Sparks Fly

twenty

THIS CHAPTER IS IN HARRY'S POV

“Are you…” she coughed, her voice cracking. “Are you alright…?”

“I'm fine,” I snapped at her, my eyes glued to the TV screen as I tried to block Ella out and work out what I was watching. “What even is this shit?”

“Maury Povich,” Ella whispered in reply. “I think he's like America's version of Jeremy Kyle, only he doesn't yell as much? I don't know…”

“Oh,” I pulled a face and changed the channel, settling on watching an old episode of Animal Hospital. “Yeah. I think Vada developed a bit of an obsession for him while we were on tour,” I muttered. “…Don't you have work today?”

“Are you in love with her?”

“E-excuse me?!” I spluttered, sitting up and nearly dropping my cup of tea. “Who? Vada?”

“You know who, Harry,” Ella sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair. “Cassie. There's just – there's things that don’t add up. I mean- no, Harry, please don't interrupt me right now,” she held a hand up to me and I immediately snapped my mouth shut. “It's taken a lot for me to bring this subject up with you but I've felt… uncomfortable about your friendship with her for a while. If I'm honest, I've haven't been particularly at ease over whatever your relationship is with her since the very first night I met her.”

“Wha- that was ages ago!” I laughed nervously, my fingers drumming against the arm of the settee. 

“I know it was, and I probably should have brought it up sooner but I just wanted her to accept me because I know how important she is to you…” Ella paused, taking the remote control off my knee and turning the volume on the TV down. “That night at the club, Cassidy was quite… Well. She wasn't very welcoming towards me at first and I saw your reaction when Zayn started getting flirty with her. You stormed off and left me alone with two people I'd only just met, Harry,” she sighed. “And then she followed you? And Zayn disappeared off to the bathroom and I went to get a drink but – I saw you, Harry. I saw you with her, the way you were leaning into her and way you couldn't take your eyes off her but I let it go, because as far as I knew she was still hung up on her failed attempt at a relationship with your band mate.”

“She was,” I shrugged my shoulders. “I just used to get like that with Cassie when I'd been drinking. I was trying to get used to having a girlfriend. She told me to back off and I did.”

“Don't lie to me!” Ella shrieked and I froze, my eyes wide as I stared at her in shock. In all the months that I'd known her, she'd ever raised her voice, never lost her cool. She was always the perfect, composed, understanding girlfriend. “Don't treat me like an idiot Harry because I'm not, I'm far from it. Other people have made the mistake of underestimating me and I don't want you to be one of them! There are so many little incidents that have bothered me about her but that I've let go because she was my friend, I thought I could trust her and I thought I could trust you.”

“You can trust m-”

“Even when you went off on tour,” she interrupted me, cutting me a glare that made me keep my mouth shut. “I saw pictures of you all together, you'd all spend time together and then… nothing? When I turned up you stayed away from her and she was always with Louis or Liam and it just- it didn't make any sense. But last night… Last night Harry…”

“Last night was- she was pissing me off, she's been pissing me off for ages and I just-” I stopped, my sentence cut short and my face stinging as Ella's palm connected with my cheek, the resounding 'slap!' leaving me speechless.