Part Three: Harry
Whenever I finally got a break, I rushed straight to my dressing room. I couldn’t believe that Charlotte had the nerve to audition, with that song, and not call me. I was sure we had a real connection at the bar; that something could’ve actually happened between us. She didn’t seem like the type of girl to just leave me hanging like that, but I couldn’t let her get away again.
I opened the door that had a HARRY STYLES sign placed across it. She was standing up looking at a poster on the wall, her back was turned to me. However, she knew I was in the room. “You can’t keep me locked up in here. I’m not like Rapunzel or something.” She turned around, her face was red, “AND, you can’t give me a no because you’re mad at me. That was really low, and embarrassing. How could you do that?”
“Charlotte, I’m sorry.” I began, “But I was so upset that you hadn’t called and then you auditioned with that song and it felt like a slap in the face. I thought we had a real connection the other night and you just blew it off. Then you performed our song, like you didn’t even care what happened between us. It embarrassed me too.”
Her eyes narrowed as she got right up to my face. “I had no idea you were going to be out there Harry. I thought I would never see you again. I picked Ain’t No Sunshine because it’s my favorite song and that’s why I sang it with you. I admit, I pretended not to know you were a famous boy band member but I didn’t want you to think that had any effect on why I stayed with you so long. Of course I felt the connection, and I got scared. I imagined our relationship and I imagined the way it would end and everything in between and it scared me. I didn’t want to fall in love with you and have you just leave and be gone all the time. I didn’t want to put my dreams aside so you could continue living out yours. I didn’t want people to think if I had any success in my career, that it would be because I was with you. I just thought it would be a bad idea to call and I’m sorry. That’s how I feel.”
I didn’t back away from her and she didn’t step down. We stared right into each other’s eyes for it seemed like years before I pressed my lips to hers. My arms wrapped her neck as I pushed her into me. She seemed taken aback but continued to let me kiss her. I couldn’t help myself, I had to convince her to stay with me. She tasted like smoke and I breathed her in, let her fill my lungs.
A loud knock came from the door and we both looked over. “Harry, we need you back out here in five minutes.”
She looked down at my shoes, “I told you. This is exactly how it’s going to be with you and me. Me wanting to be with you and you always having to leave. I can’t do it Harry.”
“Charlotte, I can’t let you get away. We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other over the next few months anyway, it’s going to kill me if I can’t have you. Please, please give me a shot.” I begged her backing toward the door. “You can call me later, or text me. Whatever you want. Like you said, we had a connection, still have a connection. And that kiss…” I gave her a small smile and I knew that she was smiling as I walked back to the auditorium.
I had a miserable past few days as I waited for Charlotte to call me. A part of me just knew that she was going to and I waited by the phone for anything. She found her way into all of my thoughts. Her voice was stuck in my head, like a one stationed radio, twenty four hours a day.
After I left the bar, security sat me down and explained to me that I had a contract with X Factor and such. I zoned out the whole time but I obviously didn’t get in any actual trouble. I returned back to my hotel bed but I found that I couldn’t sleep. I could only hope that Charlotte would give me a call. Unfortunately the I’m Harry Styles, no one rejects Harry Styles attitude kicked in and I got cocky and ended up disappointed.
The rest of the audition day seemed to fly by after my encounter with Charlotte. It was like I couldn’t keep my mind off of her. My eyes were pulled to my phone screen every three seconds. Even though I knew she hadn’t tried to contact me. But she would, I knew it this time.
I was escorted back to the hotel. I would only be here one more night before we flew to Hollywood for the next round of X Factor. I wasn’t worried about Charlotte not making it to the live show portion of the contest. She had real talent and I heard the other judges say she was one of the best we had seen so far. Thousands of contestants and she stood out. She was incredible.
Whenever I reached my room, my phone started ringing and my heart skipped a beat. It was almost disappointing to find out that it was just Louis. However, I hadn’t talked to him in a while, it was a nice surprise.
“Hey Louis,” I answered.
“Harry!” He exclaimed, “How ya doing? How’s the X Factor?” I could tell Louis, and all the boys were enjoying the few months off. They deserved it.
I laughed, “It’s all right, I s’pose.” I bit my lip, “Louis, I wanna tell you somethin’.”
“What’s that man?” he asked.
I cleared my throat. Louis was always the first person I went to with my relationship information. He was always there to listen, “Well, I met a girl. A really cool girl.”
“Ahhh, a special girl?”
“Well, I saw her singing at a club in downtown Nashville, and after I bought her a drink she asked me to sing with her and it was amazing. Then she auditioned for X Factor and I had security bring her to my dressing room and-“
Louis interrupted me, “You did what!? Harry, that’s weird.”
“I know it’s weird but I didn’t want her to leave. And I kissed her and now I’m waiting for her to call me. But she told me she doesn’t want to date me because she wants to get a singing career on her and blah blah.”
“Harry, you gotta remember that if someone doesn’t want to be with you, you can’t force them. You can’t make somebody want to be with you. If they don’t, they don’t. You just accept it and move on.” He explained.
I sighed, “I guess you’re right, Lou.”
“I always am.” He laughed. “I’ll see you soon.” Then he hung up the phone and I sat down on the bed. If she didn’t want to talk, then I would accept that and leave her alone.
After a few hours of sitting in my hotel, under strict surveillance by security, I received a text message from a strange number.
Hi
Charlotte?
Yes… I’ve been thinking. If you trusted me enough to give me your number, which I could potentially sell for thousands of dollars to millions of twelve years old, you must really like me
I smiled at the text and immediately called her. “Hey, I didn’t want you to call me.” She stated when she answered.
