Lana's POV

"Well?"

"He's fine with it," I say, putting my phone on the table in front of me. I never told the girls about our little scare, but I feel like I'm going to have to. I've been hanging out with them pretty much all week. I'm not avoiding Harry...I just miss my friends.

Except I'm totally avoiding him.

"Lana?" El shakes my shoulder, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry, what?"

"The waitress wants to take your drink order." I look at her and swivel to the right to se the waitress staring at me with a bored expression. Someone likes their job.

"Oh, sorry. I'll have a lemonade, please."

She says she'll be right back then walks away. "Lana, is everything okay?" Brooke asks, staring at me with a really weird expression."

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"You've been so spacey lately. And not that we don't love you, but we haven;t seen you this much in one week since before Harry moved here. What's going on? Are you guys fighting or something?"

"No, we're fine."

"Are you thinking about breaking up with him or something?" El asks, putting her elbow on the table so she can look at me.

"Of course not! Why would I want to break up with Harry?"

"You tell us, Lan," Brooke says. "You've been acting really weird lately. What's going on?"

"Nothing," I say. I know it's not convincing. I kind of want to tell them. Harry and I agreed we weren't going to say anything, but I don't think I can keep this from them any longer. They both raise their eyebrows at me, waiting for an explanation. Of course they know something is wrong. They're my best friends. I sigh and lean forward so I don't have to talk as loud. "Not nothing."

"What happened?"

I take a deep breath and explain. "Harry and I kind of had a little bit of a scare."

"What do you mean?" El asks, sitting back so the waitress can place our drinks in front of us. I wait for her to take our orders and leave again to continue. "What kind of scare?"

"I...thought I was..." I pause and look at both of them, then down at my hands folded in my lap. "I thought I was pregnant." Niether of them say anything for a minute so I look up to see them both staring at me, mouths hanging open. I wait for a minute and they start looking back and forth between each other and me. "Someone say something!"

"Sorry," Brooke says, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "You aren't, though?"

"No..." I say slowly, unsure of myself.

"Lan, are you?" El asks quietly, putting her hand on my arm.

I bury my face in my hands. "I don't know."

"Did you take a pregnancy test?"

"Of course."

"And?"

"It was negative."

"Okay, so what's the problem?" Brooke asks, sounding confused.

"I still haven't had my period," I say quietly, rubbing my temple with my fingers.

"Shit," El says under her breath. We all stay quiet for a few minutes. I allow them some time to understand what's happening. I don't even know if I understand. The test was negative. So what's going on right now?"

"Maybe you should take another one," El says quietly, rubbing my back.

"Yeah, those tests can be wrong. Maybe it was too early for it to detect," Brooke agrees. I nod in agreement. I really don't want to be pregnant. I know they're right, that there's a very good chance the test was wrong, but I just can't deal with that right now. How would I even begin to tell Harry about this?

"Is that why you've been avoiding Harry?" El suddenly asks.

"What? I'm not avoiding him," I lie. They know me too well. It's bad sometimes."Okay, fine. I'm avoiding him." I don't want him to think there's something wrong. I don't want to worry him if I don't have to. But there's no way he hasn't noticed my efforts. I think we've been alone one night since Christmas. Even then, we were with the others until late and he slept over, so we didn't really have a chance to talk.

"Well maybe you should talk to him before the party."

"What? El, are you crazy? I don't even know if I'm pregnant, I'm not going to worry him with this.

"I'm assuming you aren't going to drink tonight. What is he going to say about that? When have you not had a drink at a party? Never. He's going to know something's up."

I hadn't thought about that. Obviously if there's a chance I'm pregnant I'm not going to drink anything. But Eleanor is right. Harry would notice and think something's up.

"Okay, so I'll be designated driver."

"Your car is at your house."

"So we'll get ready there. You guys can just use my makeup and stuff and you both bought new outfits for tonight, so it works." They look at each other and shrug. "So it's settled."

"You realize Harry is going to offer to drive, right?" Brooke says as the waitress sets our food down.

Shit. She's right. He always drove to parties. I think it's so he can keep an eye on me while I drink...he gets so nervous. It's so funny.

