Last One Standing
Chapter Ten
*Hannah's POV*
Soon we were at the restaurant and our old friend Jack walked up. Harry and I both hugged him before he showed us our seats. Jack was a friend to all and our families just took a certain liking to him. He was at most parties and birthday events. Jack made the best Italian food in the area. We ordered some pizza and water and just started talking a little bit, catching up. When the conversation slowed, I noticed that Harry was having a hard time looking at me.
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing Babe.” Babe… I was Babe again, and happy for it to be that way. I stared at him, not buying into his bull shit. “What? Everything’s fine!”
I reached across the table, grabbing his hand and looking into his eyes. “I didn’t ask if everything was okay; I asked what was wrong. If you’re reassuring me that everything’s okay before I’ve even asked directly about it that probably means that everything is definitely NOT fine…” Mind games. I was fairly good at those. Harry was good at being the dealer, but he couldn’t play worth anything.
“Alright, everything might not be as fine as I said before,” he mumbled. He was avoiding eye contact and was sort of getting fidgety. “Well… How close did you keep in contact with the boys?” Now he was avoiding the subject too. Super.
“I talked to Louis and skyped with Niall all the time. Liam would call to check up on me, and,” I paused. Harry was twiddling his thumbs and looking towards the ground. “Zayn I talked to, but he was bringing up some pretty interesting topics…”
Harry exhaled. “Yep, and there we have a bingo.” My eyes got wide.
“He really does like me, doesn’t he?” Harry looked at me with a special type of bitterness crossed his face.
“He doesn’t just like you…” My face dropped. This was just perfect. The man I want is finally just about mine and the one that I would really like to stay friends with is about to blow it.
“Why does that matter? I haven’t seen Zayn just as long as I haven’t seen you, well except for…” I let off mid sentence. Harry woke up at my apartment this morning. That means that the boys knew that he was gone, and the fact that a search party hadn’t showed up at my door told me that they defiantly knew where he was and weren’t too worried about him. “So Zayn’s raising hell?”
“Screw that. Zayn is making hell his bitch.”
“Wait, but why does it…” I stopped again as I saw Harry check his watch and glance towards the door. “So who all’s coming?”
“Um… All of them.”
“And that includes…”
“And that includes Zayn,” Harry overlapped me.
“Oh, that is just perfect.” I used pronunciation with each word, checking the door for signs of them along with Harry. This was about to get really interesting.
After sitting there patiently for a good ten minutes, I was becoming frantic. What would Zayn do? Harry was defiantly in for it.
Before long, we spotted the boys walking past the long wall of windows to get to the door of the restaurant. Harry looked directly at me. “No matter what happens, you’re mine, right?” I gave him a surprised look. “I just want to know that I’m not fighting for this just to lose a friend, if it comes to that, and then end up losing you as well.” I could feel him absorbing my shocked expression.
“You think that Zayn will…”
“I’m saying that Zayn won’t make a big deal here, but I’m not going to not show affection just because he’s around, and that could end up affecting his and my friendship.”
“Harry, we just started talking again today. This might be a little too soon.” His face fell. I grabbed his hand. “Why don’t we put the PDA on hold for awhile and just spend some time catching up? Then we have time to both patch things up and I have time to let Zayn down gently. Doesn’t that sound lovely?”
“Yeah, super.” He cast a look of disappointment and I wished that we could talk about it further, but the boys were coming near the table and Harry and I were standing to help push tables together, as they had brought El, Dani, and Trish with them. When we had all sat back down, I had landed between Louis and Zayn. Harry had situated himself between Niall and Trisha at the opposite end of the tables. Every once in a while he would glance at me, but every time he did, my heart felt a falling sensation that I couldn’t stop. There wasn’t a twinkle in Harry’s eyes when he looked at me; there was disappointment and anger. What could I have possibly done to upset him to this point?
“You’re lucky I have sealable lips, Love,” Louis whispered to me.
“What do you mean?”
“The least that you could’ve done was giving him a guy looking shirt; I know that you still have some of his.” I opened my mouth to protest, but then closed it again, burrowing my eyebrows, thinking of the ones that he had left at my house in the past when he and the boys had packed themselves into my small space. “Yeah, you know you do.”
“He told me that he didn’t want anything.”
“Yeah, he probably wants you to still have those. It’s kind of like a trophy.” Yeah, or maybe it’s because I just used one as pajamas and he doesn’t want me running around naked.
