Change My Mind

ERIN
“I need a drink.” Harry whispered into my ear bringing me back down from cloud nine, and it was then that I realized I was actually quite parched myself.
“Oh, of course.” I said with a smile as Harry grabbed my hand leading me off the dance floor and over to the bar. Harry placed his hand on the small of my back signaling for me to order my drink and setting my nerves on fire.
“Sex on the beach please.” I said with a smile as the bartender nodded, turning to make my drink.
If he hadn’t had his arm around me I almost wouldn’t have heard Harry mumble under his breath as he said, “That does sound good.”
I snapped my head and caught him looking at me as he bit his bottom lip and I felt the blood rise in my cheeks. I playfully smacked his chest and he looked at me feigning innocence. He opened his mouth about to say something when the bartender reappeared.
Harry looked to the bartender and placed his order, “I’ll have a long island iced tea.”
The bartender looked at him incredulously and said with a chuckle, “Yeah, sure…I need to see some ID kid.”
At the bartender’s use of the word ‘kid’ I suddenly felt my blissful night slip away. What the hell was I thinking? I had been careless tonight, completely forgetting all the reservations I’d had about Harry from the start, and I was regretting it already.
As Harry reached for his wallet to show his ID I scanned the room looking for Stefanie and Louis, spotting them almost immediately and once the bartender turned to make Harry’s drink I seized the opportunity to put some distance between us.
“I see Louis and Stef over there at one of the tables, I’m going to head over.” And before Harry could respond I walked away, only glancing back long enough to see the confused expression on Harry’s face.
The closer I got to the table where Stefanie and Louis were, the more I realized that they were deep in what appeared to be a serious discussion and I stopped for only a moment and contemplated going back to Harry, but I couldn’t seem to make myself do it. I plastered a smile to my face and continued over to that table, “Hey guys.”
As they looked up at me it was plain to see that they both donned two very different expressions. Stefanie’s was one of relief while Louis looked annoyed at my presence. Stefanie scooted over making room for me to take a seat next to her.
“How was dancing?” she asked and before I could reply Harry appeared and occupied the seat next to Louis.
He glanced around at everyone and said, “Why do I feel like I am interrupting something?” picking up on the fact that everyone was a little too quiet.
“Nope…not interrupting.” Stefanie said quickly, and I couldn’t help notice the confused look on Louis’ face.

I heard an unfamiliar voice from behind me say, “Excuse me?” and I turned to see a tall Brunette man who was quite handsome. His eyes were focused on Stefanie and as soon as she realized he was talking to her she turned in her seat to face him.
“Yes?” she asked with a warm smile.
“My buddies over there bet me that I wouldn’t be able to start a conversation with the most beautiful girl in the bar, so I was wondering if you wanted to buy some drinks with their money?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Louis mumbled under his breath and one look around the table told me I was the only one to hear him.
“Wow,” Stefanie chuckled, “Um…thank you but I’m here with my friends and I wouldn’t feel right leaving them.”
The man looked completely deflated as he turned to walk back to his friends and Stefanie and I instantly looked at each other.
“Really?” she laughed and we simultaneously held up our pointer fingers and slowly began curling them down.
“Mreew.” We both said, laughing hysterically.
“Clearly we’ve missed something.” Harry said with Louis nodding in agreement. Stefanie and I looked at each other again before laughing harder than before as the boys stared at us completely lost.
“It’s…just,” Stefanie began, attempting to talk through her laughter, and admittedly she was doing better than I would be as I was still laughing too hard to form words. She took a deep breath and continued, “Sorry, it’s an inside joke. Just something we used to do when we were younger.”
“What do you mean younger?” Louis asked genuinely shocked.
“How long have you two known each other?” Harry added.
Stefanie and I looked at each other before answering simultaneously, “twenty one years.”
“And how old are you both?” Harry asked looking a little perplexed.
Stefanie answered first, “I’m twenty five.” She said proudly and not at all ashamed that we were out with two guys who were so much younger than us.