"It's fine. I'll just convince him. It'll be fine." I'm trying to convince myself as much as I'm convincing them. It doesn't work very well. He's going to know something is wrong.

We eat our food and try to make conversation, but I can tell they're both distracted by what I just told them. They're going to try to make me take a test before the party, but I really don't want to. I just want to have fun tonight. Even if I'm not drinking. I need one night before I find out. I'm pretty sure I already know the answer, anyway. I just want to pretend it isn't real for one more night.

---

"Lana!" El screams from inside my closet. I'm currently doing Brooke's hair in the bathroom and we both wince at the high pitch of Eleanor's voice.

"You just called all the neighbourhood dogs with that squeal, El," Brooke says. I laugh as El comes running into the bathroom.

"Can I PLEASE wear these?" El says desperately. I look at the pair of shoes she's holding and laugh.

"Didn't you buy boots for tonight?"

"Yeah, but these would look so much cuter."

"Go for it," I say, laughing again as she skips out of the room. "She is probably the easiest person on the entire planet to please."

"You are probably right about that," Brooke agrees. I can feel her watching me as I continue. Probably thinking about what I told them earlier. I don't look at her. I don't really want to discuss this. She is thinking differently apparently. "What are you going to do?" she asks quietly.

I sigh and shrug. "I really don't know. I'm trying not to think about it."

"Don't you think you should think about it?"

"Not yet."

"Well if you are-"

"Brooke, I really don't want to talk about this, okay?" I say sharply, cutting her off. She nods and stays quiet while I finish her hair. When it's done I walk out of the bathroom without a word and check my phone that's laying on my bed. Harry texted me.

H: Are you home?

L: Yeah, we decided to get ready here.

H: Oh okay.

I bite my lip; I really feel bad for treating him like this. I bet he thinks I'm mad at him or something. I just know that he's going to know something's wrong as soon as we spend some time together. But I can't keep pushing him away. It's not fair to him; he didn't do anything wrong.

L: We're almost done getting ready. You can come over soon if you want :)

I set my phone down and join Brooke and El in the bathroom so we can all finish our makeup. My encounter with Brooke before is completely forgotten now. Brooke could be dramatic, but when it comes to things that are actually important she knows when to just leave it alone. I'm just finishing with a last touch of mascara when there's a knock on the door.

"Who's here?" El asks. I'm confused as well. Who is knocking on my door at 9:30 on new year's eve? I run down the stairs wearing Harry's boxers and a plaid shirt of his that I stole from him like two weeks ago. I've been wearing it a lot this week since we haven't spent much time together. Plus it's a button-up so it's easy to get off without ruining my hair.

I run to the door and swing it open.

"Since when do you knock?" I ask my boyfriend, who is standing next to Louis. Harry smirks and glances at my outfit.

"Is that what you're wearing to the party? It's a little casual, but I quite like it." He steps inside, followed by Lou, and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek as I shut the door.

"What's up?"

"We wanted to see if you girls wanted a ride to Niall's house," Louis says, looking around.

"El is upstairs, Lou."

"Okay, see ya." He gives a small wave and runs up the stairs. I laugh and shake my head at his eagerness. Shit.

That leaves me and Harry. Alone.

"I've been looking everywhere for that shirt," he says, pointing to my torso and closing the gap between us. "Looks like you actually have been stealing my clothes, then?"

"Maybe just one or two things," I admit quietly while he wraps his arms around my waist. "You don't have to drive to the party, by the way."

"Why's that?"

"I'm driving."

"It's fine, I can. You can drink. I don't mind."

That's what I thought. Shit, this isn't going to be that easy. "No, you always drive. I can tonight, don't worry about it."

I fiddle with the collar of his blazer to avoid his curious gaze. "You don't want to drink tonight?" he asks. I shake my head and smile at him, hoping he'll be convinced. "It's new year's eve, Lan."

"So I have to drink?"

"No, I just thought-"

"I'm driving, okay? End of discussion."

He looks taken aback by my sudden short temper. "Okay," he says slowly. "I don't know what just happened, but don't think it didn't go unnoticed."

