Stephanie's POV

I wipe my eyes as I sit down, seeing Harry has just made everything worse. Why did he have to come here? Why did he have to look so good. This isn't fair, I try to get over him and here I am letting my heart go crazy at the sight of him.
But we can never be anything. Harry and I are done for good. Especially after how I've just treated him, he's going to hate me. But that's good, then we can both just go our own way.

I never thought I'd be thinking like this about Harry. I was so in love with him, I never wanted to lose him. He was everything to me, whether he realised or not. Why is it that good things can never last? Why do they need to come to an end?
It's no use thinking like this, what's done is done. I'm a stronger woman now, I've learnt to deal with pain and I put my guard up blocking anyone from letting in. I don't have to rely anyone but myself. I do however have feelings, I know Harry still has an effect on me, but I can move on and block those feelings out.

"We're back!" Jed calls, I jump at his voice and quickly stand up checking my reflection. "Looks like I'm going as spiderman."Jed laughs as he and the others walk into the living room.

"Cool.." I smile as I turn around to face them. Chloe frowns as she looks at me.

"Have you been crying? Your eyes are red." Chloe asks. Shit, she doesn't miss a thing! I shake my head as they don't need to know what's just happened.

"I fell asleep, just woke up." I answer and I roll my eyes. Chloe doesn't look convinced but the others seem to believe it.

"At least you had a cat nap." Niall smiles as he walks over to me, he shocks me as his arm drapes around my shoulder. Jed looks at me and smiles.

"I've heard about you two." Jed teases as he looks at me. Niall laughs and scratches the back of his head. I look at him and smile.

"I know we were supposed to keep it quiet but he's your brother and he was asking me all sorts of questions.." Niall says as he looks down at me.

"It's fine." I say as I reach up and kiss his cheek.

"Shall we get this birthday started?" Lucy asks as she holds up a bottle of vodka. I laugh as this is going to get messy, but at least it takes my mind off Harry. I just hope she's got coke to go with that.

---

Harry's POV

I slam the front door shut and I walk into the kitchen. Louis has some strong whiskey somewhere, where the hell did he put it?

"Harry, what happened?" Liam asks as he walks in, I ignore him as I roam through the cupboards. "Harry!" He snaps as I don't answer him.

"Where's Louis' whiskey?" I stop and turn to face him. He looks worried so I look away. I can't deal with Liam trying to find out how things went, all I want is a strong drink first to settle my anger otherwise I feel I'm going to lose my mind.

"In my room." Louis says as he appears behind Liam. "Sit down." He adds as he leaves. I sigh as I pull out a chair and sit down. Liam does too.

"I guess it didn't go well.." Liam asks and I look at him and shake my head. Louis walks back in and places the bottle on the table. He grabs three glasses and sits down opposite me. He unscrews the lid and pours out our drinks. I quickly reach forward and down mine. I slowly start to process words as I know Liam won't give up until I tell him.

"She hates me.." I snap as I reach forward and pour myself another. Louis looks to Liam and frowns. "I've never seen her like that before. She was cold and bitter.."

"I'm sure she didn't mean it, she was most likely trying to hurt you back." Liam says and I look at him.

"And that's exactly what she's done. The look in her eyes was horrible, I've never seen someone look at me with such hate." I say as I down my second glass.

"It's not the fact that she hates you, she just wants you to feel as shit as she did I expect. What was it she actually said?" Louis asks and I sigh as I start to explain but I don't really know where to start.

"Well she said she doesn't want to see me again and I don't mean anything to her and how I let her down." I pause as I look at their sympathetic faces. "Oh and how she's moved on, she's seeing Niall." I add.

"I'm sorry Harry, I knew you shouldn't have gone. People can change and not always in a good way." Liam says as he sits back in his chair. I look at my empty glass.

"Well if she was a Bitch to you then at least it will be easier to move on.." Louis says and Liam looks at him frowning. I shake my head in disagreement. Louis has no idea at all about Stephanie and I.

"But she isn't a Bitch, Stephanie is not the girl she played out to be" I say as I look back at them. Liam sighs.

"She may not be the girl who you knew, she may have lost her way." Liam suggests and I shrug as I guess he could be right.

"I want to help her remember who she is, I made her into this person, I can help her change back." I say with a little enthusiasm. Liam and Louis both shake their heads.

"Harry. Stop. This is where you're going wrong. You can't help her no more because she's not interested. You need to let her breathe, see if she contacts you. Why should you chase after her? She is in the wrong just as much as you by what she said!" Louis snaps and I can't listen to him. I left her, I'm too blame.

" I'm the fuck up here, not Steph!" I snap back and Liam looks at me.

"Wake up Harry! You've got to move on, it's not fair that you keep blaming yourself. How the fuck can you say that?" Louis asks as he shakes his head.

"Because you don't know Stephanie!" I snap as I let my head fall into my hands.

