I didn't do anything special on Wednesday and on Thursday, Naomi came over and stayed the night. We gossiped about everyone else and she talked about Harry. They had seen each other on Wednesday and Naomi still hadn't managed to get him to her bed. I was relieved.

I had started to think that there was something weird about the whole thing. It didn't add up to what Liam had told me about Harry before. He wasn't acting like a player with her at least. And I was pretty sure he would have had sex with her already if that was his main agenda. Maybe he actually really liked her and wanted to wait a bit longer before doing anything.

Naomi wasn't too convinced, when I told her how I felt about the whole thing. She thought that he was a perfect example of a guy sleeping with pretty girls and was sure, that she was to blame. I told her there was absolutely nothing wrong with her and that she was gorgeous.

We were so different from each other when it came to dating. She reminded me of 'Sex and City's' Samantha, just a younger version. But the fact that she was only 17 made it way worse. I wasn't against sex or anything, I thought it was normal and definitely a big part of a serious relationship. But I wouldn't want to do it with just anyone, not yet at least. But there was no way for us to find a mutual understanding about the topic, so I didn't bring it up.

---

On Friday, I woke up early to clean the house all over. I even changed my sheets and mom's too, just in case someone wanted to stay the night. I went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and soda. I baked a chocolate cake and felt really happy about myself. Where did all this energy come from? I was just cleaning the dishes I had used to bake the cake, when my phone started ringing. I washed my hands quickly and answered it.

"Hey mom!"

"Hello sweetie! Happy, happy birthday to my baby! I wish I was there!" Mom shouted excitedly to the phone.

"Thank you, mom! Everything's good here though, don't worry about it. How's it going there?"

"It's going good, the business meetings have been successful so far and looks like everything is going as planned. But I miss you honey."

"I miss you too. But it's only two days anymore. What time will you arrive on Sunday?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I'm wiser about it. Are you having the girls over today?" Mom remembered.

"Yeah, they are coming over. And Liam."

"Just Liam? Listen, if you are having more people over, make sure that you don't let anyone in you don't know. And take it easy, don't ruin the house. And absolutely no smoking inside the house, that is a big no-no!" Mom started and I thought how stupid I had been about organising a secret party. Of course she would realise it.

"Sure mom, we'll behave. I promise. They're good kids. Thanks, you're the best!" I smiled.

"Alright. Love you, talk to you soon!" Mom said and ended the call.

Naomi came over an hour before than everyone else to help me with the rest of the stuff for the party. And she brought Harry with her. Naomi didn't waste any time as she opened her vodka right after she had made herself at home. Harry was being very helpful with the decorations and the three of us were getting along really well.

"Happy birthday again hun! I love you!" Naomi hugged me a little while later, obviously getting more and more drunk by the minute.

"Thanks! I love you too. Thanks for coming earlier and helping me with everything. Both of you." I said and looked over to Harry, who was leaning against the kitchen counter. He smiled and said no problem.

"Here, open this." Naomi said and got a nicely wrapped gift from her bag. I tore it open excitedly like a little kid. Who didn't love opening presents?

"Naomi! I love them! Thank you so much!" I said. She had gotten me a new perfume I had wanted and a body lotion of the same brand.

"Someone's at the door." Harry announced. Me and Naomi hadn't even heard the doorbell from all of our excitement.

"I'll get it, thanks." I said and made my way to the hallway.

"Happy birthday Gracie!" Everyone yelled as I opened the door. There were Liam, Niall, Zayn, Perrie, Louis, Eleanor and Elizabeth. They came in and gave me a massive hug one at a time.

The music was blasting with my favourite artists and everyone was enjoying the party. Theo and Claudia came a little while after the others. They had all gotten me a new iPod since the last one had been stolen at a Christmas party last year. I was so grateful to have friends like them, not because of the nice gift, but because they all loved me for me.

I sat on the sofa as the evening progressed and sipped a cocktail Liam had made me. It started to feel a bit dizzy inside my head and I was having a great time. Naomi announced a dance competition in my honour and the theme was twerking. Zayn put on some of the dirtiest hip hop beats and Niall started the show. His funny personality was the biggest part of his moves and we were all laughing hysterically at him. Zayn, Theo and Louis made a team and actually a pretty good job. I was very impressed. And Zayn didn't even like dancing too much! Liam of course had to top everyone else and he danced right in front of my nose and I had a hard time keeping a poker face.

