The morning of the verdict, Michael had spent the night at Harry's house with us. I walked into the living room where he was sleeping with a glass of water and a little bit of breakfast. "How are you doing?" I asked, sitting down next to him.
"I never fell asleep last night." he grumbled.
"I can see that." He did honestly look like shit. He had dark circles under his eyes and even though he had, it looked like he hadn't showered in days either. "Ok," I sighed. I felt horrible for him. I can't imagine being in his situation, not knowing whether you were going to come home or go to prison after court. "Well, I'm going to make some coffee for you. Why don't you take a shower? Maybe brush your hair..."
"Aww, you think I'm ugly, Charlie?"
"I didn't say you were ugly." I tried to muster a joking tone, but I felt so empathetic for him that it was hard to do. "You would probably look less guilty though if they think that you've slept last night."
"Sorry if I'm cranky today." he muttered as he headed toward the bathroom.
"It's ok. I understand." I sighed. Harry met me in the kitchen as I got the coffee started.
"Is Michael being a dick?"
"We can't blame him," I answered, softly. "He could very well be in a prison cell at the end of the night."
"That's not going to happen." Harry assured me.
"And why are you so confident about that?"
"I just think that the court is going to see the truth."
"Why would they see the truth now if they haven't seen it the whole time? Out of all people, you should know how corrupt the whole system is." I was trying not to get irritated with him, but I'd feel better about it if we were all sharing the burden.
"I know you're taking the weight of this, thinking it's going to help Michael. But don't accuse me of anything."
"I'm not. I'm sorry..." I sighed. "I know I'm crazy."
"You're not crazy. You're a good friend." he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and continued on. "And you're understanding. And empathetic. Michael's lucky to have you as a friend. I'm just making sure that he realizes that. That's all."
"You're an evolved man, you know." I smiled and kissed his arm lightly when I was able to reach it. "I hope that you know that I am completely aware of how lucky I am to have YOU. You're a good friend. And you're understanding. And you're empathetic."
"If only someone loved ME." Michael complained loudly, coming back into the kitchen, wearing just a towel.
"Maybe you should stay fully dressed in my house?" Harry suggested.
"Don't worry, Styles. Believe me, Charlie isn't interested." Michael said. I almost spit my coffee back into the cup. Harry glared at him but bit his tongue, which I'm sure was for my own sake. "She likes scarier, meaner guys."
"Hey," I interrupted Michael. "You have no idea how hard he's trying to not to explode right now, Mike. Maybe you should cool it if you want to actually appear in court today..?"
"I know how hard he's trying." Michael grinned. "That's what makes it fun."
"Drink your coffee and shut the fuck up." Harry shoved the coffee mug into his hand and walked back toward the bedroom to get dressed. Michael started giggling and elbowed me in the side. I looked at him, wanting to glare at him too but I couldn't resist joining in on his laughter.
"Do you always have to do that to him?" I asked, but instead of responding, Michael just continued to grin at me.
"If I do go to prison, you'll come visit me sometimes, right?"
"C'mon, Michael. You're not gonna go to prison."
"You never know."
"Ok, why don't you go get dressed now?" I suggested. "We have to leave in about half an hour."
"Oh shit..." he groaned. Clearly, it was just sinking in for him. When I walked back into the bedroom, Harry was sitting on the edge of the bed, fully dressed and biting at his fingernail.
"I knew you were a little nervous." I sighed, sitting down next to him.
"Well, obviously." he grumbled, not looking at me.
"I love you." I kissed the top of his shoulder and rubbed his back. trying to calm him down. "No matter what happens, everything's going to be ok."
"It's hard to see it that way when Michael could be charged with murder..."
"Hey," I threw one of my legs over his waist and sat down gently on his lap. He quickly grabbed my hips, happy to be distracted. "It's going to be fine, yeah?" I pressed my lips to the side of his neck and his fingers dug deeper into my skin. "Yeah?" I repeated.
"Yeah..." his voice barely came out above a whisper. He had just started to get hard underneath me when Michael knocked hard on the outside of the shut door.
"We should head out now." he called. Harry groaned and pulled away from me.
"Can't we just tell him to drive himself?" he muttered, lifting his hips slightly into mine.
"No," I frowned. I climbed off of him and straightened my dress. "We're good friends to him, remember?"
