NOTE: Half a Man at Best (Sequel to VALERIE) has a sad beginning. But VALERIE is going to have a happy ending so don’t cry. Please join me in counting down the remaining eight chapters (including this one) before we reach the epilogue.
Copyright © zylgnagnaba 2013
“I’m a terrible person, Harry.” I say through a semi-sobbing fit. Harry has me seated sideway on his lap while he clutches my waist against him. My arms are wrapped around his neck, head latched over his shoulder, my tears flowing down dampening his white shirt.
“Shhh,” He coos, rocking me on his lap. Somehow the action finds its way to comfort me, even just a bit. “You’re not a terrible person, baby. You just didn’t know what you were doing.” He gently shrugs his shoulder so I can return my head back up and look at him in the eyes. “We all do stupid things when we’re young.” There is remorse that lays behind the small smile in his face, but at the same time the urgency to cheer me up. I reciprocated him a weak one for his attempt to make me feel better though the pain is still there. It’s still there all this time.
“But what I did was unforgiveable. I don’t think I could ever forget about all those things I did to my brother. The old Gail kept on haunting me.” I tell him, my voice trembling as I speak. My chest heaves up as slight sniffles escape my lips, finally deciding to control myself from crying.
The atmosphere is somehow saturated with sorrow and guilt but I’m glad that Harry is here to clear the air and make it lighter. I’m thankful to have him in my life—the one that I’ve been working on to rebuild without looking back to the past by making new memories, and most of all, by making up stories about my past to white out the truth.
But then, I came to realize that whiting out the truth would only make everything worse. The lies would punish me for the rest of my life, just like how it has always been for almost two years being away from the life I’ve been accustomed to.
Worse thing, I wasn’t just lying to myself until now. I lied to Harry too, the person that matters most to me right now. Guilt keeps on weighing on me when images of Eleanor, Louis, Niall, Liam, Perrie, Zayn, Sophia, and Walt flash before my eyes. I lied to them too.
“Just know that no matter what, it doesn’t change the way I look at you. I still love you despite that. I don’t care about your past.” Harry’s words are enough for me to feel relieved as of the moment and discard my last thoughts. He’s all that matters to me right now.
My rocking motion on his lap weakens when he started wiping the tears away from my face with the tender touches of his fingers. He again pulls me even closer against him and I slowly close my eyes as he leans the side of my head closer for him to kiss my cheek.
My eyes dart to the motion of my fingers that are entertained by playing with Harry’s brunette curls, combing them before rolling them around between my two fingers. “Did you know that I haven’t loved any guy before you?” I ask him before meeting his eyes again. A smile slowly appears on my face as he smiles brightly at my statement.
“Seriously?” He enthused, grinning like an idiot and I nod rather excessively to make a point. His teeth now showing as he grins a little more, his eyes glistening along with the bleeding light from the ceiling of our suite.
The sight lured me in and I feel the sudden urge to kiss him silly. And that's what I did.
“How about Jules?” His eyes narrow before me when he asks a matter of five seconds later after we pull away. I couldn’t even hide how I am taken aback with his out-of-the-blue question.
It’s just so sudden, rendering me speechless and stare at his handsomeness for at least a while until he playfully waves his hand right in front of my face. His lips are puckered as he glued his eyes at me, granting my silence a quizzical look.
“Baby, still there?”
“I am, “ I tell him matter-of-factly. I didn’t zone out on him. I was just … well, off-guard because I didn’t even mention the guy from my tale, so how did he assume that Jules had somehow, a little role in my past? “Well, we dated for at least two weeks.” I admit anyway, fixing my eyes with him so he knows it wasn’t a big deal to talk about Jules anymore—since I already told him everything.
“Two weeks?” He asks, mock disbelief clear in his tone and the features etched on his face. I could perfectly read the thoughts playing inside his mischievous head—poor boy, only lasted for two weeks. “Why?” He adds and I know curiosity is eating him up when he purse his lips, tipping his head back a little to look up at me intently.
“He was my father’s intern at the firm, studying Law at the same time. Busy guy, so I figured not to become a distraction.” I tell him and he presses his lips in a tight line, raising an eyebrow while giving me quick nods—an expression that tells me he was satisfied with my answer.
“Does the management know about your real identity?”
I knew Harry is going to ask me this question once I tell him everything. Although it’s hard to spill the truth, I had to. If there’s one thing essential for a healthy relationship, it’s honesty.
“No,” I respond simply with a slow wiggle of the head. “They were so desperate to find you a girlfriend right away that they looked over my background.”
“I’m glad they were that desperate.” He heaves a content sigh before he fits his hand with mine and kiss the back of my hand. “I couldn’t even imagine pretending to be in a relationship and eventually making it real with somebody else.” He says and I couldn’t help the stupid grin that’s tugging on my lips after I feel my heart leap. If it wasn’t the most touching words I’ve ever heard from him, then what else? Oh, the three magic words.
It seemed like he was reading my mind when he supplied his latter statements with an, “I love you so much, baby,” in the end before pulling my face to pander me in a slow and delicate kiss.
I am so addicted to his lips and it’s like each time I see his lips part or move, all I want is to jump at him and connect mine with his. Our breathing becomes hitched once he deepens the kiss by pushing his tongue to meet mine and I press my body further to feel his warmth. I tug at the roots of his hair and I feel his hands freely roam around my body—waist, hips and thighs—before he cups my face with both of his hands and we instinctively pull away a little to catch our breaths.
“I love you…” I whisper between our swollen lips. I beam at how he slowly recovers from his kiss-drunk state and smiles at me. But it wasn’t just an ordinary smile—it was a smile that implies mischief and playfulness.
