A/N : Double post today! Hope you are loving the story! Don't forget to vote and send me your comments! <3 Would love to hear any song recommendations for the chapters!
PLAYLIST
Nick Jonas - Jealous
Charlie Puth - Attention
Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me
OLIVIA'S POV
"To moving back to London... and where you belong!" Bec shouts raising her glass to me and shoots a weird smirk to Frankie who is sitting on the couch next to her.
Harry is scowling at both of them from beside me, his arm on the back of the couch behind me, and I feel like I am seriously missing something.
"Thanks?" I shoot a questioning look between the three of them and I sip my champagne.
"Ignore them," Harry whispers in my ear, his arm moving round my waist and I turn to see him rolling his eyes dramatically, making me giggle. His warm smile lights up his face and he bites his lip as I hear the click of a camera.
We snap our heads to find Frankie pulling a photo from her polaroid camera.
"Roomie memories!" She exclaims before giving us a goofy grin and clicking the shutter again.
"Liv, Mum and Dad are stoked to have you home. Maybe now they will stop pestering me so much." Bec laughs.
I had lunch with my parents yesterday after they had gotten back from a summer vacation cruise around Turkey.
My mother cried instead of me, feeling bad she wasn't there for me and my father pat my back in comfort as I told them in short how I was feeling about my breakup.
They smothered me in positive affirmations I'm sure they got from a desktop calendar and I was grateful of their support to move home and into my friends house while I found my feet without the man I thought I would spend my life with.
"Sweetheart, you know we will help wherever we can." My dad assured me as my mum blotted away tears. "Is there any news on the job front?"
"I've been to two interviews, but nothing has come of them yet. Hopefully soon!" I say in a too cheery voice, knowing how much they worry. I think that's what they liked most about Dan, it was now his responsibility to be concerned about me.
Harry's phone vibrates in his pocket, bringing my mind back to the room and he frowns as he answers.
"Hi José?" He says questioning why his Head of Security is calling.
"Here?!" He exclaims, jumping to his feet.
"You've got to be kidding me?" He groans in frustration, running a hand through his hair before saying, "Yeah, I guess so. Fine."
Before I can ask what has happened there is a knock at the door and Harry shoots me a look that I can't read. It looks like a mix between remorse and dread and he sighs before pulling the door open.
"SURPRISE!" A piercing American accent screams.
"Kristie. What are you doing here?"
"Nice to see you too!" She laughs as she steps through the threshold into view, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his lips for a second too long.
A pang of jealousy surges through my body that I was not expecting.
He breaks away looking down at the floor as his hand finds his hair again.
"Umm, how did you find my house?" He says nervously.
"Oh you know how it is! I asked Tiffany, she asked Brooklyn who asked his manger to ask yours and.." She stops as she begins to walk into the house, seeing the three women in the living room staring at her with their mouths open.
Kristie Simms is even more beautiful in person than on screen. Her long blonde hair is perfectly blow-dried and shimmers like the sun. Her skin looks like it's airbrushed on and her tight jeans and cropped stripe t-shirt show off her incredible body, obvious to anyone looking that she works out every day.
The jealousy I felt a moment ago has been replaced with intense self loathing and inadequateness as I look at the flawless woman in front of us.
"Oh, you have company." She says not attempting to hide the judgement in her tone.
Harry steps beside her and I'm shocked when his good-looks light the room up so much they seem to dull hers.
"Um, Kristie this is Liv, my housemate." He points towards me and I wave a little, cursing myself for not wearing a cuter outfit.
"This is her sister, Bec and our friend, Frankie."
"Hiii," She drags out, flashing us the most forced smile I've ever seen.
"Do you want a glass?" I ask politely, gesturing towards the champagne.
"Oh sure, great!" She walks over with Harry trailing behind her looking like a toddler about to throw a tantrum as he shoots me an annoyed look.
He sits down first and she follows so close she is practically on his lap.
Harry tilts back his glass and finishes it in one gulp as I hand Kristie her drink.
Bec and Frankie look like they're watching a tennis match, neither of them speaking but their heads in sync looking at Harry and then back to me.
I smile awkwardly at everyone who seems to be staring at me for some reason.
"I'll get the food," I say getting up and almost running into the kitchen.
I prepare the platters of bread, dips, cold meats and cheeses and take a deep breath before I carry them out to our guests.
"Help yourself" I say to Kristie, placing the food on the table, trying to make her feel comfortable and compensate for Harry who has barely spoken a word since her arrival.