Finally, it was the girls' turn. Perrie, Eleanor, Claudia and Elizabeth insisted dancing all together and although they did minimal twerking in their short dresses, they were too cute. Naomi blew the party up by actually getting down on the floor and mimicking Rihanna from her 'Pour it Up' music video. She gave me a proper lap dance and I had to fan my face with my hand because things really heated up! The boys definitely enjoyed what they saw.

"Who's left? Harry! Don't think you can get away with not dancing?" Louis shouted to Harry who was standing next to Niall and Liam.

"Oh god, no, no, no..." Harry laughed and shook his head.

"Oh c'mon, it's for the birthday girl. You want to see Harry dance, right Grace?" Liam said and looked at me with big eyes.

"Oh yes. Don't be shy Harry, show me what you got!" I decided to tease him a bit.

"Oh shit... Fine, I'll do it." Harry gave in.

Zayn dropped the beat and Harry came to stand right in front of me, even closer than Liam had. His crotch was practically in front of my eyes and I couldn't really look anywhere else. Harry was looking down at me with a smirk on his face, trying to be serious. He started moving his hips to the beat slowly. Then, he turned around, bent a bit over and made his butt go up and down wildly. I bursted out laughing and tears were coming from my eyes as I couldn't stop. Everyone else was laughing too.

"Way to go man! Thanks for taking the challenge. As a newbie to this group, you are officially super cool!" Louis shouted after Harry's little performance.

I announced Niall and Naomi as the winners of the competition and everyone cheered them on as they did a winning dance together. After that, I got up from the sofa and went to dance with the girls for a little. Liam interrupted me soon as he came up to me and pulled me closer to him.

"Oh god, what is happening?" I laughed and took another sip of my cocktail.

"You need a proper dance." Liam said dramatically, took the drink from my hand and placed it over the living room table. He turned me around, so my butt was against his crotch and his hands were holding my hips.

I turned my head to my side so I could see his face. He was so adorable, a good dancer, a great friend and most definitely, he would make a perfect boyfriend. We danced together for a while and neither of us were really holding anything back. Again, if someone who didn't know us saw us dancing like that, they would have thought we were a couple. Liam's head was pressed against my shoulder and neck and my hands were over his as we were dancing.

"How on earth are you single?" I asked him.

"Just waiting for the right one. There's one girl I've seen a couple of times. My cousin's friend."

"What, really? And you are telling me just now! I need details." I laughed astonished.

"Be patient, you'll get them later on. By the way, Harry is totally checking you out." Liam said to my ear.

I flipped my head back to its normal position and my eyes found Harry. He quickly turned to look somewhere else. I decided to play the part of a sexy girl dancing with a guy a little harder and not long after, I saw Harry actually looking at me again. This time, he didn't move his eyes away from me. I was so drunk that I didn't think anything bad about it and I smiled at him. He chuckled back but put his head down right after.

"Grace, it's raining outside! Can I borrow an umbrella from you? I need to get home soon." Theo came up to me a few hours later and asked.

"What, you are leaving already? It's only 11.30pm!" I said and pouted.

"Sorry hun, we are leaving to see my sister early tomorrow morning." He said.

"Fine then. It's ok. I have a few upstairs, come with me." I said and we went upstairs to my clothing room.
I looked for a few umbrellas and offered him a black small one.

"I need something in return though." I said boldly. It was totally not normal for me.

"You do, huh? How about this..." Theo answered, pulled me closer with one hand and pressed his lips to mine. I left out a small moan as the kiss deepened and had my hands behind his neck. We kissed for a good few minutes. God, how I had missed kissing.

"Hey Grace, can we... Oh! So sorry guys!" I was extremely surprised, when I realised it was Harry's voice. He had already disappeared from the doorway.

"Well, that was awkward." I said and looked back at Theo.

"The kiss or Harry?" Theo smiled and I smiled back.

"Take good care of my umbrella. I'll see you next week." I said as we walked down the stairs and Theo left.

The kiss had felt nice and different. But it was definitely not like me to do stuff like that. But it was fun. Maybe I was a little too hard on myself from time to time. Nothing wrong with a little kiss. Just as long as Theo didn't get the wrong idea now. I wondered, why Harry had come there in the first place and tried to remember what he had said. He had said my name so he was obviously looking specifically for me. Then, he had said something like 'can we', I just didn't know what. I had a huge urge inside of me wanting to know the answer to that one.

"Naomi's sleeping in your mom's bedroom. Is it ok? She was so drunk I had a hard time making her stand straight." Harry came up to me later in the night.

"No, it's totally fine. Do you want to spend the night with her there?"

"Um... It's probably better for me to go home. Thanks though." Harry answered.