When the guys looked to me I knew I had to just get it over with, “And I’m…twenty six.” I could tell by the look on Stefanie’s face that she noticed my hesitation. I was hoping she was the only one to notice but when I looked to Harry I was disappointed to see he had noticed as well.
“That’s quite a long time.” Louis pointed out and we all nodded in agreement as we finished our drinks.
“Well guys, we have an early day tomorrow,” Stefanie said, breaking the awkward silence that fell over our group, “I think Erin and I should head out.”
Stefanie and I stood up from the table and the boys did the same.
“Good night guys,” Stefanie said, hugging Harry quickly and then turning to Louis. Louis pulled Stefanie into his arms as I looked over to Harry who was leaning in for a kiss. I quickly turned my head so that his kiss landed on my cheek. As he pulled away I saw the confused look on Stefanie’s face, and knew she’d be asking me what the hell that was about as soon as she had the opportunity.




STEFANIE

The next morning I had woken up and started getting breakfast ready after my shower. While I was standing at the counter in the kitchen I heard the familiar shuffle of Erin’s feet coming down the hallway. “Good Morning!” I said in a sing song fashion, placing the orange juice back in the refrigerator.
“Morning.” I heard Erin mumble just before yawning.
I looked over as I closed the refrigerator door and saw that Erin had bags under her eyes and her hair was in disarray.
“You look awful!” I said shocked at how she looked. I’d seen her this way before but only after a night of heavy drinking or when she hadn’t slept much the night before. She only had two drinks at the club last night so I knew she hadn’t slept well. “What kept you up last night?” I asked after she gave me the death stare.
“First of all…rude.” She said grabbing the teapot to put water in it before placing it on the burner to heat it up.
“Second of all?” I questioned looking over to her.
She whipped her head around and said, “Second of all…nothing, there is no second of all, okay? I simply misspoke when I said first of all.”
“Yeah, okay.” I said with a laugh. “Come on seriously. Does this have to do with whatever the hell happened between you and Harry last night?”
“What do you mean? Nothing happened.” Erin did her best to act as if everything was fine but I wasn’t easily fooled when it came to Erin.
“Really? Because it looked like you two were really hitting it off when you were grinding on each other on the dance floor.”
She cringed at my words and ran her fingers through her hair before hiding her face in her hands. “Yeah, okay we had a good time when we were dancing okay? Are you happy?” The tea pot started to whistle signaling that it was done so she dropped her hands on the counter in annoyance before standing up.
“No, I’m not! I wanna know what happened between the dance floor, and when you came over by us to make you act so coldly towards him?”
“Ugh!” She grunted and breathed heavily sitting across from me again. “Everything was going great until we went to the bar to get drinks. The bartender asked him for I.D. and it was like someone threw ice cold water in my face. He’s just way too young for me. I can’t get involved with someone that young.”
“I’ve known you way too long for you to think that’s a good reason. What really happened?” I pushed, starting to lose patience with Erin, demanding an answer.
“FINE!” she said throwing her hands up in the air to show that she’d given up. “You wanna know what really happened? Here it is, but I’m not sure you’ll understand it… I lost myself last night while I was with him. I completely let go of myself and fell under his spell and that scared me. I can’t let him get to me like that because I know at the end of the day, that’s how my heart will get broken. Look what happened with Chris! I need to be able to be myself when I’m with someone or ill forget who I am and that can’t happen.”
I was shocked at what Erin said, I understood all too well what it was like to get lost in someone else like that. I couldn’t blame Erin for wanting to maintain a sense of self while being with Harry, but I couldn’t help thinking that Harry wouldn’t be the guy to make her regret losing herself for a little while when she was with him.
“Okay hun, I’m sorry I didn’t realize. I won’t push you anymore, but I do want to make it clear that he might surprise you if you let him.” I got up and walked around to Erin to give her a big hug, “Please just think about it? I wouldn’t knowingly send into the arms of another Chris.”
She sighed and said, “I know.” hugging me back.
“Now…what do you want to do after rehearsals tonight?”
“Ugh, I’m so tired from not having slept right…can we just have a quiet night in watching movies?”
“That actually sounds good, do you mind if I invite Liam?”
