Scarlett’s POV

“Oh, hey, Scar.” Harry smirked at me as he walked into Niall’s kitchen, seeing me eating a bowl of cereal and scrolling through my twitter feed. I glanced down and realized that I was still wearing just Niall’s t-shirt, and no trousers. He raised his eyebrows. “Wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Hey, Harry.” I glanced up at my phone to see him smiling down at me, dimples and all, green eyes shining with mirth. Fuck, he’s hot.

“So, is this, like, a one night stand, or a bit more than that?”

I blushed and slapped his arm. “Shut up, Harry. We didn’t do anything.”

“Except you’re wearing his shirt and no trousers, and you have major sex hair, and let’s not forget the fact that you’re at Niall’s flat in the morning, having obviously spent the night. So I call bullshit on that.” He sat down across from me, that goddamn smirk still on his lips.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, returning my attention to my cereal. “Okay, fine, we did several things. He came over to my flat and we watched telly, and then I fell asleep, then we made cookie dough, then my brother came back and started having sex with his girlfriend, so we went to Nando’s and we came back here, and we watch The Lion King, and then we went to sleep.”

“In the same bed?”

“For fuck’s sake, Harry, you’re so nosy. Originally, no, but I sleepwalked into his bed, and then I just stayed there.”

He nodded. “Right, right. Sleepwalked.” He put air quotes around the word. “It was definitely an accident, not you coming on to him.”

“It was! Why are you even here, anyways?” I asked, turning off my phone, having no desire to look at more hate messages/Niallett ships.

“I was just going to hang out with Niall. We have two more days off before we start working on our next album.”

I put my elbows on the table and rested my chin in my hands. “Oh, nice. By the way, nice job with the texts last night.” I pulled out my phone and read the four that I’d gotten from him. “First, you said ‘Hey. I’m drunk. Hey Scar. We should repeat what happened last time I was drunk with you.’ And then there was ‘Fuck, I forgot about Niall and X Factor’, ‘Shit didn’t mean to mention X Factor’ and finally ‘Fuck, just ignore it all’. You really handled your alcohol well.” I quoted what he’d sent me last night.

He winced. “I got about seven drinks too many in me. Sorry about that, by the way. I’m kind of an insensitive dick when I’m drunk.”

“We all are, Harry. It’s okay. It’s not like I can’t think about it. I’m going to have to.” I sighed and swirled my Corn Flakes around, suddenly not hungry. Niall emerged from the shower, wearing only a pair of low-slung basketball shorts, the waistband of his boxers showing. His hair was wet, and he shook it a bit as he walked in. He gave Harry and me a grin.

“Hey, Haz. Morning, Scar.” He started to pour himself a cup of coffee. “You hungry, Harry?”

“Not really.”

Niall nodded and started to pour himself cereal—a chocolate kind in a very brightly colored box—and grabbed a spoon. “How was your night, mate?” He asked as he sat down next to me, rubbing my lower back a bit, sending tingles down my spine. Harry smirked knowingly.

“I got absolutely shitfaced and then I went home and passed out on my living room floor.”

“No company?” Niall asked, returning Harry’s smirk. Harry grit his teeth and gave Niall a look. Niall only laughed. “I’ll take that as a no.” He glanced at me and smiled.

Harry sighed and shook his head. “Do you want to do something today?”

“My plan was to sit around and make Scarlett not sad.”

I laughed. “You didn’t consult me about this plan, Ni.”

“Well, too bad, because you’re going along with it. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t really care. I have about another day before I should really start getting ready for the tour. I should probably head back and talk to my teachers at uni, too.”

“Why?” Harry asked.

I crinkled my eyebrows. “Why what?”

“Why do you have to talk to your teachers?”

I frowned. “Because I missed first semester for the show, and now I’m missing another month for the tour. I have a ton of work to do if I want to get caught up by the end of the year. If I start working on it now, I should be fine.” I had resigned myself to going back to university—at the beginning of the competition, I had told myself that if I didn’t win it all, then I was going back to uni. Most contestants pursued careers even if they didn’t win, but without the support of my parents, I really wasn’t able to. For one, I didn’t have the money, but that was a minor detail. Mostly, I just wanted them to stop shutting me out—I loved them too much for it. I wanted to be a singer more than anything, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it without their support. If they wanted me to be a biologist, so I would be.

“You’re going back to uni?” Niall’s face fell.

“Yeah, I am.” I sighed. “It’s just…I’m obviously not good enough for this. At the beginning, I decided that if I didn’t win, then that was it. I had my go, but I didn’t win, and if I don’t have a recording contract, I just can’t keep doing this.”

“Scar, you could get signed in an instant. You can’t go back!” Niall looked at me like I was insane. “Yeah, Scarlett, you have to keep doing this. You’re an amazing singer.” Harry agreed.

I swallowed. I really didn’t want them to know about my parent’s lack of support. They had no idea how difficult of a decision it was for me—after being onstage, having so many fans, it was the hardest thing I’d ever done to leave it all for university. “I’m not arguing this.” I said quietly. “I’m going back, and that’s it.”

“This isn’t over.” Niall grumbled in a voice that he probably assumed I couldn’t hear. Harry shot him a look and he rolled his eyes before putting on the fakest of fake smiles I’d ever seen. “So, what do you want to do today?”