{Chapter 24}
Harry was awoken the next morning by a surprising jab to his side that knocked the wind out of him and caused his eyes to fly wide open.
"Oh, sorry." A very guilty looking Katie flushed, who sat tangled up in her pair of jeans that she was currently trying to put on.
Harry chuckled and furrowed his eyebrows at the strange girl who sat before him. Half of her was already dressed. She was wearing a white blouse with a necklace that hung down past her breasts. She was sitting in her black lace underwear that made Harry raise his eyebrows at the sight of her.
Even in his hazy, just-woke-up state, he thought how nice of a view it was to wake up to something so lovely.
Katie's hair hung straight and tucked behind each ear as she concentrated on the pair of jeans she had tangled around her ankles.
"Katie?" He asked, his voice still groggy with sleep. The sun poured through the window, telling him it must have been time to wake up anyway. Katie huffed as she tried to pull on her jeans, a very hard thing to do in a 8 x 5 bunk. "Kat, what are you doing?" He chuckled.
She huffed in frustration and looked up at him. "I'm trying to put on my jeans."
He couldn't help his laughter as she flushed even more in embarrassment and hit his shoulder.
"Shut up." She mumbled, looking back down at the mess around her ankles.
Harry smiled even more as he watched her pull her bottom lip between her teeth.
"Kat- why didn't you just go get changed in the bathroom?" He asked.
Her cheeks grew even more red and she refused to look up and meet his eyes as she mumbled, "I didn't want to wake you."
The smirk, that Katie knew would creep across Harry's face, pierced his dimples as he snickered and "Aw-ed". He reached out from under the covers and draped his strong arms around her exposed waist and pulled her small body back down onto the bed beside him.
"Harry." She groaned as he closed his eyes and snuggled her close to his chest. He smirked in satisfaction. "Harry, I have to get dressed."
He didn't let go until Niall's voice boomed from outside the bunk.
"Katie, time to get up!" He yelled, ruffling the curtain open.
The poor blonde boy didn't even get a second to cover his eyes before turning away from Harry's bare body wrapped around Katie's.
"Guys, Harry's naked and Katie's in her knickers. There should be a bus-rule about this shit!" Niall bellowed. Harry shook with laughter as Katie hid her embarrassed face into the boy's chest.
The booming laughter from all the boys outside of the bunk was all she could hear, until Harry's arms unconstricted around her and she jumped out of the bed.
She landed on the ground with a thud and turned to find Andrea wrapped up in Zayn's arms on the couch, Lou and Liam barefoot and lounging on the opposite couch and Niall, who was now engrossed in a game on xBox.
When they saw her fall out of the bunk, everyone turned to look with big smiles on their faces.
Her's, beat red with embarassment, as she reached down and tugged up her jeans, ignoring the comments from Zayn, Liam and Lou.
"Nice knickers, Kat."
"Harry's got a nice view."
"Are those from Victoria's Secret?"
Katie flipped them the bird before walking to the bathroom to begin fixing her makeup.
"Katie!" She heard her named being called from a voice that sounded like Paul's and when she stuck her head out of the small bathroom door, she knew she was right.
He stood in front of the couches now, where all the boys now sat looking intently at the man. "Katie, can you come here for a second?" He asked polietly.
Katie nodded and dropped her mascara tube back down on to the counter and made her way over to sit beside Andrea. Her stomach was doing flip flops, knowing that in a few hours, she would be on live television.
"Where the hell is that boy-" Paul grumbled, looking towards the bunks. A sleepy, messy-haired, shirtless Harry tumbled out of her bunk and dragged his feet as he walked towards the couches.
He stretched his arms over his head with a yawn, and her eyes couldn't help but travel down to notice the muscles that constricted in his stomach and the v-lines that stood out prominately, leading down to the pajama pants that hung dangerously low on his hip bones.
Paul rolled his eyes. "Sit down, would you?"
Harry smirked at the older man, who tried to hide his smile. Katie knew, from the three days she had known Paul, that he was a father-ly figure to the boys, and she believed no relationship was as adorable.
Harry plopped down on the couch across from her, beside Louis.
