“Good morning beautiful,” Harry says, smiling as I walk into the kitchen. He was eating a muffin. The entire place was a complete disaster from last night’s party.
“Morning,” I reply, pecking his lips. “Tastes like blueberry,” I joke. He laughs, wiping his face with a napkin. I grab an apple from the fruit basket and sit at the table. “Did the boys stay over last night?”
“Yeah. I doubt any of them are up yet though.”
“How about Melissa?”
“Do you have any idea how much she drank last night? She won’t be up until noon at the earliest. Plus, she’ll probably be so hung over she won’t remember half of last night,” he points out. I nod.
Gemma walks into the kitchen, examining her surroundings.
“Wow,” she comments.
“I know,” I chuckle.
“You may want to dispose of the keg before Mum gets home,” she suggests. "Just an idea."
“Shit,” Harry mutters as if just now realizing we had kept this party a secret from Anne. “What time is she coming home?”
“Probably around eleven,” Gemma shrugs.
“Will you help us clean up?” I ask. She nods.
“Of course.”
“I’ll wake up the boys. Someone get Melissa. We’re going to need all the help we can get,” Harry orders, taking off for the steps.
I follow him, walking down the hall to Melissa’s room and knocking, although I knew it was useless. When I received no response I walked in to find her and some guy sleeping under the covers, most likely naked. I shielded my eyes at first, but realized nothing could be seen. I didn’t know exactly what to do, so I threw a pillow at both of them. The guy woke up first. His eyes widened when he saw me.
“Well? Get out!” I order. He scrambled for his pants, pulling them on without revealing anything.
“Will you tell her-“
“No!” I shout, pushing him out and closing the door behind me. I roll my eyes. Pig.
I stormed over to Melissa. “Wake up,” I demand. She releases a groan. “Melissa wake the fuck up right now.” Her eyes open slightly.
“Why are you up? It’s early…” she mutters.
“It’s nine o’clock, and we have exactly two hours to get this entire house clean before Anne gets home. You planned this party, and you’re going to help us. Get up.”
She rolls over, grinning. “Wasn’t there a guy next to me?”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah. He just left.”
“What was his name again?”
“I don’t fucking know,” I snap.
“Geez,” she says as she gets up, covering herself with the sheets while she walked to her closet. “What rained on your parade?”
“Stop,” I say. “Just put some clothes on and meet me downstairs.”
“Are you mad because I slept with your little boyfriend?” she asks in a teasing tone. I freeze and turn around.
“Harry is not my boyfriend, and you did not sleep with him.”
“You don’t know that,” she taunts. She kept smirking as she spoke which I found very annoying.
“He told me,” I say, turning back for the door.
“People lie, Nicole.”
“You mean like how you’re lying now?” I shoot back.
“It’s his word against mine.”
“Why would you lie about this?” I ask.
“You’re asking the wrong person. Maybe he didn’t want to upset you. Woops.” I wanted to smack that grin right off her face. She leaves the closet fully clothed. For the most part. Short shorts and a skimpy tank top. Good enough.
“Harry has given me every reason to trust him and believe the words he tells me. Why would I ever trust you? He cares about me. You only care about yourself,” I snap.
“Oh, sweetie. I thought you would’ve learned by now. Fifteen homes in seventeen years, and you still think people care about you? You can’t trust anyone. I care about myself because in the end that’s all I’ll have left. Nobody sticks around. I thought you of all people would know that.” She keeps that grin planted across her lips. “Harry doesn’t care about you. Nobody ever will. Better to learn it now. It makes things less painful later on.” She pushes past me and out the door. I stare after her angrily before taking a deep breath and following.
“Okay,” Gemma says once we’re all gathered downstairs. “Zayn and Louis can clean up the front and back yards. Liam and Niall can handle the basement. Harry and Nicole can do the main floor, and Melissa and I got upstairs. Ready, go.”
“Wait, wait, wait, hold on,” Melissa says, holding a hand to her forehead. “I’ve got a killer headache. Anyone got any aspirin?”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Everyone else looked annoyed too. Gemma quickly went to get her some with a tall glass of water.
“Thanks,” she says after taking it. “I feel much-“ She stopped mid-sentence and sprinted to the bathroom, probably to throw up. I release an audible sigh.
“You might have to handle upstairs alone,” I inform Gemma.
“Doesn’t surprise me,” she mutters.
“We’re running out of time,” Niall points out.
“Right. Let’s go,” Louis orders. We all break to our assigned spots.
“I’ll start with the kitchen. You can take care of the living room, and we’ll meet in the middle,” I say to Harry. He nods and we go our separate ways.
I quickly disposed of every plastic cup, napkin, empty soda can, paper plate, and leftover food in sight. After, I hauled the trash bag to the curb. Once I had wiped off the counters I felt like I was forgetting something.
The keg. Right.
“Harry!” I yell. He was instantly at my side.
“Yes?”
“What are we supposed to do with this thing?” I ask, staring at it. He thinks for a moment before picking it up, walking outside, dumping the remains in the neighbor’s yard, and rolling it into the woods behind the house. I watched, awestruck. Even Louis and Zayn had stopped what they were doing to watch this unbelievable act occur.