“So, how do I call you from now on,” He tells me and I frown, giving him an eerie study of his features. “Gail or Valerie?” He finishes off while tucking the loose hair from my face behind my ears.
“I’d actually like you to still call me Valerie. I don’t like Gail.” I purse my lips once I finish my sentence and he begins rocking me over his lap once again.
“Then I suggest you call me Edward then.” He giggles and I frown at him, appalled.
“Harry!” A throaty whine escapes my lips from the referrence of his second name and I can’t believe the sight when he starts throwing his head back with a laughing fit.
“Just kidding. Just kidding.” He redeems, rocking me on his lap with a little more strength now and I join him as he laughs. Scared that I might fall to the floor, I tighten my grip around his neck as he continues dandling me.
Who knew this evening would end up this way?
******
We just came back to London from Auckland, New Zealand three days ago and the boys are boarding a plane again, this time to Australia. What a better way to send your boyfriend off than making out with him in the airport? Original, right?
Yes. Harry and I have been engaged in a snogging fest for almost an hour now—we take our time to catch our breaths of course. Blocking out the rustlings and chatters around us—preferably from our friends since the airport is luckily not too crowded today—, our lips locked and moulded against one another, breaths fastened, my arms tightly wrapped around his waist, his over my shoulders, tugging my head towards him.
“I’m going to miss you, Val.” He says in between sloppy kisses and I hum, giving him the indication that I will miss him too. “Aren’t… you going… to miss… me?” I hum again as a response, not wanting to delay my contact with his soft addictive lips. He pulls away this time, leaving me hanging before he presses his forehead against mine, scowling at me. “Valerie, aren’t you going to miss me?” He whispers but his tone a little bit harsh.
“Of course I am, you dickhead. Now, kiss me.” I lean my head closer to kiss him again but he pulls himself away with a playful smile etched on his pretty face, totally pestering me. “You’re an arsehole, you know that?” I chide him and he winces when I pinch his side.
“Ouch! What was that for?” He scowls while patting the sore area below his rib. I am still pestered at the mischievous smile swirling on his face, knowing I still want more.
“Fuck you.” I glower at him before turning on my heels. I’m so pissed off, and if this is how we’re going to say goodbye with each other with few weeks ahead of us before we can finally meet again, then so be it.
I am already few steps away to where Niall and Liam were sitting but he quickly snatches my wrist and turns me around so I can face him again.
“Hey, sorry…” He closes the distance between us by taking another step and slowly snakes his arms around my waist, pulling me even closer. “I was just playing, okay?” Instead of meeting his green eyes, I dart my sight to the white shiny floor beneath us, entertaining myself with our reflection.
Obviously bothered by my silence, he lifts my chin up with his two fingers. The scowl on my face gradually turns into a smile when I behold his puppy-eyes pleading for me. I give him a slow quick nod and we cocoon ourselves together with a tight and assuring embrace. I’m going to miss him so much. I would never get used to him being away for a really long time.
Too bad I can’t come with them since I have a business to attend to by the end of the week in Milan. I’ve got Walt to assist and remind me about the sequences of our fashion agendas. More than that, Sophia is going to watch me strut my stuff days prior to when I’m finally free. I’ve learned that she’s a die-hard when it comes to the trends in fashion so I decided to invite her. The rest of the days would be spent doing girl-stuff with her in the city.
It’s bittersweet since Harry is leaving while I’m going to do what I learned to love doing.
With a robotic voice announcing the boys’ flight along with the whole crew, Harry and I granted each other with one long kiss goodbye.
“You take care, okay?” He whispers to me, looking down to my lips as our foreheads are again pressed against each other.
“You too,” is my soft response after giving him a short nod.
“Come on now, mate.” We pull away completely when we hear Liam call Harry’s attention while tapping him in the back.
I also give short hugs to the rest of the boys before entwining my arms with Eleanor, watching together as our boyfriends with their bandmates disappear to the gate.
Though the boys are already out of sight, Eleanor and I remain on our spot for the meantime while looking at a distant and seemingly ruminating about obvious matters—last bits of moments with our lovers.
With deep sighs, Eleanor and I turn on our heels on our way to the exit of the airport. Comfortable silence engulfs the air before she decides to crack it between the two of us.
“I thought I’d never see an end to it.” She teases, giving me a full smile after hooking her arms with mine. I look at her quizzically, quite not catching up what she was referring to.
I sigh and nod in realization when she starts wiggling her brows at me. I laugh because I’ve always find her cute when she does that. She was referring to Harry and my little ‘snogging fest’ just a couple of minutes ago.
“We learned from the best, El.” I join her teasing and she playfully smacks my arm with her free hand, tipping her head back as she laughs louder than necessary.
“I shouldn’t have mentioned that. I knew when I tell you, you’ll always have a comeback.” She sighs after redeeming herself from laughing, tightening her arm around mine.
Each time Eleanor and I are like this, laughing together about silly things, I just can’t help but thank God for I see her like one of the too many blessings I’ve received from Him, knowing that I don’t even deserve any. I was Gail after all.
******
Yay! Hello. This chappy is just filler but I hope you enjoyed this.
Did you see how I segued my country on the last chapter? The Philippines! Yay! I am proud to be a Filipino. How about you, guysss? Where are you all from?
Can you comment down, so I’ll know which countries this story has reached so far? Hehe
Thank you guysss for your votes and comments. Love youuu xx
Love,
Glyz <3
PS: UNEDITED bc again, LAZY. LMAO