Charly

It was about to turn midnight when Charly stepped into the gym right behind Mark and Harry. “I can’t believe I’m actually doing this”, Charly mumbled to herself, but Mark heard her. “Nobody’s forcing ya, love. You wanted to be here”, Mark said. “I know”, Charly exhaled loudly. The three were the only ones there. They went over to the treadmills and put down their things.
“Go easy on me, Mark, okay?”, Charly asked and stepped onto the treadmill. “That’s what she said”, Harry smiled, already on the treadmill next to her and giggled. Charly rolled her eyes. “Harry, that doesn’t work that way. You’re just not good at those ‘that’s what she said’-comments, so let them be, okay?”, Charly said. “Alright guys, less talking, more running”, Mark said and started Charly’s treadmill.
As a warm-up, they started with a fast walk which Harry turned into running pretty quickly, but he was in a much better shape than Charly. She also felt that her regular bra was not the best running equipment. Just a few minutes into running, Harry took off his shirt. “Do I have to do that too?”, Charly asked as a joke. “Yes, it’s mandatory”, Harry immediately answered. “Shut up, Styles”, Mark said and turned to Charly. “Of course not, it’s totally up to you.” “Then I think, I’ll keep it on for now”, Charly replied and already started to breath heavily.
Her condition was worse than she thought and she soon had to take a break. While she was drinking some water and rested, Harry started to lift weights. Watching him lift with no shirt got her a chance to see how muscular Harry actually was. She felt herself blushing a bit and quickly looked away. “Let me try that”, Charly said and got up. “You’re sure? It’s really heavy”, Harry said skeptically. “I don’t want to run off with it. Just let me try”, Charly rolled her eyes and held out her hands. Harry slowly put the weight into her hands, but didn’t let go of it completely. “Oh wow”, Charly said as she was barely able to lift it and was glad that Harry still held on to it. “Try to lift it”, Mark said with a grin, standing next to the two, ready to jump in if one of them loses strength.
“Ahhh shit”, Charly pressed out as she managed to lift it once. “Wow Harry, I’m impressed”, she said as the weight was back safe in Harry’s hands. Before, she had seen him lift it about 10 times in a row. Harry smiled proud and did a few more lifts. “So we can cross off lifting weights from your list of exercises”, Mark said. “No, don’t cross it out. Just give me the lady-ones. I don’t want to break my nails”, Charly replied with a high pitched voice.
“Okay, that’s enough for tonight. Let’s measure”, Mike said and took out a measuring tape. “What are you doing?”, Charly asked with an eyebrow pulled up. “We do this every time”, Harry said proud. “To see the progress”, Mark explained further. “I think you can see that without measuring it”, Charly said and her view wandered off to Harry’s arms. “Liking the gun show, huh?”, Harry asked as he winked at her and started flexing his muscles and putting on a show.
“Alright, enough now, you two”, Mark said. It was late and he wanted to go to bed. So Mark started on Harry’s arms and took notes. “Can you measure me too?”, Charly asked. “Sure”, Mark said and put the measuring tape around her left arm first and then her right arm. “Can you measure my chest?”, Charly asked and Mark and Harry looked up. “Just for fun. Haven’t done it in a while. Want to see if there’s any progress”, Charly laughed. “Alright”, Marks said and put the tape around her back. Charly could see that Mark was a bit uncomfortable by the fact that his hands were that close to her breasts. “Ah…98 cm”, Marks said and nodded impressed. “Wow, that much?”, Harry asked. “It’s a pleasure and a burden”, she said. “That bad?”, Mark asked. “Yeah, my back’s killing me sometimes”, she said and arched her back. “My wife’s got the same problem, I know great exercises. I can show you”, he volunteered. “That would be awesome, thank you”, Charly said.
“We should get going, it’s late”, Mark said and packed up his stuff. Harry put his shirt back on and together they left the gym. Charly felt her limbs getting heavy and tired and followed Mark and Harry with shuffling steps. While they waited for the elevator, Charly rested her head on Harry’s shoulder and he put his arm around her shoulders. “Do I have to carry you up, sleepy head?”, Harry asked her. “You might”, Charly mumbled with closed eyes. Okay, training after midnight wasn’t something she would continue doing.
“I think we’ve got some company”, Mark said and lightly nodded towards the lobby. Harry turned his head around to find a few fans waving at him and holding up their phone’s. With a pling the elevator doors opened and the three of them got in. Harry was relieved that he could get away in the elevator. He wasn’t really up for any pictures or small talk. When they leaned against the elevator walls, Charly rested her head against Harry’s shoulder again. “You know that they’re already talking about it”, Marks said as the elevator started moving. Harry looked down at Charly, who dozed at his shoulder, almost asleep. “I know”, Harry exhaled loudly and rubbed Charly’s shoulder.