“No that’s fine with me.” She said, getting up and heading to that bathroom to take a shower.
“Okay, I’ll text him.” I said picking up my phone.
Hey, Erin and I are gonna have a movie night tonight at our place, you wanna come over? –S
I’m in but only if you aren’t planning on watching a chick flick… - L
Lol, what kind of movie do you have in mind? – S
IDK…how about a horror movie? - L
Oh lord. – S
You’re a lot like Erin with those damn movies, Lmao – S
Is that a yes? – L
Lol…maybe – S


Rehearsals went a lot more smoothly than yesterday and I started to get an idea of how much better they can be when they aren’t fooling around as much. Little did they know, I would be expecting this kind of rehearsal more often now that I’ve seen they can be this serious. We were on the last song which was What Makes You Beautiful and I had been getting my stuff gathered up so Erin and I could leave as soon I dismissed the boys. When I looked up from my notes for the last few bars I saw that Niall and Harry were imitating what Erin and I had done last night when we were fooling around on stage while Louis, Zayn and Liam were laughing. I laughed along with them and thanked my lucky stars that Erin was still backstage because she would’ve been mortified. Erin can take a joke but seeing Harry making the joke would’ve probably stung a bit right now. The song ended and the entire crew clapped for the successful rehearsal and I signaled for everyone to gather around for their notes and instructions for tomorrow. I held off on giving the boys their instructions until everyone else had been dismissed which was out of the usual but I wanted to see if Liam was still coming over without having to invite the entire crew along.
“Okay guys great rehearsal today! I want everyone to relax the rest of the day today because tomorrow is gonna be a long one.”
I felt someone wrap an arm around my shoulder, and looked up to see Erin by my side smiling, “Yeah, some of you have to retry on the clothes I had to alter to make sure they fit right. Zayn, yours are already done so I’ll start with you.”
“Smashing.” He said with a smile.
“Okay then, if that’s everything, we’ll see you guys tomorrow.” I said watching Louis turn to walk away with Zayn. I wanted to say something to him, after last night I felt like there was still so much to say but I stopped myself when I felt the L sound start to leave my mouth, “LLLiam…Are you still coming over tonight?”
“I dunno, have we settled on a movie?” he answered with a chuckle.
“Yeah, yeah, okay you and Erin talked me into a scary movie.” I rolled my eyes and out of the corner of I caught a glimpse of Louis turning around to listen to what Liam and I were saying, “You know scary movies aren’t exactly my thing...” I continued.
“Oh come on it’ll be okay.” Erin said trying to make me feel better.
“What’s this about scary movies?” Niall asked as he came up behind Erin.
“Oh hey!” Erin said looking up at Niall, “Liam’s coming over to watch movies with us tonight, you wanna come too?”
“I’d love to, but Harry and I were gonna hang out tonight…unless you don’t mind him coming too?”
I watched as Erin saw that Harry was approaching catching the last part of the conversation and I knew that she would never be rude intentionally to someone who didn’t do anything to deserve it so she swallowed hard before saying “Of course! The more the merrier, right?”
I muffled a soft giggle at Erin’s expense and then right at that moment as if on cue from the karma gods Zayn and Louis approached. “What are we doing tonight?” Zayn asked.
“We’re going over to Stefanie and Erin’s flat tonight to watch scary movies.” Niall announced and Zayn and Louis looked at Erin and I expectantly.
“Of course you two are also invited if you want to come but totally understand that it’s last minute so if you can’t make it we would understand.” I said trying to sound as if we didn’t just make plans without including them.
“No, no, I didn’t have much planned for tonight.” Louis started, “Actually Eleanor and I were just going to watch some tele, tonight anyway so I don’t see why we couldn’t just join you all and make a night of it.”
“Yeah and Perrie is going to be in the studio tonight anyway, so I’ve got nothing planned. I’d love to come.” Zayn said brightly.
