A/N: please remember to vote if you haven't already!


Mason and I stare at each other for a few long minutes. I can't believe he went into my phone. I want to try and pick a fight about that instead, but I know that's never going to work. He saw that picture and there's not going back now. How could I even cover that up? Oh yeah, I usually text my teachers, it's no biggie. No way he's buying that one.

"Well?" he asks harshly. "Are you going to explain this or not?"

"I thought you said you could figure it out for yourself," I retort, folding my arms. I'm not sure if being sassy with him will help or make it worse, but apparently that's what I'm going with.

"Cut the shit, Sav. Are you fucking a teacher?"

"Mason!" Kylie scolds. My eyes go wide and I just stare at the challenging look on his face. "Mason, you're too angry to talk about this," she reasons, placing her hand on his arm. "Let's just go out for a bit and you guys can talk about this later."

"There's nothing to talk about," he says, still staring at me. In this moment looking away means giving him some sort of power over me. I can't let that happen. He won't tell me how to live my life.

"You're right, there isn't," I agree. He rolls his eyes. "Whatever you want to say, say it. Not that it would make a difference, but go ahead."

"Whatever the fuck that is," he says, pointing to my phone, "Is over. Done. Understand?"

"Mason, I don't know when you decided to be my father, but that role is already taken. I don't need you to tell me how to live my life."

"Clearly you do because you're hooking up with someone like ten years older than us!"

I take my turn rolling my eyes. "He is not. He's only 23."

"Only 23? There's no only, Sav. That's five years."

"Which isn't that much!" I argue.

"It's irrelevant! He's our teacher!"

"I don't expect you to understand this. Just...just forget it, okay? Forget what you saw, forget about all of this. It's none of your business." I take my phone securely in my hand and walk over to my closet. I know I can't be here while Mason is this upset, I won't be able to talk any kind of reason into him. I probably won't be able to either way in this situation, but right now would be the absolute worst time to try and talk to him.

"Where are you going?" he yells, following me.

"Umm, could I please change?" I ask, waving my hand to shoo him away.

"Are you going somewhere?"

"You're pissed, so yeah. When you're a little less pissed off I can come back and maybe we can discuss this. I don't feel like standing here and listening to you scold me like I'm a little kid. I'm not a child, Mason, and I can make my own decisions."

"Clearly you can't," he shouts. "What is this? Are you dating him? Just fucking him? What?"

I cover my face with my hands, half from embarrassment and half in frustration. Harry and I are together, I know that. Do I really want to tell my brother that?

"It's not a big deal," I say, sighing. "We just...we kissed once or twice. Sometimes there's the occasional flirtatious text message. It got a little out of hand, I'll admit. But it's...harmless. That's all."

"You're lying," he says confidently. I roll my eyes and turn around to walk through my closet. I'm still wearing my track pants and Harry's shirt. Hopefully he doesn't bring that up again. I take it off and chuck it into the corner while I look for something else to wear.

"Sav, you realize that this is insane, right? If people found out it could ruin your whole future! And his, if you care about him. He would never get away from that reputation. I don't give a fuck about him, but I don't want my sister to be that girl. You don't want that reputation to follow you around," he says, still angry but slightly urgent now, more pleading with me than anything else.

"Mason, it's fine. I know what I'm doing," I assure him, pulling out a plain white t-shirt.

"Yeah, I don't think you do. That's where you've been going all the time, isn't it?" I turn to look at him, not saying anything. "You've been..." he shudders slightly. "You've been sleeping at his house. That's not harmless or kissing once or twice, Sav. I'm not an idiot."

I sigh and walk over to my drawers, pulling out some jeans and resting the outfit on my bench. As I walk over to my brother he runs his hands through his short blonde hair. His body is tense and there isn't any anger on his face anymore. It has all been replaced by pure concern.

"I know this looks bad," I admit quietly. "I know that. But I just..I don't know. I've never felt like this before. I know that's crazy, I know that. But I trust him, Mase. And he treats me so well."