"Now that you're all here." Paul said, sending Harry a stern look before continuing. "We have to go over the itinerary for the day."
Everyone listened intently at Paul's words as the man read the peice of paper he held in his hands.
"We're just outside New York City now, so when we get there we're going straight to the studio where you guys will be taken into make-up until show time at 10 am. The interview will be approximately twenty minutes long. There is a ten minute gap from the time you leave the studio, to the time we're back on the bus and that is for simple hellos to the fans. It's a strict time limit, boys." Paul said, pointing a finger towards them.
"So no dilly-dallying. Once we're back on the bus, we will get some food and then head to the studio to begin recording. Today is the only time we have in the studio before your first concert, which is tomorrow night in Boston. Sound good?"
The boys all nodded and mumbled yes as Katie and Andrea both sunk back into the couch, still trying to wrap their brain around everything Paul had just instructed.
The looks of panic must have been evident on their faces because Zayn laughed from beside the girls and patted Andrea's knee comfortingly.
"Don't worry, ladies. Just follow us and you'll be fine."
The feeling in Katie's stomach that had been overwhelming last night from the nerves, was nothing compared to now.
Katie wiped her now-sweaty palms on the legs of her jeans and stood up, making lists in her head of all the things she needed to do before they got to the studio.
She absently walked out of the area she had deemed their new 'living room' and walked towards the back of the bus to the small bathroom.
Her mascara tube still laid on the counter as she gripped the sides and looked up at herself in the mirror.
In less than an hour, the world was about to see this.
The thought made her insides squirm in discomfort and a nervous roll of nausea washed through her stomach, that made her knuckles turn white as she gripped the counter.
"Katie?" Harry's voice called from outside the bathroom door.
She straightened up and fixed her hair before taking a breath and opening the door. She tried to find her composure as the boy stood before her, his hands in the pockets of his pajama pants, looking like some kind of greek god.
How could she go on camera when she had to sit next to him?
Another wave crashed through her stomach as her composure faltered and she turned back to the sink and clutched her sides painfully.
"Hey, hey, hey-" Harry said instantly from behind her, his voice full of concern. He ripped his hands from his pockets and gently caressed her back as she leaned over the sink. "Kat-what's wrong?"
She breathed steadily as she stared at the porcelain sink. "I think I'm going to be sick." She muttered, her hair falling into her face.
She didn't even have to look up to know that Harry's mask of curiosity had now turned into raw concern.
"Did you take your pills today?" He asked, frantically. "Do you have them in your purse? Louis!" He began to shout. "Go grab me Katie's purse!"
"No-" Katie protested, standing back up from the sink and spinning around so that her chest was very nearly pressed against his. His face was full of a desperate concern. His green eyes searched her frantically, looking for any kind of symptoms.
"Harry, I'm not that kind of sick." She almost chuckled. "I'm just- I'm nervous!"
This time it was his turn to chuckle, and she simply rolled her eyes and turned back to wince at her appearance in the mirror.
She couldn't stomach the thought that in less than an hour, the whole world would know her as that random, awkward, plain-jane girl with a mis-shapen eyebrows that's currently 'dating' Harry Styles.
"Baby." Harry cooed from behind her. He smiled at her in the mirror as she stared back at him. His arms circled around her waist and he rested his chin on her shoulder, his eyes never leaving hers in the reflection. "You're going to be great. There's absolutely nothing to worry about."
"But there is-" She sighed. "They'll all think of me as that random girl who's stolen their future husband!"
Harry smirked and kissed her shoulder before resting his chin back on it. "Don't fret, babe. They already know who you are, basically. This is just for a formal introduction."
Katie's eyebrows furrowed at his words. "Wait, they already know who I am? How?"
Harry pulled away from her a bit, with furrowed eyebrows and a guilty smile that tugged the corners of his lips.
Her stomach dropped into her Toms.
She spun around to face him, pointing an aggressive finger into his chest. "You tell me right now, Styles. I know you're keeping something from me."
The boy winced under her angry glare as he bit his bottom lip. "Well-" He started, in a guilty high-pitched voice. "I kind of forgot to show you the paper this morning."
