Unrequited

Chapter 13

Dearest Sara,

So much has happened since I last wrote to you! So sorry for the sporadic emailing but it’s hard to find a spare minute on tour! So glad to hear everything’s going well with Tom, I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU:’) 

Tonight I’m off to my very first ball! The boys are taking me to the Winter Charity Ball in London. It’s stuff like this that makes me really miss you Sar:( My dress is all laid out on the bed - the red one we picked out last summer for my cousin’s engagement, remember? Mum came and ironed it for me before. I think she’s more excited than I am! It’s almost time for me to start getting ready and I’m so sad without you here! I always thought we’d be doing this together you know? Like for formal next year or whatever. I’ve done my hair in a messy braid to one side with a few tiny braids woven through it. I hope you approve of the photos I’ll send you tomorrow, you are the Braid Queen after all! 

Okay so here comes the tricky part. As much as I really hate to say it, you were right. Totally, completely, entirely correct. I’ve fallen for one of them. Harry. I think I’ve been trying to deny it this whole time but it hit me yesterday. There was a booking malfunction with the hotel we were at and I ended up sharing a room with him and Louis. Weirdly, it wasn’t awkward at all. And you know me, I was practically a virgin to eye contact with males before this. Anyway, so I had this strange dream where I was trying to chase after him in this really crowded room and then it just got creepy (I can’t be bothered going into detail) but when I woke up and he was just sitting on the bed near mine, something just clicked. And I realised I’ve kinda liked him since the first day I met him:S But this is not good news at all, Sara! I can’t like him. For one, I’m not even really meant to be on this trip, Mum just pulled a few strings. Second of all, the aforementioned mother works for these boys (read the next argument and you will understand the complications this causes). Thirdly and most importantly, their manager has warned them against girlfriends for now, especially during the tour. The only reason Liam is still with his is because he has been with her for for so long and Sam (the manager) can’t exactly break them up. He knows that Liam is quite sensible with these sorts of things too and he won’t let his girlfriend take the focus off work. Whereas if any of the other boys were to get boyfriends now, they’d be entering right into that crazy obsessed stage of a relationship and their work will suffer. That’s what Niall explained to me anyway. If I was the reason one of the boys broke the only rule they were set, I would not only get myself in trouble but Mum as well! So that’s why I absolutely cannot, CANNOT like Harry. Well I guess I can’t help that, but what I mean is, I have to keep it to myself. I’m not entering into some strange duration-of-the-tour relationship as the conveniently impressionable groupie from Australia. No way. Gosh and I’m already getting ahead of myself; Harry doesn’t even like me! He told me so himself. He said the boys were making all sorts of suggestive taunts about his feelings for me and he got angry at them because ‘he knows we’re just friends’. So. I’ll go on staying true to my role as ‘best friend and much less attractive sidekick of Sara Hastings’ and avoid all contact with these boys that could be interpreted as anything other than sisterly. I know you’re going to write back in a flap about how I should ‘go for it!’ and ‘win him over, Char!’ but I’m going to stop you right there. It’s not going to happen. Harry most definitely does not hold the same feelings and even if he did, I could not put my mother’s job in jeopardy. And I already had my life all planned out as a boyfriendless old hag who has a hundred cats and never moves from her rocking chair, remember? 

So I just had to get that all out since you’re my best friend and I literally have no one else to confide in! Say what you like, but I’m not trying anything with Harry. ANYWAYS! It’s time for me to go and get ready! I promise to tell you every little detail and send some photos!