"So you are dating him?" he asks softly. I nod once and he sighs. "You don't date, Sav."

"Apparently I do now."

"What makes him so special? Why can't you find someone to be with that's our own age? I know you have issues with this stuff and I'm happy that you're finally letting someone in, but this isn't right."

"I don't know." I shrug and shake my head. "I really don't. I just...when I'm with him I feel so safe and I know that I can trust him. I don't know how any of this happened and I know it looks bad but I can't help it."

"You're in love with him," Mason says suddenly. My eyes go wide. "I can see it."

"What? No, I'm...I can't...that's not possible," I stammer, stepping back from him. I want to look away, but I can't. Mason just stares at me, obviously reading something in my eyes that I wasn't even aware of myself.

"Sav," he says carefully. "This is dangerous."

"I know," I whisper. "I can't help it."

"You're not going to stop seeing him are you?" he asks. I shake my head slowly.

"Not unless he breaks up with me." The thought alone is enough to make my chest ache. In such a short amount of time Harry has become such a huge part of my life and I can't imagine not being with him. It's so hard to believe that I didn't want him at first, that I tried so hard to push him away. I'm so happy that he didn't let me. We wouldn't be where we are now. Well...right now we're actually fighting, but still. I'd rather fight with him than not have him at all.

"Be careful," he says reluctantly. "You can't let anyone else find out about this."

"I know," I agree.

"No, not one single person, Sav. If the school found out about this I'm sure they'd send you both packing. Their reputation is important to them and they won't let you ruin it. This could be so bad. I don't want you to see him anymore, but you're right. I can't control you. So just...be careful, okay?"

"I know." I smile slightly and walk up to him, wrapping my arms around him. He hugs me back and I lean my cheek against his chest. My brother is my favourite person in the whole world, and even though he drives me insane most of the time, I don't know what I would do without him.

"Are you...are you going to see him?" he asks, his voice strained. I sigh and step away from him.

"How about we have a need to know rule here," I suggest. "You don't ask questions and I don't tell you anything unless I need to."

"That would probably be best," he agrees, smiling half-heartedly. "I don't like this, Sav. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I don't want that either."

He nods. I don't know how this is going to work. Kylie appears in the doorway, looking apprehensive to intrude on the conversation.

"Just checking to make sure you're both still alive," she says. "It got pretty quiet for a minute."

Mason and I let out relieved laughs and Kylie steps in, standing beside him.

"We're okay. Right?" I ask, looking at Mason for confirmation. He sighs and wraps his arm around Kylie's shoulders.

"Yeah. I just want you to be careful. And if he hurts you, I'll punch him. I could, too, I see him all the time."

"Right, 'cuz that wouldn't get you expelled," I say sarcastically. He just shrugs and Kylie rolls her eyes.

"He could kill you," she says. I nod in agreement. "I've seen his arms, he's jacked. Oh my gosh, how awkward is it when Madi says all those weird things about him?!" she says, her voice growing louder and higher. I laugh awkwardly.

"What things?" Mason asks.

"Every girl in school is in love with Mr. Styles," Kylie says nonchalantly. "He's dreamy."

"That's so weird."

"Yeah, it is," I agree. "Yesterday at school Kylie told me she wants him under her Christmas tree wearing nothing but a bow."

Kylie bursts out laughing and Mason makes a weird face, clearly uncomfortable with this conversation.

"That's so awkward!" Kylie says. "What did you do?"

"What could I do! I just laughed and hoped she'd drop it. It's so strange and it's literally every time we're in his classroom. It's so weird. And I can't even say anything. But it's so weird having my friends like..fantasizing about my boyfr-" I stop and look up at Mason, who raises his eyebrows. Kylie's mouth drops open.

"Boyfriend? Holy shit!" She jumps over to me and does an excited squeal. "Oh my gosh! You have a boyfriend, like a real boyfriend! This is so exciting, this has never happened before. Aww, I wish we could go on double dates that would be so fun."