Katie's eyes grew wide as she pushed past Harry and marched out of the bathroom, turning on her heels and making her way into where everyone was still lounging on the couches.
She noticed a stack of papers, napkins from their stop at Nandos from the previous night, and an xBox controller that sat on the table next to Liam.
She ran over to it and grabbed the newspaper that stuck to the sticky table.
"Katie, what is it-" Liam began to ask, but Katie ignored him and flipped to the front page just as Harry stalked back into the room and groaned when he saw the paper in her hands.
Player Harry Styles, finally settling down?
The picture was blown up to fit the whole front of the newspaper. It was a picture that must have been taken the day before when they had been returning to the bus after lunch, and Harry held tight at Katie's hand.
It wasn't a good picture of her. Her eye's had been squinty, definitely from the blinding flashes that came from the camera, and the angle it had been taken at just didn't do her justice either.
Katie's face blanked as all the other boys dawned in realization. So they had seen the paper too.
"Katie, what is it?" Andrea asked, pulling away from Zayn and eyeing her best friend carefully.
Katie ignored everyone as she scanned over the article, only re-reading certain words.
Player, girl-toy, unknown brunette, end badly were the ones that seemed to stick in her brain.
She pulled her eyes away from the paper and locked them on Harry's, who stood across the room with his hand on the back of his neck, looking at her sheepishly.
Biting her bottom lip and feeling her head stir with thoughts she couldn't grasp, she dropped the paper without saying anything and walked to push past Harry, who frowned and turned after her as she walked by.
"Come on, Kat." He said, throwing his hands up in exhaustion. "You know what the media does."
She walked towards the back of the bus and locked herself in the bathroom, leaving everyone staring after in silence.
Katie stood with her back against the bathroom door as she stared at herself in the mirror.
She wasn't Emma, or Taylor Swift or Emily Atak. In her mind, she ran over all the articles she had read before she had met Harry, all the rumors and headlines that screamed 'Harry Styles: Girl #7" or "Harry Styles: Ladies Man."
The back of her eyes burned with tears as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, reminding herself that this wasn't the time to cry. Never in her life had she let so many goddamned tears fallen over one boy.
"Katie-" It was Harry on the other side of the door, who stood with his forehead pressed up against it as Katie listened on the other side. "Kat, please just open up." He begged, hitting his hand on the door. "Please, I want to talk."
She shook her head, keeping her eyes closed.
Why had she come? What had she gotten herself into?
Maybe it wasn't too late to turn around and go home? Andrea would possibly hate her for throwing away such an experience of a lifetime, but she wanted nothing more to be safe in her bedroom in her small flat in London, without any boy band fucking around with her mind.
"Harry, I-" She started, but before she could finish Harry interrupted her.
"Katie, come on baby." He cooed through the door. "You know me, you know what the media says about me. They don't know me like you do. It's all lies, give me a chance to talk to you about this properly."
Even though she wanted to deny it, she couldn't. She knew he was right. She took a deep breath, composing herself before turning around and opening the bathroom door.
The second the door clicked open and she saw him standing there with sad eyes, he didn't hesitate before pulling her into his chest.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest. Suddenly, all of her doubts disappeared. Her insecurities, nerves and negative thoughts seemed to fly right out the window the second his arms wrapped around her small body and she rested perfectly in the curve of his chest.
Maybe she had been wrong. Maybe he was the only thing that was right at the moment.
"You know me." He whispered into her hair. "You know me as a person, not as a boy on the cover of a newspaper."
She nodded into his chest. He was right and she had jumped to conclusions too fast.
She still wasn't used to the media attention and how it was such a big part in the boy's lives. Maybe it wouldn't be something she ever got used to.
"I'm just nervous about what they're going to say about me." She mumbled into his bare chest. She pulled away from him now, looking up to find his green eyes, soft and staring down at her. She took a breath and continued. "-That's why I'm not going to tell them."
His eyebrows furrowed. "Tell them..."
"About the cancer."
He raised his eyebrows as the words left her lips and she wondered if he was about to protest, but he closed his mouth into a tight line and nodded before pulling her back into his chest.
