheekily at Nell, wiggling his eyebrows mischievously. Harry was looking at her, apologetic, and she just stood up and stretched her back.
“I really do admire your subtlety, Louis. Okay, well I’m going to go to my room. And you two,” She paused to gesture at Harry and Louis, “Keep your mouths shut.”
She left, waving goodbye, retreating to her room. A few moments later, I got a text from her.

From: Nell Davison
Don’t let them say a word to Niall. Harry and I kissed twice.

To: Nell Davison
DETAILS NOW

From: Nell Davison
Ugh, you’ll get them Zayn, tomorrow. Now just make sure they don’t say anything!

To: Nell Davison
Whatever you say, boss. :D