I laugh at how quickly she went from shocked to excited to depressed in about ten seconds. I can't help but smile ear to ear at the idea of it all. If we were a normal couple we would be able to do those things. Who knows if we'll ever be able to.

"Ky, we should go. Our reservations are for 6," Mason says, interrupting her celebration.

"How long was I asleep?" I ask.

"Almost four hours," she chirps. "Okay tell the sexy teacher I said hello and that if he breaks your heart I'll kick his ass."

"Okay," I laugh. She hugs me and takes Mason's hand to drag him out of my closet. That was easier than I thought....I have a feeling that won't be the last time I fight with Mason about Harry. Now for my other problem.

I throw on my outfit and pull my hair into a messy bun as I walk down the steps. I need to go back to Harry's place so we can work this out. I'm not sure what I'm even going to say to him, but I know that I hate fighting with him and I just feel really uneasy knowing that things aren't right between us. I walk up to his place and knock twice before walking into the loft.

"Hey Harry, I-"

I stop and my face goes red when I see four people sitting in the living room. Liam and Sophia are here, accompanied by Louis and another brunette. I stand there like an idiot staring at them all before Harry pulls me out of my shock.

"Savannah." He puts his hand on my arm. I turn around to look at him. He looks nervous but he's trying to hide it from the others. "What are you doing here?" he asks quietly.

"I need to talk to you," I whisper. "I didn't know they'd all be here."

"Excuse us for a sec," Harry says to the others, holding up one finger and ushering my into the hallway. Downside to having a loft? It's basically one giant room. No privacy. He pulls me to the end so we're away from the door.

"I've been texting you all afternoon and now you decide to show up?" he asks somewhat harshly. "They're all here, this isn't a good idea right now."

"I'm sorry, I fell asleep and I had a thing with Mason."

"Is everything okay?" Even when he's mad at me he's still worried about me. How is that possible?

"Not really, but it's not important. Look, about before-"

"We really can't do this right now," he says, cutting me off. I clamp my mouth shut and stare up at him, his eyes portraying a mixture of confusion, anger, sadness and slight happiness.

"Do you want me to leave?" I ask quietly. He sighs and closes his eyes briefly, and when he opens them again his look is much softer. He wraps his arms around me and leans his chin on top of my head. I melt against his body and wrap my arms around his rib cage to hold him against me.

"No," he says quietly. He kisses the top of my head. "I'm always happy to see you. But we need to talk and we can't really do that right now."

"Yeah," I breathe, inhaling his scent. Just being near him is comforting. "Are you upset with me?"

He pulls back enough to look down at my face. "Aren't you the one that's upset with me?"

"I'm just confused." He sighs and nods slightly, brushing a stray strand of hair from my face. We just stare at each other for a few minutes. It's becoming clear to me that Harry is hiding something from me, but I have no idea what it could be. Maybe I could find out from his friends, but it doesn't seem like he wants me to hang out with them.

"I umm...I'll come back later. Or tomorrow or something. You should get back in there." I smile slightly to try and make it seem like I'm okay with that. I just miss him. We didn't hang out yesterday when we were supposed to and I left really soon after I got here earlier and I just feel like I haven't spent any time with him.

"I'd rather stay out here with you," he says softly, smiling a little and running his fingers along my jawline. My face flushes slightly.

"You have guests," I remind him reluctantly. He sighs and presses his forehead to mine.

"I guess I do."

"Just kiss me so I can leave," I tease. He chuckles.

"I feel so used."

I smile and he tilts his lips towards mine, kissing me softly. He starts to pull back but I stand on my tip toes to reconnect our lips with more force. He smiles and immediately parts my lips with his own, one of his hands resting on the back of my neck to hold my mouth to his. I can never get enough of this. My mind clouds as our kiss gets deeper, neither of us attempting to break it.

"Seriously?"

We suddenly break apart and look towards his door. Apparently neither of us heard it open. Louis stands with an amused expression, shaking his head at us in disapproval.

