❝i can tell that your heart isn’t in it❞
c h a p t e r t h r e e
"A drive-in movie?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Harry shrugged as he glanced over his shoulder, trying to park the car so that the trunk would face the movie screen. "Hey, I've always wanted to go to one," he said. "Besides, no paparazzi. We don't need the press involved with all this."
All this being the fake dating thing, and Ashleigh. The band had decided to tell people about Niall's temporary amnesia, since it would be difficult to hide, but the Harry-Me-Niall-Ashleigh thing? Yeah, while it would probably make the front cover of most magazines, it wasn't exactly a winning story.
He grabbed the keys and got out of the car, keeping his head down. There weren't any photographers -I don't think drive-in movies are celebrity hot spots- but that didn't mean there wouldn't be other people who might recognize him.
"What movie is it?" I asked, following after him to the back of the car.
Harry shrugged again. "Something horror, I think," he said, popping the trunk. He pulled out some blankets and pillows and handed them to me. Harry's car was one of those with back seats that could be flipped down to make a bigger trunk. Perfect for drive-in movies. He climbed inside, the turned back and took the blankets and pillows. I crawled in after him, helping him arrange them into a comfortable fort-like thing. We settled back against the front seats, and he pulled out a bag containing a bag of chips, packets of gummy bears, chocolate bars and a couple cans of soda.
"Thanks for doing this, Harry, I appreciate it." A drive-in movie wouldn't fix everything, but it was nice to have a distraction. This was the most relaxing and normal thing I had done in the past couple week with everything going on. Even if it was a sort of fake date.
Before he could reply, the door opened, making me jump. Louis poked his head in, a frustrated expression on his face. "Move over guys, I'm crashing your date."
Well, now it was a fake date that had just been crashed by our best friend.
I scooted over to make room for Louis. He crawled in beside me, leaving me squished between him and Harry. I'm sure a lot of their fan girls would love to be in my position, so I shouldn't be complaining, but it was kind of uncomfortable. The back of the car wasn't really big and they weren't exactly soft.
Louis looked pissed off, but something about his expression told me it was best to wait a bit before asking him what was wrong. Besides, the movie had already started, distracting all of us.
Thirty minutes into the movie, I was actually kind of glad I was squished between Harry and Louis. The movie was horrible. It wasn't scary, not really. There was just a lot of blood. And dead animals. And I don't like either of those.
"Ew!" I screeched for the tenth time as one of the psychotic villains slaughtered a poor, innocent animal. Its guts flew everywhere, splattering the actors on screen. Oh my god, this is mentally scarring, I'm going to have nightmares forever, I swear. I dug my fingers into Louis arm as I hid my face between his shoulder and the pillow he was leaning on. The guys, being the cruel people they were, had stolen my pillow as soon as I had started using it to cover my face.
"You okay?" I asked Louis, partially in an effort to get my mind of the horrifying movie, but mostly because I was genuinely concerned. He had teased and laughed, but he was still tense. Something was still bothering him.
"Other than you cutting off my circulation," he said dryly. "I'm fine." Complete lie. I knew him well enough to tell.
Harry snorted. "Yeah right."
"Did something happen after we left?" I asked.
Louis shook his head. "It's just," he sighed and leaned forward to shoot a look I couldn't quite understand at Harry. "Ashleigh and how far she'll go to get Niall." He said the words carefully, keeping his eyes on Harry. Harry returned his glance with a blank expression, but not like the clueless blank expression, no, he was purposely trying not to show emotion.
What bothered me the most was Louis's words, though. How far she'll go to get Niall? I knew she had liked him, maybe even loved him, as more than friends, and had jumped at the chance of him liking her.
I poked Harry in the arm after a couple moments of him sitting completely still and staring blankly at the movie playing. "You okay?" My guess was that whatever Louis had meant had to do with him. I was curious, but I didn't want to pry, especially if it pulled a reaction like this from the normally light-hearted and joking Harry.
He nodded. "It's just something that happened last year," he replied. He took a deep breath. "Ashleigh asked me to make Niall jealous."
I blinked. Okay, of all things, I hadn't expected that. Well, I hadn't really known what to expect. "Wait, is this why you hate Ashleigh so much?" I asked, glancing at Louis. When he nodded, I turned back to look at Harry. "You know you don't have to tell me, right?"
Harry shook his head and sighed. "I agreed because I thought Niall might like her back. It was only supposed to be some harmless flirting."
"Except her plan backfired. Niall got jealous, but instead of asking her out, he was more distant," Louis said. He kept his eyes on the screen in front of him and munched on a chip, but I don't think his attention was really on the movie.
"Niall was giving Ashleigh the cold shoulder so we started talking more," Harry continued. "And I was stupid enough to start liking her. I thought it was real."
"But it wasn't?" I asked. It made seen now. How Ashleigh had after around Harry at the hospital. How forced Harry's sympathy had seemed when I told the guys about Ashleigh and Niall. I wasn't sure if Harry still liked Ashleigh, but it had to have bothered him at least a little.
Harry shook his head. "She said it would never happen." Whoa. That was harsh. "It wasn't really her fault though."
