No Regrets

The next morning I was slowly woken up by Harry rubbing my arm.

“Liz? Love? We have to get up…” he whispered softly into my ear. His morning voice was so sexy it gave me goose bumps.

“Noooo Harry,” I turned and snuggled into his chest. “Please don’t make me..” I softly groaned. He began to stroke my hair as I traced some of the tattoos on his upper arm.

“I have to go to rehearsal for the SuperBowl Half-Time Show in one hour though. Trust me, I would much rather stay here in your bed with you, but it’s our last rehearsal before the real thing tomorrow night!” I think talking about it made him anxious, because he started to sit up as he talked. “Actually, I think you should come with me! Eleanor and Danielle will be there, so I don’t see why you shouldn’t go too, except it’ll be pretty boring.”

“Oh, I don’t know Harry.. I don’t really think they’ll want me ther-” I began to protest but he put his hand over my mouth.

“Shh silly. I’ve already made up my mind. We’re going to get up, go and get some breakfast since you have no food in this god forsaken house, and you’re going to come to rehearsal with me.” He said matter-of-factly. “And now, I’m going to help myself to a shower.” He gave me a kiss on the forehead before he got up. As he walked to the bathroom he turned around, “you’re more than welcome to join me in the shower, by the way,” he said with a wink and closed the bathroom door.

I got up slowly and reached in my nightstand drawer for some Advil. The wine and tequila from the night before really gave me a headache, but it was nothing I couldn’t deal with. I got up and walked into my living room. I picked up my tshirt from the night before and put it on as I examined the scene. The place was a mess- we never cleaned up the overflowed macaroni or the wine glasses, and Harry’s clothes were in a corner where I’m assuming he put them when I was changing. Then I remembered- the paparazzi were here last night, so they’d definitely be here this morning. And they would definitely see Harry leaving in the same clothes from the night before. This was terrible, especially since my apartment building doesn’t have a parking garage, so we’d have to walk a good block to get to my car. I walked back into my room and knocked on the bathroom door.

“Harry? Is it safe for me to come in?” I yelled through the door. I heard the shower running, so I didn’t think he heard me. Then I heard him singing. I quietly opened the door and snuck in. He was singing Free Fallin’ by John Mayer, and he sounded like pure perfection. I sat down with my back against the door and just closed my eyes and listened.

“Wanna write her name in the sky,
I wanna free fall out into nothin
Oh, I'm gonna leave this, this world for a while

Now I'm free,
Free fallin, fallin,
Now I'm free,
Free fallin, fallin” his voice faded off as he turned off the shower.

“Wait no! I need to take a shower too!” I called out without thinking.

“Shit Liz when’d you get in here!?” he exclaimed as he pulled back the shower curtain. Whoa there. He just gave me a full frontal view. I blushed and put my head down because I remembered that he didn’t know I was in there. I felt kinda creepy.

“Sorry, Harry,” I threw him a towel “I just got in here a minute ago. I knocked on the door but I don’t think you heard me.. you sounded good by the way.” He stepped out and I turned the shower back on. I waited for him to leave, so I could get in, but instead he just sat down on the ground where I had been sitting a moment ago. I looked at him, hoping that he’d get the hint that I wanted him to leave.

“What?” he asked innocently, “now it’s my turn.” He flashed me a Harry smile, and put his hands behind his head. I could tell he wasn’t going to leave, so I decided to play along. I jokingly began to peel off my shirt and sway my hips back in forth, as if I was giving him a strip tease, but the second that I threw my shirt on his face and it covered his eyes I jumped in the shower with my bra and underwear on.

“Hey! That’s not fair!” he was laughing, so I stripped off my wet bra and underwear in the shower and threw them over the curtain. “You’re such a flirt I can’t handle this!” Harry called out as I heard the bathroom door close behind him. Laughing, I quickly washed my hair, face, and body and turned off the shower. I wrapped myself in a towel and walked out to see Harry had put on his pants from the night before, but was sitting on my bed with his shirt in his hands.

“Is there any chance you have a shirt that I can wear?” he asked when he noticed that I entered the room.