We talked a little bit back and forth, but before long, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
*Harry’s POV*
I couldn’t take it. I had had many women, but I never felt so close to any of them as I did with her. She sat there and looked me in the eyes and told me that we needed to take things slow, that this might be too soon. How drunk did she have to be, because last night, she was not worried about taking things slow? I knew that deep down, she wanted me just as much as I wanted her, but she wouldn’t let me put up a fight. Seeing that everyone was walking in, I stood up and began moving tables.
When everyone had taken a seat, I decided that I just needed space; space to think, space to decide. I sat between Niall and Trisha. Not being fond of Trisha, I faced Niall, seeing what kind of mood Zayn was in. “Hey man, what’s going on?”
“Nothing, security was about to freak out about you though.” The pizza came and we realized that one wasn’t going to go around, so we ordered three more and kept talking amongst ourselves.
“You told them where I went didn’t you?”
“Oh yeah, no worries… Well,” he paused, “if you have anything to worry about,”
“It’s Zayn,” we said simultaneously. He sort of chuckled, but then stopped after he saw my serious expression.
“Look, no one knows her like you do, but no one is as repetitive as Zayn; you know that.”
“Yeah I know that. I just have to find a way to get Zayn to let go.”
“Good luck mate.” With that, Niall turned and began to talk to the other people at the table. I took a bite of pizza and sat there, being the odd man out.
Feeling a tap on my shoulder, I reluctantly turned to my other side to see an excited Trisha, smiling slyly. “Harry, that looks kind of like the shirt that you were wearing last night.” She winked and took a drink of whatever she had ordered.
“She wouldn’t know.” I glanced over at her.
“So did shit go down?” She was trying so hard to fit in. It was pitiful.
“You mean this morning? Yes, but she doesn’t remember a lick of last night.” I sat there for a moment, wondering why I was telling her this.
“Wait… So did you guys…”
“Will you find out what she remembers for me?” I blurted out. That had to be the first step to telling her; I had to know what she knew first.
Trisha winked at me, “I got you.” She stood up and walked over to where she was sitting.
*Zayn’s POV*
I walked over to wear she had just sat down. Looking across the tables, I could see that Harry was wearing the same shirt that he had had on at the club last night. Perfect. Why was he doing this to me? He knew what last night was supposed to be for me. It was supposed to be the start of something great for me, and he went and ruined it. I’ll show him.
Without permission I took the seat next to her and smiled sweetly. She was turned away, talking to Louis. They were quiet enough that I couldn’t make anything out of it, but Louis had a look on his face that said he was busy being right and that he was having fun with it. Then again, when wasn’t Louis having fun?
When the conversation seemed to come to a slight halt, I tapped her arm. “Hey doll!” I gave her a prize smile. “It’s been like forever hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, seems like.” She laughed a little bit, but it didn’t seem heartfelt. We continued with our small talk. We laughed and smiled and every time that I caught Harry looking at her, I would throw in something that would make her giggle. Take that back stabber.
After awhile, our conversation had come to a slight halt, but I loved talking with her so much. It didn’t matter what the topic was, I just had to hear her voice. “Hey,” I faced the floor, “what went on with you and Harry last night?” I looked up and her slightly concerned expression.
“I’m really not sure, I think I kind of blacked out,” she giggled slightly.
“Well didn’t Harry end up at your place?”
Her face got serious. “Well. We were sorting things out and patching things up this morning, so maybe that’s what we were doing last night too,” she said, being very short with me.
“Look,” her face hardened, “I wasn’t trying to upset you. I just thought that… well what ever he was doing was defiantly not patching you up.” Her jaw dropped.
“I am eighteen and still have not…”
“Okay! Come on. I’m not trying to,” I exhaled, “I know that you’re trying your hardest to be abstinent. I just really like you and it bothers me that you were with him last night. I mean, he was the one that ripped your heart out of your chest.” She glared at me. “Who did you confide in when you caught him?”
“You and Louis.”
“Yeah, and Louis looks at you as a little sister. All I’m trying to say is that I’ve always been here, standing in the background, and I will be as long as you need me to be.” I looked at her and she was twiddling her thumbs. Taking a quick look around, I reached for her knee, attempting to show compassion. Her shoulders tensed and that’s when I realized that my hand had landed a little bit higher than intended. I quickly slid my hand down closer to her knee and then decided that I had blown it and retracted my hand completely.
“Um, I need to borrow her.” My shoulders slumped, knowing the voice, her perky voice. I turned to see Trisha standing behind me, but really, all I saw was what was popping out of her shirt; she was a really bad height to sit next to. She slid her chair out, giving Trisha a skeptical look. “Bathroom break girl.” She stood and followed Trish obediently.