“Great! We’ll order a pizza and I guess we will see you all tonight.” Erin said. To the untrained ear Erin sounded really excited to have everyone come over, but to me, her best friend practically since birth I knew that tone well…she was trying to sound convincing that she was actually excited but there was a hint of anxiety at the thought of having to be around Harry after last night.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled either. Not only would I have to be around Louis after our intense discussion last night but he was bringing Eleanor…to my flat! And I had to play the gracious hostess while she was curled up next to him! This night was going to be a disaster! The only relief I had was that Liam would be there to distract me from the PDA that I know we would all be subjected to. And if Niall’s obvious attempt to get Erin and Harry together was any indication, I’d at least get a laugh out of whatever he had up his sleeve.


Erin and I were determined to make this like our movie nights back home. We stopped at the store and picked up all different kinds of snack and drinks. When we got home Erin went straight to stocking the living room with pillows and blankets so that everyone could get comfortable. As I poured some chips in a bowl I saw Erin trying to arrange the pillows and blankets on the ottoman so that they were available to anyone who wanted them.
I placed the bowl on the table along with a plate of cookies I let out a small laugh. “What?” Erin questioned knowing my stifled giggle was directed at her. “I just want everyone to feel comfortable.”
“Yes, I can see it now…’Hey everyone get nice and cozy before you are scared by Michael Myers jumping out from behind a door with a machete.’…Lovely.”
This time Erin joined me in my laughter, “Okay I see your point, but still, I think it would be nice for everyone to feel welcome…even if some aren’t completely welcome, ya know?”
I rolled my eyes as I went back to the kitchen to get the drinks and glasses to put next to the snacks on the table. Just then the doorbell rang and Erin and I looked at each other, both not wanting to open the door for our own reasons, and both plastering a smile on our faces as Erin took her turn rolling her eyes as she walked towards the door to open it for our guests.
Niall and Harry were the first to arrive and from the second Niall walked in he made it his mission to get Erin and Harry together.
“Hello ladies!” Niall said bursting through the door the second it opened. He approached Erin and hugged her while turning her around so that when he let her go she was standing right next to Harry.
I walked in to the living room where Niall had his arms stretched out towards me wanting a hug and as I walked towards him he looked to Erin and Harry. Erin was standing at an awkward angle as Harry leaned in to kiss Erin on the cheek, and he ended up almost kissing her eye as she tried to turn away to avoid it. I have to hand it to the guy, if someone rejected me the way Erin did to him last night I don’t know if I would have the guts to show up tonight. He must really like her.
“Hi Harry.” I said welcoming him to our flat, hoping to ease the tension a bit when the bell rang again. This time it was Zayn, Louis and Eleanor.
We said our hellos and chatted a bit before the final ring from the doorbell rang. This time, thankfully it was Liam with pizzas we ordered. Niall helped him carry the boxes to counter by the kitchen. Everyone talked about how rehearsals went earlier that day while we all got our food before finally making our way to the living room.
“Okay, as promised we have a few scary movies to choose from so Erin and I figured we could take a vote on what to watch. I will let the scream queen tell you what we have since I whole heartedly did not want to do a horror night.” I said looking towards Erin.
Erin sat down on the end of the couch, closest to where she had the movies in a neat pile on the table. “We have Halloween H2O, Insidious, and all three Paranormal activity movies to choose from.”
“Ugh…” came from the kitchen. Everyone looked over to see Eleanor pouring herself a drink, “No offense. I know this is your flat, but why does it have to be a scary movie? I hate scary movies and so does Stef.”
I hated that she and I had this in common and I hated even more that she used it to try to get her way. There was only one thing to do…blame Erin and Liam. They both luckily would gladly take that bullet for me. “It’s Stefanie,” I said correcting her, “And those were the terms agreed on by Liam and myself this morning when I invited him over.”
“That’s right,” Liam chimed in, “and besides…Erin wants to watch a scary movie as well.”
Eleanor looked towards Erin and I expected her to fold, and let Eleanor change the plans, but just when she was about to cave she saw a smile play on Niall’s face as he nudged Harry, and suddenly her resolve came back. “Sorry, I like romantic movies too but we are clearly outnumbered by the guys….No guy wants to sit through the Notebook or some other sappy romantic ‘chick flick’.” Erin finalized using air quotes.