“I’m sorry Harry, but I really don’t…”

“Well then we’re going to have to make some arrangements,” he said as he pulled his phone out from his pocket and starting texting someone. I went and opened my closet. What was I supposed to wear to his rehearsal? I was going to be meeting the other boys’ girlfriends, as well as some other important management figures, so I had to make a good impression. After trying on countless outfits with Harry watching, I finally decided on one. It was black skinny jeans, black combat boots, and a loose flowey cream tank top that had a black tie on the neckline. It was modest and casual, but still my style.

“Okay, now that you’re dressed, I’m going to get the door.” Harry said as he stood up. I was confused, because I didn’t hear anyone knock. So I quickly ran a brush through my hair and followed him into the other room. Before I knew it, I had all of One Direction in my apartment. I was hugged by Zayn, Niall, and Liam, and then Louis walked in.

“LIZZIEEEEEEEE!” Louis cried out as he saw me. “Hope you don’t mind our little invasion, Haz here texted me asking for us to bring him some clothes because wearing clothes from the night before wouldn’t really look too good for Curly’s little image.” Harry took some clothes out of a bag that Liam brought and began to change. I got a blow-dryer and dried my hair half-way so I wouldn’t mess up my curls. Then, we were all ready to go and I grabbed my keys.

“Oh no love,” Harry said as he took my keys out of my hand and put them down, “you’re just going to ride with us- we have a car parked right outside.” I didn’t argue with him, because they knew what they were doing, so we left my apartment and took the elevator downstairs.

“Fair warning, Liz, the paps are pretty bad out there.” Niall said as he looked between me and Harry in the elevator.

“I’ve got her,” Harry said with a smile as he wrapped his arm around me. “She’s got nothing to worry about.” We got to the door and I took a deep breath, remembering what he had told me when we walked out of the coffee shop together a couple days ago. I walked out with Harry holding my right hand and Niall walking right behind me. The boys got to the car and all made sure that I was the first one to get in safely before they all piled in.

As soon as we got to the Superdome for their practice, Harry and I were standing there talking when a man walked up to us.

“Hello Harry, hello Harry’s friend.” He began as he folded his arms on his chest.

“Oh, this is Lizzie. Lizzie, this is one of our publicity directors.” Harry clarified. I politely smiled because this man obviously had something to talk to us about.

“Could the two of you step into this room with me for a moment?” the man gestured to a door behind him. We followed him in there and sat down at the table.

“What’s this about?” Harry asked, obviously just as confused as I was.

“This is about the both of you. I hate to tell you this, but Harry, this little ‘thing’ that the two of you have going on has been really bad for the band. In the past five days, since your breakup with Ms. Swift was apparently confirmed by you leaving the club with Lizzie, your sales have gone down by a shocking 17%.” Harry put his head down on the table. I just sat there, shocked. Unfortunately, the man continued, “so, Harry and Lizzie, we’re asking you- for the sake of the band- to basically just cool it down. The two of you can no longer be seen alone in public together- no more sloppy sleepovers. I don’t care what you do in private, but in public, this has to be basically a business relationship- strictly platonic.” He let those words sink in for a moment. “I’m going to leave. You two can stay in here for as long as you would like if you need to talk things over, but don’t forget Harry that we’ll be waiting on you.” The man walked out of the room and I was still frozen.

“Liz?” Harry said softly as he squeezed my knee. I looked at him, and his green eyes were once again suffocating me. I couldn’t handle this right now. I had known Harry for a total of five days, and it was already wrecking me. “Liz.. we can figure this out. It’s okay.” I pushed his hand off my leg and stood up.

“I’m sorry Harry but I have to go…” I said flatly, I couldn’t expose my emotions. I had marked Harry as a cheater, and it was affecting everyone but me. They were all paying for my bad decisions. I wondered if the rest of the boys knew. I bet their girlfriends weren’t ruining their sales, but I was, and Harry hadn’t even asked me to be his damn girlfriend. I turned around and started to walk out.

“Lizzie? What do you think you’re doing?? Where are you going? You rode here with us!” Harry called out to me as I opened the door. But I kept walking away from him. Like management said, I couldn’t be seen alone with him in public. I walked right past the rest of the boys without saying goodbye. Hell, I was practically running.

“Lizzie! I’m sorry! Please stop!” Harry called out to me in one last attempt to get me to stop, but I was already out the door.

Notes