Soon we were at the restaurant and our old friend Jack walked up. Harry and I both hugged him before he showed us our seats. Jack was a friend to all and our families just took a certain liking to him. He was at most parties and birthday events. Jack made the best Italian food in the area. We ordered some pizza and water and just started talking a little bit, catching up. When the conversation slowed, I noticed that Harry was having a hard time looking at me.
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing Babe.” Babe… I was Babe again, and happy for it to be that way. I stared at him, not buying into his bull shit. “What? Everything’s fine!”
I reached across the table, grabbing his hand and looking into his eyes. “I didn’t ask if everything was okay; I asked what was wrong. If you’re reassuring me that everything’s okay before I’ve even asked directly about it that probably means that everything is definitely NOT fine…” Mind games. I was fairly good at those. Harry was good at being the dealer, but he couldn’t play worth anything.
“Alright, everything might not be as fine as I said before,” he mumbled. He was avoiding eye contact and was sort of getting fidgety. “Well… How close did you keep in contact with the boys?” Now he was avoiding the subject too. Super.
“I talked to Louis and skyped with Niall all the time. Liam would call to check up on me, and,” I paused. Harry was twiddling his thumbs and looking towards the ground. “Zayn I talked to, but he was bringing up some pretty interesting topics…”
Harry exhaled. “Yep, and there we have a bingo.” My eyes got wide.
“He really does like me, doesn’t he?” Harry looked at me with a special type of bitterness crossed his face.
“He doesn’t just like you…” My face dropped. This was just perfect. The man I want is finally just about mine and the one that I would really like to stay friends with is about to blow it.
“Why does that matter? I haven’t seen Zayn just as long as I haven’t seen you, well except for…” I let off mid sentence. Harry woke up at my apartment this morning. That means that the boys knew that he was gone, and the fact that a search party hadn’t showed up at my door told me that they defiantly knew where he was and weren’t too worried about him. “So Zayn’s raising hell?”
“Screw that. Zayn is making hell his bitch.”
“Wait, but why does it…” I stopped again as I saw Harry check his watch and glance towards the door. “So who all’s coming?”
“Um… All of them.”
“And that includes…”
“And that includes Zayn,” Harry overlapped me.
“Oh, that is just perfect.” I used pronunciation with each word, checking the door for signs of them along with Harry. This was about to get really interesting.
After sitting there patiently for a good ten minutes, I was becoming frantic. What would Zayn do? Harry was defiantly in for it.
Before long, we spotted the boys walking past the long wall of windows to get to the door of the restaurant. Harry looked directly at me. “No matter what happens, you’re mine, right?” I gave him a surprised look. “I just want to know that I’m not fighting for this just to lose a friend, if it comes to that, and then end up losing you as well.” I could feel him absorbing my shocked expression.
“You think that Zayn will…”
“I’m saying that Zayn won’t make a big deal here, but I’m not going to not show affection just because he’s around, and that could end up affecting his and my friendship.”
“Harry, we just started talking again today. This might be a little too soon.” His face fell. I grabbed his hand. “Why don’t we put the PDA on hold for awhile and just spend some time catching up? Then we have time to both patch things up and I have time to let Zayn down gently. Doesn’t that sound lovely?”
“Yeah, super.” He cast a look of disappointment and I wished that we could talk about it further, but the boys were coming near the table and Harry and I were standing to help push tables together, as they had brought El, Dani, and Trish with them. When we had all sat back down, I had landed between Louis and Zayn. Harry had situated himself between Niall and Trisha at the opposite end of the tables. Every once in a while he would glance at me, but every time he did, my heart felt a falling sensation that I couldn’t stop. There wasn’t a twinkle in Harry’s eyes when he looked at me; there was disappointment and anger. What could I have possibly done to upset him to this point?
“You’re lucky I have sealable lips, Love,” Louis whispered to me.
“What do you mean?”
“The least that you could’ve done was giving him a guy looking shirt; I know that you still have some of his.” I opened my mouth to protest, but then closed it again, burrowing my eyebrows, thinking of the ones that he had left at my house in the past when he and the boys had packed themselves into my small space. “Yeah, you know you do.”
“He told me that he didn’t want anything.”
“Yeah, he probably wants you to still have those. It’s kind of like a trophy.” Yeah, or maybe it’s because I just used one as pajamas and he doesn’t want me running around naked.
We talked a little bit back and forth, but before long, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
*Harry’s POV*
I couldn’t take it. I had had many women, but I never felt so close to any of them as I did with her. She sat there and looked me in the eyes and told me that we needed to take things slow, that this might be too soon. How drunk did she have to be, because last night, she was not worried about taking things slow? I knew that deep down, she wanted me just as much as I wanted her, but she wouldn’t let me put up a fight. Seeing that everyone was walking in, I stood up and began moving tables.
