Follow Your Heart

Harry woke up slowly, to Nichole’s hair in his face, her drooling on the pillows, and snoring softly in his ear. And all he could think was that he didn’t care. He wanted to wake up like that every morning. He turned on to his side and just watched her sleeping. She was sprawled across the bed on her stomach and had kicked the duvet down, exposing her back. He placed soft kisses on her shoulder, trailing his hand down her spine, causing her to stir a bit.

“Mornin’ baby,” she muttered sleepily as she turned her face towards him.

“Hi beautiful.”

“Suppose it’s my turn to cook you breakfast, hmm?”

“I would think so, but first…c’mere, love.” He pulled her into his arms, their lips connecting for slow, languid, morning kisses. He rolled Nichole over, his body hovering over hers, her whimpers and sighs making his cock twitch. Her legs parted, welcoming his body between them. With a slight shift, he pushed himself inside her.

“Oh god, Harry...” she sighed, her body arching towards him.

“Hmm?” he murmured, his lips attached to her neck.

“I’m not going to be able to walk if we keep this up.”

Harry raised his head up, still thrusting slowly into her, “Perfect, then we can just stay in bed.”

“Works for me.”

~*~*~*~

Gemma woke up to her phone ringing. She groaned as she reached for it, before it vibrated off the night table. All she wanted was a few minutes longer but the universe was conspiring against her. Blinking at the phone, she saw it was Dylan calling. Sitting up quickly, she answered wondering what the hell he was calling her for.

“Dylan?”

“Where’s Nicky? I’ve been trying to call her for an hour and it keeps going to voice mail.”

“Well, hello to you, too.”

“Sorry…I need to talk to Nicky about those pictures.”

“She’s in London with Harry…wait… What pictures?”

“Yeah, I know she’s with your brother…at least she was last night. He’s damn lucky I’m in another country right now. Where are you?” He was definitely pissed off and whatever pictures there were, she was certain it couldn’t be good.

“I’m with mum and Robin. We are heading back to London today. Harry and Nicky went ahead of us a couple days ago. What pictures are you talking about?”

“Hannah’s little sister just showed me some pictures of Harry and Nicky all over each other in a car…the things they are saying about my sister…I’m gonna kill your brother, Gemma…I love you, but he’s a dead man.”

“You are not killing anyone, Dylan…least of all my brother.” she said, grabbing her laptop. One quick Google search and there it was for the world to see. Harry and Nichole, obviously drunk, walking out of a club…and then making out in the back of the Rover as they pulled away. Dylan was still ranting in her ear as she started to laugh.

“What are you laughing at? This is not funny, Gemma! Tell her to call me! Better yet, tell your brother to call me!”

“Calm down, Dylan. I’ll have her call you. There have been worse pictures of Harry out there.”

“Yeah…I could give a shit less about your brother…this is about my sister.”

“Ok ok…let me off the phone and I’ll call Harry. Her phone has been acting up since she got here. She is supposed to get another one this week.” She finally got him to hang up and she took a quick peek at Twitter. And was it ugly.

Most were just trying to figure out who she was, but there were a lot that remembered her from the Vancouver show and found her through Gemma’s Twitter account. All Gemma could do was hope she was on private.

~*~*~*~

Nichole was in the middle of flipping the most perfect egg white omelet she’d ever made when she heard Harry coming down the stairs. He was talking on his phone and it sounded serious.

“What? Oh fuck…no, she hasn’t…I think her phone is still in her bag. Ok, ok Gemma…she’s right here, hold on.” He handed her his phone and took over cooking.

“Hey Gem…what’s going on?” she asked as she kissed Harry’s shoulder.

“God, get your lips off of him for a minute.”

“You couldn’t wait to talk to me this afternoon? What’s up?”

“Dylan called me. He wants you to call him. Guess he’s been trying to call you?”

“Yeah, that phone…”

“Yeah, well before you call him…you need to talk to Harry. And please tell me your social media is private.”

“Why? What the hell is going on?” Gemma was really quiet for moment and Nichole heard Anne saying ‘just tell her’. “Gem? You are freaking me out right now.” She sighed and said,

“Dylan saw some pictures of you and Harry coming out of that club last night. He’s flipping out. And well, Twitter is blowing up right now. And probably all your social media is… And it’s not pretty, Nick…”

Nichole felt the blood draining from her face. She leaned back against the counter and muttered,

“Hells bells….” She looked over at Harry. He was looking at her with such remorse in his eyes. Subconsciously she knew being with him came with this, but the reality of it…she wasn’t prepared for it.

“Nicky, are you ok?” Gemma said, pulling her out of her thoughts. Gemma and Nichole had spoken at lengths about the scrutiny Harry and the other guys had to endure, as well as the people closest to them. Now Nichole was getting first-hand experience.

“Yeah, I’m good. I better see these pics and call Dylan. God damn, I don’t want to deal with him today. I was having such a good morning, too.” Harry kissed her cheek as he set plates on the table. She disconnected the call after saying good bye and handed him his phone back.

“Can I use your laptop? I probably should see what Dylan is upset about, before I call him.”

“Sure, but first you eat. This can wait.” Nichole nodded and sat at the table next to him and they both ate breakfast in silence.

After pouring more coffee for them Harry sat down next to Nichole and pulled her into his lap.

“I’m sorry, Nichole.”

“Shhh,” she said, “It’s not your fault.”