"Oh," She screws up her face and sends me a patronising smile.
"I don't eat meat, dairy or gluten. You don't get this body by eating that."
She points a finger to my hand as I pop a piece of bread in my mouth, making me so self conscious I nearly spit it out.
Everyone, including Harry, scoffs at the remark and I want to shove the breadstick into her perfect face.
"I don't think you have to be on a crazy diet to look good" Harry snaps, trying not to cause a scene but wanting to defend everyone else in the room that she has just offended.
"No, of COURSE not!" She says so dramatically she actually puts a hand to her chest and I swear if she was wearing pearls she would have clutched them.
"But Harry, you don't seem to have an issue with my body like this." She says suggestively to him in a low voice but still loud enough for the rest of us to hear, as she places a leg over his and seductively kisses his neck.
Bec and Frankie's heads turn in unison again from Harry to me as he stares at the floor and I can't break my gaze away from the patch of his skin her lips were just attached to.
Two hours later, we are all exhausted from smiling politely as Kristie enjoys being the centre of attention, telling us another story about something "hilarious" that happened on a movie set, or with the paparazzi, or at a Hollywood party.
The stories she tells involving Harry make me feel so distant from him. His robotic body language and fake laugh make me I wonder if the man in front of me is an imposter who has taken over my friends body.
He looks at me every so often, his eyes silently speaking to me and I see the friend I love come back momentarily until Kristie plays with his curls or kisses his lips and the mask of the stranger slips back into place.
Bec and Frankie leave at the same time, just after Kristie had finished telling us about a girl who's dress split at the Academy Awards last year who she refused to help.
"HA! Try getting on the best dressed list with that!" She exclaimed, cackling at her own horrible behaviour before Bec stood up announcing she HAS to go.
Frankie followed close behind shooting Harry a look similar to a mother disappointed in her son and hugging me almost sympathetically, probably because it was clear Kristie was staying the night.
I say goodnight before walking as fast as I could to my room before she could start another story that made me question not only her character but Harry's for spending time with such a mean spirited, self centred, bitch.
I glance at my phone and groan. 2:48am. I haven't slept a wink, mixed emotions running through my mind of jealousy, inadequacy, loathing, disappointment and most of all confusion as to why I'm feeling any of them.
My door creaks as I tip-toe into the kitchen and turn on the stove light, not wanting to wake Evil Barbie. I'm filling my glass with water when I hear Harry's voice behind me.
"Hey," He whispers sheepishly, the mask off and his eyes full of regret.
"Can't sleep either?" He asks and I shake my head
Harry is shirtless and in a pair of thin cotton striped pyjama pants that hang low enough to make it clear he doesn't have underwear on. His long hair is messy and his lips are red and slightly swollen.
He reaches over and fills a glass with water before leaning back on the counter top next me.
He smells like sweat and sex and my stomach drops at the thought of her hands in his hair, her lips on his skin, her legs around his waist.
Memories of his breath on my neck and his body pushing mine against the glass fill my mind and I swat them away like flies.
You have no reason to be jealous. He is just a friend, I remind myself for the millionth time tonight, and he would never be into you like that anyway.
If that was ever a doubt in my mind, meeting Kristie definitely solidified that.
"She's really pretty." I say softly, not able to think of one nice, non-superficial thing to say about the women.
He shrugs, staring into the glass in his hands.
"She seems to be really into you."
I'm hoping he speaks soon because I'm all out of positive things to say about her after this.
He scoffs, "No she's not Liv, she's fucking me for publicity. But I know that."
"Why are you doing it then?" I ask naively and immediately want to beg him not to answer that.
He pauses for a minute before he looks at me and I can tell there are a million thoughts running through his head.
"Is there a reason why I shouldn't?"
I don't know if I'm imagining the question to mean more than it does but my first thoughts are to shout at him that he shouldn't be with her because he is better than that, because she's a terrible person and he is the best person I know, because she doesn't know him or like him for who is really is.
Because you should be with me.
The last thought flashes through my subconscious like a lightening bolt and shocks me so much I almost gasp.
His eyes scan mine, studying my face, trying to read my mind when I cowardly shake my head, dismissing my clearly irrational thoughts.
He closes his eyes and sighs.
"Harry," a voice calls from the hallway behind us and we both turn to find Kristie standing there in Harry's t-shirt and her underwear.
"Come back to bed, baby." She says and he nods.
She shoots me a look of warning as he walks towards her and I watch them disappear back into Harry's room.