e i g h t e e n
"maybe one day, i'll be what you need. but don't wait too long... because the day you want me, may be the day i've finally given up."
**
"Damn, Chloe are you alright?" Dani questioned as soon as we had escaped the overflowing crowd of emotional girls.
"Yeah," I breathed, "Why I wouldn't I be?"
"Are you kidding me?" She squealed, "Some fucker tried to make a move on you and Harry being the perfect angel that he is threatened that asshole if he didn't leave you alone, never mind doing so in front of twenty thousand people!"
"And?" I mumbled, "Now twenty thousand people probably hate me."
"Why would they?" I ignored her, feeling my phone begin to vibrate in my pocket as I quickly grabbed it and pulled it out.
Call from Sam: Swipe to accept
I swiped my thumb across the screen and held my phone to me ear.
"Sam?"
"Hi Chloe," His came out in short breaths, "Promise me one thing,"
"What?" Confusion mixed with worry overcame me.
"Chloe, just promise me," He begged, "Please,"
"Sam-"
"Chloe! This is fucking important so just fucking promise me!"
"Oh my god, okay,"
The line went silent for a few seconds before Sam's voice spoke, "Don't let what people are saying get to your head." He choked on the words slightly as if holding back tears. Before I could respond I heard a dull ring as the the line went dead.
"Chloe, what's happening?"
"Give me a second," I muttered, flipping through my phone onto Twitter. Notifications popped out of everywhere and my heart beat quickened.
That was until I felt it drop into my stomach.
"Don't let what people are saying get to your head." He'd said, "Promise me,"
By now Dani had ripped my phone out of my hand and read everything on the screen for herself. Videos had already surfaced of the concert incident and the comments below made me feel nauseous.
'Fucking slut'
'Ew'
'wtf, she's so ugly'
'whore'
'why would Harry waste his time on her'
I didn't stop myself as the tears fell down my cheeks and Dani wrapped her arms around me.
"Chloe, please don't do this," She whispered, "That's all bullshit and you know it,"
Footsteps sounded on the squeaking floor as a figure hurried around the corner.
"Chloe!" Harrys voice boomed, "Chloe? Oh my god." I pulled back from Dani's arms, seeing him running down the corridor towards me, shortly followed by the other boys.
"Chloe, I'm so sorry," He whispered stepping closer to me, "Please ignore it, all of it."
"Harry," My body was shaking as I spoke, "We can't."
"Don't do this Chloe. People say shit like that because they're jealous, they don't mean any of it,"
"You're Harry Styles for gods sake, do you really believe that the media aren't going to make some crazy stories about how we are 'secretly married with five kids'?"
I looked to others who all just stood there. They knew I was right.
"Chloe, you can't do this," Harry now stood a few inches away from, his eyes burning down into mind, "Don't shut me out," He whispered.
"I hardly know you," I whispered back, "You can't end something you never started," As the words left my mouth, I knew it had hit him.
I watched as he took a step back, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.
"This won't stop me from caring about you, Chloe." He choked, "Hell, I'll do everything I can to show you how much I fucking care about you. I'll show you that this can work."
"What even is this then?" I asked, holding back the tears that threatened to come out.
"This," He gestured between us and paused, "I-I do-,"
"You don't know," I looked down, "Neither of us do."
I felt pathetic. I'd only known him for what? A month? He was a millionaire. He had a successful career with millions of fans who would die to be in my position right now. He would choose one of them over me in a heartbeat.
Reminding myself of all these things caused my emotions to finally spill over. I couldn't do this. I never could. I would never be able to give him what he needed.
"What are you thinking about?" His voice was soft, despite it cracking.
"I'm not good enough," I whispered, "I never will be, Harry,"
I turned away from him, not wanting to see the hurt in his green eyes.
"Do you want to go?" Dani asked me quietly, me silently nodding in response.
"Chloe, just remember one thing," He pleaded as I stopped to hear him, "You are way more than good enough... for me."
**
"It's the first live show tonight Sam, I think I might throw up," I blabbered, biting the inside of my cheek.
"When I asked if you were okay, you know I didn't mean about the show,"
Here we go...
"Look, I'm fine okay,"
"Chloe, I know you so don't pretend that all is swell because you know it fucking isn't."
"What do you want me to say?" I raised my voice, "I let everything get to my head and I hurt him. I did the thing that I promised myself I wouldn't fucking do!"
"I warned you, babe," He whispered.
"Oh, is that what you wanted hear? That you were right?!" Inside I was screaming the words but they came out as a whimper.
"No, fuck no. Chloe, you care about him. Shit, he was all you talked about. Him and his perfect fucking green eyes. I mean, obviously he's gorgeous and-"
"Sam, are you for real right now?"
