Bethany's POV
"Michael-" his raspy voice cut through the air like a knife. All the attention was on him, and the tension in the room was reaching limits higher than I imagined.
"I don't think there is a point to yell at her... She is just simply becoming who she always wanted to be. Or, rather, who she really is." I was shocked by his statement. It was odd having someone stick up for me like this, but I didn't really mind it.
"You're turning her into something that no grandparent would ever want to see their grandchild become!" My grandpa lashes out quickly, no pause between insults at all.
"I'm not trying to change her for the worst. I'm trying to change her so she's happy. And if you couldn't tell, I can. She's happier and she's more alive. She's having fun and enjoying her life. That was something that got taken away from her at a very early and undeserving age."
My grandpa didn't reply. I don't think he knew how. His Mouth was open and his breathing was deep. No one had the balls to say anything, until Harry popped in again to voice his opinion.
"Now, you were very quick to judge me. I would think you would be happy with me if your granddaughter is happy, but to be honest, you seem to only care about whether or not Smith Inc. is doing well or not. Why should that matter? She's the last relative you have, and you should want her to be happy forever. If not, it proves a point saying you don't love her as much as you love your damn reputation."
I was completely stunned. You couldn't hear a pin drop in the room. There was nothing to say. There was nothing my grandpa could say. He was probably appalled that Harry would speak to him in such a manner, but I was glad he did. He was saying things I had always wanted to say, but never had the damn courage to.
"I'm sorry if this makes your impression of me worse than it already seemed to be, but I cannot sit here, and watch someone I care about so much be tortured like this." Harry's hand was gripping mine tightly under the table. I could tell he was about to lose his calm state of mind, and I was his anchor to keep him there.
"I don't think you have a reason not to like me. You see tabloids where the press makes me look like absolute shit, but I'm not that person. I have my moments, but I'm not as bad as I'm made out to be. I hate being judged by the cover stories of magazines. You should get to know me before you insult me like that. To me that makes your reputation seem like crap. No one likes a judgmental human being, so maybe you should get to know me before you refuse to let your granddaughter be with the one thing that's made her happy in 2 and a half years."
I watched as he stood up from his chair, silently excusing himself and sauntering out of the room. He was polite enough not to slam the doors to the balcony and give us some privacy.
I watched my grandpas head hang low and his fingers fiddling with each other. He was embarrassed and he was upset he had nothing to say back.
"You shouldn't judge him so quickly." the words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. His eyes met mine and all I saw was sadness.
"You deserve better than that. He's going to hurt you. I can tell. That's what pop stars fucking do."
"You have to give everyone a chance. It's not fair to treat him like he's trash. He's making me happy and he's making me who I really am. I'm sorry if that's not the person you like, but I'm going to be me whether you like it or not."
"I want you to be you, I do. But I want you to be the best you. I want you to live up to your potential!" He was aggravated as he spoke, but i pressed on.
"No you want me to be your ideal little granddaughter, and that's just not who I am. I'm doing everything in my power to balance out my life, and I'd say I'm doing it pretty well. Just let me be happy."
"You're turning into one of those poor females he uses and then loses! I will not allow you to be hurt in such ways." His fingers gripped the handles of chair. He was ready to pounce on me, but I wasn't going down without a fight.
"He's not using me. I'm not using him. We are happy together. Do I have to spell that out for you?"
"Damn it Bethany. When you get hurt by him, don't come running back to me with your problems."
"I am so sick of this conversation!" I scream and he flinches back in his seat.
"Will you just get to know him first before you start talking such crap about him? You know if you talk to him, you might actually like him?!" I roared. I was stood up, my hands flailing around as I spoke to him.
"I don't need to give him a chance. I can tell just by the way he walks into a room. His damn body language gives everything away. He is cocky as shit and you do not need to let him use you as an ego boost."
I took a moment to just stare at him. I needed to asses the situation more carefully. This man in front of me wasn't who I always knew as I child. Slowly as I grow up, I begin to realize how much more of a horrible human being he really is.
"What happened to you?" The tone of the conversation had taken a 360, but I was genuinely concerned. This wasn't like him. I didn't want this to be like him.
"Nothing has happened to me. I care about you, and I don't want you to get hurt."
"No, you don't want your reputation to get hurt. You wouldn't give a damn about me if it weren't for your reputation. You're an old man who only cares about money. You don't want people in your life that care for you. You want the reputation of a billionaire who has a perfect life, even if that means changing mine to make yours better."
