HARRY
I stood in the hallway, looking at the door inquisitively, wondering why Chelsea had left so quickly. It was quiet in my hotel room again, too quiet. There wasn't any music playing, no TV sounds, not footsteps. I sighed and flopped back on the bed. It felt as if Chelsea had taken the happiness she had brought with her, leaving me colder and more alone than before. That's why you can't let her get close. I told the annoying voice in my head to shut up and rolled over uncomfortably.
My phone buzzed as a text flashed onto the screen. "Hey man, you okay?" I was hoping it was Louis, but it was Zayn. Why was he texting me?
"Niall and Liam are going to be in London next weekend, you should come back. They're worried about you, you know? I am too Harry. Just don't do anything stupid while Louis' not there." I rolled my eyes at his dramatics.
"I won't be doing anything stupid."
"You sure? No drinking my yourself, no starving yourself, no moping around for days on end? Nothing dangerous?" I knew he wasn't just worried about those things, there was something else too.
"Spit it out Zayn."
"Don't hurt yourself, okay? No cutting, no poisoning, no drugs, no drinking." Well that was blunt. I sighed and tossed my phone to the ground, not caring if it broke. It didn't. I'm not sure when I fell asleep, sometimes being awake and being asleep felt the same to me. But I knew I drifted off at one point, because there was someone knocking on the door, waking me up in the process.
"Hello?" I asked hesitantly. I wasn't too keen on opening the door wearing just my boxers.
"Um, it's Chelsea. Hi?" I perked up a bit and let her in quickly. She jokingly shielded her eyes when she saw what I was wearing.
"Harry, that's not very appropriate," she mocked.
"I'm so very sorry, m'lady." She sighed and shook her head in disapproval.
"Go get dressed." I pouted.
"I don't wanna!"
"Too bad, go." She sat down on the couch and refused to look at me. Finally I sighed and left the room. I pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and red plaid button up shirt with a black t-shirt underneath. I debated on wearing my necklace, but decided to anyways.
"Done!" I sing-songed, sitting on Chelsea's lap. She groaned.
"Harry you're almost a foot taller than me and you weight a hella lot more, so kindly get off."
"Nope."
"Harry! Don't make me count to three!" I could hear the smile in her voice. "One... Two... Three. Okay then, you asked for it." I was surprised when stood up and shoved me off, making me fall to the ground with a thud. She then proceeded to sit back down as if she had done nothing.
"That wasn't very nice," I said, rubbing my bruised hip.
"Neither is sitting on someone a foot smaller than you." She smiled innocently at me. I made a face in her direction before reaching up out of habit to play with my necklace. It drew her attention to it. I could practically see her wonder if she should ask about it after my reaction from last time. The curiosity got the best of her.
"Where'd you get that necklace?" My mood had soured as soon as she asked, even before that.
"Michelle." She looked at me confused.
"Who's Michelle?" I was silent for a moment. "Sorry, I'm prying," she quickly apologized. I sighed and leaned back on the couch.
"Um, she's my ex. She gave me this a while ago."
"Oh. Tough breakup?"
"You could say that." Silence engulfed us for a few minutes.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened?"
"She changed. I changed her." I pulled my knees up to my chest and placed my cheek on my left knee, looking away from Chelsea.
"Oh," she finally whispered. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked." It was silent again, until the door opened.
"Harry, I forgo- Chelsea?" Louis voice called out.
"Shi- Crap," Chelsea muttered from beside me. She grabbed her head in between her palms. "I'm so getting hell for this."
"Chelsea!? Why the fuck are you here!?" Louis yelled loudly as he saw us sitting on the couch.
"Sorry, I was just bored and you weren't replying, besides he's not mad anymore," she said.
"I don't care if he's mad or not, I told you to stay the fuck away from him! How long have you've been coming here!?" he screamed. I could see Chelsea look at him apprehensively.
"We had lunch together yesterday..." Louis glared at her and growled. "Wait, why do you care so much? You're not my dad," she muttered, glaring right back. I was still sitting on the couch until Louis took a step forwards and looked like he was about to burst a vein. Chelsea took one back, making me stand.
"Louis, stop," I said quietly.
"No! You almost hurt her last time, I'm not letting that shit happen again!" he yelled. I grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back a tiny step.
"Louis you're scaring her," I said again, trying to calm him down. "Louis, stop, you're scaring her." It finally seemed to get through his thick head because he took in deep breath and his face lost some of its colour.
"Chelsea..." he said quietly. "Sorry, I just... lost it, I guess." Chelsea licked her lower lip and pulled it into her mouth.
"It's fine," she finally said. "But I'm not staying away just because of that one thing."
"But-"
"If I stay away from him, I'm staying away from you too Louis." He sighed before giving in.
"Fine. I'm just worried about you." She smiled slightly and rolled her eyes.
"I think you have better things to worry about, now get out of here. Harry and I are bonding," she said, laughing as she pushed him to the door.
"You don't want me here!?" he gasped dramatically. Flipping his hair, he cast her a sassy look. "Fine. You peasants have fun." Chelsea closed the door behind him and scoffed.
"Louis'. Always thinking they're all th-" She stopped when she saw my face.
"Why... Why did Louis ask you to stay away from me? I would never hurt you." She chewed her lip nervously.
"Um, well it's just the other day..." She trailed off, looking unsure. "You... well, you know. And he... um, he heard, and thought..." She groaned in frustration and flopped down on the couch. "Is there any way I can convince you to not want to know anymore?"
"Give me a kiss?" I asked cheekily.
"If I do, will you actually forget it?" I was surprised she even considered it, so I pondered the thought for a while.
"Yeah, I guess." She sighed, and looked over at me with a skeptical look before kissing my cheek really quickly. I rolled my eyes and tapped my lips expectantly.