"I wish I could forget." he sighed, situating himself quickly before getting up and heading toward the door.
"Sorry, man. Did I cock block you?" Michael snickered to Harry.
"You couldn't if you tried to. But I wouldn't tell you if you did. I don't talk about women like that. Maybe that's why Charlie likes me better than you." I stopped in my tracks and turned around so fast, Harry ran straight into me.
"I'm gonna knock both of you out if you don't stop talking about me like an object and like I'm not right here."
"I was defending you!" Harry defended himself. Michael just turned bright red.
"Sorry." he muttered.
"Maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if you were found guilty today." I scoffed.
"Hey! That's not even funny to joke about." he bit back.
"It's not funny to talk about women that way either but you seem to think it is. I figured you think everything's funny."
"I was only joking, Charlie."
"I was too. I hope you're found innocent. After all. I wouldn't want the other inmates to have to go through what we go through."
"Hey!"
We got in the car and it was super quiet. Michael was sulking and I was still irritated. And Harry probably felt awkward to have to deal with our weird energy that we created. We were almost there already when Michael finally decided to speak up again. "This isn't fair." he said. I almost wanted to not answer him- to let him deal with whatever's going on his head alone. But I'm a better friend than that. Even when we're mad at each other.
"What isn't?" I figured he was talking about the court case now.
"You being mad at me now. And saying that about me being guilty. You know it's not true and you shouldn't want me to go to prison."
"I don't want you to go to prison." I answered simply, surprised that he was still holding onto our lasting riff.
"Yeah, but there's a big difference between joking about being a cock block and joking about me being a murderer." Michael argued. From the corner of my eye, I saw Harry raise his eyebrows and glance over at me. It was almost like he knew what I was thinking.
"That's rich." Harry chuckled quietly. I wasn't sure whether he intended for Michael to hear him or not, but he did.
"How?"
"Believe me when I say, Charlie probably cares more about you than literally anyone else in your life. And you're mad at her MOST of the time. And when you're mad at her, you won't even talk to her. So I just think it's funny... that you say it's not fair." Yep, he definitely knew what I was thinking. And this shut Michael right up. He didn't say another word the rest of the journey there. We met Calum in the parking lot as well as the rest of the gang. Of course they decided that they were goin to stay outside, in their cars. It would probably be better for everyone. They just wanted to be close by on the last day of the trial... to either celebrate with us, or panic with us.
"You've got this, ok?" I said to him quietly while we were on our way in. "Don't go into this thinking that I'm mad at you, because I'm not. Just keep a level head. Don't let your emotions get in the way of the truth."
"You sound like the lawyer." Michael rolled his eyes, but I knew it was a good thing that he was up for playful banter again. He was visibly shaking a bit.
"It's going to be ok. Just calm down. Take a deep breath. We're going to be here for you no matter what." I said.
The day was long. It felt like all the other days- tedious and monotonous. But we were still anxious because we knew at the end of the day, we were going to have an answer. Either Michael was going to prison for a long, long time or he'd get to go home and we could start forgetting that any of this had even happened. I caught Harry's eyes on me and lifted my chin to ask him what he's doing. "I'm still thinking about this morning..." he said under his breath. I turned bright red and crossed my legs.
"We have something a little more worrisome to think about at the moment, bub."
"You're all I can ever think about." I caught the smirk on his face and shook my head. I knew what he was doing.
"I appreciate that you're trying to distract me. But this kind of talk is going to get us both in trouble."
"I've been in worse trouble." he said and then was quiet for a few minutes until he spoke again. "You could... meet me in the hall..." he suggested, lifting an eyebrow.
"We can't leave Michael alone in here. It's the biggest day of the trial, Harold."
"He wouldn't be alone. He has Calum... the other guys are near by..."
"No." I said, firmly. I redirected my attention to the front of the room. I wasn't going to feed into his bad behavior anymore. "Maybe later. Although not if you keep acting like this..."
"It's not my fault!" he chuckled, trying to be quiet but still earning some glares from the people around us. "You did this to me." he said in a fake angry voice. "You got me all riled up this morning just to climb off of me and pretend it never happened."
"Maybe because we have lives to live."
"We don't have to be here." he reminded me.
"And I didn't have to say yes to marrying you. But sometimes in life, we have to make choices to make other people happy."