“Well that’s not really fair to say.” Niall said sharply.
Erin looked at him and tried to keep a straight face because she just couldn’t believe that Niall was about to go so far as to say that he loves romantic movies just to push Erin and Harry closer together. “Really Niall? You like romantic movies?”
“No…but Harry does.” He answered shrugging his shoulders.
Erin looked at Harry.
“It’s true,” Harry began, “I actually really like the Notebook. I also love Titanic, but my favorite movie is Love, Actually.”
I could tell Erin was eyeing him carefully looking for any sign that he was just saying it to score points with Erin.
“Okay…Well…That’s awesome but tonight we are watching something scary. Maybe next time?” Erin said, now feeling even more uncomfortable than before.
We finally settled on Paranormal Activity because I hadn’t seen that one yet and didn’t want to feel like I was missing out on anything during the second one. Everyone got cozy on the couch and Niall made one final attempt at making Erin sit next to Harry. I knew that after last night all Erin wanted was to relax and not feel pressured into anything so I took pity on her. After Niall sat next to me forcing Harry to sit next to where he thought Erin was going to sit, I called Erin to sit between Niall and myself. Liam sat on the other side of me and draped his arm over my shoulder while I threw a blanket over our legs and curled up against him. Zayne had insisted that we crack a window because he was feeling warm so I was grateful for Erin putting all the blankets out. Erin grabbed a small pillow and sat with her legs crossed as she hugged it tightly. I chuckled a little when Niall said something about how much Erin and Harry have in common. I tried to stifle the giggle but when even Harry rolled his eyes I couldn’t stop myself. Erin gave me the death stare and I looked over to Harry to see if he noticed our little exchange but when I turned my head in his direction something else caught my attention. Louis sitting in the oversized chair…with Eleanor in his lap. Not sitting next to him even though the chair is large enough for both of them. I did my best to remind myself that he wasn’t mine and never would be but it didn’t stop it from stinging when he leaned up and nibbled on her earlobe causing her to giggle and run her fingers through his hair.
Niall managed to pull my attention back to him when he asked Erin if she had seen this movie before. I had to admit I was a little intrigued by this attempt because it sounded innocent until Erin said she had. That’s when he turned to Harry and said, “Hmm…Harry didn’t you say you’ve seen this movie before? Tell me Harry, What was your favorite part?”
“Niall…” Harry said with a slight whine as if begging Niall to stop trying to force this. I could tell by the look on his face that he was embarrassed and with the way he looked at Erin, anyone could see that he hoped Niall’s tactless plan would drive a bigger wedge between him and Erin.
Erin rolled her eyes again and looked over to me. She had a look of pure frustration on her face. It didn’t matter that she had already seen it, Erin simply didn’t like when people talked through movie night. This time I couldn’t stop myself when I saw the look on her face and the only way to avoid Erin being angry with me was to lean into the nook between Liam’s neck and shoulder to stop myself from laughing out loud.
Liam looked down at me when I finally regained some of my composure and all I could manage to get out before laughing again was, “Really?” I snorted and when Erin shot me a death stare I bit my bottom lip and took a deep breath in through my nose to calm down again.
When I looked back over at Liam he asked, “Really what?”
“Did you not hear or see any of that? Niall has no chance of getting Erin to warm up to Harry if he keeps embarrassing her like that.”
“Yeah…it is pretty pathetic.” He said with a slight snicker before pulling me closer to him. I leaned my head against his shoulder for a few minutes, and just as I was starting to relax, the bedroom door in the movie flung open with a loud bang and woke the sleeping couple up scaring the crap out of me. I jumped and then leaned closer to Liam, and he rubbed my arm to calm me down. I’d kept my eyes so tightly shut I hadn’t noticed that Niall got up to go to the bathroom until Erin leaned over to talk to me.
“Can you believe him? He’s driving me insane, like seriously…just leave it alone!” Erin said with a low growl.
“He’s just trying to help.” I said innocently.
“Yeah, well he’s not!” Erin took a breath before continuing, “I just wanted a relaxing night in watching movies…not a mortifying round of love connection, ya know?”
