A/N: Can you do me a huge favor dear readers and please share this story? I will love you forever and please don't forget to vote and comment! I have so many plans for this story so I'm super excited for you to read it!
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The half hour passed more quickly than I had wanted and I was up and out the door and on set by 5AM. The day went quickly, thankfully and I was glad to see Cost had behaved himself last night after I had left the party. I finished my scenes early around 12PM and headed back home to catch up on some sleep.
Lizzy was still passed out in my bed when I got back. I changed into a comfy t-shirt and drifted off to sleep next to her.
Around 5:30, I woke up to the sound of music playing from the shower. Lizzy must be in there, I thought. I pulled out the note from my purse Niall asked me to give her and checked my phone before she came back.
I had a missed call from the same number that had texted me last night. Harry. I remembered our awkward exchange in his hotel room. What could be calling me for? It was probably best to ignore it.
Lizzy came out a few minutes later, freshly showered and clearly helped herself to my closet since she was decked out in my 7 jeans and a Marc Jacobs top I got last season.
“Your lover wanted you to have this.” I passed her the note from Niall.
Her eyes lit up as she read it. “He wants us to come to the concert again tonight! He gave us some more VIP passes. They’re also going out in Hollywood afterwards. Oh my god. I’m going to go call him to confirm now. Plus, I have to change, but I’m still stealing this outfit.”
She hid her excitement as she informed him that we would be going to the concert tonight and out with them afterwards.
I lay back down in bed. I had no desire to go out, especially not when Harry would be there. Things were super awkward last night, I’m sure they would just be the same again.
Lizzy began to dig through my closet looking for something to wear tonight. “I have to look super hot. I might get lucky tonight, I can feel it!”
“You would have got lucky last night if you hadn’t passed out!”
A pair of jeans flew past my head. “Bad aim.” I called back.
She reappeared with a few different options and made me tell her which one I liked best. She ended up going with a simple black dress with an open back and long sleeves. The black offset her fiery red hair and once her hair and make-up were done she would look supermodel status.
“Get up! And shower! Stinky girl!” She called to me.
“I’m not going!” I snuggled under the covers before they were rudely ripped off of me. She narrowed her brown eyes at me.
“Yes you are. Unless you can provide me with a valid reason to not go.”
I thought for a moment. I could tell her about Harry but I knew that conversation would go on all night and she would make things super awkward in a typical best friend way so I decided against it.
An hour later, I was showered and dressed in a long maxi skirt with a slit up the side and a white crop top. I threw my hair up in a high ponytail and added hoop earrings. I managed to get away with the minimal amount of makeup Lizzy would let me as well. We headed into my car this time and were enroute to the Rose Bowl again.
As Lizzy happily played One Direction the entire car ride there, I drowned out their songs in my own thoughts of my memories with Harry. I recalled our first fight, if you could call it that.
It was Christmas time. Harry and I had been inseparable since the summer fete and my parents and his parents were friends and happy to see the both of us together. But I don’t think they put too much stock in our relationship since we were so young, even though I taunted him that I was a few months older than him. I had just turned 14 and he was still 13.
We were exchanging presents in my room when Harry pulled out an extra box that had been wrapped what appeared to be six times in old newspaper wrappings.
“What’s this?” I asked, my eyes widening at the sight of the poorly wrapped but clearly thoughtful box.
We had already opened our gifts to each other, well, parent approved gifts and I had told him that I was ‘ready’ and he was excited to hand me his present then. “I think this will make things more special,” he said.
I carefully unwrapped the paper from the box and folded it. “Hurry up, Annaleise,” he said, his excitement growing in his voice.
I opened the box and removed two lacy items. I held them up. One appeared to be a thong and the other was a bra. I looked at him. “This?”
He nodded. “You don’t have to put them on, now. You can wait, until, you know, New Year’s.”
When I told him I was ready to lose my virginity, we planned to for it to happen on New Years when we knew both of our parents would be out and we had our pick of free houses.
I held up the bra. It was huge. The size was 40DD. I checked the size on the thong. It was an XL. I threw them back at him and huffed.
“What? You don’t like? I spent all my money on them..” He actually looked really sad at that moment and I did kind of feel bad. But he thought I was huge.
“Look at the size tags, Harry,” I hissed.
He shrugged. “I was just guessing, you know. I mean, I’ve never seen you fully naked and I just guessed comparing you to some of the other girls.”
I turned away. He would have actually gotten away with his horrible gift had he not mentioned other girls he had been with. If I was ever insecure about anything in my relationship with Harry, it was our sexual relationship because it was non-existent. We hadn’t done more than make-out and feel each other up with clothes on. But he had gone all the way with a few girls.
Tears began to slide down my cheeks at the thought of that. “Get out,” I hissed.
“Awe, Annaleise, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry. I take them back and we can go the shops and pick out something that you like. It doesn’t even have to be frilly lingerie.” He crawled over to me and pulled me onto his lap, forcing me to look at him.
