Right Now

10. What a feeling to be right beside you now

I needed Harry. I needed him to look at me the way Gemma had mentioned earlier, like he couldn't get enough of me. I needed him to kiss away Andrea's nasty words. I needed to know that he wasn't playing games, that he really did like me.

I looked at my phone. I could text him and tell him how horrible Andrea had just been to me. He'd want to know, surely. My hands were still shaking with fury - both at Andrea for what she'd said, and at myself for sitting there and taking it - as I went to my contacts list and found Susie Squirrel.

I thought for a moment then typed, Hey, we need to talk about Andrea - she's just been really mean to me. 

But I didn't send it. It made me sound like a whining six year old: "It's not fair! Andrea's picking on me!" I was bigger than that.

Still, I was sure Harry would be very interested to hear that Andrea thought he was playing games with me. Why the hell would she think he'd even do that? What was to be gained by him getting me along to Sheffield and pretending to like me? I could see no point.

Harry needed to know what was being said about him by his own management, but I couldn't just blurt it out when I saw him next. I was going to have to pick my time, so we could have a proper conversation about it. In private.

I deleted the text, put my phone down on the coffee table and picked up the latest Cosmo, which was sitting on top of a small pile of magazines. Hopefully that would distract me until Harry came back from the meet and greet and stop me thinking about Bitch Face Andrea. I was just flicking past a story titled Seven Secrets of Your Vagina when I heard a noise behind me.

As I looked over my shoulder, a hand appeared on the back of the sofa followed by a body that vaulted over and plopped down on the seat next to me.

"Hiya," said Niall, grinning at me. "Are you all right, sitting here on your lonesome?"

"Yes, thanks," I said, my anger beginning to evaporate at the sight of his smiling face. I completely got why Abby was a Niall girl, he was such a sweetheart.

"How was the meet and greet?"

"Good," he said. "Sad, too. There was this little girl there who is in the Cancer Society ads on TV - oh my God, what that poor kid has been through. We were all just about in tears, listening to her mum telling us what has happened to her. Actually, Harry was in tears. He's still with them now, recording video messages for some of her friends."

Oh, how sweet. Harry had always come across as being so kind and thoughtful, and here was a real-life example of how lovely he was.

"Are you talking about Harry?" said Liam, appearing from behind us. He sat down on the adjacent sofa and put his feet up on the coffee table. "He's been crying his eyes out, bless him."

"He's such a big softie," said Louis, who walked in next and sat down on the other side of Niall. He leaned forward and winked at me. "He's going to need comforting, Emma."

Right. I could do that. And then he could comfort me right back when I told him about Andrea. Mutual comforting sounded appealing.

Niall turned to look around behind him towards the door they'd all just come in.

"Where's Zayn?" he asked.

"Probably gone to his dressing room," said Liam. "He's still sulking."

Niall tutted. "Zayn's not very happy," he said to me. "He's been working really hard on a song for the new album but he was told today it won't make it. It's a great song, but it's just not us."

"It must be tricky, trying to decide which songs make it on the album," I said.

"Yeah, it has its moments," said Niall. "But sometimes there are songs we all love, like the one we've been working on today. Even Zayn loves it."