"Nope, you wanted a kiss."
"A real one!"
"That was real, it just wasn't on the lips." I sighed and poked her cheek.
"Meanie." I poked her cheek again. And again. And again. And... again. On the sixth poke she slapped my hand away. "Kiss?"
"You have to stop bothering me all afternoon."
"Promise." I held out my pinkie, which she linked with hers. She looked at me with over exaggerated annoyance and pressed a quick kiss to my lips, wiping her mouth overdramatically after.
"Happy?"
"Very." I gave her a little grin. I leaned back on the couch where we settled in to watch a movie. It was so easy spending time with Chelsea, she never made me feel like we had to go to fancy parties or dinners, or go out clubbing to have a good time. Unlike Michelle. I frowned slightly. Michelle was always up for a night in as well, at first. Then she started preferring to go see a movie, then go to dinner, and go clubbing... I got off the couch suddenly and stormed to my room, happy mood replaced by a sour one.
"Harry?" Chelsea called out from behind me. I felt slightly guilty at the worry in her voice but didn't stop. I crawled under the covers again, hoping to escape my own thoughts.
"Go away," I muttered when Chelsea joined me.
"Harry, what happened?"
"Nothing."
"That's the worst lie I've ever heard in my life."
"Well believe it, it's not a lie."
"Harry..." She lifted up the already cozy covers and made me sit up slightly. Then she crawled in beside me and turned on her phone. "Come on, I challenge you to a game of Tap Tap Revenge." She turned her phone so it was between us. I took the other side in my hands as Locked Out of Heaven by Bruno Mars came on. The little round dots came fast, really fast.
"Oh my god," I muttered as I tried to get all of them. Looking up briefly, I saw Chelsea hitting them all without difficulty. "What..."
"Having fun?" she teased, seeing my difficulty.
"Not exactly..." I focused for the rest of the song, but my score was still a few thousand less than Chelsea's. I sighed and leaned back. "I'm physically exhausted from that," I said, panting dramatically.
"Drama queen."
"That's Louis." We had a laugh at that one, before she challenged me to a few more games of Tap Tap Revenge. "I'll miss this," I mumbled quietly. I thought she wouldn't have heard, but I was wrong.
"What do you mean?"
"I... Well I'm going back to London soon. Probably the day after tomorrow, Zayn wants me to see the boys while they're there. And I think I'll stay there." Her face fell.
"Oh, right. I guess I just forgot this was a hotel room and not your apartment." Melancholy silence blanketed us until she spoke up again. "I... I guess I should go now." I grabbed her arm.
"No... don't leave. Please?"
"Harry you're going back to London, I think it's easier if I just... left?"
"No, don't leave," I begged, even though I knew she was right. It would be easier if she left today and we went our separate ways like everyone would eventually, but I didn't want her to. "You could... You could come to London with me! You wanted to see London anyways!" She bit her lip.
"Harry, even if I did, I would only stay a week or so... I don't know if I can..."
"Please? After that we can... we can figure it out. A week's better than nothing right?" I mustered up all the cuteness and sadness in my body and tried to push it into my face as I gave her puppy eyes. She looked at me for a few minutes before looking away.
"Oh god no, those eyes are intense. I- I'll think about it, okay? A week couldn't hurt." At her answer, a smile pushed its way onto my face, a genuine one. I felt something I hadn't felt for a while, true happiness, elation even. I pulled her into a tight, bone crushing hug, and rested my head on top of hers.
"Thanks," I whispered.
***
I was lying in my bed again. I couldn't say I was proud of it, but I couldn't fall asleep. I had tossed and turned, eventually throwing the blankets off the bed. I sighed and decided to start packing, no harm done right? Setting aside a change of clothes for tomorrow and the day after, I started to pile all my laundry into my suitcase. I left a pair of black oxfords and threw the rest of my shoes into my suitcase too. It didn't take long, and soon I was bored again. While wandering my hotel aimlessly, I wondered if Louis knew I was going back to London. I decided to send him a text just in case.
"Lou, I'm heading back to London the day after tomorrow if you didn't know already. -H" Without waiting for a reply, I sent a text to Chelsea too.
"Come over tomorrow?" I hadn't put my phone down before she replied.
"Sure."
"Why are you still up, it's almost one in the morning!?"
"I'm up this late all the time." That probably wasn't very healthy.
"Doing what?"
"Editing videos with Tyler, talking to friends, tumblring. You know, the usual. :P"
"Your video's going up tomorrow? Any chance I'll get an early sneak peek since you love me?"
"Nope. Better wait like everyone else!" I sighed, but decided to grab my laptop and watch some of her old videos while I was waiting. I clicked on one titled 'MOVING!' Her face, along with two twins who I assumed where Tyler and Dylan, popped up on the screen.
"Hi guys!" they said together.
"We're doing a super quick vlog together today," one of the guys said.
"As you know, we're moving to Manchester!" the other said.
"Yep, and we plan to do a lot of travelling over the next year!" Chelsea said, grinning excitedly.
"Because of that, we won't be following out usual theme weeks. Instead, we'll try to post videos of all kinds like we usually do, but because of where we are, they won't be in the usual order."
"Sometimes we won't be together, whether we decided to go to different places or one of us sick, busy, you know. We might have less videos with all of us together, little heads up there."
"Well that's it now, check out our new video tomorrow! Bye!" Chelsea said, waving at the camera. I smiled slightly, they were funny people. I watched a few more videos before I fell asleep at my laptop.
Yay! Next chapter done. Did anyone else see the Trekstock thing yet? I linked the video to the side too... I can't believe some lucky person gets to meet them in private! Jealousy... Please vote and comment if you liked the chapter, it makes me so happy!
Next chapter will be up on Saturday, July 13th.