"Is this all you two ever do?" he asks, leaning against the doorframe. I laugh nervously and hide my face against Harry's chest, which is still rising and falling a little too quickly. He laughs a little as well and rubs my back.

"You're a pain in my ass, Lou."

"It's a talent. So, are you going to come inside any time soon or should I take over for you in the kitchen?"

"You'd just burn everything," Harry retorts. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Just you? How rude, Styles. Bring the girl with you, there's plenty of food." I lift my face and look at Louis first, then hesitantly up at Harry. I was expecting to see him looking annoyed or hesitant, but he's just smiling. He looks down at me.

"Do you want to join us?" he asks kindly.

"Is that okay?"

"Course it is!" Louis says happily. He walks over and takes my hand, tugging me away from Harry and tucking me under his arm. "Harry is the most ungracious of hosts, so I'll just take it from here. Have you met Liam and Sophia?" We walk through the door.

"Yeah." I smile and Louis leads me into the living room. I say hi to Liam and Sophia and then the other girl stands from the couch.

"Hi, I'm Eleanor," she says, catching me by surprise by wrapping me in a hug. I hug her back and laugh a little.

"Savannah. Nice to meet you." She smiles and I see Harry walk in over her shoulder. He shuts the door and walks to the kitchen to tend to whatever he's cooking.

"You too! It's nice to put a face to a name," she says. "Harry has been talking about you a lot."

I look over at him again. It doesn't seem like he heard her.

"Has he?"

"The entire time basically. There hasn't been much that he can't bring back to you somehow." I turn red and look down. "It's not a bad thing! It's adorable, if you ask me. It's nice to see Harry so smitten."

I look back up at her and something clicks. She knew him before too. These people might be able to tell me things about Harry that he hasn't.

"You've known him a long time?" I ask, hopefully quietly enough for Harry not to hear me. She nods.

"He introduces me and Louis," she says, looking at Louis fondly. He sits on the couch and Eleanor pulls me down to sit between them. "You should have seen Harry when we were kids. When his hair went curly it was just out of control. He always refused to get it cut for some reason. Then he learned out to do that quiff thing that he does with it and it finally looks somewhat normal."

"My hair is normal," Harry intercedes, setting a plate of cheese and crackers on the table. He takes my hand and lifts me from the couch. I look at him with a confused expression and he pulls me towards another chair, pulling me down onto his lap. I feel my face get slightly warmer and he rests his hand on my leg while the other runs along the small of my back.

"I'm just saying, for a while there I wasn't sure if you were a lion or a person," Eleanor says innocently. I laugh.

"A lion?" I ask. She nods.

"He had a mane," she explains, holding her hands around her head to portray what she means. Everyone laughs and Harry rolls his eyes while he tries not to reveal a smile.

"Savannah likes my hair," he defends, brushing his fingers through it. I just laugh and stroke the tiny curls at the nape of his neck.

"I like it too! Especially now that it's under control," Eleanor says. "Anyway, we all had bad hair in high school."

"I didn't," Lois says. "Mine was fantastic."

"Babe, when I met you it was like down to your shoulders."

"It was never that long!"

"Okay maybe not, but it was pretty long," she says dismissively.

"Savannah had nice hair in high school," Harry chimes in. I look down at him in question and he winks at me. Dangerous game.

"That wasn't long ago, though," Liam says. "Give it a few years and you'll both change your minds."

I smooth my hand over my hair and regret putting it in a bun now. Harry laughs and reaches up to bring my hand back to my lap, lacing our fingers together.

"You two are just so adorable," Sophia says suddenly. I look over at her. "Seriously, I never thought I'd see the day when Harry-"

"Sophia," Liam says, softly but in what is clearly a warning tone. She awkwardly takes a sip of her wine and my eyebrows pull together in confusion. What was she about to say?

"Come with me to check the food," Harry says softly. I stand and he keeps my hand in his as we walk into the kitchen. He lifts a lid off of something on the stove and hands me a spoon. "Stir this for me?"

