Perilous (Harry Styles)

chapter 9

Louis nodded along and took Gemma's hand, placing their intertwined hands on his thigh. "I feel the same."

"Louis, do you want to give me a brief recap of what happened?" Harry asked, leaning back against the couch.

Louis' eyes briefly flickered to mine and I smiled slightly, encouraging him to start. "Well, I met Zoey at a nightclub and took her home. We had, ehm, some kind of, uhm, affair. It didn't last long; she broke it off. That was even before you told me you were dating a girl named Zoey."

Harry nodded, having heard these words before. "It was nothing serious?"

Louis let out a little laugh. "I liked Zoey - I still do, she's a great girl - but it was nothing serious. We never really started dating or something."

Harry frowned. "Wait. When I was over one day, your sister told me you had a guest. Was that Louis?" Harry asked, looking at me.

I nodded, biting my lip. I knew what was coming next.

"So you were still seeing him even after we met?" Harry looked troubled, his eyes ping ponging between Louis and me. Gemma kept quiet the whole time, only watching.

"Well, yes. At first you crept me out. Then, when we started to hang out a bit, I wasn't sure if this could turn into something serious. Then we had the phase where you were a dick to me, and then we really started dating and I broke it off with Louis." I closed my eyes, hoping he wouldn't get mad.

He wasn't really surprised. After all, he had recognized Louis' apartment from the one time he picked me up here, unknowing it was his best friend I was seeing back then.

"Okay," was all Harry answered, his tone neither mad nor melancholy. "What about you, Gemma?"

Gemma let out a little laugh. "Well, I didn't date Zoey."

Louis and I laughed too, Harry only groaned. "Gem, you know what I mean."

"I wasn't seeing Louis at that point. We got back together a few months ago and everything that happened before that doesn't matter to any of us," Gemma said, smiling gently at both Harry and me. I gratefully smiled back. "Besides, if it wasn't for Zoey, I probably would still live in New York."

"Fair point," Harry confirmed, squeezing my thigh. "Well, now that this is settled, I think we're gonna head home again." His eyes lit up with humor and he tugged me back on my feet.

We bid our farewells, once again, and headed back to Harry's place. "Do you wanna stay over?"

I nodded. By now, I was too tired to drive back to my house. Right on cue, a yawn escaped my mouth.

We drove in silence for a bit, but this time it was a comfortable silence. At least, until I broke it. "I'm glad we can talk about this." Honestly, the fight wasn't as ugly as I would have expected it to be.

"Me too. I don't want us to be one of those couples that fight, scream and shout, then make up by making out without really talking about the issue." I glanced at him in surprise, realizing how true his words were.

"Well, it's not like the movies, that's not how it should be," I told him.

His lips went up in a grin. "Slow down there, Katy Perry." I playfully hit him on the arm, but was careful to not distract him from driving.

"I don't feel like going out tomorrow with the others," I confessed.

The streets were dark, the street lamps being the only source of light. Although it was summer, it had cooled down. A young woman wrapped her cardigan tightly around her body, covering it from the cold.