We have dinner quietly, but I can hear the other girls whispering to one another every so often. Harry takes my hand and squeezes it softly. The girls definitely know about what happened with V. I’m not sure if they’re angry and think I’ll have special treatment from V from now on, if they think the whole scenario is hilarious.
V nods at me politely from time to time, not making any show of her emotions. She has presumed acting the way she always has, which makes me wonder if what we did earlier has had a deeper effect on her. Does she really like me? Or was she just interested in something quick and dirty?
I know I’m definitely not in love with V, but I can’t lie, what the three of us did earlier was pretty damn sexy and disturbing. I just hope it hasn’t completely changed the way V feels toward me.
We finish eating and V leaves for her room. Harry follows suit.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’ll see you at the choosing ritual, okay baby?” he tells me. I look at the clock, it’s just past 8 pm. I decide to stay back and help Lola and Niall with the dishes. Maybe they can fill me in on what’s going on between Harry and V, if there is something actually going on.
Lola picks up the dishes while Niall scrubs them. They work quietly and keep glancing at me from the corners of their eyes. I hate when people do that. I know they’re thinking about me, judging me, but they won’t be upfront about it.
“So who will you be choosing as your master tomorrow?” Lola speaks up. There’s a teasing smirk on her face and I know she’s enjoying teasing me.
“Harry, of course,” I answer.
She laughs. Even Niall can’t help but smirk.
“Why don’t you choose V, too? Maybe she can show you how to give Harry a proper BJ,” she laughs. I grit my jaw and stare at her.
“Oh I’m sorry, we don’t all have as much experience as you, Lola,” I roll my eyes. Lola bites her lip and wipes the counter top. Liam walks in and rubs his neck with his fresh towel. He glances at the three of us and smirks.
“Ooh another threesome happening any time soon? Count me in,” he winks. I throw a spoon at him. He dodges it and laughs.
“Seriously, though, how was it with V, Kat? I hear that tongue of hers works some magic on redheads,” he laughs harder. I aim to throw something heavier, but Liam leaves and heads to the gym. I ignore him and turn to see Niall and Lola laughing.
“You went from being a virgin to having a threesome pretty damn fast young lady,” Lola shakes her head.
“Listen here, you two. What happened earlier with Harry , V and I stays between us. What we did isn’t any better or worse than what the rest of you have done and I’d appreciate if you all shut the fuck up already!”
Niall and Lola are deathly silent and I nod. “That’s better.”
Lola leaves the room and I smile at the way she seems so annoyed. She wasn’t much of a friend, just probably liked the fact that I was a newbie and now that I’m not so new anymore, she’s bored of me. Oh well.
Niall lags behind and prepares a hot chocolate with whipped cream. I lean against the counter, watching him. He puts so much care into the way the cream swirls around the cup and I find that I’d like a hot chocolate myself.
“How much cream do you want?” he asks, knowing I clearly want a drink, too.
“Oh, um just enough to cover the top.”
He hands me the cup and his hand touches mine. He keeps his fingers there momentarily.
“I um I never really apologized for the way I acted the couple days after Harry found you and saved you and—“
“It’s ok,” I nod, not wanting to think about that night. I had chosen Niall over Harry and that sent Harry into a mad fit. He came to me and tried to convince me to leave Niall for me, but I wasn’t having it. Ironically, after I was attacked, Harry found me and nursed me back to health. How did Harry know I was out at that hour is a strange coincidence I’m very grateful for. I don’t want to think about what would have happened had he not found me at that moment.
“No, it’s not ok,” Niall speaks up. He takes a deep breath and a long sip of his drink. “I-I should been more aware you were restless that night. I know you only chose me to spite Harry.”
“That’s not true,” I half lie. That was part of the reason I chose Niall, the other reason was because I wanted to get to know Niall better and I was attracted to him… just not as much as I am to Harry.
Niall gets up on the counter and dangles his feet over it. He cups his drink in his hands and looks down at the swirling cream and sugar.
“The guys that hurt you…did you recognize any of them?”
I shake my head, “No.”
Niall looks down. “Whoever they were, I’m sure they’re sorry as hell, at least one of them is damn sorry. And if he’s not, I’ll personally beat him to a pulp.”
Niall’s eyes meet mine and I scoot back. I feel too close and slightly anxious. His pupils dilate and I notice how very blue they look, then the way the golds in his eyebrows set off some of the green specs in his eyes. It’s amazing how many different shades of blue and green are in his eyes. Harry’s eyes are a pale shade of green, cool like wintermint. Where is Harry right now anyway? What did V want to tell him? Maybe she wanted to apologize for intruding on me and Harry’s sex. Or maybe she’s trying to schedule another time for the three of us to get together again.