I take it and he smiles small as he kisses my forehead. He mills about the kitchen and it seems to me like he's just killing time instead of actually doing things. I realize that what stirring is beans.

"So what are you making?" I ask. He steps up behind me and peers over my shoulder in the pot, also making my heart rate increase dramatically. His hands find my waist.

"There's stuffed chicken in the oven," he mumbles, his lips grazing my skin. I shiver and he takes the lid off a second pot. "Potatoes."

"I didn't know you could cook," I express in a shaky voice. He hums against my ear. "It's kind of sexy."

"You think so?" he asks. I can imagine the playful smirk on his lips. I just nod, no long trusting my voice. I bite my lip as he presses his lips to skin just below my ear. He slips one hand under the thin fabric of my tshirt and slides it along the skin above my jeans. His lips find another spot further along my jaw. I completely forget about the people sitting not very far away from us as he continues leaving the lightest of kisses along my jaw. The hand under my shirt, which is also on the side of my body the others can't see, slowly glides up and down my side. I giggle.

"That tickles," I whisper. He chuckles against my neck and kisses me once more.

"You can probably stop stirring those," he says lowly. I drop the spoon on the counter a little to loudly and he removes his hand from under my shirt. "How can you make some thing simple look so stunning?" he asks in my ear. I sigh as he kisses me a few more times.

"Unless you want me to jump on you in front of your friends I suggest you stop," I warn, half kidding and half not. He chuckles and playfully squeezes my ass as he back away. I jump and turn to glare at him as he walks backwards towards the fridge.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself," he says simply. He winks and pulls something out. I put the lid back on the pot and decide to pour myself a glass of wine; I think I'll need it. Harry opens the door to the oven to check on whatever is cooking in there. I think he told me, but I don't remember. I head back to the living room and sit in the chair we had previously occupied.

"Thank goodness," Louis says. "I thought we'd have to watch you two go at it on the floor."

My face turns red and the other three laugh along with Louis. Apparently they were watching us. That's a tad embarrassing. Harry comes over and sits on the floor between my legs.

"What'd I miss? What's everyone laughing about?" he asks. They all just laugh again and he turns to look up at me, eyebrows raises. I just shrug and sip my wine, my fingers finding the tiny curls at the back of his head.

"Harry, I still can't believe you're a teacher," Eleanor says. "I can't imagine teaching high school students. Especially in a town like this, they're all probably spoiled brats. No offence."

I just smile in response. I feel Harry grow slightly more tense. This is probably the last thing we should be talking about.

"It's not so bad," he says nonchalantly.

"You've probably got a few cute girls to look at," Liam jokes. Sophia whacks his chest and he just laughs again. "Just saying."

I take a huge sip of my wine and Harry's whole body goes rigid.

"I bet they're throwing themselves at you," Eleanor says. "I had one teacher that was just so hot and every girl at my school wanted to sleep with him. That's totally you, Harry."

"I don't think so," he says, trying to sound lighthearted.

"Woah woah, you think Harry's hot?" Louis asks, sounding completely offended. El nods. "I'm sitting right here."

"Come on, Lou. You've got to be used to it by now," Harry says, leaning back against my legs, seemingly more relaxed. "You were always the funny one. I'm the handsome one."

"Really, mate? That's not offensive at all."

Everyone laughs and they continue talking about random things. All I can think about is what these people will say when they eventually find out about my real age. Any time something about us comes up Harry skillfully redirects the question and answers without really answering. It's impressive, really. Eventually Harry announces that dinner is ready, so we all move into the dining room to eat. I never understood why Harry had such a large table when he lives alone, but now it's a good thing. Since Louis and Eleanor are visiting the conversation rotates mostly with them, Liam and Harry catching up with people they've known for what seems like forever.

"This food is so good," I compliment. Harry smiles.

"Thanks, babe."

"Okay I know I've said this like eight times already, but you two are seriously perfect. It's so cute, I can't get over it," Eleanor gushes.

