I watched as Annie traced the curvature of her lips with deep, red, lipstick. The shape of them made me want to stop this car, turn around, and take her upstairs. But I couldn’t. I had been talked into giving her a ride to a restaurant in the city, where she was meeting Eleanor for drinks. Naturally, I had been an over-protective asshole about this situation, granted that I was only looking out for her. What had happened to her last time was beyond all comprehension. I felt totally uneasy at the thought of her being out, drinking, with only Eleanor to protect her.

The argument we had had prior to the ride was blistering. I knew I was over the top, obsessively protective, and she took it as mistrust. After an hours shouting match, I agreed to it. Neither of us spoke in the car. I pulled up outside and Annie automatically reached for the door handle.

“What time shall I pick you up?” I asked, biting the skin of my thumb.
“I’ll take a cab.” She replied, flatly.
“I’m not letting you take a cab-“
“You don’t trust me.” She said, bringing her arms to her chest. She narrowed her eyes. “Where are you even going now?”
“I told you. I’m going for a beer at Niall’s.” Lie.

Annie shrugged her shoulders and opened the car door, climbing down. I was relieved to see that there were no paparazzi around since departing my home and arriving here.
“Bye.” She said, not a smile crossing her face.
“Be-“ Slam. She shut the door. “-Careful.” I whispered, finishing my sentence to myself. I sighed, and ran a hand through my hair. I was too hard on her. I couldn’t help it.

It was clear the trust of this relationship was shot. Annie didn’t trust me because of Kendall, and all the other women. I didn’t trust her because she had been and could be so naïve of people.

I let a deep breath escape my lips, before checking my mirrors and pulling away. I pulled out the address from my glove box with one hand, briefly checking it. I felt a stone settle in my stomach. Guilt. Annie was right not to trust me, with how I had lied about what I was about to do.

I pulled up around the back of the building, next to a Range Rover identical to mine. I exited the car and gave one last glance behind my shoulder. Satisfied that I was totally incognito, I made my way up the stairs and the first thing I saw were a set of long, shiny, slender, tanned legs.

“Hi.” Kendall smiled unsurely. “I wasn’t sure if I had the right place.” Her dark eyes scanned their dingy surroundings.
“Well?” I wanted to cut the bullshit and get this over with. Since Annie had sworn me to never approaching Will in my lifetime about what he had done, I decided to go for the next best thing. I set up a meeting at dinner the other day - another lie I had told Annie - with one of Kendall’s management associates. I’d requested that she meet up with me when she was next in London. I just had to know something from inside one of their heads about what they had done to Annie and I.

“I had barely any part in it.” Kendall looked at the floor, playing with the zip on her bag. “I just did it because, I really liked you. I was just talked into it.”
“You hurt the woman I really love.” I said, feeling awkward at her comment. I made myself look straight into her eyes again.
“She’s not a woman.” Her face turned into a frown. She rolled her eyes. “She’s like, one year older than me.”

I felt the heat rise in my face.

“Kendall, you’re a child.” I hoped my last word hit her hard and full of spite. Her expression flattened. “Children do things like that to people. Annie is a woman, who takes care of me. Her only downfall is she’s naïve enough to give everyone a chance. That’s why she got screwed over by you two.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you, or your girlfriend.” Kendall said, her thick Californian accent reinforcing how many worlds apart we were. “I just did it, I don’t know, for..”
“Publicity?” I finished. She didn’t look at me.
“You’re back together.” She brought her long, bony fingers to her hair and tossed the raven strands out of her face. “It’s done. I don’t get why you had to meet me and make me feel worse.”
“I wanted to understand. Because I’ve been going over and over it, and I swear I just can’t.” I paused. “It’s not done, Kendall. It’s hurt us badly. We’re hurting and we’re taking it out on each other.”
“Harry, I’m sorry.” She looked at me genuinely. “It was a stupid mistake. It was just a suggestion by my management. They only suggested we should talk, and her ex-boyfriend should talk to her. They never told him to drug her, or sleep with her, or even try to…”
“They paid him.” I spat. My heart tugged at how he had gone out of his way to drug her.
“Because he was successful.” She sighed, looking down at her boots. “You never went further than kissing me. I so badly wanted it to happen, every time. But I knew you were thinking about her the whole time you were with me. I could feel it, even when we kissed.”

I sighed and looked her over. Although on paper she was only three years younger, her upbringing served her to seem around sixteen years old. She was a kid. She fucked up. She clearly had strong feelings for me, and I had led her on in the past. I had probably been at fault because even before Annie, I had never really liked Kendall. No matter how I felt about her and Will, and how much they’d hurt us, I didn’t have it in me to be a complete asshole to her.

“Let’s put it down to mistakes, Kendall.” I said, pulling my car keys out of my pocket. “Thanks for coming over to London. I’m glad we talked."