He sat there in awe of me. I was blinking away tears, choking back words that were slowly escaping. There was so much more I wanted to say, but so much I knew I couldn't. I was finally happy, and the last living relative that I had wanted nothing to do with it. He wanted me to be his puppet, but I couldn't do that anymore. I couldn't sit back and watch my life go by. My parents would be so upset if I ever did that.
"I'm going to get Harry, and I will see you some other time grandpa."
I pushed my way towards the balcony doors, opening them, and looking out for Harry. He was standing against the railing, his hands gripping the ledge as best they could. It's freezing out here, and I don't know how he's not shivering to death.
"We need to leave." I tell him gently, resting my hand on his shoulder. He tensed, and I could feel his muscles in his back become tight.
He grabbed my hand and spun us around so that we were walking towards the door again. My heals were clacking against the tile as we made our way through the dining room and past my grandpa. He had yet to move his position, only blankly staring at the table in front of him. Harry's hand was gripping mine so tightly that when I turned around to say one last thing to my grandpa, I felt his body crash into mine slightly.
"Merry Christmas Grandpa. Hope it's a good one."
*****************************
Car after car. House after house. Song after song. Yet not a single word from the man next to me. I was thinking hard, but he was thinking harder. I knew my grandpa's words had gotten to him. How could they not? But I didn't want them to. I wanted him to know I trusted him. I wanted him to know that he was all I needed. I wanted him to know that he was making me the happiest I'd been in years. I wanted him to believe me when I told him that.
"Harry..." I rested my hand on his thigh, and watched his hands grip the steering wheel even tighter than before.
"I'm not mad at you." He says quickly, and I furrow my eyebrows.
"I know..."
"I'm just.. I'm- I'm upset. Everything he fucking said was true. Every god damn thing he said was completely and one hundred percent true." He shook his head to himself.
"Harry, damn't no it isn't!" His jaw clenched at my words.
"I finally get the balls to fucking settle down with a girl. I'm fucking in love with her, and I have fucked up so bad in my past that it has carried on to get the disapproval of her grandfather. Do you know how much that fucking sucks?!"
I stayed quiet. I didn't know how to respond to him. I wanted to say so many things, but I couldn't. They weren't right. They were mean and they were stupid things that would piss him off. I could tell him that it didn't matter to me because he made my happy. I could tell him that my grandpa is a psycho lunatic, but that won't do anything for me. He's going to take this to heart. If it's someone he cares about, their opinion means everything to him.
"I don't care if he doesn't approve Harry. He doesn't care if I'm happy. He cares if the world likes him and since I'm directly related to him, I reflect him in either good ways or bad." I try to explain it to him, but it's so hard because I know he already knows what I've just said.
"Yes, but apparently I'm making you bad. I don't want that."
"Well if making me who I am is bad, then so be it. I want to be as happy as I was two years ago. I want to experience life the way I did two years ago before any of this shit happened. You're my escape from reality for a little while. You're my reason for being happy and I'll keep you in my life as long as I can."
"I reckon you're a bit mad. I'm a horrible influence on you. You're grandfather is bloody right and I hate that. I want to be good for you. I don't want to corrupt you."
I had to laugh at his last statement. Harry was doing the complete opposite of corrupting me. He was just bringing me out of this fake shell I had been stuck in for years.
"What?" He asks, unamused.
"Now 'I reckon you're a bit mad'." I mimic his earlier words to me, making him snort a little.
"That was the worst English accent I have ever heard."
"Nope you're just jealous because mine was that much better than yours. And I'm not even from England."
I watched him groan as his eyes rolled around a bit. He flung a hand up in the air before setting it back down on the steering wheel forcefully.
"I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you hear, and of course you're bloody making a joke out of it somehow!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I say in between giggles.
"Well why aren't you upset about any of this. This is your grandfather. I feel like I'm more upset than you."
"Because you are." I say simply.
"I've gotten disapproval from my grandfather for the past two years. It doesn't mean shit to me quite frankly. I'm sick of being his way of recognition in the world. Sure it sucks he doesn't approve of you, but he doesn't know you, and so therefore, his opinion means shit to me."
We sat in silence for awhile. I could tell he was thinking hard again. He was thinking about the situation and how he could make it better. He was going to try to change and that was exactly what I didn't want him to do. I wanted to be myself and I was only myself when I was with Harry.
So I watched the buildings get bigger and the houses get smaller. I watched the amounts of people go from barely any to crowds filling up the sidewalks. There were more cars around us and lots of people taking pictures. We had officially gotten back into the city and out of the suburbs.
People hadn't recognized Harry per say, but they all were obsessed with his car. People would point at it and look at the details, and I couldn't understand why. It was just a black Range Rover. These things were everywhere.