“All taken care of,” he says, smiling. I shake my head, smiling.
“Just wait until the neighbors show up at your door wondering why there’s a lake of alcohol in their backyard.”
He laughs, returning to work.
Working as a team we actually managed to get the house cleaned up on time. Just as Harry was finishing with the vacuum, I noticed Anne’s car pull into the driveway. My eyes went wide.
“HARRY! Put it away, quick! She’s home. Get it out of sight! Let’s go, let’s go!” I rush him as he quickly shoves the vacuum cleaner into the closet he had found it in. I yell up the steps to warn Gemma and Melissa, downstairs to let Liam and Niall know, and I popped my head out the backdoor to tell Zayn and Louis.
Everyone hurried to hide any remaining evidence while I nearly broke my neck trying to get to the couch. I tried to act casual, fumbling for the remote and switching to a random channel. Harry flopped down beside me and everyone slowly joined us. Just as Melissa was the last one to sit down, the front door opened and Anne stood in the foyer. I tried to breathe normally.
“Oh. Hello boys,” she says kindly when she sees that we’re all sitting in the living room quietly watching Animal Planet. “Having fun?”
“Yes. Definitely,” Louis assures her. She gave a strange look, but didn’t comment. Instead she nodded and headed upstairs to her room. Once I heard her bedroom door shut, a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt like someone was suffocating me and I could finally breathe.
“That was close,” Zayn states the obvious.
“I think that’s enough anxiety for today,” Niall says, rising from his seat. “I’m going to head home.”
“Me too,” Louis adds on. “The party was great though.”
“Yeah, I’m exhausted,” Zayn says.
“Wait,” Liam stops him. “You’re my ride home. Could you just wait a minute?” he asks. Zayn looked confused and annoyed, but reluctantly agreed. “Thanks. I need to talk to Nicole about something real quick.” Everyone looks at me.
“Um, okay,” I say in a small voice. Harry watched us as I followed Liam to the other room. “You need to talk?”
“Yes. I’m sort of getting some mixed signals here,” he says, biting his lip in anticipation. I felt awful. He has no idea what’s going on.
“I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t….I didn’t mean to kiss you. It was sort of a reaction because I was upset, and you were there…I’m really sorry.”
The disappointment was clearly written all over his face. “Got it,” he says.
“Can we please be friends? I don’t want things to be weird between us.”
“It’s fine. Really. I’m okay,” he says with a weak smile, leaving the room to follow Zayn out. As soon as they leave I run my hands through my hair and let out a much-needed scream. I could tell no one in the room was expecting it.
“You okay?” Gemma asks when I’m finished.
“No,” I admit, turning and heading up to my room. Through my door I could hear Anne asking Harry, Gemma, and Melissa if everything was alright. Then I heard a few knocks. “What?”
Harry came in and shut the door behind him before sitting next to me on my bed. “You seem troubled.”
I smile. “Just a bit.”
“Sharing is caring.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say, laying on my back and staring up at the ceiling. He laid next to me and looked at me. “What are you staring at?” I ask, poking his cheek.
“This beautiful girl who won’t tell me about her problems.”
I laugh. “I’m just frustrated because I’m in a situation and no matter how I deal with it someone loses.”
“Well I think everything is working out fine,” he says, his lips connecting with mine. I smile into the kiss and pull him closer.
A knock on the door interrupts us. Harry didn’t seem to care. “Nicole, sweetie, I just wanted to remind you that Jamie is coming by later to check in,” Anne calls through the door.
“Y-yeah, okay. That’s fine,” I call as Harry continues to kiss my neck. I tried to sound relaxed. It didn’t work.
“Are you alright?” she asks. Harry smirks and moves his hands around my waist, still kissing me.
“Yeah. I’m okay,” I say, trying to push Harry off of me. He wouldn’t budge. I heard her walk away and gave Harry a look.
“What?” he asks innocently.
“You know exactly what,” I say, pecking his lips before sitting up. I was about to get up, but he pulled me back. I fell onto the bed giggling.
“I’m terribly sorry. I promise I won’t seduce you next time someone is talking to you,” he says, although I knew he didn’t mean it.
“You were not seducing me.”
“Oh really?” he asks in the sexiest voice I had ever heard him use.
“Yeah, really,” I tease, smirking as I hopped up from the bed and left the room.
I remembered what Melissa said to me earlier. I knew it wasn't true, but the thought wouldn't leave my head.
No one cares about me, but Harry is the exception. Only he can change my mind about that.
AUTHORS NOTE
I struggled with this chapter. Just didn't know what to write, ya know? But I fought through it ebcause I just really don't want to do homework :P I HAVE SO MANY ESSAYS SOMEONE HELP ME. ugh. school is such a bitch. AnyWhOrre, THANKS FOR READING I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DONT FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT AND FOLLOW ME BECAUSE IM NOT THAT BAD AND I NEED FRIENDS ALRIGHT YEAH THANKS AGAIN OH AND YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT MY OTHER STORY CALLED 'PERFECT' BECAUSE NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE ARE READING IT YEAH ALRIGHT THANKS BYE xx