“Harry is innocent,” I say randomly. Niall blinks a few times. “Are you innocent, too?”
Niall grips the ceramic mug in his lap and shakes his head. “No, no I’m not.”
I nod. Niall gets up to leave.
“Wait,” I call. “The reporter has all these details about what you and Harry and Liam did, but I don’t understand how or why he knows so much when Harry has told me he’s innocent. I believe he’s innocent. But why would someone try to frame him?”
Niall sets his coffee down and takes my wrists. He looks into my eyes, glancing back and forth between them.
“Sometimes people are so jealous and obsessed with a girl that they’d do anything to frame the innocent guy,” he says.
I stand up slowly and take a step away from Niall. His eyes watch mine, but there’s nothing in his eyes. He has this hollow look that is terrifyingly depressing.
“I-I better go,” I say quickly. I leave before he can say anything.
When I reach Harry’s room, I find that he’s already under the covers, shirtless, fluffing up his pillow.
He leans up on his elbow and looks at me.
“It’s a little early for bed, isn’t it?” I ask.
“We don’t have to sleep right away,” he says, smiling. I attempt a half-smile, still preoccupied with what Niall told me. He seems to know who could have framed Harry, but I don’t think he would have told me. I don’t know if I even want to spend too much alone time with Niall. There’s something fishy about him, pun intended.
I pull my jeans down and lift off my shirt and get into bed. Harry lays his arm out and I rest my head on his bicep. He flexes his arm and I complain that his arm is uncomfortable to sleep on.
“So what did V have to say?” I speak up. Harry traces my lower lip with his forefinger and kisses my cheek.
“That she enjoyed fucking you and she would like to do it again.”
I stare at Harry. He kisses the corner of my mouth, then down along my neck.
“W-what?”
Harry laughs. “I know it was something very new for us and I really don’t like sharing you at all, but V is the headmistress. She has done a lot for the both of us, in a twisted way. I know you wouldn’t want to be home with your verbally abusive mother and your cheating dad, so—“
“How did you know my dad cheated?”
Harry clears his throat. “I-um V told me.”
I sit up. “How does V know?”
Harry tugs me back down gently. We’re warm under the covers and I rest my head back down against Harry’s chest.
“V has lived in the area for a while. She knows a lot about your family… She felt sorry for you and your circumstances. I was out one day and I noticed you at your dance recital class and I thought you were annoying as hell, so I wanted to bother you even more,” he laughs. “I didn’t know you were the girl V had told me about…”
I push at his chest. “Is that all you thought? That I was prissy and annoying?”
Harry cups my chin in his hand and looks at my mouth. “I liked the way you bit your lips and added just enough sass behind every word to piss me off.”
I narrow my eyes at Harry and lean closer to him. “You were so cocky that day. I just wanted to wipe that smirk off your face.”
Harry laughs and his dimples appear on the sides of his cheeks. “Do you really want to know what I thought the first time I saw you?”
I nod. “Of course.”
“I thought you had really beautiful eyes and nice full lips, but you were frowning and you seemed upset, which made me think you were perpetually annoyed and stuck up. I made a promise to myself to get you to laugh at least once. I wanted to see you smiling.”
I watch Harry’s eyes as he describes what he thought and felt when he first saw me.
“I also made a bet with myself. I wanted to kiss you by the night of the Debutante. I won…Well, I wanted to do more than kiss you, but as I realized you were a virgin, I knew it would be really sick of me if I tried to push more out of you so early.”
I rest my hand on Harry’s chest and I press my fingers against his smooth skin. “When did you realize I was the girl V had told you about?”
Harry is quiet for a long moment.
“Harry?”
“Huh?…Well, about the time I left the Ball and V called me into the initiation room. I opened your blindfold and-and I was shocked and angry. I didn’t want any of this to happen to you. I wanted to get to know you better, but not under these circumstances. Not in this whorehouse, that’s why I ran from you at the end of the Ball.”
I take a deep breath and lay my head on my pillow.
“Do you regret initiating me?”
Harry lowers his face close to mine and he pats my hair softly.
“No, but only because it got us where we are today.”
I nod slowly, unsure if that’s the answer I wanted to hear. As long as the end result is what you want, then the steps toward that result aren’t as important.
Harry kisses me and we spoon for a while, until I hear Harry snore a bit. I curl up close to him, retaining some of his body heat.
Hours pass and I drift in and out of sleep. Before I know it, it’s past 3 am and I wake up after hearing loud noises coming from down the hall. Everyone is supposed to be sleeping with their chosen master, which means Liam and Niall both have a few girls with them. I’m not sure if they have the girls all sleep with them at the same time, but either way, the sounds I hear don’t seem sexual in nature. It must be someone going to the bathroom and fumbling for lights and they accidentally dropped something on their foot.