"I'm going upstairs. Do you still have those spare blankets in your clothing room?" Liam asked as he walked by us.

"Yep, same place. Please don't fall asleep in an X-position and leave some room for me too." I laughed.

"You... You two sleep in the same bed?" Harry asked me surprised.

"Well yes, we do. And no, there is absolutely nothing between us, so don't look at me like that. It can't really get more platonic than our friendship." I smiled at him and tilted my head.

"Right, that's what he always tells me. He really cares about you a lot, doesn't he?"

"We've been through some stuff together and he was there for me, when I needed someone. And I feel like nothing can ever tear us apart, no matter what. I really cherish what we have." I responded proudly.

"Sounds pretty amazing. We could all use relationships like that. If you have a minute, I actually have something for you." Harry said and went to get something from his brown leather messenger bag. He gave me a gift wrapped with nice black and shiny paper.

"Harry, you didn't have to get me anything. Thank you so much." I said and was taken aback by his sweet gesture.

"Open it and thank me later." He smiled and said. I opened the gift up and found a collection of sheet music inside it. They were by my favourite artists.

"Wow... This is too much. Thank you!" I said eyes wide open and hugged Harry. I didn't know what to think since the gift felt somewhat personal. Something a boyfriend would know to get you. And so different. This was one of the nicest surprises ever.

"Glad, you liked it. I did a little research with Liam helping me out. You have a good taste in music." He said and had that cute cheeky smile playing on his face.

I flipped the pages and felt special for some reason. Every time I was ready to forget about him, he did something like this. Something totally unexpected. He didn't make it easy for me. To my surprise, we ended up to the living room talking for two more hours. Niall had went to bed next to Naomi and Louis had passed out on the sofa. Everyone else had went home.

We talked about normal things for a while and it turned out Harry would start in our school after this holiday. He was supposed to go to a public school but got a late transfer to our school. I told him about our class and our teachers, so he would know who everyone was beforehand.

I didn't expect him to open up about himself too much, but he did. He told me he had lived a pretty wild life these past two years. And he told me about some of the girls he had hooked up with and how nothing seemed to keep him interested for too long. Talk about opening up...

"But now that I've seen you guys here, I want to have same kind of relationships. I came here thinking I would just hook up with the first hot girl, who showed interest towards me and go on to the next. But looking at Zayn and Perrie and Louis and Eleanor. They are cute, aren't they? And you and Liam, you are so close I can't even understand it. I want something special like that myself." Harry explained and I had nothing but respect for him to open up like that.

"You can have relationships like these, it's not rocket science. But any relationship requires work so you have to be ready for that too. And being friends with girls is way different than with guys. We have different expectations and if you're emotionally cold, then no chance." I laughed and he nodded smiling.

"The first thing I need to do, is to stop hanging out with Naomi. She is exactly the kind of girl I wanted to hook up with after coming here. And she seems really eager to do it with me already. The old me would not have waited for this long. But I think she is a bit too much the way I used to be. I just, I don't want to hurt her."

"Listen... You haven't done anything else but gone for a few dates. That's it. It doesn't make it serious yet, not at all. Just be real with her and say you would rather be friends with her. She will be fine, trust me." I responded to him.

"And you and Theo? I'm sorry for walking in like that." Harry said and obviously wanted to know what the deal was between Theo and me.

"Haha, nothing going on with him either. You know, when you are drunk, you want to have fun. And I don't let myself have fun like that, ever. So, I decided to go with the flow for once and just did it. But he is definitely just a friend." Harry looked relieved at my answer for some reason.

"Oh, did you want to ask me something when you came upstairs earlier?" I continued.

"Nah, just about Naomi. I guess I just wanted to talk to you really. And now I got to." He responded and smiled warmly.

We continued talking for a little bit longer until it was time for the both of us to go to bed. Harry left and we hugged each other once more before he closed the front door. I left out a yawn as I walked the stairs up and took my top off. I put on a long and loose t-shirt and crawled to bed next to Liam.

"Heyyyy, what's the time?" Liam woke up and asked. He sounded very tired and yawned.

"Like 4am. Harry just left."

"He did. Were you together?"

"Yeah, we talked for about two hours. He really opened up to me." I said and Liam turned to his side and faced me and looked curious.

"You did? About what?"

"Nothing... It's between us. But he's a good guy, really." I smiled at him.

"I think he needs someone exactly like you in his life. You would be perfect together." Liam said thoughtfully.

"Yeah right. Goodnight Liam." I said and turned away from him.

"Just saying. Goodnight." He said and kissed my head before turning around too.

Notes