Catching Red Eyes

I must have fallen asleep because I opened my eyes when I felt Harry shift out of the bed. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to me. I watched him move his head from side to side and stretching. He reached for his phone and put it to his ear.

“Ai…”

His voice trailed off as he walked out of the bedroom. I looked around the room and my eyes noticed all the little details from our earlier moments. The little blue box was sitting on the bedside table, our clothes were sprawled across the furniture, and the covers were scrunched up at the foot of the bed. I looked at my left hand and my ring was sending sparkles across the bedroom as it caught the light. It felt foreign considering I had never imagined a ring on this particular finger.

I listened as Harry paced back and forth from the kitchen to the hallway. His voice was hushed but he was talking quickly. I gathered the sheet around me and stood in the doorway and peeked my head out. Harry’s back was to me as he slammed his fist into the wall. The noise made me gasp and jump. There was the smallest indent in the wall now and I saw the blood pouring from his hand. I ran out of the doorframe and pulled his hand into mine.

“Fine! Just get them to bloody take it down. This is ridiculous!”

I didn’t try to understand why he was so angry because his hand was my concern right now. I pulled him into the kitchen and grabbed a towel to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. I was able to find a small first aid kit in one of the cabinets and cleaned out the cut. It was small but since it was on his middle knuckle, the blood was gushing. I wrapped the gauze around it a few times but kept his hand in mine to apply extra pressure.

“Who cares if there are pictures to prove it?? They have no idea what was in that bag.
Listen, just call whoever the hell you need to and get it down.”

Harry slammed his phone down and I swear it was shattered but he didn’t care. He looked down at his hand wrapped in the gauze and kissed my forehead.

“I’m sorry, love. This isn’t how I wanted to restart our day but I have some news. The press thinks we are engaged because they saw me carrying the ring box through the hotel lobby the other night…”

I was confused. I knew we weren’t officially engaged and that my ring was just a promise for us to be but what was the big deal? Who cares if people thought we were? He must have read my confusion.

“Look, the press is already having a go at us with Zayn quitting so we were told to keep a low profile. I think for right now, we keep the ring safe and hidden.”

My right hand instantly drew back to protect my left hand.

“Harry, you’re joking. Honestly, who cares what people think? I get it with the press but this is something between us and its sacred now. Why are you asking me to do this? I am not trying to sound dramatic but this ring represents our promise to each other…I can’t just take it off because someone thinks something that isn’t true…well isn’t true quite yet. It-its not fair…”
Harry looked into my cloudy eyes and his face softened. He let out a sign and shook his head.

“You’re right.”

“Wait, did we just almost fight then agree on something?” I wanted to laugh considering our
disagreements usually end in one of us leaving how different this felt.

“Yes, love. You are right. Let people think what they want. I do need to think of the fans though. Let me have them send a statement out just so that the fans have something from me.”

Harry turned and got back on his phone and surprisingly, it wasn’t shattered. I half listened to his conversation as my mind processed. I am not sure what kind of girl would be able to share this wonderful human with the whole world, but I hope I would be able to do a good job. This relationship was hard enough with his immense popularity but now I was afraid I would be hated on top of all this.

“Love, I know that look. What are you worrying about?”

“What?”

“That look…you crinkle your forehead and squint when you are worried. What’s wrong?”

“Oh, well, I guess…I’m worried about your fans. They love all of you so much and I’m afraid they will hate me. This whole thing is hard enough to get used to…”

He pulled me into him with his good hand and kissed me. “That is very sweet of you to care about our fans and yes, there will be many of them very upset but we are all family and they take care of each other. They will all eventually be happy for me…for us. We really do have the best fans in the world so please don’t worry about all that right now.”

I tried to let his words comfort me but I was still a little uneasy about people thinking we were engaged. Of course, I want all that eventually but not right now. A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts as I realized I had no clothes on. I scurried from Harry and down the hall and found my bag and threw on a pair of jeans and a wrinkled t-shirt. I heard voices down the hall as I walked back to the front.

“Christ, Harry, your hand. Did you at least clean it out?”

“Rowan did.”

“Well, at least she has a brain compared to the other ones you surround yourself with.”

“Shove off, mate.”

The voice talking to Harry was a male’s voice and I recognized it as one of his many bodyguards. I smiled and he smiled back. The hotel door was still open as more people walked in carrying clothes, hair accessories and food. It was organized chaos. I leaned against the kitchen counter and watched. A part of me was a bit jealous that all these people, including other women, were seeing Harry in just his boxers but I told myself to be practical and relax.

Harry picked out a white button up with red flower designs, black jeans, and black boots for his show tonight. I almost forget he was on tour in the midst of our time together. I knew I was going to have to leave him soon and it hurt. It hurt badly.

“Love, can you come here?” I walked over to Harry and he waved me off to the stylists behind him who instantly grabbed my left hand and were complimenting my ring. I blushed a deep red as the strangers reacted.

“Wow, that is a hefty price tag on a promise ring, Styles, but it is beautiful.”

“Yes, you are quite the lucky lady with that one. Gorgeous. So happy for you both. Can’t wait for the actual engagement ring.”

I politely smiled to the strangers and my stomach muscles tightened thinking of how much the ring was and actually thinking of myself engaged to Harry one day.

After they left, Harry and I made the most of our time together before he had to leave.

“Are you sure you can’t stay for the show? You know it is no problem.”

“Harry, you know I can’t no matter how much I want to…I told Marc and George I would be back tomorrow at the latest.”

“Fine, fine. Promise me one thing?”

I looked up at him. His eyes were boring into mine and I felt like jello. I was certain no one else in this world could do the things he did to me.

“Do not fall in love with anyone else.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed at his statement. “I think this is something I should be telling you, Harry Styles.”

We both laughed now and spent the rest of the time we had together intertwined on the couch before we heard the infiltrating knocking. Harry grabbed my bag for me as we made our way down to the lobby. He had his other hand wrapped around my waist as we were greeted by the biggest crowd of flashes and screaming I had seen thus far. Thankfully, Harry’s bodyguards had put up barricades so we were safe as we got into the dark SUV.

“Rowan! Harry!! Let us see the ring! Harry, is she pregnant? When’s the wedding?? How are the fans taking this??”

Inside the SUV, I shook my head and laughed. “Jeez, they are relentless.”

“Oh, I don’t even hear them anymore,” he said, pulling me into him. This was truly my favorite place in the world. He interacted his fingers in mine and played with the new jewelry on my finger.

Notes