I decide to slip a robe on and check out the noise after it became louder. It sounds like someone making a strange grunting slash squealing noise. For all I know, someone might be hurt, but for whatever reason, they can’t speak loud enough to call for help.
As I walk down the hall, I realize that the sound is coming from the gym. A head of light brown hair bobs slightly and I recognize Liam. He’s lying on the bench, lifting heavier and heavier weights. I open the clear glass door slowly and stepped closer to Liam. Thick beads of sweat drip down his forehead and chest. Why the hell is he working out at this hour?
“Liam?” I call slightly quietly. I rub my throat to ease the raspiness of my morning voice.
No answer.
“Liam?! What are you doing?”
Liam sets the weight down quickly and heaves a few breaths before getting up to look at me. His pupils widen as he stares at my face and then down at himself, as though embarrassed to be seen at this hour.
“Oh… hi, I’m just getting a head start on my morning workout,” he tells me. He rubs his neck with his towel and blots the sweat on his forehead.
I take another step closer to him. He avoids my eyes momentarily.
“Do you normally wake up at this hour to exercise?” I ask carefully. I never cared to know much about Liam, partially because he was always so pushy and forceful with me.
Liam shrugs. “Not really, but I’ve been starting to do it more often these past few days.”
I sit down on a nearby bench, unsure why I won’t just go back to bed now that I know where the grunting noise was coming from.
“Are you… feeling ok?” I murmur. It’s none of my business what Liam does— unless he’s doing something to bother or hurt me. But his workout routine has nothing to do with me.
Liam blots his face with his towel again. I adjust the collar of my robe.
“Yeah, of course,” he answers quickly. I watch his face for signs of hesitation and any clues as to why he’s really here at this hour. No one in their right mind works out this often and especially not in the middle of the night.
“I’m fine, really...Shouldn’t you be with your Master Harry? Sucking his dick or whatever?” he snorts.
I cross my arms over my chest. “Excuse me?”
Liam snickers. “I bet you love when he ties you up and spanks that ass and those thick thighs of yours,” he winks. He leans up closer to me and laughs.
“I only came here to see if you were ok. I heard noises and I wasn’t sure if someone was hurt,” I say, standing up to leave.
I shouldn’t have come down here in the first place. Liam is obsessed with his huge biceps and toned body and that’s why he’s here at the gym. There’s no reason for me to waste my time or his in the hopes of help him out if he was hurt and possibly trying to understand him better, maybe become better friends with him. I barely know him.
“Wait, I’m sorry,” Liam speaks up. He stands and places a hand on my shoulder. It’s the first time he’s tried to touch me just to calm me down instead of to tease me or make any sexual advances.
I sit back down slowly. Liam looks at my eyes and then down at his hands.
“Do you think I’m in good shape, Kat?” he asks me randomly. I blink a few times, trying to register what he has asked and what I expected him to ask.
“Yeah, of course, I mean you spend more time in the gym than Harry and Niall combined.”
Liam flexes his hands and picks at the flint on his white towel. “Well thanks, I try to keep as fit as possible….”
“You’re really fit yourself,” he adds, glancing down at me slowly. His eyes wander down to my legs. I sigh loudly.
“Look, I didn’t come here for you to make moves or whatever you had in mind. I wanted to see if you were ok,” I remind him. Harry would be annoyed if he woke up and found me here, but I don’t feel guilty sitting here because I’m really not doing anything wrong.
Liam lies back down on his bench and does a few more reps, counting all the while.
“Don’t you think you should rest a little?” I suggest. Liam shakes his head slightly.
“I can’t. I have to do 40 reps.”
“40?!”
“Mmhmm.”
“Liam, I don’t know much about exercise and fitness guidelines or suggestions, but 40 reps with that much weight is a lot. I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” I say and I mean it. I don’t understand why Liam is being so anal about completing these workouts at this hour. He’s already in great shape.
“No…It’s fine…I can…do it,” Liam speaks between reps. I stand up and hover close by him, tapping my finger against my arm. I want him to go back to bed or at least take a break, but he seems bent on completing his workout. I stand by quietly, trying to decide between leaving him alone and going back to my room and staying and getting him to go back to sleep. There are bags under his eyes and I’m sure it can’t be safe to work out when you’re half asleep.
“Liam, come on, go back to bed.”
“No…I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Have to…finish…have to keep going.”
I place my hands over Liam’s the second he tries to lift the weights back up again.
“Liam,” I look down into his eyes. “You have an incredible body, now take a break and go back to bed, please. You’re starting to scare me,” I admit.
“Scare you?” Liam sits up.