"That's enough wine for you," Louis teases.

---

After everyone had gone home Harry and I cleaned together in a comfortable silence, occasionally exchanging light conversation. He seems to have completely forgotten the argument we had earlier, but I haven't. I want to act like everything is fine but it's not. I know that it's not and I don't want to pretend.

For the first time ever I am able to convince Harry to let me wash the dishes, since he does it all the time and he cooked dinner.

"So what happened with you and your brother?" he asks as I hand him a dish. I shrug. I don't know if telling Harry that Mason knows would be a good idea. It's almost Christmas anyway, so they won't see each other for a while. It would probably just stress him out more than anything else.

"We just had an argument." Not completely a lie. "So have you known all of them a long time?"

"Not Sophia. She started dating Liam after he moved here a few years ago. I've know Eleanor the longest but Liam almost as long. We lived in the same neighbourhood."

I nod and continue washing. Harry got pretty defensive this morning when I asked about his past and I don't want to push him to that again. At the same time, I really want to know more about him. Not because I'm nosy. I just want to know everything about him. Something else I've never experienced; I never really cared before.

"When I was fourteen my friends and I always used to get dressed up and try to get into senior parties," I tell him. Maybe me sharing will prompt him to. "We looked so ridiculous but somehow we managed to get in sometimes. Show enough cleavage and apparently boys do whatever you want them to."

He laughs and puts away some dishes. "I can see how that would work on a high school boy. I'd like to think I'm a little more sophisticated than that." He smirks and I just laugh. "What? I'm a grown man, you can't manipulate me with your body."

"Really?" I challenge. He nods with a mischievous look in his eye. "I think you overestimate how evolved the male species is." He laughs as I hand him another dish. I should probably be dealing with our little issue, but this could be more fun; proving my point. We work in silence and when it's done I walk over to the couch and flop down on my back, leaving my shirt p so my stomach is exposed. He walks over and lifts my legs so he can sit as well, reaching for the remote and flicking on the TV.

"Harry, I'm thirsty."

"You know where the kitchen is." He smiles slightly and I kick his stomach lightly. "What? I'm not your servant."

"Yeah but you're my boyfriend and that's kind of like the same thing." He rolls his eyes and flips through the channels. Perfect opportunity. "It's kind of warm in here," I state casually. He shrugs.

"Probably because there were so many people," he says simply. He keeps his eyes trained on the screen as I sit up and slowly remove my tshirt. I toss it onto the floor but throw it in front of his line of sight. He looks over at the crumpled fabric on the ground, slowly turning to look at me. I gently brush my fingers through his hair and his eyes slowly scan my exposed torso.

"I'm still kinda thirsty," I remind him, sliding my other hand along his jawline before slowly trailnig in down his neck and over his chest. When it passes over his heart I can feel it beating faster than normal. He swallows and puts his hand on my wrist to stop me before I get any closer to his jeans.

"I know what you're doing," he says, a small smile playing on his lips. "It's not working."

"No?"

He shakes his head. "I don't want to get you a drink, but I do want to take you right here on this couch."

"That's too bad because I prefer the bedroom." I sigh and lean back against the cushions, looking at the Tv. He suddenly stands and lifts me up, making me squeal as he throws me over his shoulder.

"Told you it would work," I say, laughing as he walks up the stairs. He tosses me onto the bed and immediately removes his shirt. I bite my lip as he crawls over me.

"Maybe a little," he admits quietly. "But it probably goes both ways."

"We can try that tomorrow," I reason as I pull his face down to mine. He immediately lowers his body onto me. Maybe working out our problems can wait.

Notes

alright heres the first one back :) super long for you guys so I hope you guys like it :D i actually missed this story while i was gone. weeee

whats going to happen with harry and savannah? will he ever open up?!?!?! suspense :P

please comment and tell me what you think :)

ALSO some people did their voting so thank you to those people. if you're subriscribing but haven't voted, PLEASE VOTE!!! get those numbers matching :)

thanks guys <3