Louis snorted. "She led you on!"
"I should've known. I thought since it hasn't worked, she had stop trying," Harry said quietly, letting out a quiet sigh. I glanced at him, but he refused to meet my eyes, staring instead at the bloody scene on screen. Maybe not looking at me made it easier for him to explain. "I thought after all the talks it was something, I don't know, special." He paused and drew in a deep breath. 'That's the thing about Ashleigh, I guess. She can make you feel like you have something special, when you don't."
"Maybe it was special to her," I suggested, trying to make Harry feel better.
He smiled wryly. "Just not special enough."
♡over again♡
"Do I have to do this?" I asked Louis as he dragged me out of the room I had found to hide out in.
He rolled his eyes and didn't reply, probably because it was the third time I had asked.
I was currently backstage, about to go on some sort of talk show. They had asked me to come with them to an interview they were doing, but what they had conveniently forgotten to also tell me was that I was going on with them. I didn't like attention, which I guess sounds weird coming from me, considering I was dating a member of an internationally famous boy band. It was just unnerving, the feeling of a bunch of eyes on you and knowing it was being filmed and broadcasted to even more people.
It was even worse since this would be the 'accident' interview. The explanation of how everything had happened, and the consequences. The band had told Niall about the accident yesterday. According to Louis, it had been extremely awkward. Then again, an 'it's actually a year later than you believe' would probably have to be a pretty horrible talk. Niall was taking it pretty well, considering he was just told he couldn't remember a year of his life. Or maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet. I still had to remind myself of what had happened.
I fingered the bottom of the light casual dress I was wearing for the interview and tried not to panic as I followed Louis to where the rest of the guys were waiting.
The sight of Ashleigh and Niall standing together made me want to both cry and throw up. They hasn't talked to management about going public yet, so they couldn't do anything too couple-y, thank god, but his arm was still slung across her shoulders. I noticed Harry watching them, a small grimace on his face. It wasn't very noticeable though, if I hadn't been looking for whether or not he was sad, I probably wouldn't have seen it.
"We're on in five," Liam said, breaking the silence. Usually they talked more before an interview, joking around, but I don't think anyone knew what to say. They couldn't talk about things like shows, or songs, or friends, because Niall didn't remember most of it.
Louis, who usually cracked jokes when things got awkward, didn't seem to be in a joking mood. He hadn't really been his usual self since I told the band about how Ashleigh had lied to Niall about them dating.
Zayn was on his phone, but he was tense, which meant he probably wasn't oblivious to the lack of conversation. Liam looked slightly distressed. Harry looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. If Niall noticed the tension and the awkwardness, he didn't show it.
We waited in silence until the interviewer told us it was time to go on. As they walked on stage, the boys turned into their smiling, familiar selves. I wasn't sure if it was for cameras, or if they had been cheered up by the screaming of their fans. Maybe a combination of both. I followed after them and took a seat between Louis and Liam, doing my best to keep a smile on my face the whole time.
Thankfully, the couch I was sitting in faced the interviewer's chair instead of the audience like the one Harry, Niall, Ashleigh and Zayn sat in. It made everything just a little easier. Not a lot, since now I could see a couple cameras, but at least I didn't have to answer questions while staring directly at the people watching.
The first five minutes of the interview were my favourite. Reason being I didn't have to talk. The interviewer, a short, blonde woman who introduced herself as Dana, repeated her introduction of the band and exchanged pleasantries. They introduced Ashleigh and me, which only really required a smile and small wave. Then came the questions.
"So recently you and Niall were involved in a nasty accident. Can you tell us what happened?" Dana asked.
I nodded, digging my nails lightly into the soft fabric of the couch. "We were on our way to meet up with the guys at the recording studio." That was a lie, we had been on our way back from a date, but I couldn't say that. "I looked away from the road to check the rear view mirror and when I looked back there was a guy walking in front of the car. It was too late to brake, so I swerved and uh, we ended up hitting a pole."
"Are you guys okay? Niall, you were in the hospital for three days," Dana said, turning slightly in her chair to look at Niall.
He cleared his throat. "I, um, I actually lost a year of my memory."
For a couple moments, there was only stunned silence. I bit the inside of my cheek and kept my eyes down as we waited for what Niall had said to sink in.
Dana was first to recover. Maybe because she had already been told before the interview. "How are you guys dealing with it? You're in the middle of a tour. Will that be cancelled for Niall's recovery?"
Liam shook his head. "We'll take a week or two off, however long it takes for Niall to learn the songs again before continuing."
"It's hard, but we have a lot of things to be thankful for, right?" Ashleigh said, turning to look at us. The rest of us nodded hesitantly, unsure of where she was going with this.
What? What could possibly be good about this? Other than Ashleigh being able to lie to Niall and say they were dating, that is. But she couldn't reveal that to the audience. Luckily, I didn't have to ask, Dana did it for me.
"Like what?" Dana asked.
Ashleigh smiled, then. An innocent smile that meant she was about to do something bad, I had learned that much from being around her. "Like how Niall's still with us, how Sarah's okay, how happy Harry is with Sarah."
Or maybe it wasn't so lucky she asked.