I take a deep breath and nod. I don’t know if I want to admit caring about Liam to any extent, but he’s acting very strange tonight and I don’t want to see him get seriously hurt.
“You shouldn’t care. I don’t deserve your sympathy,” he mutters.
“What? Why not? I mean I know that you and I have had our differences, but when you keep your hands to yourself, you’re a decent guy,” I tell him.
Liam snorts and smiles at me. “Well then I guess I’ll strap my arms to my sides like they do to those mental patients.”
I laugh lightly.
“Come on, now, tell me why you’re really here at this hour.”
He shrugs. “I just need to keep in shape, you know, so that girls will choose me and V will allow me to stay here.”
“But you’re already in such amazing shape!”
Liam shakes his head. “No, I’m ok, but I could do better. I should do better.”
“Liam, you’re being too hard on yourself. You have to take breaks. Overworking yourself will only lead you to exhaustion.”
“You don’t get it, do you?”
“What?”
“I have nothing else. I’m not charming and witty like Harry or soft spoken and quirky like Niall. All I have is my body and if I don’t work out, I’ll lose that, too. Then who will choose me?"
Liam lowers his voice and avoids my eyes for a few minutes. I place my hand on his shoulder. I never thought I’d have a conversation like this with Liam, but I can’t stop it now.
“There’s a lot more to you than just your body, Liam. You’re really very brave and you’re not afraid to tell a girl what’s on your mind, even if it’s more on the inappropriate side,” I cough.
Liam bites his lip and laughs. “Is that a compliment or a flaw?”
I shrug. “Well when you say things provocatively, it’s a flaw, but when you just walk up to a girl and tell her she’s beautiful, then that’s a great skill to have. Confidence is key, but there’s a difference between confidence and cockiness. You sometimes cross that line,” I tell him.
He nods. “I’m sorry about the times I made you uncomfortable. We never really got to know each other because I fucked up too many times.”
I shake my head. “No, it’s ok. I mean it wasn’t ok when you tried to touch me the times you were helping me here in the gym, but I forgive you.”
Liam smiles shyly and his face exudes a warm glow that brings a light to his eyes. He seems genuinely happy that I forgive him, which also really makes me happy. We can’t get along with all people, but it’s nice to be able to forgive people and erase the tension with them.
“You know something funny? I lost my virginity in this house, too. I lost it to Scarlette.”
“Scarlette?!”
Liam nods. “She invited harry, Niall and I stay with her and V for a few nights when we first came to the US. I wanted nothing to do with her. I was worried that despite how nice and clearly attractive she was, I didn’t trust her and I was scared she might try to hurt us or steal from us even though we barely had any money.”
“I figured she would try to hook up with Harry since that’s what all the girls we talk to seem to want to do.” Liam pauses and looks at me. “But we really hit it off and she gave me some wine and one thing led to another and she deflowered me,” he laughs a bit nervously.
I stare at Liam, unsure if I should laugh or cry at the thought of an innocent Liam with absolutely no experience with girls, a stark contrast to the Liam I know today.
Liam’s cheeks grow pink and his embarrassment actually makes him seem more humble and that much more attractive. I’m obviously not attracted to Liam the way I am to Harry, but right now, Liam looks like he could use someone to talk to, really talk to.
“You know Kat, I may seem like I’ve fucked and chucked a lot of girls, but just as new to relationships as you are, I just never ever admit it. Guys can’t admit stuff like that,” he laughs.
I find myself laughing with him and we look at one another for a moment.
“You know, sometimes people project their feelings and insecurities onto others. They’ll call you a bitch or an asshole or-or a murderer because they themselves are exactly those things. Don’t listen to those people.”
“You’re right,” I nod. I glance at his large brown eyes when he says ‘murderer.’
“I wish I hadn’t listened to this people back then, back in high school. I-I shouldn’t have listened. I shouldn’t have helped him hurt other people, but I was too much of a coward, Kat. I’m sorry.”
Liam bites his lip and takes a slow breath. “It’s ok, Liam. You didn’t hurt me.”
“Yes I did!”
“What?”
“N-nevermind.”
Liam scoots back quickly, out of my reach. He sits on something accidentally and the TV turns on. I stand and head for my room when I hear Liam drop the remote.
“I can’t stand that lying asshole,” he spits.
I turn and see the reporter, Louis Tomlinson on the screen.
“You know him personally?”
Liam nods. “He went to uni with Lizzie, but was too much of a dork to catch her interest. Harry on the other hand was only 16 and already had the charm of a college boy.”
I stare at him, recalling the brief conversation I had with Louis and when he admitted to knowing and caring about Lizzie. Was he with her the night she was attacked?
I glance back at the glossy TV. Louis’ name appears in red at the bottom of the screen.