-
"Just, breathe Katie." Andrea said with nervous eyes, who was now gripping Katie's elbows for dear life.
The brunette stood in front of her with the mask of pure horror written across her face. Katie took deep breaths, reminding Andrea of the breathing exercises pregnant people praticed before giving birth.
"Katie, you're going to be fine." Andrea soothed, but she knew her words did no good. Katie's eyes peered over Andrea's shoulder, exaiming the set they were about to be called on to.
One of the stage managers, who wore a black hat and shirt that said 'The Morning Show' walked over and put a gentle hand on Andrea's shoulder.
"You're on in ten minutes, ladies." He said with a smile before turning around and leaving them be.
Katie's eyes grew wider as she finally glared back at Andrea in pure shock. "Ten minutes?"
Andrea wanted to laugh, but her nerves denied her the ability to. She had to admit, she was scared shitless too, she had always just been better at hiding it than Katie.
They had arrived at the studio half an hour ago. The boys were immidiately whisked away to hair and makeup, not before Zayn whispered in her ear that he'd see her in a bit and that she'd do great.
The girl's were sent to the other end of the studio to get their hair and makeup sorted out, and now it was ten minutes until they were supposed to go on live and the boys were still no where to be seen.
"I need Harry." Andrea mumbled, looking at Katie. "He needs to come calm you down. I can't do this as well as he can."
Katie didn't even chuckle at her words, the brunette was still so caught up in the bright lights, fancy cameras and fan's who sat in the audience, holding 'We Love 1D!' signs that even Andrea gulped down her nerves.
Andrea turned and noticed the boys coming from the side of the set, walking and conversing with a familiar looking Matt Lauer and Ann Curry, the hosts of the show.
Katie turned her head in the direction of the boys and Andrea could almost sense the relief coming from Katie the second her eyes landed on a well-dressed looking Harry.
"Hey guys." Niall smiled as they approached the girl's. Andrea caught Zayn's eyes, who gave her a wink and walked over the stand beside her. Andrea noticed Harry's look of concern as he stared at her best friend.
Ann and Matt stood with smiles plastered on their faces as they reached out to introduce themselves to the girls.
"Pleasure to meet you and we're so glad you could join us today." Matt smiled as he adjusted his tie. Andrea smiled back just as another stage manager came up to have a word with Matt and Ann.
"Excuse me, but it's time."
Matt and Ann walked towards the set, the was accompanied by a long couch and two chairs where they were supposed to sit.
Andrea reached for Zayn's grab, immidiately forgetting they were in public.
Her eyes darted around to find the people in the audience, occasionally looking their way and eyeing her ruefully.
At the sight of fan girls narrowed eyes, Andrea pulled her hand away frantically from Zayn's.
"Don't." He whispered in her ear. "Don't worry about them." And reached out and grabbed her hand tightly in his.
Suddenly Andrea's nerves fluttered away when he smiled down at her and they began heading towards the set.
Harry took a seat beside Katie, speaking to her in hushed conversation that Andrea couldn't hear as she sat down on the other end of the couch beside Zayn. Thankfully the couch was long enough so that all 7 of the could sit down without having to squish.
"Innnnnn 5, 4-" The man near the camera started counting down as Andrea peered over to Katie, who stiffened in response. The man finished by mouthing the last '3, 2, 1.'
And suddenly, everything was silent.
"Good morning New York, welcome back to the Morning Show, with your host Matt Lauer and Ann Curry."
"Good morning!" Matt smiled to the camera.
Andrea plastered a smile onto her face as well, feeling Zayn's hand pat her knee comfortingly.
"We're here with 5 exceptional boys, and two lovely ladies we have just been introduced to. It's the boy band taking over the world, it's One Direction!"
The crowd went nuts and Andrea turned to see outside of the window they sat in front of, a crowd of teenage girl's screaming and jumping up and down holding One Direction posters.
The boys all waved at the screaming fans in the crowd and smiled to the camera.
"It's good to be here in New York City again, Matt." Liam smiled at the man who looked back up at the camera.
