The Misfits

It had been five days since the paparazzi had discovered Mackenzie and I, and the attention hadn’t died down. It didn’t helped that Niall and Louis took to twitter in retaliation, though thankfully they hadn’t been too harsh.

I was sitting in the living room with Maeve, Elaine, and Mackenzie. It was a Saturday evening and in some miracle we all had the day off of work. In honor we decided to have a girls day and just stay in.

“Have you talked to your dad yet?” Maeve asked with her mouth full of the cookies Elaine had baked us.

“Nope. Not since he called me a slut and hypocritically accused my mother of being a bad parent.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that,” cooed Elaine.

“His words were literally ‘I thought you were raised better than this’.”

“Ouch,” Maeve winced. “And he hasn’t tried calling you or anything?”

“Nope.”

“He probably doesn’t know how to fix it,” offered Mackenzie. “I’d bet anything he’s regretting it now.”

I shook my head. “I doubt it…I mean think about it, I pretty much slept with his boss. Hell, I did sleep with his boss.”

“He doesn’t know that though.”

“Yeah, all he knows is that the media said you’re a flirt,” Maeve shrugged. I shot her a glare and she added, “Which you’re totally not! I’m just saying don’t blame yourself cause you haven’t done anything wrong. And he was out of line the second he criticized how you were raised. He lost that right seventeen years ago.”

“Don’t worry Mae, I already called him out on it.” I rolled my eyes. “I just feel like that’s ultimately what all our arguments boil down to; my acting a certain way because he left.”

“Maybe that’s how he deals with the boys?” Suggested Elaine. “He can turn the blame on someone else, but when it comes to you…”

“I know. Just my presence is like throwing every mistake he ever made right back in his face,” I sighed. “No wonder he’s always defensive. I would be too.”

“What does Harry say?”

“That he’ll come around.”

“I mean they know him best…”

“Yeah no kidding.” Just then there was a knock on the door, putting a halt to our conversation. Elaine jumped up to answer the door and let out a squeal when Perrie and Eleanor stepped inside.

“Hello beautiful ladies!” beamed Perrie, giving us each a hug in turn. “How have you been? Zayn told me about the media.”

“Honestly…I was expecting worse. Some of them are crazy, but a lot of the fans are actually really nice.”

Ever since the boys had gotten me a Twitter, I had been direct messaging with some of their fans. There were a few really crazy ones, the ones I avoided, and then there were the ones who just wanted someone to talk to. There were a few girls who had talked about break-ups or bullying and now I just periodically check in on them to make sure they’re doing okay.

“I just refuse to look at the negative comments,” Mackenzie agreed. “I’ve put everything on private and switched it so I only get notifications from people I want.”

“I actually kind of enjoy talking with some of them – the chill ones not the psychopaths – they’re actually really fun to get to know. And it cracks me up how infatuated they are with the guys.”

“Pfft. As if you’re not infatuated yourself,” snorted Maeve. Then, to my horror, she began sining, “Hazza and Thalia sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

I buried my face my hands and they all let out screams.

“It’s nothing official or anything—”

“But he stayed the night after the party last Saturday,” Elaine beamed. I shot her a glare. She had heard!

“You sneak!” Perrie whacked me in the arm for not having told her. “How was the sex? Was he good?”

I hesitated a moment before admitting. “It was fucking amazing.”

The girls let out screams and began asking me for all the nitty gritty details. I wasn’t used to sharing this much about my sex life, but they kept prodding.

“Okay so why nothing official?” Eleanor asked when I was done.

“He wants to but…”

“But what!”

“But she’s scared of commitment,” answered Maeve. I almost shot her a glare too, but realized that wouldn’t be fair since she was telling the truth.

“Maybe it’s a good thing then,” Perrie shrugged. “Harry commits to easily. When did he ask?”

“Before they left for tour.”

“WHAT!”

“Seriously!”

“Holy shit!”

“And again on Saturday,” I whispered.

Maeve threw a pillow at my head. “DATE HIM. MARRY HIM. BE CUTE.”

“I just…I don’t know,” I groaned, burying my face in the pillow. My phone buzzed and I lifted my eyes enough to see the screen. It was a picture message from Harry. Perfect timing.

He had taken screenshot of one of my photos on instagram, the one where I’m peaking over the edge of the couch with my cat sitting next to me mimicking my action. Underneath he had written, “I want that pussy.”

I died laughing.

I held the phone out to Maeve who squinted at it and then burst out laughing, she quickly showed it to the others and pretty soon we were all in stiches.

“Okay can we pause for a moment,” Perrie said, whipping away tears. “Look at you. You’re sitting here laughing your ass off at a text and you’re trying to tell me you don’t have feelings for him?”

“I never said I don’t have feelings for him!”

“Ha!” cried Eleanor and Mackenzie together. “So date him!”

“I’m working on it!” I rolled my eyes, getting bored with all this talk about my nonexistent relationship. It wasn’t that I didn’t like him, quite the contrary. “He’s just so...”

“Perfect?” Eleanor offered.

“Ha! No, he’s far from that.” I snorted. “He’s impulsive and weird as hell… but he’s funny and nice and he genuinely cares. I can talk to him for hours and never get bored. He’s just…always leaving.”

“But he always comes back,” Maeve replied, giving me a small smile. “He’s not your dad Thal. And honestly he’s a thousand times better than the guys you’ve gone with in the past.”
“I know…”

“He genuinely cares about you Thalia.” Perrie smiled, while Eleanor nodded and added, “I’ve never seen him so hung up on a girl.”

I sunk down and hid further behind my pillow. “Stooooooop.”