When everyone had taken a seat, I decided that I just needed space; space to think, space to decide. I sat between Niall and Trisha. Not being fond of Trisha, I faced Niall, seeing what kind of mood Zayn was in. “Hey man, what’s going on?”
“Nothing, security was about to freak out about you though.” The pizza came and we realized that one wasn’t going to go around, so we ordered three more and kept talking amongst ourselves.
“You told them where I went didn’t you?”
“Oh yeah, no worries… Well,” he paused, “if you have anything to worry about,”
“It’s Zayn,” we said simultaneously. He sort of chuckled, but then stopped after he saw my serious expression.
“Look, no one knows her like you do, but no one is as repetitive as Zayn; you know that.”
“Yeah I know that. I just have to find a way to get Zayn to let go.”
“Good luck mate.” With that, Niall turned and began to talk to the other people at the table. I took a bite of pizza and sat there, being the odd man out.
Feeling a tap on my shoulder, I reluctantly turned to my other side to see an excited Trisha, smiling slyly. “Harry, that looks kind of like the shirt that you were wearing last night.” She winked and took a drink of whatever she had ordered.
“She wouldn’t know.” I glanced over at her.
“So did shit go down?” She was trying so hard to fit in. It was pitiful.
“You mean this morning? Yes, but she doesn’t remember a lick of last night.” I sat there for a moment, wondering why I was telling her this.
“Wait… So did you guys…”
“Will you find out what she remembers for me?” I blurted out. That had to be the first step to telling her; I had to know what she knew first.
Trisha winked at me, “I got you.” She stood up and walked over to where she was sitting.
*Zayn’s POV*
I walked over to wear she had just sat down. Looking across the tables, I could see that Harry was wearing the same shirt that he had had on at the club last night. Perfect. Why was he doing this to me? He knew what last night was supposed to be for me. It was supposed to be the start of something great for me, and he went and ruined it. I’ll show him.
Without permission I took the seat next to her and smiled sweetly. She was turned away, talking to Louis. They were quiet enough that I couldn’t make anything out of it, but Louis had a look on his face that said he was busy being right and that he was having fun with it. Then again, when wasn’t Louis having fun?
When the conversation seemed to come to a slight halt, I tapped her arm. “Hey doll!” I gave her a prize smile. “It’s been like forever hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, seems like.” She laughed a little bit, but it didn’t seem heartfelt. We continued with our small talk. We laughed and smiled and every time that I caught Harry looking at her, I would throw in something that would make her giggle. Take that back stabber.
After awhile, our conversation had come to a slight halt, but I loved talking with her so much. It didn’t matter what the topic was, I just had to hear her voice. “Hey,” I faced the floor, “what went on with you and Harry last night?” I looked up and her slightly concerned expression.
“I’m really not sure, I think I kind of blacked out,” she giggled slightly.
“Well didn’t Harry end up at your place?”
Her face got serious. “Well. We were sorting things out and patching things up this morning, so maybe that’s what we were doing last night too,” she said, being very short with me.
“Look,” her face hardened, “I wasn’t trying to upset you. I just thought that… well what ever he was doing was defiantly not patching you up.” Her jaw dropped.
“I am eighteen and still have not…”
“Okay! Come on. I’m not trying to,” I exhaled, “I know that you’re trying your hardest to be abstinent. I just really like you and it bothers me that you were with him last night. I mean, he was the one that ripped your heart out of your chest.” She glared at me. “Who did you confide in when you caught him?”
“You and Louis.”
“Yeah, and Louis looks at you as a little sister. All I’m trying to say is that I’ve always been here, standing in the background, and I will be as long as you need me to be.” I looked at her and she was twiddling her thumbs. Taking a quick look around, I reached for her knee, attempting to show compassion. Her shoulders tensed and that’s when I realized that my hand had landed a little bit higher than intended. I quickly slid my hand down closer to her knee and then decided that I had blown it and retracted my hand completely.
“Um, I need to borrow her.” My shoulders slumped, knowing the voice, her perky voice. I turned to see Trisha standing behind me, but really, all I saw was what was popping out of her shirt; she was a really bad height to sit next to. She slid her chair out, giving Trisha a skeptical look. “Bathroom break girl.” She stood and followed Trish obediently.
Notes
This chapter’s kind of jumpy. 10 Cool points if you followed it. 20 more Cool Points if you caught the Dirty Dancing reference :D If you didn’t, go watch Dirty Dancing until the next chapter comes up! Lolxoxo Hannah <3
so in love with this one !!! update soon!!!
10/20/16