When Charly woke up in her bed, she actually wasn’t sure if this all had been a dream or if she really had worked out with Mike and Harry. She felt better than she had expected, but she also hadn’t really done much last night. Charly got up, woke up Lisa and took a shower. She still needed to pack up her stuff before they would leave to fly to Madrid in a few hours.
Charly called the reception to order taxis to the airport and the group gathered downstairs at the lobby. Fans were waiting outside and Paul allowed the boys to go outside and talk to them for 10 minutes before the cars arrive. While the bodyguards had their eyes on the boys, Lisa, Lou, Charly and the others got the luggage out to the taxis. “Alright, lads, time to say goodbye”, Paul collected the boys one after another. “Adios”, Harry waved at the fans before he got into the taxi. Some girls were even chasing the car. Charly would probably never get used to that. “This is crazy”, Niall said, watching the girls outside running down the street. “It’s like you’re reading my mind”, Charly said and gave him a quick smile. Niall smiled back and felt an irrational joy of happiness that he had a little moment with Charly. It was ridiculous how he reached out to any little thing that focused Charly’s attention on him, even just for a split second. He felt pathetic and disgusted by his pitiful behavior, but when Charly turned her head around and smiled at him again, he just threw all of his concerns overboard.

About 3 hours later, they arrived at their hotel in Madrid. It was really hot outside and everybody hurried up to get the luggage inside. Charly went to the reception to do the check-in. “Hey, bananas”, Harry came up to the reception desk as he spotted the bowl of fruit. “Can I eat them?”, he asked the man behind the desk. “Si, senor”, the man answered smiling. “If I were you, I wouldn’t. They don’t look too fresh if you ask me”, Lisa said next to Harry and didn’t even lower her voice. She didn’t care what the man at the reception would think. “But I’m not asking you, I’m asking him and he said it’s okay. The banana’s okay, right?”, Harry had turned to the receptionist again. “Si, senor”, the man said again. “Are these the only words you know?”, Lisa asked him. “No, senora”, the man still smiled professionally. “I give up”, she threw her hands up and walked a few steps away. Harry grabbed it, smiled satisfied and walked back to the others, while he started to peal the banana. “Harry, don’t eat that”, Lisa admonished him. “He says it’s alright”, Harry repeated and started to eat it.
“Thank you”, she said to the lady who handed her the keycards to the rooms. “You gonna regret this, Harold”, Lisa said to him while they walked to the elevators. “Mhmm, so delicious”, Harry munched the banana right in front of Lisa’s face. “But don’t call me when you get sick. I tell you, this banana looks wrong”, Lisa said and pushed Harry away with her hand on his face.
“The hotel as an awesome pool, you guys wanna hang out?”, Lou asked while they moved upstairs in the elevator. “Yeah sure, maybe the sun will bleach out some of the rest paint”, Charly said and held her arms out. Lou brushed over it with her hands. “That actually might help, but it’s almost not showing anymore”, she said. “And you can try out your new bikini”, Lisa added. “Zayn wrecked my bikini, but I can still wear my new bathing suit”, Charly said. “I didn’t wreck it, you said it was okay”, Zayn said at the other end of the elevator. “Yeah, yeah”, Charly waved him off.

Notes

I wish you all a Happy New Year!!

Thanks to all my readers who waited so patiently for the new chapter, I hope you liked it!!

Please let me know what you think about it! =)