"That was low." Harry glared at me but I knew he wasn't really mad. "Sorry. It must just be the marriage thing that makes me want to be in you literally all the time." I coughed, hoping nobody would hear this and rolled my eyes at him. Michael was sat perpendicularly from us, so while the defense attorney was speaking, his eyes caught mine. He surprised me by sticking his tongue out. My stomach dropped and I looked around to see if anyone had noticed, but luckily they hadn't. I shook my head at him and looked away so he wouldn't do something so risky again.
It was much later in the day and I had mostly been drowning everything out. These last couple weeks were truly the most bored I'd ever been in my entire life and the most I ever hope to be again. "Has the jury reached a verdict?" I shot up in my chair as if I had been sleeping before even though I hadn't. Harry and I made eye contact. His hand reached across the seat and grabbed mine. I squeezed his hand tightly.
"We have." I met Michael's eyes again and he looked like he was on the verge of tears. I'm sure I looked the same.
"What says the jury?"
"Given the complicated circumstances of this case... the jury finds Michael Clifford..." the man may not have hesitated. But the time between that and the verdict seemed like an entire lifetime. "...not guilty."
"Oh my god!" I screamed, falling out of my seat and onto my knees. Harry was quickly behind me to grab me, preventing me from further hurting myself. "Thank you, God. Thank you."
"Come on, my little saint." he lifted me off the floor and back into my seat. Michael's had was covering his eyes. Clearly, he was crying, but he was never one to show it. Calum on the other hand was crying very openly. His hands wiped at his eyes nonstop. I could see his lips mumble thank you over and over again silently. I almost thought I saw Harry swipe a tear quickly from his eye, but he was looking so far and the other direction and it was gone so fast, it was hard to tell whether it had actually occurred. "It feels like someone's finally in our corner for once." he muttered. I smiled at him and wiped at my own eyes.
Yeah, I thought. I am.
Once the court room had been released for the final time, I looked frantically through the crowd of people for Michael and Calum. "They may need some space, Charlotte." Harry said but I had barely even heard him when I saw the pale blue hair I was looking for.
"Mikey!"
"I'm a free man, Charlotte." Michael grinned, throwing his arms around me. I reached out and grabbed Calum who was standing to the side and pulled him into the hug too.
"I am so proud of you for staying so well behaved." I said to Michael. "And you too, Calum. You had me so worried after your first little outburst."
"Yeah, that was embarrassing." Calum chuckled. We were quiet for a minute. No one really knew what to say.
"Can we PLEASE go get drinks." Michael whined.
"Do you really think that's a good idea right now?" I asked.
"I haven't drank one sip of alcohol the last two and a half weeks on account of being in a court room ever afternoon. I've been found innocent so I think I deserve a drink."
"Ok, but we're not getting drunk. Do you understand?"
"Yes, mother." he laughed. "We'll meet you at the car in a few minutes, ok?"
"I told you everything was going to be fine." Harry grabbed my hand and led me to the car.
"Don't pretend you weren't having your doubts."
"Well, you should know I don't trust anyone. No one should."
"Awwww, tough guy... You trust me." I smiled up at him. "Don't you?" my stomach sunk slightly as I said this. Maybe I should not have...
"Of course I do, lovey. You're perhaps the only one I ever have." Harry held the door open for me and held my hand as I sat down. He walked around the car and climbed in, turning the radio on. He looked at the time on his watch. "How about a quicky?"
"I told you," I giggled. "Later."
"Are you quite sure?" he dropped his voice and gave me puppy dog eyes as he slid his hand between my closed legs. "I love you in a dress." he smirked.
"Perhaps there's time..."
"Maybe later." Harry chuckled, retracting his hand. I groaned and slapped his arm. Then i noticed Calum and Michael had just appeared in the very far distance. I groaned.
"They're probably still at least three minutes away, I can barely see them."
"Three minutes?" Harry chuckled. "You know I have to take my time with you, my love."
"But-"
"I know... Don't worry, lovey. You must know what you do to me." he guided my hand below his belt and then brought it to his lips to press a kiss to the back of my hand. "Later."
"I can't wait to marry you." I smiled at him. "I've found a dress by the way."
"Well you can't tell me that right NOW." Harry chuckled quietly. "When all I want to do is rip a dress off of you."
"Well, it'll give you something to look forward to."
"Alright, drinks!" Michael cheered, slamming the car door shut behind him.