"Fine." I pull back and walk up the stairs. I can hear him follow but he doesn't say anything. Damn. I didn't mean to be so impatient with him. Now he definitely knows something is up.

Harry's POV

I follow Lana up the stairs in silence. What the hell just happened? Why is she pissed? I just offered to drive. Wait, why doesn't she want to drink tonight?

I'm so confused.

I'm distracted by my thoughts, so I almost knock Lana over when I walk into her. "Shit," I catch her and help her back up. "Sorry, baby. Why'd you stop?" She points into the room and I follow her gaze. Louis and Eleanor are hard core making out on Lana's bed. It's kind of disturbing.

She suddenly claps twice, quite loudly. "Okay, you two. Break it up. That is my bed."

They break apart and El shoots up into a sitting position. "And what did you do in my bathroom again?"

I look at Lana and her face turns a little red. I just laugh to myself. Louis looks confused. "What am I missing?" he asks, looking between the three of us. "What happened in El's bathroom?"

"Nothing," Lana says quickly. "El, we should get dressed anyway."

El laughs and follows Lana into the closet. Brooke joins them after a minute, waving to me and Lou as she walks by. I sit on the edge of the bed and Lou scoots down the bed so he's next to me.

"Lana and I are the only ones that are allowed to do that on this bed, okay?" I say, punching his arm lightly.

"Apparently bathrooms are free game though?"

I just laugh and run my hands through my hair. He can put two and two together on his own. The girls come out after a few minutes, all dressed really nice. Lana is fiddling with her zipper, trying to do it up herself. I stand and walk over to her. "Do you need help?" She smiles up at me and nods, then turns so I can pull the zipper up for her. When it's done I lean forward to whisper in her ear. "You look amazing."

She returns my compliment with a smile and walks back into her closet to get her shoes. El and Brooke are talking to Louis, so I follow her in to talk to her.

"Lana, is everything okay?"

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?" she asks, not meeting my eyes.

"I don't know. You've been acting..different." She looks up, almost meeting my gaze, but not quite, before going back to her shoes. "Are you mad at me or something?"

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"Why do you always answer a question with a question?"

"Does it bother you?" She smiles and winks at me. I smile as well; I guess that means she's not mad, right?

"Are we okay?" I ask quietly, watching her face carefully for a reaction. Her eyes go a little wide before she looks at me. She puts down the shoes in her hands and walks over to me, wrapping her arms around my middle. I hug her back and sigh against her hair.

"Of course we are," she says, rubbing my back. "I'm sorry if you felt like I was pushing you away."

"Were you?"

"Not exactly."

I pull back and look down at her. "What does that mean?" She looks worried, like she's said too much, but Brooke comes in before she has a chance to answer.

"Lan, can I borrow some shoes? I don't like the ones I bought with my dress."

"Of course." Lana takes this chance to put some distance between us and end our conversation. What did she mean? So whatever she was doing this week she was doing on purpose? To avoid me?

Seriously, what is going on.

"El is ready, are you?"

"Yep, I'm good to go," Lana says, taking a little bag from a box. She gives me a small smile and walks past me and into the bedroom. So, we aren't going to talk. Great. When I walk out of the closet Lana and Brooke are whispering to each other. Arguing maybe? I can't tell, but they both look worried. They stop when I get closer. Okay seriously?

"Alright, I'm going to text Niall and tell him we're coming," Brooke announces. Lana slips her heels on and we all go downstairs.

"Shit!" We all turn and look at Lana, who is standing in the doorway while we're all walking down the driveway. "We aren't all going to fit in my car."

"I guess I'm driving, then," I say, staring at her. She stares back. After a minute Brooke walks up to Lana and whispers something. I roll my eyes. What is with all the secrecy?

"We'll take my car," Brooke says, handing Lana her keys. She takes them and glares at me while she walks past.

Well this should be a fun night.

Notes

im going to get the next chapter up as soon as possible, but no promises. I have exams coming up and i really cant spend all my time on this story as usual! so be patient please :)

thanks for reading everyone. love you guys<3