In And Out Of Love

I tried to get Naomi to wake up the next morning, but she was still feeling a little too sick from last night. The lads had left almost two hours ago and I kind of wanted to get the day started myself too.

"Please, hun. Let's go and eat some breakfast, you'll feel way better after that. No? At least drink some water." I offered Naomi a glass but she shook her head and kept her eyes closed.

I looked at her and how her make-up was smeared all over her face. She was sleeping in her underwear, her jewelry still on and her hair was a mess. Seeing her so hungover made me actually feel sorry for her. This seemed to happen to her every single time we partied. She never knew when to slow down and just have fun without being totally wasted. Truthfully, I was kind of worried about her.

"You need to wake up, right now." I said firmly and raised my voice a bit.

"What the fuck? Which part of me being really sick you don't understand?" Naomi opened her eyes and responded angrily.

"Look, you did this to yourself. It's already 2pm. I have stuff to do. Besides, this same shit happens every time with you. When do you grow up a bit?" I said a little too harsh but this was getting ridiculous.

"What? Are you being absolutely serious right now?" Naomi's eyes were filled with fire.

"Honestly, I'm worried about you. I think you might have some sort of a problem with alcohol." I told her, still firmly.

"Oh, fuck you! What the hell is the matter with you nowadays? You are preaching me all the time and I'm sick of it! Do you hear me? Sick of it! Try to get some dick into your system so you won't be a bitch all the time!" She yelled and got up from the bed. I was stunned at her words.

"Wow... Thanks a lot Naomi. You always know what to say. I think you better leave."

"Oh I will." She put her clothes on and within a minute was gone after banging the front door loudly.

Oh god. I went to the living room and dropped myself on the sofa. What on earth had just happened? I didn't mean for it to get so out of hand. But she had been really mean to me too. I was just worried about her. Shit... Did I go too far?

I cleaned the house, took a shower, read the newspaper, ate some food and watched TV. No matter how I tried to keep my mind occupied, I thought about Naomi and what had happened. I felt like shit about the whole thing. I was pondering if I should call her or wait for her to call me. It was already getting near 8pm and I just couldn't wait any longer. I took my phone from my pocket and called her. She answered after a while.

"Hey, um... What... What are you doing?" I asked her carefully.

"Nothing." She answered coldly.

"Listen... We need to talk. Can you come over?" I asked and she was silent for what felt like ages.

"Um... Fine. I'll be there soon." She finally said and I ended the call feeling a bit relieved.

After 20 minutes, she came over and had some take-away food with her for the both of us. Thank god, I thought. That meant that this was all going to be alright and we would be laughing together in no time.

"And that's why I said it, okay? I really am a bit worried about you. It can not be good for your body to be that sick after every party. Think about it." We had been talking about the whole scenario with her for a while.

"Yeah.., I get that. I just find it really hard for me to slow down and take it easy for a while. But I definitely see what you mean. I'm going to try from now on, okay? I can't promise it won't ever happen again, but yeah... No more passing out in every party." She said and smiled a bit. I smiled back at her and we hugged it out.

"Maybe I could really try it with Harry too... It would go great with my new plan, you know, to be a better me. 'Just dating' sounds actually fun now." She continued and inside my head, I was screaming as I remembered what Harry had said last night.

"Right... Absolutely. Um... But he, he might be trouble, you know. Maybe just find yourself first and think about boys after that." I tried to make sense to her but knew I sounded really dumb.

"C'mon, I'm not that lost! I think Harry would be good for me! Listen, I need to get going back home. Thanks for talking with me, I appreciate it, really. Love you, bye!" She got up from the sofa, put her jacket on and was out of the house.

Oh no... This was not good. Not good at all. She already felt vulnerable about everything we talked about today and now she would get rejected by Harry. Oh god. And I basically had myself to blame! Good job helping your friend out, Grace!

I paced back and forth in our house feeling terrible about all of the conversations I had had with Harry before. Talking about how Naomi only wanted sex and all that. I took my phone from the kitchen table, not really knowing what to do with it. The clock was already 10pm but I decided to call Liam anyways.

"Hey! What are you doing?" I asked as if nothing was up.

"Just hanging with Niall here, playing Playstation. Come over if you got nothing?" He responded.

"Nah, thanks though. Have you seen Harry today?"

"No, I talked with him earlier. Why?" Liam sounded more curious.

"No reason. Can you send me his number?" I blurted out and closed my eyes afraid of Liam's reaction.

"Sure. But why you want it?" Liam was obviously smiling.

"Oh, he just left something here. No big deal. But thanks, talk to you tomorrow. Say hi to Niall. Bye!" I said quickly and ended the call.

Some seconds later, my phone beeped as I got a text containing Harry's number from Liam. I saved it to my phonebook and stared at his name for a little while, trying to get courage to call him. Finally, I did and hit the green button on the screen. Harry answered quite quickly so I had minimal time to panic.

"Styles." He said casually.

"Um... Harry?" I asked confused.

"Yes, this is he. Is that you, Grace?"

"Yeah, sorry. It's me. Do you always answer with your last name?"

"Haha, no, I don't! What's up?" He asked.

"Nothing much." I felt so stupid about the whole thing and decided to just go with the flow. "Can we talk, like properly?"

"I'm kind of... Never mind, of course we can. Where? Now?"

"Listen, if you are doing something, we can talk tomorrow! I don't want to bother you, really." I said quickly because he was obviously doing something else. Besides, it was really late. He probably thought I was desperate calling him at this time.

"You're not bothering me. You could never do that." His response made me blush. "My mom is at home though... Anywhere else we could talk?"

"You can come here, ok? Thanks for doing this, I know it's late and..."

"I'll be there in ten, Grace. See you soon." He cut me off and ended the call.

