One Direction's Assistant

Chapter 10 - Surprise

Alistair comes into the room then, and Zayn turns on him, “Al, you could have told us Cass was coming back!” the smile never leaves his face as he says it, and he’s still wiping the traces of tears from his eyes.

“Are you staying for good?” Liam ponders hopefully, “I mean, Alistair’s awesome, but…” he adds hastily, looking back and forth between the two of us.

Alistair chuckles, “I know what you mean, Liam, but that’s all Cassie’s decision…”

All eyes turn on me, but I haven’t been listening. Instead I’m staring at the ceiling.

“Where are Louis and Harry?” I ask, pointing upwards.

Alistair casually glides towards the doorway and answers, “Well, Louis is trying to make Harry come downstairs. As I said before it’s difficult to get him to move…I wasn’t sure if I should tell them you’re here or not…?”

Pain strikes my heart. What had I done?! “What’s wrong with Harry?” I demand, staring around at the three boys. They all shuffle their feet and avoid looking me in the eye.

“What’s wrong with him?” I repeat, making my way toward the door.

Liam eventually speaks, “He’s not been doing much since you left, has he? I mean, we were all pretty upset, but Harry’s just been sitting in that chair, mostly.”

“We’ve been really worried about him,” adds Zayn, “didn’t know what to do, really. We tried everything to cheer him up, but it barley did anything.”

I look them both in the eye and then at Al, who’s blocking my way upstairs. I had really hoped this was a kind of sick joke – payback for leaving, but there’s no trace of lying in their eyes. I feel sick. 

“You know what I think helped,” Niall says suddenly, staring at my chair.

“What?” I whisper.

“Those pictures you left us,” he chuckles, “They were amazing. Harry seemed a lot cheerier about…everything, really, whenever he looked through them.” Liam and Zayn nod in agreement. “Helped more just after we knew what had happened.” By this, Niall is referring to one month after I left, when I allowed Alistair to confirm the boys’ suspicions that I wouldn’t be returning.

“Even before and after that, Harry was still pretty miserable.” Alistair admits. “The only difference was he wouldn’t talk to Gwen at all. I just hope that when – if – you come back he’ll be back to normal…”

I hear more stamping from above and the sound of someone coming down the stairs.

It’s Louis, and when he sees me stood by the door he actually falls backwards in shock, dragging the door with him and swinging himself back into the hall. Once he fumbles with the handle he flings the door open, eyes wide.

Oh, God, I think. I prepare for the worst: a huge outbreak consisting of Louis yelling at me and demanding I get out of his house or something.

“Cassie!” he gasps and throws his arms around me, “thank GOD you’re here! Harry’s a mess! He won’t do anything, he won’t listen to anyone anymore, I don’t think he wants to leave his bedroom…” His voice is desperate, pleading. Coming from one of his best friends, this is more than a shock to me. I need to do something!

Before he can continue with his rant, I push past Alistair and climb the stairs as quickly as I can. I don’t hear anybody following me.

“Harry?” I shout when I reach the top of the stairs, “Harry!” I yell again.

I hear some scrambling from the other side of the door and then Harry’s face emerges through a small gap. He sees me poised in the middle of the landing and at first he looks confused, but then his face lights up, “CASSIE!” he breathes, flinging the door open and rushing forward to hug me.

He’s holding on as tight as he can, as if he’s making up for these weeks past. And I don’t even care that he might be cracking my ribs.

Crying into his shoulder, I whisper, “Harry, I’m so sorry,”

Maybe if I hadn’t let Gwen get to me, this wouldn’t have happened, would it? Harry wouldn’t have ended up like this, upsetting the rest of the group along with Alistair and myself. Maybe then things probably wouldn’t have been so bad at all.

But then what’s the point in saying maybe? Maybe if I hadn’t left, everything would have been perfectly fine and I could continue to live a lie and pretend all was fine? Sure, but maybe’s aren’t real.

Maybe maybe is a waste of my time.

Of course, Harry wouldn’t be saying any of this. He’s too down to earth, a bit of an idiot, but he does know some things. He knows that what’s done is done and you can’t change that, however much you may want to.

He’s also crying now, and whispers back, “What for? I’m the one who ruined your chair.” And we both laugh shakily.

Several minutes later we go downstairs to find Liam, Niall and Louis scattered across the living room.

“Thought we’d have a bit of a party!” Alistair tells us in the hall. Niall is putting bowls of Doritos on the coffee table (and secretly scoffing them) and Liam is choosing which DVD to watch. A loud pop emerges from the kitchen, where Zayn is stood with a frothy bottle of champagne. He laughs and reaches for one of the glasses stood on the table, letting froth fall onto the kitchen tiles. 

The best part is they’re all wearing pointy party hats.

In turn they all hug us both and tell Harry “Well done,” or “Good to have you back, mate,” or “HAVE A PURPLE PARTY HAT!”

Yeah, the last one was Louis.

He slaps the shiny purple hat on Harry’s head, twanging the sting under his chin, and then delicately drops a sparkly gold hat on top of my blonde curls.

“PARTY TIME!” Louis shouts at the room. All of the boys raise a hand above their head in a kind of agreement, accompanied by an excited yell, and Harry proudly pulls my hand into the air with his.