By the time I was walking back, arm in arm, with Oliver, the sky was a deep shade of blue, with grey clouds covering up the majority of it. It wasn't that late, but it being winter it made it seem so. We walked along together, our arms heavy with bags of presents. We'd bought quite a lot, I didn't usually buy much in just one trip, but today I'd bought more than usual. Maybe because of five boys I now knew who would probably kill me if I didn't buy them something. Especially a certain curly haired one.
It was a relief to get inside my warm flat. I put all my gifts in my bedroom to be wrapped at a later date and let Oliver put his there too. Oliver was one of the few people I'd ever let into my room. Even at my parents house, I had never really let people into my room. It was my sanctuary and always had been, a place where I could truly be myself. Such places were hard to come by these days.
After we'd put everything down, I made us both a cup of hot chocolate, with extra marsh-mallows of course. We settled down next to each other on my sofa under a heavy woolen blanket after I'd put on a film for us to watch.
"What are we watching tonight?" Oliver asked as I pulled the blanket tighter around myself and took my mug from the table.
"Easy A." I said, grinning up at him. He groaned mockingly. It was one of my favourite films and we watched it frequently together.
"Again?" He asked.
"You know you fancy Emma Stone." I teased. He shrugged.
"Quite possibly." He said, grinning.
About a quarter of the way through the fim my phone began to vibrate violently with text messages. At first, I tried to ignore it, but it kept on buzzing, letting me know more messages wee coming through. I sighed and picked it up to find I had twelve messages.
5 Messages from: Louis
2 Messages from: Zayn
2 Messages from: Liam
3 Messages from: Niall
I groaned. Oliver leaned over and looked at my phone, then grinned.
"I don't know why you're groaning, it's not every day you have multiple messages from the hottest boyband right now." Oliver pointed out. I rolled my eyes and began opening the messages. Each one was basically the same thing: What are you doing for New Years Eve or Harry wants to know what you're doing for New Years Eve. I laughed slightly to myself. Harry couldn't even text me himself to ask? How pathetic!
"I'm going to call Harry to see what's going on and why he won't text me to ask me himself. You don't mind do you?" I asked Oliver.
"No problem, could be an interesting conversation. Who knows what you talk about." He said. I smacked him.
"You know I don't like him like that!" I said, attacking him with a pillow.
"Who says he doesn't?" Oliver asked. I smacked him again. "Okay, okay, stop now!"
"You have to be quiet." I said, pressing his contact on my phone and putting it on loud speaker.
"Hello?" He answered.
"Hi Harry, it's me." I replied. Oliver mouthed the words mockingly and I scowled at him, putting a finger to my lips to tell him to shush.
"Oh, hi Cass. What's up?" He asked. I saw Oliver's eyebrows go up when Harry called me Cass. I didn't usually allow people to call me Cass, and people never usually did, except for Oliver.
"Oh nothing, it's just can you please ask your friends to stop sending me messages telling me you want to know what I'm doing for New Years Eve?" I said, smiling to myself.
"Oh, er, what? I didn't tell them to say that." He spluttered. Oliver and I stiffled laughs.
"Oh really? Hm, strange." I replied, trying not to let my amusement enter my voice. It was silent for a moment then he spoke again.
"Just out of interest, what are you doing for New Years Eve?" He asked, sounding slightly nervous. Imagine that, Harry Styles souding nervous talking to me? Couldn't be.
"Oh, nothing really. I'll probably spend it around Oliver's." I said.
"Who's Oliver again?" He asked. I saw Oliver frown.
"You can't have forgotten already. I only told you last night!" I replied.
"I was drunk last night. How could I remember?" He said. I saw Oliver raise his eyebrows once more, feel his judgemental gaze on me. I ignored him.
"A friend." I told him.
"Sounds exciting." He said flatly.
"Oh it will be. Oliver's awesome." I said. Oliver smiled almost triumphantly.