“I know, just try to ignore him.” I offered hoping she would calm down before he got back.
“I guess…” she said, starting to lean back up when she felt someone sit next to her, “I just want to—AAAHHH OH MY GOD!” Erin yelled getting scared leaning back to her other side, jumping into Harry’s arms seeking comfort. I watched helplessly as Erin buried her head into Harry’s chest, still completely unaware of who she was nuzzling up against.
This wasn’t going to end well, I knew that already…but truth be told I couldn’t force myself to look away. I glanced up at Harry’s expression for just a moment and the genuine smile that was plastered on his face made me feel sorry for him, he really thought Erin knew it was him.
I could tell the exact moment that Erin began to realize that something was amiss. I watched intently as her hand began to move up Harry’s arm, steadily lifting up the sleeve of his shirt. As soon as she got a good look at the tattoos that were covering that arm her eyes widened in shock and then just as quickly squeezed shut as tightly as they could. She jumped out of his arms like someone had burned her.
“Scary parts over,” she said with a definite edge to her voice and without another word she moved to the other side of the living room and sat down. I pulled my eyes away from Erin and looked back at Harry, surprised to find him looking back at me. Not knowing what else to do I shrugged my shoulders and offered him as apologetic of a look as I possibly could before turning back around to watch the movie. I couldn’t figure out why so many people had told me this movie was terrifying, I mean I’m a huge baby when it comes to horror movies and so far this one really hadn’t scared me at all. As soon as I finished my thought I watched in horror as the girl on the movie was dragged from her bed by seemingly nothing….it was terrifying and I didn’t want to see what happened next. I turned and buried my head against Liam’s chest and almost instantly I felt his hand begin to play with my hair.
“You okay?” he whispered and I tilted my head to meet his eyes. He was staring at me with no judgment, he was simply genuinely concerned. I scrunched my nose and shook my head ‘no’. He smiled at me, leaning down and kissing my forehead.
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from the big bad movie,” he chuckled and just as I was about to tell him like it was the sound of Louis voice stopped me.
“Stefanie, could I talk to you outside for a moment?” he asked, his voice hard, “Please?”
Why the hell did he sound so pissed off at me?
“Suuuuure,” I replied, taking a moment to glance around the room and see everyone’s eyes on me as I stood up from the couch and followed Louis to the front door. As soon as we stepped outside Louis shut the door behind us and whirled around to face me.
“What the hell is going on in there?” Louis barked and I stared at him blankly completely clueless as to what he was talking about.
“Well?”
“I don’t know how to answer that,” I admitted honestly and Louis turned away from me, racking his hands through his hair. He looked so angry and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. What had I done to make him so pissed off? He still hadn’t turned around to face me and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to say something but the last time I tried that he snapped at me. Ugh, it was impossible to know what to do when I didn’t even know what I had done. I followed my instincts reaching forward and placing my hand on Louis’s shoulder.
“Talk to me,” I urged my voice shaking slightly as Louis’s blue eyes met mine. He closed his eyes for a moment as he released a deep breath before speaking.
“I know it’s none of my business, but I can’t help but ask,” he paused, his expression looking almost pained, “But what’s going on with you and Liam?”
I stood, staring at him in stunned silence. Seriously? This was what he was angry about? And not for anything what the hell right did he have to even ask me that after I had been forced to watch him Eleanor all night. This right here. This is exactly what I had been trying to avoid with Louis from the get go. He had a girlfriend, he shouldn’t be worried about who I was with and who I wasn’t with and without hesitation I told him so.
“That’s none of your business, Louis,” I replied harshly, “And before you say anything, think about it. You shouldn’t even care if Liam and I are together. You have a girlfriend, a girlfriend who might I add is sitting in the next room. You can’t keep saying things to me like this it’s not fair to her and its not fair to me either.”
He considered my words, staring into my eyes and as he did it was like I could every emotion the crossed them. I’d be a liar if I claimed that I hadn’t wished that things were different. In my heart of hearts I would have loved if Louis had been single when I met him. The connection he and I had was the stuff that epic romance were made of but for now our story would remain unwritten.