"Sorry, sorry." He sighed, "Listen, so what? A few jealous bitches tweeted some crap. Do you really think they would be able to say that to your face?" I shook my head, "Exactly! So this evening, you will go out there without a care in the world and sing your ass off because you can and anyone who has the nerve to say anything can suck my-"
"Sam, you're absolutely flaming," I muttered.
"Well if it's Harry then he can happily suck-"
"Samuel Frederick Smith, I swear to god."
"Woah, chill out mum." He rolled his eyes, "Just saying."
"Mm well I think you've gone a bit off track,"
"Maybe," He grinned, "Now give me a sneak preview of what you're singing tonight,"
"If you insist Mr. Smith,"
"So, what are you actually singing," He laughed, sitting on the piano stool.
"Okay, so I'm singing Skinny Love by Birdy," I told him.
"Oh my god, Chloe you're going to nail it."
"Let's hope so,"
**
"Our new makeup artist should be here soon," Rita told me as she sat down.
"Thank you,"
"So have you been, after you know,"
Initially people had taken the concert 'incident' way too far but after a day or so luckily all of the 'hatred' died down and the fans had actually put light to the situation, focusing more on Harry being the caring and gorg-
God Chloe, you need to stop.
"I've been good, people don't seem to hate me as much as I though they would so,"
She flashed a smile, "Good PR if you ask me." I rolled my eyes in response as we continued to catch up on recent events, her telling me all about how her dog had nearly devoured her new pair of shoes.
"I swear to god, if she had ruined them..."
"Bless, you would probably forgive her though," I chuckled, "You two are basically best friends,"
"Not going to deny it," Her hands raised in defeat, "Speaking of best friends, are Sam and Dani here?"
"Yeah, they got here earlier. They should be arriving here soon for the show,"
"Are you nervous?" She asked then immediately back-tracked, "Wait, no of course you should be nervous because this is the first live show and all but- Okay I'll just stop talking,"
"To answer your question; yes I'm nervous but I think I've worked hard enough,"
"Especially after Wednesday," She muttered, me choosing to ignore it.
"Hello!" A voice squealed as I heard them approach, "So sorry I'm late please forgive me,"
Wait? I recognised that voice.
As I turned around I was greeted with a familiar wide smile and soon I hopped to my feet to hug them,
"Kate! How are you," I greeted her.
"Chloe? Oh my goodness, it's so lovely to see you again," She smiled, "Thanks for taking my advice,"
To be honest Kate was the real reason I continued singing, as fucking cliché as it sounds.
"So you two know each other?" Rita pitched in, standing from her chair to greet Kate as well.
"Hi love, we are a bit short for time but I have faith that you will do Chloe and I proud. Obviously she doesn't need much makeup or what not because-"
"Wait? You're my new makeup artist?" I asked, immediately getting excited.
"Yeah," She grinned, "Now let's get to work." Her hands clapped together as she spun my chair around and began whipping out makeup brushes from everywhere.
**
After, what felt like, ten layers of makeup and too many false lashes my makeup and hair was ready as I joined Rita in the dressing room.
"Oh my gosh!" She gasped, "You look beautiful babe,"
"Thank you Rita," I smiled, "I'm actually beginning to get really excited for the show."
"I should hope so," She laughed, "You'll be fab, I promise you."
"Don't you have other contestants to tend to?" I reminded her.
I constantly forgot that this was part of Rita's job. To me, she was another friend and it was bizarre to think of her as my 'coach'. Each coach was now down to three singers and (obviously) I was still one of Rita's along with Jack and a girl named Becca. Both of them were extremely kind although none of us really spent much time together. By 'we' I meant us three as a group, as I was pretty sure Jack and Becca were hitting it off.
Jecca.
I remembered the one time Sam had tried to come up with a ship name for Harry and I, way before we had even met, but all of them had ended up sounding like some weird-ass disease. And the other time after he'd found out that I had met Harry and he freaked out because he was convinced he had predicted the future and that Harry and I would-
I stopped myself mid-thought.
Fall in love.
He had thought Harry and I would fall in love.
**
HELLO BABES! How are you all omg it's been literally forever (10 days lmao) since I last updated I'm so sorry. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm sorry if it was rushed or anything but yeah I have so many ideas at the moment for this book and I'm so excited to write more of it. I would start a schedule for updating but I feel like then writing would feel like more of a chore or 'work' as such whereas it's just a hobby of mine and I don't want my chapters to seem laboured and other stuff...
by the way, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1.6k reads! 1K was literally my ultimate goal (lol) so thank you all v much.