“It is and you know it. This is the worst, everyone I care about has to go through this and I am so sorry. I think it is the one thing I would change about my life, if I could. Just leave the people I care about alone.”

“Well, ok…I still don’t blame you, hon. So, I need to call Dylan…and I need to see what the hell is going on first. So, let’s look at the shit storm on Twitter.” He kissed her cheek and rubbed her thigh before she moved so he could fetch his laptop for her.

*~*~*~*

They sat on the sofa looking through the pictures online. They were pretty bad so she could see why Dylan, as a big brother, was freaking out. But Nichole really didn’t see anything different than what happened when most people their age went out. It was just because she was with Harry Styles of One Direction that it was a big deal. She actually giggled at the pictures of her stumbling out of the club, holding onto him for dear life. She looked like what her Nanna would call a “hot mess.” The pics in the car though…

“Jesus, Harold…they can see what color panties I was wearing.” Nichole laughed. She was embarrassed, but what could they do? They were out there, she couldn’t deny he had his hands under her dress.

“Pink is good color on you.” He teased.

“Fuck off!” She said, swatting his shoulder.

Nichole then spent the next hour making her social media accounts private, trying to ignore all the hateful comments. She had a huge influx of followers and the comments were unreal. Evidently the general consensus was that Harry was too good for any girl that would behave that way in public with him. Never mind the fact he was behaving just the same. What did he want with a country girl when he could have any woman he wanted? Nichole’s personal favorite was this one though.

@larrysdaughter: @nickymarieTX you are groping a married man. Get off @louis_tomlinson ‘s husband.

She was getting a headache from it all, but thank god Harry was there to show her what she needed to do to keep everything locked down.

After another cup of coffee she decided to face the music with Dylan. Harry handed her his phone after he finished talking to his manager about what they should do next.

“I can call him if you want me to,” Harry offered.“Gem said he wanted to speak to me anyway.”

“Harry, no…He’s my brother, I will deal with him.” He sat next to her on the sofa and pulled her into his arms, kissing her hair. “I love that you are willing to take him on for me though.”

She tapped in Dylan’s number and waited for him to answer.

“Hello? Nicky?”

“Hey, Dipstick,” she responded with her nickname for him, hoping to ease the tension.

“Nicky, what the hell is going on with you and Mr. Boyband? I thought you went over there to work for him.” She sighed and fell back onto the sofa.

“I am working for him, Dylan…and his name is Harry. It’s none of your damn business what is going on with us.”

“It’s my business when pictures of my sister show up on my phone with his hand up your damn dress!” He shouted. “Have you seen what they are saying about you?” She took a deep breath to keep from shouting back at him.

“I’ve seen it. It’s all bullshit and you know it. I’m not going to stoop to their level and respond to any of it.”

“Well, Mr. Boyband should be saying something. Godsake, Nick. You look like a drunken whore in those pictures.”

“What did you just say??” She shouted at him. “Fuck you, Dylan. I expect that from the internet trolls, but not my brother. How dare you?” She felt tears start to well up in her eyes, as usual when she got into it with Dylan. But this time it really hurt. Harry sat next to her rubbing her shoulder trying to comfort her but she just pushed him away. “This conversation is over, Dylan. When you can speak to me with respect then we’ll talk. Until then, fuck you.” And she disconnected the call and tossed Harry’s phone at him and stormed up the stairs.

Listening to Nichole argue with her brother was hard. Harry wanted to take the phone from her and shout at him for upsetting his sister yet again, but he sat there, rubbing her shoulder, trying to be as supportive as possible. This bothered him more than any press or fan response on social media. He didn’t want her family to think poorly of him or of her. The rest of it would calm down after a while.

Watching her run up the stairs in tears, Harry sat there with his phone in his hands, debating what to do.Finally, he scrolled through his recent calls, and tapped the number Nichole had just called, and waited a moment for him to answer.

“Nicky?”

“Hi Dylan.”

“Harry? Where’s my sister?”

“She’s upstairs, crying. You want to tell me why?I mean I have a good idea, but I would hate to think that making your sister cry when she is already stressed out about things beyond her control was your intention, Dylan.”

“You hold on a minute. She wouldn’t be stressed out and upset in the first place if it wasn’t for you. I might not have been in her control, but it certainly was in yours.” Harry sighed struggling not to lose his temper.

“You know, I care about her a lot, Dylan. Really care about her, and someone saying nasty things to her and upsetting her really fucks me off. I don’t care that you are her brother. You don’t get to speak to my girlfriend like that.”

“Girlfriend?” Nichole said the same time Dylan said it. Harry looked up and she was standing in the doorway. He walked towards her, keeping his phone to his ear. He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and tucked her head under his chin as he continued to talking to Dylan.

“Yes, my girlfriend. Now, she really needs to know that her family is behind her, so you can be supportive and protect her like a brother should, or you can try to pin blame and call her rude names. I know what I would do if it was my sister.”

The line went quiet for a few moments, Dylan contemplating what Harry had said, while he stood there with Nichole. She looked up at him, teary eyed, but smiling. He smiled back at her and leaned down and kissed her softly.

“Is she there? Can I talk to her?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah, she’s right here.”

Notes

Update, update, update....I'm almost to the point I was when I stopped and started the rewrite...hope you are liking it...comment and let me know how you feel about the changes.

Feedback is love <3