“I’m going to go back in,” I whispered and he immediately opened his mouth to protest.
“We need to talk about this,” he replied, begging me with his eyes to listen and for a second I considered caving but the moment passed quickly.
“There’s nothing else to say, Louis. You and I are friends. We can’t keep doing this. We can’t keep having these conversations where we teeter back and forth on that thin line that both of us know we shouldn’t cross. Please just stop. Be my friend and leave it at that.”
Before Louis could respond the front door opened and I swear my heart felt like it had stopped beating. Luckily it was only Harry. Without a word he grabbed both of us by the arms and pulled us down to the middle of the driveway.
“It’s none of my business what the fuck is going on between the two of you,” he began and at that moment I began to panic.
“You’re right it’s not,” Louis commented stubbornly and walked back to the house, slamming the door behind him. I met Harry’s eyes meekly, completely embarrassed about the way Louis had acted.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered honestly and instantly Harry’s hardened expression softened.
“I just came out here to let you guys know that everyone in there could hear you. I don’t think Eleanor heard anything and if she did she was very good about masking it but I just wanted to let you two know that maybe there would be a better time and place to discuss that stuff.”
Holy Shit!
I was beyond mortified it was bad enough that Louis and I had even had the conversation but even just considering that someone else had heard made it a thousand times worse. When I realized that Harry was still staring at me waiting for me to respond I said, “No there isn’t a better time or place. The conversations like that are done. I know that. I think Louis does now too. I don’t want any drama and I don’t want to be in the middle of someone else’s relationship. I hope you know that.”
“Whether you like it or not, you’re already in the middle,” Harry began, “Not saying that I don’t believe that you tried not to be. But I know Louis and I know the way that he’s acting right now isn’t him. You’ve gotten under his skin whether you meant to or not. I’m not trying to change that. I’m just trying to make sure that this doesn’t blow up in your faces.”
Harry turned and walked to the house, leaving me alone in the driveway unable to stop the tears that began to fall.


As soon as I was able to pull myself together I headed back into the flat. Everyone was still perched in the living room, watching the movie and I found myself hoping that Harry had been the only one that had heard Louis and I. Judging by everyone’s fascination with the movie and their lack of interest in Louis and I’s entrance I was hopeful. Attempting to remain as invisible as possible, I walked back over to my seat next to Liam and sat down.
“You good?” he whispered, wrapping his arm over my shoulders while simultaneously pulling his blanket so it covered me too. I nodded my head woodenly, promising Liam with my eyes that I would fill him in later.
Compared to the beginning of the night, the rest of it was pretty uneventful. We’d finished the first movie and decided on watching a second one before we all decided to call it a night. Which even then was pretty run of the mill, that was at least until Eleanor walked back in by herself, claiming to have forgotten her purse.
“Do you mind if I check in the living room?” she asked in an overly sweet voice and then proceeded to ask for my help, pulling me away from Liam and Erin who I had been speaking to moments earlier, like an idiot I followed her, having no idea what I was walking into. It wasn’t until I was looking under one of the arm chairs that she finally decided to speak up.
“I don’t know who you think you are,” she began and instantly I froze unsure of where this was going.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” she replied and I stood up from my crouched position to meet her eyes.
“I’m not deaf, so obviously I heard you,” I replied tartly, “I just don’t know what you meant by that.”
Her lips pursed as she glared over at me, “Well then let me put this in terms you’ll understand. Stay the fuck away from my boyfriend.”
My jaw hit the ground and even though a million different responses to that flew through my mind I couldn’t even bring myself to even speak.
“I’m not blind, I see what’s going on and I’m telling you it ends now,” she seethed and this time I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“I’m not trying to steal Louis from you,” I replied as calmly as possible, “There is nothing going on between Louis and I and if you’re that insecure with your relationship that you’re starting to imagine things then maybe, just maybe it’s you and Louis that need to have a conversation. My advice….instead of pointing your bitchy little finger at me maybe you should spend your time doing something more productive….Like fixing your relationship.”
Without giving her the opportunity to respond I turned and walked out of the living room, cursing the tears that formed in my eyes.

Notes

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