“They don’t mean anything to me, you know that. I love you.” He kissed my tear stained cheeks before kissing me on the lips. I resisted, but found myself melting into his arms as he applied slightly more pressure, sliding his tongue into my mouth.
I pulled away from him. “I just feel so inadequate in that area.”
“Annaleise, I will wait five days or five years until you are ready. I want our first time together to be special. I wish I could go back and erase my past, but I can’t. But I can make sure your first time is the best that it can be.
I nodded and hugged him, pulling him in tightly. He never mentioned other girls after that and that was the only time he had ever made me cry tears of sadness.
“You missed the exit!” Lizzy cried, drawing me out of daydream. I snapped back into reality remembering that I was actually driving.
Despite being twenty minutes late, we still had great seats, better than the night before, actually and Lizzy was excited to meet up with the band members again. Once the concert finished we headed to the backstage area to meet up with the guys.
Niall came out to greet us and told us to hang tight while they changed. I saw Harry come out after the rest of the guys. He made eye contact with me and looked away quickly afterwards.
Thirty minutes later, we were being loaded into cars to take back into Hollywood. Lizzy jumped into a car with Niall and Zayn while Liam, Louis a few others of their friends headed into another. I looked and realized I was going to be in a car with Harry and another blonde who looked about my age.
The car ride was probably the most awkward of my life. The girl introduced herself as Hayley, she said she was an aspiring actress and judging from the lack of clothes on her, I assumed she meant porn. Harry must have caught my uncomfortableness because he seemed to revel in asking Hayley about her career. He even went so far as to kiss her hand before we all got out of the car at the club.
I stalked ahead of them and found Lizzy but she was not easy to talk to since she was very involved in Niall at that moment. And by involved, I mean, the two were making out as if they just discovered the opposite sex. I know I said I rarely drink, but sometimes occasions drive me to drink. So I found the bar and ordered a captain and coke for myself.
“You never were one for drinking,” The familiar British voice said in my ear.
I turned to face him. “Things change,” I said nonchalantly.
“Some things change,” he countered. “Hayley is really into me.”
“Congratulations?” I asked.
“It’s so weird to hear you with an American accent now,” he commented. He ignored my rude comment regarding Hayley.
Before I could reply, he snatched my drink from me and downed it. “Hey! That was rude.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you can afford another one, Archer Grey.” He raised an eyebrow to me and disappeared onto the dance floor.
I ordered myself another drink, sipping it quickly in case he came back to steal this one from me. I finished my first and ordered myself another. I finished that one just as quickly and before I knew it, I was three rum and cokes deep and feeling slightly lightheaded. I wandered onto the dance floor and began dancing with whoever was around me. I felt slightly unsteady on my feet but just chalked it up to the alcohol since I rarely got drunk. I looked over to see Harry dancing quite provocatively with Hayley. He caught me eying them up and winked at me. I flipped him off. He blew me a kiss.
He confused me. And I didn’t quite understand the mixed signals I was getting from him. I headed over to the area the band had reserved for them and sat down next to a snuggling Niall and Lizzy. She beamed at me happily. I leaned back against the couch and felt slightly dizzy.
“I’ve got to take this girl home, she’s too drunk,” said a voice above me. I looked up to see Harry steadying a very sloppy Hayley. She pointed at me.
“I know who you are,” she slurred, “You’re on that show! Did you know I had sex with your boyfriend last night? It was his birthday, right?”
I wasn’t sure if she was actually referring to the fact that my character and Cost dated on screen or if she meant outside of the show. I brushed it off. “He was with me last night,” I replied, looking away.
“No, no, no, he came and invited my friend and I up to the hotel suite last night. We would have gone up early had you not so rudely interrupted us earlier in the evening. He was so glad when you left, he –“
“OKAY! That’s enough,” Harry dragged her away. “I’m just going to put her in a cab.”
I pulled out my phone and sure enough there was a notice on Perez that Cost had had some fun in hotel suite last night with two blondes, but his normal blonde bombshell was no where to be found, he wrote.
Harry came back a few minutes later, covered in some type of disgusting liquid. “Did she?” I began to ask.
“Yes, please don’t say anymore. I need to go back to the hotel now. You seem like you could use some sober company if you’re up for it?”
I shrugged and followed him out of the club. We waited for one of the hired cars to pick us up and climbed in once it arrived.
“Sorry to hear about your, um, boyfriend? Or lack thereof?” He said once we set off into the Hollywood hills.
“He’s not really my boyfriend. We date more so for publicity purposes. But it’s still not nice to find out that kind of stuff from the whores he does sleep with. It’s really not that hard to keep it in your pants.”
“Especially when he’s supposed to be dating someone as gorgeous as you.”
We were silent the rest of the car ride. By now my buzz had worn off and I was just tired. I followed Harry inside the hotel, mainly to use the bathroom before I planned to head out.
I let him clean up first before using the bathroom myself. I came back out and found him sitting on the edge of his bed.
“Why did you just leave me?” he asked.