My whole Sunday went in a blur. The weather was super nice but I just shut the curtains of my bedroom and didn't want to wake up. Mom still hadn't come home and it was bothering me as well. Naomi had sent me a text earlier in the morning wanting to see me today. I thought she had somehow magically learned that I was with Harry last night and that we had been cuddling each other.

I thought I was going crazy. This would never work. Naomi would never be okay with me and Harry dating, no matter what I would tell her. And still, I liked him so much that it hurt me deep down to know that we could never take this any further.

I had to get up from the bed and go to the bathroom after a while. I took a long shower, trying to wash away my thoughts and just get on with my day. Or with my life. I didn't bother to dry my hair as I was going nowhere today so I just let it air-dry. I looked at myself from the mirror and agreed with my inner voice that I looked miserable. This had to be one of the worst situations I had ever been in.

"Gracie! Are you home?" I heard mom's voice coming from downstairs. I left the bathroom reluctantly with a towel wrapped around me.

"Oh, hi mom. You decided to show up." I said coldly as I walked the stairs down slowly.

"Honey... I'm so, so sorry. There's no explanation for what I did to you last night. It was stupid and I should have thought more." Mom apologized. I didn't say anything to her but just went straight to the kitchen and made myself toast.

"Please, talk to me. I feel bad enough about the whole thing already." Mom pleaded and touched my shoulder.

"Don't." I said and shrugged her hand off. I poured some juice to my glass and took my breakfast to the kitchen table.

"What you did, was awful. You're my mother. You can't just disappear and not tell me where the hell you are. I hope it was the last time." I finally said to her as she was looking helpless and about to cry.

"I promise, I won't ever do that again. I just didn't think at all. You have every right to be mad at me. We went for dinner with Johnny as he was in town and then he wanted to show his new place to me and..."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it! No details, please!" I interrupted her as I didn't want to hear how their night had progressed.

We never argued for long so we were talking about other things in no time. Mom seemed to be very sorry so I forgave her and tried to forget about last night. I guess she was just very happy about finding a nice man and being crazy about someone was no different to her than it was to me. I secretly wished I could have told her about Harry and my little dilemma, but I decided to keep my mouth shut for now.

I called Naomi later on in the day and talked with her for a bit. I told her I wasn't going to do anything special today but to just hang at home. She told me excitedly about a party she had been to on Saturday and how she didn't drink anything. And she had met new people and everything was so different and cool with them. She didn't mention Harry's name once, which was a good sign. Maybe, if she found a new crush, she would be fine with me and Harry dating as well. Maybe it would all work out in the end.

---

Monday, school starts

I woke up early the next morning, feeling a lot better than Sunday morning. My conversation with Naomi had cheered me up to some extent and I had found new hope. I even made soft waves to my hair with a straightener and put some makeup on. I decided to wear my dark blue jeans, a white preppy button-up shirt and brown booties. I glanced at my phone as it beeped. There was a new text.

From Harry: Morning Gracie! You didn't call me yesterday, bad girl! ;) Can I pick you up in 10?

From me: Morning Harry, sorry about that. I'm just naughty sometimes. Sure you can, thanks :)

Awesome. I welcomed the butterflies appearing inside my stomach and the excitement building inside me. I had just flirted with him on purpose - again. Like I would never learn. But I didn't want to learn and behave and forget about him. If flirting with him via text messages was the closest I was ever going to get to him, I would keep doing it!

I didn't have to worry about Naomi this morning since her day started two hours later than mine. Thankfully, her and Harry didn't share too many classes together, which was a relief to all of us. Me and Harry on the other hand, we had almost identical schedules. I didn't know if I should've been thankful for that or not. Honestly, I was.

"Honey, that Harry is waiting for you in front of our house!" Mom yelled and I made my way downstairs. "Don't tell me nothing's going on with you and him! Look at you! Your hair looks so pretty!" Mom noticed and got all excited.

"Thanks mom. He is just a friend. See you later! Don't disappear tonight!" I joked before I shut the front door shut.

I walked casually to Harry's car, opened the passenger door to his Range Rover and sat next to him. He had black jeans on, like usually, but this pair wasn't ripped. A tiny bit of his gray sweater was tugged inside his jeans and he was wearing a brown belt. I couldn't help but smile at him as our eyes met. He was smiling too and looked excited.

"Morning Gracie. You look very nice. I like your hair." He said and smiled even more.

"Well thank you! You look nice yourself." I had to say. I thought we were both thinking about kissing each other in that very moment.

Harry cleared his throat and left out a small chuckle before he started to drive. I tried to keep my eyes strictly on the road but they wandered every now and then towards Harry. I stared at his big hands holding the steering wheel loosely. He looked so cool I had a hard time containing myself. Why did he have to be so damn perfect?