"The boys are here on their second North American Tour, and it kicks off tomorrow night in Boston, am I correct?" He said, turning back to the boys.
"Yes, we are just passing through New York to get some recording done in the studio and then we head off to Boston later tonight." Niall answered, leaning his elbows on his knees as he sat forward on the couch.
Ann smiled warmly at the group on the couch, gesturing to the two girl's who remained silent. "And will you boy's care to introduce to us to these two lovely ladies?"
Andrea sat up straight, knowing that right at that moment, the whole world was watching her on their televisions at home.
She glanced over to find Katie realizing the exact same thing.
"This is Andrea Rolland." Zayn spoke up which caused Andrea to smile up at him. His eyes sparkled as he smirked down at her.
Before Zayn could continue, Harry spoke up for the first time.
"And this right here is Katie." He smiled at the brunette who gave a faint, shy smile to the camera.
The crowd wasn't as roudy and remained silent as the boy's intorduced the girls. Andrea couldn't decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
"They've come with us on tour, so everyone will be seeing them around a lot." Harry laughed and patted Katie on the knee before continuing.
"Sometimes it's nice having people you care about come on tour with you. Sometimes it can get lonely travelling in and out of hotel's and not being able to see your friends and family much." Harry then turned back to smile at Katie, who flushed under his gaze.
For a second, Andrea saw a glitter in Katie's eyes as Harry spoke to her and she almost felt the need to look away because the moment seemed so private, so passionate.
Harry smiled back at the camera now, as the fangirls 'aw-ed'. "It's nice to have someone you care about with you on this amazing adventure we're currently having."
Ann smiled gently, but a smirky grin crossed Matt's face.
"So I have to ask, on behalf of the fangirls here today-" Matt started, smiling as the crowd erupted and a grin plastered on his face. "Katie, Andrea, are you by chance, in a relationship with any of these fine gentleman?"
Katie's face flushed as the cameras turned to her and Andrea looked down at her hands.
"I'd like to think we get on really well." Katie looked at Harry, with a cheeky smile. She had seen all his interviews and knew just the right words to say. "I think it's hard not to have feeling's for any of these wonderful boys that we have so luckily been able to join with on tour."
The whole crowd burst into a hush conversation as Ann smiled.
"So are you saying that there are relationships blosseming?"
Andrea was sure all the fan girls were on the edge of their seats, patiently waiting an answer as Andrea sucked back a breath and the cameras turned to her.
"Maybe." She shrugged. Ann and Matt both laughed, and to the girl's relief, the interviewers turned back to the camera and began looking over the propt monitor for new questions to ask.
"So, in terms of getting to know you beautiful girls, is there anything you want to share? Anything you wish we, the public, knew about you?"
Andrea didn't mean to, but her eyes immidiately flickered to Katie's as the brunette looked down to her hands in response.
She wanted to give Katie the push, Kat tell them. She thought mentally.
She knew she had to. There wouldn't be a reasonable explanation to keeping something so major, like cancer, away from the public eye for long.
How was Katie going to explain the bruises that formed on her skin whenever she was poked the wrong way? How would she explain the way her cheeks grew hollower day by day or the way her bones became so fragile?
Andrea watched her with eager eyes, as did the rest of the boys. The audience sat on the edges of their seats, waiting for something good to chew on.
Tell them Katie, she begged in her mind. Tell them about the cancer, because when you're not here anymore, what will they think?
Katie looked back up at the camera, somewhere in the world a family was sitting in their living room and flipping through channels and seeing her face appear on their TV screen, somewhere in the world a little girl was sitting with crossed fingers hoping that Katie wasn't about to say that her and Harry were getting married.
Around the world, everyone was currently tuning in and watching as Katie took a breath and smiled gently into the camera.
"Nope." She said softly. "I've got nothing to hide."
YOU ARE READING
Lifeline (Harry Styles Fan Fiction)
Fanfiction"Maybe that's just it though." She smiled at him gently, but her eyes were full of sadness. "The best was saved for last." Harry knew this had been coming, he knew the consequences of his actions and he knew how awful the universe could be sometim...
