Hope. **EDITING**

Chapter 20

December 22nd 2012

"Harry, babe, everyone is going to be here soon, can you please mash the potatoes!" I frantically beg Harry as I pull the turkey out of the oven.

"Yeah of course." He nods while walking over to the stove. After mashing the potatoes for literally thirty seconds he stops to look at me, a sour expression on his face. "Hey, what's that smell?"

I sniff the air and am hit with a burning smell. "Shit!" I exclaim under my breath. I rush over to the oven, opening it up and rapidly pulling out an apple pie. "You've got to be kidding me!" Tears begin to form in my eyes as I slam the pie down in the sink.

"Jade it's okay, we still have the coconut cream pie and pumpkin pie, it's nothing to be upset over, everyone makes mistakes." Harry attempts to cover me as he places his hand on my back and begins to comfortingly rub it.

"I know, I just wanted everything to be perfect." I sniff as I lean into Harry.

"Babe, is everything okay? You know you can always talk to me." Harry asks as he turns to me, wrapping his arms around me and holding me close.

"Yeah, I'm just upset about the pie." I say as I look at him in confusion.

"You know that's not what I mean." He says sternly, his eyebrows knitting together and slight wrinkles forming on his forehead.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be." I shrug, miserably failing at acting like nothing is wrong. I can't lie to Harry, he knows me too well to not know when I'm lying.

"Because you've been acting distant and emotional for the past week and a half." He replies with a bit of strain in his voice and I can tell that he's trying to not get too mad at me.

"I'm fine." I shrug as I give him a fake smile.

"Jade, don't do this, I can -"

"Harry I said I'm fine, now just drop it!" I snap, sounding a little more harsh than I had intended. I wiggle out of his grasp and grab the pie from the sink, and then toss it into the garbage.

Not long after I've thrown all the food onto plates and bowls, set the table, and made the punch, there is a loud knock on the door.

Harry's face instantly lights up, the pouty look I caused earlier being completely replaced by a smile. He walks over to the door and noise instantly floods into the room.

"Hi, you must be Jade, I'm Niall." A blonde boy smiles brightly as he walks over to me, pulling me into a hug.

The rest of Harry's friends walk into the room, following Niall's actions. By the time I'm done being acquainted with the boys Gemma and Anne have shown up.

"Hey Jade. It's lovely to see you again." Anne smiles while walking over to me. "I hope you don't mind but I brought an apple pie." She smiles nervously.

I instantly smile as I take it from her to set with the other pies. "No that's perfect, thank you. I tried making one but I forgot to set a timer and I accidentally burnt it."

"Well I guess things always work out in the end." She smiles.

"Hey Jade." Gemma smiles as she walks into the kitchen, pulling me in for a hug. "Do you need help with anything?"

"No actually, I'm done everything, Harry helped out quite a lot. Thank you though." I thank her. "I'll just go get the boys and then we can eat."

I walk into the living room where all the boys have relocated themselves. "Hey if everyone is ready we can eat now, just grab a plate and help yourself.