We had arrived at his flat after 30 minutes of navigating through London traffic. It was late afternoon and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. My head was pounding from the horrible amount of alcohol I had the night before and now I hadn't eaten so it hurt even more.
"I'm going to go get something to eat." I tell Harry as we get out of the car. He furrowed his eyebrows at me, giving me a weird look.
"You can come if you want, but I'm hungry so I'm going now."
"No s'alright. I'll see you when you get back." He says shortly and walks up the stairs to his flat.
Wellllll guess I'll get a burger myself.
And so I walked and I walked and I walked. I walked for a half hour before I came across a cute little burger place. It was only about 10 minutes from Harry's house, so that meant they'd still be warm if I brought them home.
Amongst all the walking, I started to realized there were more camera flashes and more screaming fans. I tried to stop for a few but it got to be too much so I began to walk home at a quicker pace.
Picture after picture, autograph after autograph. I could not get away from the heavy crowds of people following me. Perhaps I shouldn't have walked but I did not think it was going to get this crazy.
is it always this bad?
I text Harry and wait for his response. Thankfully it's almost instant and I continue to walk, making my way down the street as quickly as I can. I'm almost back to Harry's, just a few more steps.
What's wrong?
The paps.
I was about to push the front door of the building open when someone else had swung it open for me. He was running a hand through his hair and slipping on his coat when he saw me. The sigh that came out of his mouth was long and loud. I couldn't even react before I had muscular arms encasing me and pulling me to his chest as the door slammed shut.
We stood together in the lobby, hugging as I held a paper bag with two burgers and two orders of fries. I couldn't breath very well because of how tight the hug was, so when I pushed away slightly, I felt all the oxygen rush into my body.
"I brought you a burger." I smile gently and he lets out a groan.
"Jesus Bethany. You had me shitting myself! And here you are acting like it never happened and talkin about fuckin burgers." He was exasperated but it was amusing.
"I'm hungry as shit. Let's go fucking eat."
I shoved the food in his hands and began to make my way up the four flights of stairs. I was running up each one leaving a very confused Harry behind. I was extremely happy and I had no idea why but I was. My head was killing me but I guess my hyper state was my way of trying to get my mind off the subtle pounding in the back of my head.
I pushed my way through the unlocked door and shrugged off my coat. I was buzzing and jittery from not eating all day, and I was ready to shove a burger down my throat. I poured each of us a glass of water and took a seat on the barstool just as Harry walked through the door.
"Slow poke." I joked around with him as he set the bag on the counter in front of us.
"Sorry I didn't have the energy of a three year old to run up all those damn stairs."
"It only happens to the best of us."
He rolled his eyes at me and took a seat. He handed me my burger and I immediately chowed down on it. I was starving and I wanted to eat as much as I could.
"Slow down! I don't want you to choke." He scolds me but I roll my eyes. I was half way done with my burger and fries. I felt like nothing could stop me.
"Wanna do something after this?" I ask excitedly, but he shakes his head.
"I think you need to sleep... You have a big photoshoot tomorrow." He reminds me and that's when I truly do feel my stomach drop.
"Oh Fuck." I exclaim.
"What?"
"LEIGHTON IS ARRIVING AT THE AIRPORT IN LIKE 20 MINUTES! WE'RE SUPPOSE TO PICK HER UP REMEMBER?"
His eyes grow wide in realization and he stares at me with worry. I watch as Harry starts to eat his burger just as quickly as I'm eating mine. I laugh at the irony of the situation. London was suppose to be a nice relaxing time for us, but we had somehow managed to make every day here action packed.
*************************************
"Well isn't it nice of you to pick us up!" Leighton exclaims as Harry and I run towards her and Colton.
Colton?
"Sorry we have had one hell of a day." I apologize to her, giving her a quick hug and then awkardly hugging Colton who is standing next to her.
"Well, I can't wait to hear all about it, but can we please get to the hotel first. I am dead." She starts to talk as she walks forward, leaving the rest of us behind. Harry grabs her bag and Colton grabs his own, and we practically sprint towards the girl speed walking for her dear life.
AN:SOOOO IDK What that last little section of the story was... hell I don't even know what half of this chapter was. It was like all dramatic at the beginning and then just kinda like... eh, but I think that brings out what life is really like. So I like it but I hate it, but I'm going to go with it because I haven't updated in a long ass time and I think you guys should read it... lol. Anyways... hopefully I'll get back into this scheduled writing thing. I've just been super busy and so this next month is going to be rough but after that I'm on summer break so everything should get back in the saddle.
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