“Date him, date him, date him!” cheered Mackenzie, a wicked little smile on her face.

"How about as soon as you date Niall?" I smiled evilly back at her. Color immediately rose to her cheeks as the others let out a gasp and turned to her.

"What about you and Niall?" Eleanor asked.

"It's nothing! We've just been texting a little is all," she quickly replied, shooting me a glare for giving away her secret.

"Oh yeah, he's only glued to your side every time we hang out and only looks at you like you're the most perfect human on the planet!" Scoffed Maeve dramatically. "He likes you Kenz."

“Wait have you guys fucked too?”

I felt bad for putting Mackenzie's love life on the spot like that, but I couldn't take anymore of their questions about Harry and I. She sunk down deep into the cushions and began playing with a lost string.

"No we haven’t. I mean we’ve fooled around but I kind stopped him from going any further...”

“Aw babe! Why not?”

“I just don't think he's looking for a relationship right now," she mumbled. Maeve and I exchanged a split-second glance knowing that was only part of the reason. Mackenzie had had been abused by her uncle when she was younger, and has hardly let a guy touch her since. I’m actually surprised she let Niall get that far.

"But if he was looking for one would you date him?" Perrie asked. Mackenzie’s face somehow turned even an even darker shade of red then before and we all let out screams.

"But he's not! So it doesn't even matter!" Mackenzie protested.

"Mackenzie, he's never actually had an 'official' girlfriend," Eleanor said sympathetically. "He's probably just scared!"

"Well so am I!" She blurted out. “But I would still try it.”

“Have you told him that?”

“No.”

“How come?”

“Because what if he doesn’t actually feel the same, or is just looking for a hook up and I end up ruining everything?” Mackenzie asked, her shoulders sagging as she voiced aloud thoughts I know had been haunting her.

“Someone has to take the leap of faith,” Eleanor shrugged. “Why not you?”

"I wonder what he'll say at the interview," Perrie thought aloud.

"Interview?" Mackenzie and I both asked. "I thought that it was just about their album!"
"Oh the interviewers will find a way to worm the question in there, especially with all of the recent attention lately."

"Oh great," I groaned.

"At least they'll be putting those rumors to rest though," shrugged Elaine. "Then maybe some of the hate will go down."

"You're always going to get hate," Perrie snorted. "You just can't let them get you down."

"Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate," Maeve sang quietly from the corner. We all bust out laughing before singing the rest of the song and ending in stitches.

We sat talking for nearly an hour before deciding to order take-out and movie binge. We put on some romantic comedy, but ended up not paying any attention to it whatsoever. It had been a while since we had all had girl time to sit back, relax and really talk about our lives and I must say, it felt wonderful. The six of us just connected so easily somehow.

A while later we had shifted from the chairs to the floor, sitting in a circle and sharing secrets, when there was a knock on the door. We all frowned as Mackenzie jumped up and danced over to the door. The second she opened it she let out a scream.

“SURPRISE!” One Direction burst through our door and Louis picked up Mackenzie to spin her around before turning to us excitedly.

“What the hell are you doing here?” laughed Perrie in disbelief.

“We finished the interview and knew you lot were all here,” Zayn shrugged, walking over and giving her a peck on the lips.

“This is a girls night. No boys allowed.” Frowned Maeve.

“But you love us!” Cried Harry running over and giving her a bear hug. She let out a yell and tried to free herself form him but quickly gave up laughing.

“How was the interview?” Eleanor asked, turning to Louis.

“They were ruthless! They bombarded us with questions about you lot,” he groaned, before sitting up and mimicking, “Harry, you’ve been spotted out an about with a new bird, any juicy details? Harry, how do the boys feel about this new girl of yours? How did you all meet? The two seems pretty close with the rest of the 1D girlfriends, is this some sort of initiation? Niall, we heard you were set up on a date tell us—”

“Ew stop!” I groaned, saving Mackenzie from any embarrassment. Her cheeks had turned pink when Louis mentioned Niall’s name. Then I turned to Harry curiously, “How did you reply?”

“That we all met through a mutual friend and have grown to be good friends,” he said, giving me proud little smile. I patted his head and returned the smile.

“You should have seen Pauley’s face when they were asking though,” Liam said, an evil smile on his face. “Couldn’t tell if he was going to kill first…the interviewer or Harry.”

We all burst out laughing before Elaine asked if anyone was hungry for treats. As she got up to go fetch the cookies I gave her a grateful smile for changing the subject. I was in no mood to talk about my father. We still hadn’t spoken since the fight nearly a week ago and I was beginning to think he had finally decided he wanted nothing to do with me. I felt Harry’s arm drape around my shoulder and turned to see a slight frown on his brow. I gave him a reassuring smile before turning back to the other’s conversation.

The rest of the night was spent watching movies, playing games, and acting like idiots with our friends. Harry kept shooting me glances throughout the entire evening and I could tell he was trying to see past the façade I had put up. And it wasn’t until after the others left though did he pull me aside to talk.

“Thalia, are you alright?”

“Of course,” I lied easily. We were sitting on one of the chairs in the living room, my legs draped over his lap. The other girls had gone to bed, so it was just the two of us. He studied my features for a minute before shaking his head.

“No you’re not.”

“I am. I’m just thinking.”

“That’s dangerous. Ow!” He flinched as I punched him lightly in the arm. We both shared a laugh and I felt him pull me closer. I saw his bright green eyes for a moment before I was pulled into a gentle kiss. I immediately relaxed. How did he do that? When he broke the kiss he leant his forehead on mine. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I promise,” I whispered.

Notes