She nodded sheepishly, tucking her hair behind her ear. I nodded finally and turned, walking down the stairs slowly, and back out to my car.

---

Annie’s POV

“Please don’t make me do this.” I sighed, begging Eleanor with my eyes.
“Your body looks great,” She said, grinning with all-perfect pearly-white teeth. “You have no reason to feel insecure!"

It was two days before the show, and that meant dress rehearsal. My body was sick with nerves, and there wasn’t even anybody in the audience. I hadn’t even told Harry I’d be walking in a bikini. After his performance at being the psycho-boyfriend the other day, he’d probably rather me wear a toga.

I rubbed my temples, feeling another migraine come on and exhaustion along with it. “My migraine’s coming back.” I complained, feeling my stomach become just as agitated as my head.
“Just calm it, Annie.” Eleanor smiled, playfully. “You’re gonna be fine."

I did as I was told and took a deep breath, only looking back to glare playfully at her before doing her shitty catwalk. When I had finished, I felt overwhelmed with awkwardness and sickness. The things you do for your friends.

“Do you model professionally?” I heard a voice say, and I turned to face it while pulling a sweater over me to cover my modesty. A tall, dark haired female stood there, looking all important.
“Very funny.” I rolled my eyes, not in the mood for bullshit. Eleanor had had me up at the crack of dawn to do this for her, and all I wanted to do was go home and sleep off the next migraine I felt coming.
“I’m actually a scout, for models one. We would love to have you do a try out. You have the perfect body for swimwear.” She smiled, but it wasn’t very warm. I was speechless as I brought my hand up to take her card.
“Thanks.” I whispered, watching her walk away. Eleanor had seen the whole thing, and bounded over.
“Do you know how amazing that is? That is like - a one in a million chance of happening!”
“Did you call her?” I asked, ignoring her excitement.
“No, I think she’s friends with Danielle.” She pointed over to the curly haired beauty. I nodded, swallowing hard and shoving the card into my bag.

Well, that boosted my confidence.

---

“Hey, you. Where’s your keys?” Harry asked, opening up the front door for me. I hauled me and all my bags in, tired from the events of today. Harry and I had made up, sort of.
“Deep in my bag somewhere,” I said, flopping onto the couch in the next room. Harry sat by my head, combing strands of hair away from my face.
“Don’t.” I said, trying not to sound rude. “I have another headache, I’m exhausted."

Harry sighed and his hands dropped into his lap. A minute later he got up and I heard him walk through to the kitchen. I felt like a bitch. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through twitter. I hadn’t taken a look at my mentions for a while.

hey, how will annie james feel about this? @harry_styles meets up with kendall in secret!!
i don’t want to believe harry’s been cheating on annie
@Harry_Styles caught out in secret steamy sessions with Kendall Jenner at abandoned London offices
i can’t believe harry has gone back to kendall!!

Okay, were people screwing with me? I read over the mentions again and again. All the recent ones said the same thing. My heart beat started racing. Harry walked into the room with an oven glove on one hand.

“Do you want some lasagne?” He asked, resting on the side of the couch.

I stared blankly at him. He shifted awkwardly.
“Annie?"

“Have you been seeing KENDALL JENNER?” I said, launching myself off of the couch, finding new built up rage inside of me. Harry backed away, looking at me like a deer in the headlights.
“What? No!”
“It’s on the news!” I said, pointing frantically at my phone. I read aloud some of the mentions. He cringed.
“It’s nothing sinister!” He exclaimed. “I met up with her because I needed answers! I tried to keep it secret because I knew how you’d react! We talked - that’s all!”
“I don’t believe you.” I said, furious. Harry sighed heavily and threw the oven glove at the wall. I stormed into the kitchen behind him. “Don’t fucking walk away from me! You’ve been cheating on me!”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” He shouted, turning around and grabbing me by the shoulders. “If I wanted to I could! I haven’t!"

Upon later reflection, I knew he was probably only trying to convince me of his innocence. But his last sentence sent me into a seething fit of rage. Who did he think he was? I pushed him with such force that he hit the counter behind him. I stormed up the stairs and slammed the door. My head was pounding, and my stomach was churning. I couldn’t control my heartbeat. I had worked myself up to the point where I was about to be physically sick. I ran into the bathroom, just in time. My hands were shaking with anxiety.

Now, there was definitely not one ounce of trust left in this relationship. I questioned how things had gone from perfectly great again to sour and bitter in the space of a week or two. That’s when the tears came in. I heard the door slam, and as I brought myself to the window, I saw Harry speed off. He hadn’t even bothered to try to sort things out.

Notes

Stressful times! Annie is awful at getting the wrong idea.. haha. sorry about the wait, one exam down, two to go x