"I doubt he's as awesome as the party we're having on New Years Eve." Harry replied smugly.
"So that's what the texts were about!" I exclaimed. "Well, I suppose I might be able to come round for a little while."
"Who said you're invited?" Harry asked, though I could hear he was joking.
"Fine, I'll just spend New Years Eve with Oliver. I'm sure he won't mind getting a midnight kiss." I said casually.
"What?" He said quickly. Then attempted to recover himself. "I mean, I'm sure he won't. Though I think I'm more deserving." I rolled my eyes. What a flirt. Before I thought about what I was saying, I replied.
"But you've already had your kiss."
"What?! Cassidy Sophia Carter what secrets have you been hiding from me!" Oliver nearly shouted.
"Who's that?" Harry asked, alarm in his voice. Crap.
"Erm, listen I gotta go. Bye!" I said quickly, hanging up.
As soon as I hung up Oliver was immediately on my case. I don't know why I said that. Or how. Usually I could keep my mouth shut.
"You kissed him? Cass why didn't you tell me?" He asked.
"Er, maybe because it's none of your business?" I replied, turning to watch the film. Oliver just scoffed.
"Of course it's my business, I'm your best friend." He replied.
"It's not that big a deal!" I said, running a hand through my hair.
"It kind of is. He's a celebrity Cass. What if someone saw you? Imagine the hate you'd get!" I laughed at that.
"You think I don't get hate now? I was told to put my head in a blender just because I know them." I told him.
"Why haven't they done anything about it then?" Oliver asked, going into over-protective-big-brother mode.
"Because it's not their problem!" I replied. Turning back to the film.
"I don't want you to get hurt Cass, that's all." He said, his voice softer. I sighed.
"I know, and I won't. Soon enough they'll probably go on tour and forget all about me, or maybe Harry will get a girlfriend who isn't comfortable with me. I don't know, but this won't last forever. We're friends, and sometimes friends disappear. Not like you and me, Oliver. We're like family. But with Harry, I don't know, but it won't last. It's temporary, and I think we all know it. It'll fade one day. Probably soon. I'm a big girl Oliver, I can look after myself." I told him. He sat quietly and took in my speech.
"Okay Cass. I'm going to trust you on this. But please be careful. I don't know much about Harry, but I do know he's a bit of a player. I don't want you getting pulled into his games." Oliver replied quietly, pulling me in for hug. I hugged him back tightly. I loved Oliver so much, I don't know what I would have done without him.
"Don't worry, I won't. You know you can trust me." I murmured, letting him go and turning back to watch the film.
After about another twenty minutes of peacefully watching the film, there was a knock on the door. It had to be someone from the building, the intercom hadn't gone off. If Oliver wasn't here, it could have been him since he had a key to the building, though not my actual flat. So either it was someone from my building or someone had gotten in at the same time as someone from the building who'd opened the door, which I suspect is how Harry got in the previous night. I got up and went to the door. I opened it to find one of my friends, who lived on the ground floor of my building, Hailey standing at the door. I did my best not to groan. I didn't want any more company right now.
"Hey Cassidy, how you doing?" Hailey asked.
"I'm good thanks." I replied, not bothering to return to question. I just wanted to go back and watch the film, even if she was my friend.
"Sorry if I've disturbed you, but I just wanted to let you know I'm having a small gathering tomorrow in my place." She said.
"Oh really? What's the occasion?" I asked.
"Well you remember my brother, Chris, the one you had a crush on?" She asked. I could feel my cheeks going red already. I remembered him well. I'd had a crush on him for, oh, maybe most of my childhood. I nodded in response to her remark. "Well he's come back from Manchester for Christmas and is staying with me, so I thought we'd have a little get-together with some friends." I plastered a smile on my face, even though I really didn't want to.
"Oh wow! I'll be there, call me tomorrow with details." I replied. She nodded and we said our goodbyes as I closed the door. I had way too many guys in my life.