"So, excited about new school and new teachers?" I asked so I wouldn't constantly think about how his hands would feel on me instead of that wheel.

"Honestly, I am a little bit! I'm not a nerd or anything but I've always liked school. Nothing wrong with it. Feels quite good to start fresh, kind of. And hey, I get to see you everyday." He smirked at me.

"That's good to hear! Hopefully, the rest of the lads will follow your suit and get a little more interested too." I simply answered and ignored what he had said about seeing me.

After a while, we reached our school grounds and Harry parked his car. I saw Niall's car close by and Louis's too. I showed Harry where the school office was and he went in to talk with the school secretary about his enrollment for a bit. I waited for him outside and saw Perrie and Eleanor walking towards me.

"Hey! How was the rest of your holiday? Too bad we couldn't see each other last weekend." Perrie asked me.

"It went normally, nothing out of the ordinary." Yeah, right. "How was your date Eleanor?" I changed the subject.

"Oh, it was wonderful. He made me feel like the queen of everything! Look, isn't this pretty?" She said and showed me her new heart necklace she had gotten as a gift from Louis. I complimented her for it and remembered Harry could come out of the office any second. What would the girls think about me waiting for him?

"Oh, Harry. Hi! First day here, huh?" Perrie noticed Harry as he opened the door and joined us.

"Hey girls. Yep, first day. Good to be here. The school secretary was very nice. So, are we all going to the same direction?" Harry asked and turned to look at me.

"Um, me and you are. I mean, yes. We all have the same classes. I checked his schedule earlier." I explained to the girls who looked at me weirdly at first. Like how did I know what classes he had.

We walked all together to the economics class and took our seats and Harry sat next to me. Mr. Wilkinson arrived on time and he had to be the most boring teacher of the day. Too bad his classes were always in the morning. Harry seemed to be all awake though and wrote down everything Mr. Wilkinson said. The rest of the lads were whispering something to each other and laughing about something. Typical, I thought.

"I promise it gets more interesting!" Liam said and wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulder.

"I thought it was alright. A bit boring yeah, but totally bearable." Harry responded in a funny voice.

Liam looked at me walking behind them with the girls and winked at me. I managed to read from his lips that he wanted to talk with me. In private, I guessed, since he couldn't say it out loud. I nodded and kept on talking with the girls normally.

Before lunch, I sneaked out from our music class a little before it officially ended with Liam. The rest of the class was cleaning up the music equipment back to their places so no one even noticed us sneaking out.

"You and Harry then? I'm so happy about this, you have no idea!" Liam started and held me by my shoulders excitedly.

"Wait, what? Where did you get that?" I asked surprised.

"Don't try that with me. I know you all too well, the both of you. Just one thing, how are you going to break the news to Naomi?" Liam got more serious.

"What are you talking about? I... Fine. Listen, he asked me out and I said no because of Naomi. So there is nothing to tell her and we don't have anything with Harry." I told him.

"You told him no. Are you kidding me? The boy is crazy about you! He keeps looking at you all the time. I mean, all the time. I've never seen him so calm and smiley. And like I said you two would be perfect together. They went out like what, three times with Naomi. Get real, Gracie!" Liam talked fast, trying to get some sense to me.

"I know that, Liam! But she liked him and she never likes anyone. She would kill me if I went out with him! You know how she can be. And she is finally taking herself more seriously and she has been toning down the partying as well. I can't do something like this to her now!" I raised my voice a bit, irritated that Liam didn't see a problem in any of this.

"Okay, take it easy. Still... Think about it. I'm telling you, he is crazy about you. Let's get some lunch." He said making truce and took my arm to his.

"Please don't say anything to anyone. Not the lads, not to Harry and not to Naomi." I said quietly as we walked towards the cafeteria.

"Never Gracie. But you deserve to be happy too. Think about it." He said with a low voice.

I saw Naomi waiting for us in her normal spot and she seemed as happy as ever. She even hugged Liam as we came up to her, which was something she never did. After that, it was my turn to get a hug from her.

"So good to see you two! Anything new happened when I was away?" She asked casually making me and Liam look at each other quickly.

"Nah, same old same old. How was your weekend? Seems like you're in a good mood." Liam said.

"And I am in a good mood! You have to come to one of those parties that my friends have, they are insane. I'm going again on Wednesday. Come then?" She asked as we took our lunch and went to sit with the rest of the gang.

"I don't know... Sounds cool, but it's in the middle of the week and all." I hesitated.

"Don't be boring! When has it ever mattered if a party has been on a Wednesday-night? We're going. All of us." She announced and looked around the table.

"I'm always in." Zayn shrugged his shoulders and most others nodded with him.

Harry sat on the other end of the big table and was quiet. I looked at him at some point and he responded to my look by giving me a quick smile. I wondered if he would be coming to the party. Me, him and Naomi at the same party sounded like drama was ahead.

Notes