"Okay, enough!" Liam says sternly. I slowly look up as Louis takes another sip of his drink. "You're right Harry, we don't know Stephanie. We can only judge by what you've told us. But Louis is right, you can't keep blaming yourself. You did something not many people would do. You've got a good job but you had to leave loved ones behind. That's not you being nasty therefore you're not too blame!" Liam snaps and we both look at him a little taken back by his tone.

"He's right, I only said all that because I care about you. You're my best friend and I'm going to look out for you." Louis says and I nod. I know Louis isn't the one I should be arguing with.

"I just, I just love her still. My head is a mess now." I sigh and Liam nods.

"Remember what I said before, take one step at a time and just take everyday as it comes. You were enjoying the idea of seeing Louise again, so go with that and make plans to see her. Steph may have moved on but it will be good for you both to have some time apart and to see other people. It's not going to be easy, but nothing stays sour forever." I don't know how Liam can speak so wisely. He sighs and he continues, "Then if you're meant to be then you'll be brought back together.." He adds.

"Fine words from you there.." Louis says as he looks at Liam. This definitely is no laughing matter, but I can't help but laugh at Louis.

"Cheers guys, I'm not used to having such good mates." I say and Liam smiles. Louis pours me another drink.

"I'll toast to that!" Louis says as he holds his glass up, Liam and I join in and our glasses clink together. I look down as I down my third drink.

---

Stephanie's POV

I look at my reflection and I can't take myself seriously. Here I am dressed up as cat woman. Chloe painted my face and added whiskers, even though I thought cat woman didn't have any, but Chloe was reluctant that I had them painted on.

"Hey..Wow you look awesome!" Chloe smiles as she walks in and sits on the bed.

"So do you" I smile as she looks great as Wonder woman. "are they nearly ready?" I ask and Chloe nods.

"Can I ask you something?" She asks and I sit down next to her. I nod for her to continue, "I know you were crying earlier, I've seen you go through alot lately. So I know you didn't have sleepy eyes." She adds and I look away from her.

Seriously what can I say to that? I don't want them to know I saw Harry. I don't want Niall to take it the wrong way and I don't want them to think I'm not over him. It could look like I stayed home on purpose to see him, which obviously wasnt the case.

"I felt a little bit emotional that I was back in London. I'm fine now, it just all got to me a little bit." I say and Chloe nods. Hopefully she doesn't try to ask any further questions.

"You know you can come to me, I'm here for you Steph. " Chloe says and I smile appreciatively.

"Thanks Chloe" I say as she pulls me into a hug. I feel awful that I've lied to her. She gently pulls away.

"Come on, let's have another drink." She says as she stands up. I nod and stand, I take a breath as I follow her out.

"Hey I wondered Where-" Niall stops as he looks at me and his eyes widen. "You look..amazing." He smirks as he looks me up and down. I suddenly feel a little vulnerable.

"Stop drooling Niall and help me with some drinks." Chloe says as she nudges Niall. He laughs as he looks away from me and helps Chloe.

"Here I am" Lucy beams as she steps out smiling. I look at her and begin to compliment how good she looks, she definitely will get attention tonight. "Oh more drinks!" She says excitedly.

"I quite like being spiderman." Jed grins as he walks in and I can't help but laugh. He does look good, I'll give him that.

"You look great, let's take a groupie!" Lucy beams as she takes her phone and gathers us together. Niall's arm snakes around my waist and I lean in to Chloe smiling. "Say happy birthday!" Lucy says smiling and we all repeat her.

I take my drink and down pretty much half of what taste just pure vodka. I'd hate to know how much coke they put in.

"Drink up people, it's time we hit the bar that I've rented out. Vip lounge is all ours!" Lucy grins and I quite like the sound of being cut off from everyone else.

"Vip? Really?" Jed asks shocked and Lucy nods smiling. "That's awesome." He adds smiling

It's good being here with Jed, he seems genuinely happy to have us stay with him . It's weird that I'm saying in my brother's flat, it just sounds too grown up.
My phone vibrates and Jed holds it up and passes it to me. I thank him as I read a very worried text from my Mum. Crap! I completely forgot to text them. I quickly reply to her and apologise for not letting her know I arrived here safely. I can just imagine the panic on my parent's faces.

"That's odd. Harry just retweeted the Group photo of us that Lucy just took." Niall says as he looks at his phone. I look at him completely shocked as everyone else looks at me. What is Harry playing at?

Notes

I've had a really busy few days recently as I've not had as much time to write as I wish.
so I'm breaking this chapter in to two, as I know there's so much more I want to write and ideas I have in my head.
Hopefully the update will be tomorrow :)
Can I just say how adorable Liam is? I'd like to think he's very down to earth and has a heart of gold. He's exactly the type of friend Harry needs. And Louis, he's just blatant but still lovely in his own way!
Please let me know what you think and if you're enjoying this.story so far!
Thank you to all readers, voters and subscribers!

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