I quickly scan the article, wondering how they found out and how Harry was involved. And then I see it:
“…Payne’s bandmate, Harry Styles, told our undercover reporter just last night that Payne was having a special friend over instead of going out with the curly-haired wonder boy. Styles also told our insider that Payne has been with his lady friend for almost a year now, and we had our field reporters track the lucky girl down to her flat in-“
I throw my phone across the room, and it hits the wall with a sharp CRACK!
Shitshitshit now what?? I just knew she would find some way to blame this on me. It wasn’t me- not directly anyway. I had told Harry that she wanted to keep quiet, though looking back I distinctly remember Harry laughing and saying, “Yeah, but for how long?”
The little shit had probably had one too many pints and gotten “friendly” with their undercover reporter. How was that even legal in the first place??
She rolls over and I freeze. A small sigh escapes her lips and she settles back into a deep sleep. I get up, throw on some sweatpants and go out into the living room. Pacing back and forth, my mind starts to race- do I tell her? Of course I tell her I cant just ignore it.. Or can I? No, no I can’t. They followed her to her flat for Christ’s sake!! Okay how was that legal? It can’t have been. Wait, how had they followed her if she came here? It’s got to be fake. But then why would Harry freak out if it wasn’t real?
I run back to the room and grab my phone from its spot on the floor, and notice there’s a dent in the wall. Whoops. I see there are five more texts from Harry, all in the same panicky tone as the first. I sigh and dial his number.
“Liam I am so sorry please don’t hate me I didn’t know she was a reporter and I didn’t know she worked for that God-awful tabloid and I-“
“Harry! Stop, mate. I’m not mad.”
Harry inhales sharply. “Y-You aren’t? You don’t hate me?”
“Of course not. You didn’t know. It’s fine, really. I- I’ll fix it. It’s fine,” I say, though I haven’t got the foggiest how to do that.
“I didn’t know, man. I had no idea. I don’t even remember how we came to talk about that,” he pauses. “Oh shit! I remember. She asked me if I was single and I said yeah and she asked me who else was and that probably should’ve been my first clue-well actually my first clue should have been when she pulled out a note pad but you see I had been drinking a bit oh man did I tell you about this new bar I found? It’s a total dive but so fun mate I should bring you sometime I think you’d like it its not too flashy-“
“Harry!! Mate, how did you start talking about me??” He’s a little rambly when he’s had a few. Or always.
“Oh right, right, so I said Niall and I were the only single blokes and she got confused because she thought you were single too and I laughed and said you haven’t been for almost a year now and I don’t know what came over me but she was cute man and-“ “Gotcha. Okay, I get it. It was a mistake its cool. I’ll fix it,” I sigh heavily. “Gotta go, Haz. I promise I’m not mad.”
“Okay.. I’m sorry again, Liam. I didn’t mean to,” Harry sounds distracted. I wonder if he’s still at the bar. “I love you, Liam, I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”
“Yeah, love you too, mate. Goodnight.”

***
I roll over, expecting to find Liam’s warm, solid body to cuddle up to. But instead, I find only sheets. I sit up, curious as to where he’s gone. A light’s on in the living room and I grab Liam’s shirt and pull it over my head as I walk out to him. He’s sitting on the couch, facing away from me, head in his hands and shoulders tense. I freeze, wondering what’s going on. Is someone hurt?? Is his family okay?? Did something happen to one of the other boys??

“Liam, baby, what are you doing up?” I say softly, approaching him slowly and gently touching his back. It’s hard and muscled, but I don’t let it distract me from the look of intense worry in his tender brown eyes.
He sighs, and pulls me closer to him. I sit across his lap, and he holds me tight to him, burying his face in my hair. He looks up at me, eyes swimming pools of warm chocolate and I resist the urge to drag him back into the bedroom with me and make him happy again. “What’s wrong, Li?”
Another sigh. Uh oh.
“I need you to bear with me for a minute, okay love?”
Shit what happened?? I nod.
“Okay, well it seems that we’ve been outed.”
My jaw drops. “What the hell?? How?? When??” My palms become sweaty and I pull away from Liam to stand up. With reluctance he lets me go, but grasps my hand tightly, pleadingly.
“Baby, listen, he didn’t mean to he was tricked into it I’m not entirely sure what she did was legal actually but it’ll be okay I’ll fix it I promise I’ll-“
“Wait who?? What happened, Liam??” My voice gets louder.
“Shh, love, it’s late you don’t want to wake anyone-“
“I really couldn’t care less right now WHAT IS GOING ON??”
“Okay, okay. Harry was-“
“HARRY did it??!”
“Yes, but it was an accident he-“
“How do you ACCIDENTALLY say something like that!!”
“PLEASE just let me finish!!” Liam rarely yells, save for when I really push him, like now. “I’ll tell you everything if you just let me finish. Please.”
I cross my arms and nod, sullen.
He takes a deep breath. “Okay, so Harry was out, at the bar I told you he invited us to? Anyway, he had had a few and this reporter lady started talking to him, but see he didn’t know she was a reporter, and she started asking questions and one of them was ‘who’s single’ and he said he and Niall were and she was like ‘but what about Liam’ and he was like ‘oh Liam hasn’t been single for almost a year’ and then I guess he gave more details but yeah that’s pretty much it. But I told Harry it was okay, he didn’t know I can’t blame him and you cant either! It probably would’ve happened eventually anyway but I’m gonna see if I can fix it- where are you going??”
I had started walking back towards the bedroom; I needed some space to figure out what to do. Liam was right; Harry, though he was the one who talked, wasn’t entirely to blame. Mostly, I was just mad at myself for making this such a big deal between us that he was scared to tell me.
“Love, where are you going? Please talk to me,” Liam sounds weak, as if he feels like I’m going to run. And I’m not so sure he’s wrong.
I turn to face him. And suddenly I know I can’t leave; I’m not prepared to walk away from what we have, regardless of the hate.
“Liam, I-I don’t want to give this up. I can’t promise it’ll be easy for me, because it won’t, but I’m not going to let this ruin our relationship. It can’t,” I cross to him and take his hands. He looks down at me with wary eyes; this is the complete opposite of how I’d normally act were it to come to this, but now that it has I’ve surprised myself by being ready to stay.
“Nothing can come between you and I, Liam. I’m not ready for that to happen. I’m not going anywhere, so you can stop looking at me like I’m going to bolt,” I chuckle, trying to lighten the mood.
He finally smiles at me, the eye-crinkling grin I love so much taking up almost his entire face. He picks me up and spins me, kissing me fiercely before putting me down. “I am so glad to hear you say that, you have no idea how scared I was that it would be too much for you, baby.”
I do, actually. But I don’t tell him that. I bury my face in his chest and breathe in the smell of him, his scent musk and warm vanilla mixed with the sweat from sleep and our earlier activities. It’s Liam, it’s home.
“Come on, let’s get some sleep. We’ve got a full day ahead of us,” I say, and we fall back into bed in each other’s arms, ready for whatever challenges the next day will bring.

Notes