“Then why did you answer?” I asked.
“Well, you got me there.” She said, “I’ve been doing a lot more than thinking about you. I guess we could try this out. But I still want to try to keep it between us. I mean there’s no way you as a judge could be allowed to date a contestant?”
I thought about it for a moment. It had never occurred to me before that’s what would happen if Charlotte did agree to give me a try. “Well, that’s true. I’m sure it could stay between us, if we’re careful, that is.”
“I need you to promise me, Harry.”
“I promise I’ll take care of you, Charlotte.” I whispered into the phone. I could hear her breathing, thinking hard on the other side.
“Okay, when can I see you?” she asked.
I stood up and looked out my door. The security guard smiled at me. “Going somewhere, Harry?” he asked. I shook my head no and went back inside.
“Well, I’m kind of stranded here because of that stunt I pulled the other night going to the club.” I explained, “You could come to my hotel room. We could order room service or something and watch a movie.”
“My first date with an international pop star and were staying in.” She laughed, “I guess I’ll be there in a little bit.”
I gave her the directions and then hung up the phone. I went back into the hallway, “Hey Bill, if a girl comes to my door, let her in. She has long, curly, brown hair and she’s really pretty, um but don’t tell anyone you saw her. In fact, it’s like she doesn’t exist, really.”
He gave me a weird look, “Um, okay?”
I gave him the thumbs up and went back inside the hotel room. I felt myself getting nervous. I had been around a lot of girls, been with a lot of girls, and I had never felt this anxious in my entire life. I stood in front of the mirror trying to fix my curls, but it didn’t matter what I did, they still looked stupid. “She’s going to think I’m an idiot.” I said out loud.
After that I heard a light knock on the door. I walked slowly, trying to remember how to breathe. “Hey,” I said coolly, leaning against the wall when I opened the door. She quickly ducked under my arm and ran in. She had her hood up and sunglasses on her face. “Come on in?”
“I had to make sure no one saw me or anything.” She explained, taking off her jacket to reveal a baseball tee and sweat pants. I looked at my judges outfit from today, feeling overdressed. “So you live in hotels the majority of the year, don’t you?”
I shut the door behind me, “Mostly, I guess. They always make sure were in a really nice hotel so it’s not bad. I do miss home a lot though.”
“Who wouldn’t? Besides me, obviously.” She took a seat on the bed, “Well, I would miss Crystal making me breakfast, or Crystal in general. Crystals my roommate, and my best friend. You’ll have to meet her. She was with me at the audition.”
I took a seat beside her, “Ah, I probably would’ve noticed if I wasn’t stunned that you were there in front of me.”
She raised her eyebrows, “Where’s your pajamas? I wore mine, I figured movies in bed meant you needed to be in pajamas, Harry.”
I stood up, “Well, I will go put them on.”
She laid back on the pillows, looking entirely too comfortable in a place she’d never been before. It was amazing to me that people could just make anywhere “a home.” I always struggled with that. Each hotel would take some adjustment, nothing ever felt right. “I’ll find a movie and you put on real pajamas. Not like something that makes you look manly or like you’re from a magazine. Something you actually want to sleep in.”
I rummaged around in the drawer and found some plaid pajama pants and an old t shirt that I always took with me. I changed and then jumped on the bed beside Charlotte who was flipping through the channels.
“This bed is super soft,” she commented, “I wouldn’t mind staying here. My mattress sucks at home. It squeaks whenever I breathe too loud. No way! Tarzan is on, we have to watch it. This is literally the best Disney movie.”
“Who doesn’t love this movie?” I asked. She nodded in agreement and got under the blanket, pulling it up to her chin. “You can get comfortable anywhere, huh?”
“Oh yeah, it’s not hard to, here. You can join me. I like to cuddle.” She giggled, “You can also order some pizza, and pay for it since you make a million dollars every second and I work at Waffle House.”
I grabbed the phone off the night stand and started to call the front desk. We both agreed to get a meat lovers pizza, the best kind of pizza. We shared it together as she told me stories about working at Waffle House and I informed about what it was like to be on tour. “You’ll be touring soon.” I said to her, after we finished eating. Her head made its way to my chest, her arm across my stomach.
“Well, I don’t know about all that. I would like to.”
“Come on Charlotte, you had one of the best voices of anyone that auditioned. And I’m not even biased, it’s the truth.” I explained.
She looked up at me, “Thanks Harry. This has been really nice. I like talking to you. I forgot that I needed to smoke for a little while. You can’t smoke in here, can you?”
“I don’t think so, maybe if you hang out the window. They don’t open all the way but who is going to notice a little smoke?” She got up and walked over to her jacket and grabbed a cigarette. She sat down and opened the window as far as she could. “You’re not afraid that will ruin your voice?”
She lit it and then immediately hung it out the window, “It’ll just make my voice more raspy and interesting.” She laughed, “Nah, I don’t know I guess. It’s too late now to do anything.” She breathed out smoke, looking out the window at the traffic. “Does it bother you?”
“Why would it?” I asked.
“Just irritates a lot of people.” She flicked it out the window and got back into bed. “And I really like you and I hope it doesn’t irritate you.”
“Nothing about you irritates me.” I said, “Not yet.” She laughed and I leaned down to kiss her. I put my hand on her cheek as I kissed her again.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
She opened her eyes, “You act like were fourteen.” She smiled and put my hand on her waist and motioned for me to kiss her again. I rested my hand on her back and bent down to kiss her neck lightly, then her shoulders. She pulled the blanket up over us and began kissing me harder.