Ten minutes. Right. I looked at myself from the mirror and decided to put something more decent on. My night boxers weren't exactly something I wanted to hang around with a guy in my house. I went upstairs and pulled my sweats on and tied my messy hair up in a ponytail. Okay, this is better, I thought. I went back downstairs and put the TV on so it wasn't that quiet. After a bit, the doorbell rang.

I walked towards the front door, brushing my ponytail and tugging my shirt down. I realized I acted like a silly teenager seeing her crush alone for the first time. Truthfully, I was just a teenager but I had no reason to be this nervous about seeing Harry. I shook my head to get the crazy thoughts off of my head before I opened the door for him. He stood there looking every bit as handsome as always. His hair was also probably a bit curlier than what I had seen before. His hands were in his jeans' pockets and he was smiling.

"Hey." He said slowly but didn't make a move to come inside. Maybe he had learned from last time.

"Hey, come in." I said and took a few steps back so he could come in. He took his leather jacket off and hanged it.

We continued our way to the living room and I got him a glass with soda in it. He took a sip and was clearly a bit confused as of why I had invited him over. I started to feel this was a bad idea.

"So, you're probably wondering what was so urgent that it couldn't wait for tomorrow for example." I started and he looked at me but didn't respond. Great.

"Um... It's about Naomi if you didn't guess it before." I continued. He looked back at the television.

"I kind of had an idea. I still haven't talked with her, you know, about what I told you last night." He sighed.

"Actually, I'm glad to hear that. We had an argument with her today. And it was bad..." I told Harry about this morning and he listened and nodded politely.

"Wow, I really respect you for opening your mouth to her though. You're not the only one whose been worried about her alcohol consumption. I'm glad she realized you were only thinking about her health and taking it seriously. But... What does this have to do with me? Not that I don't care, quite the opposite, but really?" Harry asked. He switched his position on the sofa so that he was sitting sideways to me, resting his head to his right hand. I noticed he had two bracelets on his wrist and some rings too. I looked at them for a bit before continuing.

"Well... She wants to have a real try with you. Not sex, but really date you. And she was excited about it. Excited about doing something new and being better to herself. And... I just... I'm afraid she will get really, really hurt once you tell her... If you tell her you don't want to be with her any longer." I said and looked down to my lap.

"She said that? Um... Ok. Makes sense... That's why you were worried." He nodded at me and closed his eyes for a bit as if thinking about something.

"Yeah, that's why. I want her to be happy. I was thinking that maybe you could give her another chance and really date her and see how it goes. If it doesn't work, it doesn't. There's nothing for you to lose." I said and felt like I was blackmailing him for some reason.

"Grace... That's a nice thought. But... I can't just do that, I don't want to. I can't pretend I feel something for her when I honestly don't. That wouldn't be right either." Harry said seriously.

"I know... But for her. So she will get back to her feet and get some confidence and be fine with rejection. Please?" I pleaded and looked into his eyes.

"I would really want to say 'yes' to you. But I can't, I'm sorry. "

"Shit... Well, this didn't go exactly how I planned. But I tried. Just be gentle with her, okay? And maybe give it a day or two."

"Sure, I can do that. I'm sorry about this. But maybe, just maybe, you are making this way worse than it actually is. Maybe she will be just fine with it. You never know." He smiled carefully and I realized I had just been thinking about the worst outcome the whole time.

"You're absolutely right. I'll keep my fingers crossed for that! Thanks for listening. So... Did you do anything special today?" For some reason, I still wanted to keep talking to him.

"Not really, I helped mom with some furniture and stuff. And argued with my sister for a bit. Normal day." He smiled.

"I wish I had a sibling to argue with, so be happy about that!" I laughed.

We talked for a while longer and watched the TV every now and then. I even made some popcorn for us. Later on, I made sandwiches. Before we knew it, it was getting 2am. I almost freaked out as I glanced at the clock twice in disbelief.

"Well, this has been the nicest night for me in the longest time! But I saw you looking at that clock. It's getting late, have to get some sleep." Harry said and got up from the sofa. I did the same and got up. I shut the TV off before we walked to the hallway.

"I had fun too. You're really easy to talk to. I don't know what is it about you, but it feels like we've known each other for way longer than this." I blurted out and wished I had kept my big mouth shut. I was practically flirting with him with a comment like that.

"You know what, I feel exactly the same. I never open up to anyone like I've opened up to you. And in reality, we are like strangers." He responded to my relief while putting his jacket on. "Hope to see you soon, Grace."

"You can call me Gracie." I said with a smirk on my face which made Harry laugh out loud.

"That's... Haha, very good. Goodnight Gracie, see you soon."

"Goodnight Harry, sleep tight." I said and closed the door after he went outside.

I went to bed soon after Harry had left and turned the lights off. A million thoughts were going through my mind. I thought about Naomi and our fight. We had been way worse to each other lately than ever before, we usually never fought about anything. Now, things had gotten a lot more serious. Me blaming her for her drinking and bad behavior. But if she continued living her life the way she had for the past two years, there could be trouble ahead.

I was glad we had been able to talk about the fight like adults with her and that things were more back to normal. Later, my mind trailed off to Harry. I pictured him standing behind our front door, smiling at me, dimples deep in his face. I wondered how it would feel like to kiss him. His lips looked soft and he was probably a good kisser too. He had to be with that face of his. I wondered what his chest looked like. I had seen some parts of his tattoos under his t-shirt, they probably looked really good on him, when he was shirtless... 'Stop thinking about him', I yelled at myself! I opened my eyes and realized my heart was pounding faster and... I was wet. My hand was resting in my inner thigh, obviously ready to explore if I hadn't woken up from my fantasies.

I am the worst best friend in the world.

Notes

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