We sat at the table where Gemma was already sitting at, next to a boy I had never seen before.
"Hey, I'm Michal" he said.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Grace" I replied smiling.
"Hey Grace!" Gemma greeted me excitedly, "We need to talk later. It's like, essential."
I looked at her, and she gave me a small nod, showing me that she was talking about exactly what I was thinking she was talking about.
Harry gave us a wary look. "Did you two become friends or something? Because if that's the case, I think I'm scared."
"It's not my fault if you have a cool girlfriend, Harry" Gemma replied, deciding to go along with what he had said not to make him suspect anything.
A waitress came around and took our orders, before going away.
"Before you know it, they'll start ditching us to hang out together" Michal told Harry jokingly.
He let out a small laugh. "I wouldn't be surprised if it actually happened."
"Okay, that's enough" Gemma said, "Grace, restroom now. Come on."
"Are you sure-" I started to ask, but she stopped me midway.
"I said now."
I stood up, my hand touching Harry's arm to excuse myself, and I followed her into the ladies restroom.
"What is it?" I asked her once the door was closed.
"You said we needed to talk."
"Not in the restroom of a restaurant."
She rolled her eyes. "I know that. I'll be at home next week. We can talk then."
"That's great... Was it really that important that you had to tell me now?" I asked her confusedly.
"Of course not! This is about something else." She stopped speaking when a girl came into the restroom and went into one of the stalls.
We waited until the girl came out and washed her hands, giving us a weird look, to which Gemma just responded with a little smile, while going out.
"Louis showed up at my work again."
"Oh" I said, my eyes widened. "What happened?"
"I think he understood that he didn't manage to make you and Harry break up. He wasn't happy" she explained.
"How did he find out?"
"I have no idea, he probably saw you two going somewhere or something. He didn't tell me, he just knew."
"This is a disaster, what's going to happen now?" I said, distress present in my voice.
"That's not the whole thing" she said worriedly, "He didn't seem himself at all. I'm scared."
I felt my heart beat faster into my chest. "Of what?" I dared to ask.
"I think he's going to take the matter into his own hands... Physically. He really was not himself. It was scary to watch."
"Are you saying that he wants to hurt Harry?"
She shook her head. "I think he wants to kill him."
I felt my head spinning at her words. "No no no, there's no way he'd do that."
"We can't tell Harry, Grace. He already has so much to think about. You have to make sure he doesn't get near Harry" she said.
"We have to tell someone, or seek help."
"We can't do that. What are we gonna tell the police, we think that this guy might want to murder him? They won't even listen to us" she replied.
"There has to be something we can do" I reasoned.
"No, Grace. Not this time."
"What do you expect us to do, then? Do you want to wait patiently until Louis will get to him? It doesn't seem like a good plan."
"I'm not sure if he wants to kill him or not. He didn't openly said it. He just kept saying that he would've regretted it and things like that, but he seemed so out of it and it was so scary."
"Harry needs to know."
"No, he doesn't. He's already in a bad place after meeting Anne, and let's not even talk about the fact that January is coming up. It will break him" she replied, "Please, don't tell him. We'll figure it out."
"Okay" I said giving in, "But if something happens to him because we didn't tell him..."
"Do you think I want him to get hurt? He's my little brother, I would never want anything bad to happen to him. It's just our only way for now."
I shook my head in defeat. "Let's just go back now, we don't want them to suspect anything" I said, getting out of the restroom.
We sat down at the table again, finding out that the food had already come, and Harry and Michal glanced at us, not saying anything.
"Did you... uh... have a nice talk?" Michal asked unsurely.
"Ladies time, you aren't allowed to know" she replied jokingly.
"So Grace, what are you doing for Christmas?" Gemma asked after a while, and after that, the conversation became lively again.
• • •
"What did you and Gem talk about?" Harry asked later that night, when we were laying down on my bed, after I had asked him if he wanted to come in.
"Nothing you should worry about" I replied, my throat tightening up imperceptibly at the lie.
"But I'm curious" he said, turning his body to face me.
"Just about her mission of taking you out for some Christmas shopping, you know."
He moved a bit closer, his eyes staring into mine. The green of his eyes was clear, thanks to the bright light of my room. He was smiling softly and a bit tiredly, not enough for his dimples to pop out, but enough to show his contentment. He was breathtakingly beautiful. I wondered if he knew that.
"Do you want to sleep here tonight?" I whispered to him.
"I don't want to bother" he replied in an equally hushed voice.
"You won't bother."
"Sure, then."
I sat up. "If I'm lucky enough, I should still have a t-shirt Liam left when he and Niall slept here" I said.
Harry's nose scrunched up. "Is there any chance you have a long sleeved one?"
"Let me see" I replied standing up and opening the wardrobe door. I searched for a bit, but at the end I managed to retrieve an old, white long sleeved shirt that Niall or Liam had left there nobody knows how long ago. "Today's your lucky day" I said, turning around and throwing it to him, "Bathroom is right across the hall."
"Thanks" he replied leaving the room, taking the shirt with him.
I took advantage of the fact that he wasn't in the room to change into my sleeping clothes, and sat on the bed.
He came back into the room, folding the shirt he had worn at dinner and putting it on the chair in my room, that was still by the window. The shirt I had given him was a bit small, but the sleeves were long enough to reach halfway through the palm of his hands.
"You can, uh, take off your jeans if you want. To be more comfortable" I told him, noticing that he was still wearing them.
He nodded, and he turned around before unzipping them and taking them off.
Thankfully, he was wearing his boxers.
I went under the duvet and lifted it up for him, and he slid in as well.
"Come here" he murmured hugging me from behind, and we soon fell asleep.