Harry

Racier questions? What the hell was I thinking? Did I really want to ask or answer questions of a more intimate and sexual nature with our friends around? Not really, no. But, I did want to get to know her better and figure out if she really meant that I didn’t need to be a gentleman. I wanted to be good, badly, but I also wanted her, just as badly. I had started to search around on the iPad and finally found what I was looking for.
“Okay, here’s a better one. When did you lose your virginity?” I asked. Shit, that meant I was going to have to answer that. “Sugar, you go first.” She started to laugh nervously and I saw her eyes shift around. “Drink baby.” She eyed me as she took a gulp of her wine. “You laughed, that was the rules.”
“Okay, fine. Christmas break my freshman year in college. It was with one of the guys I was friends with in high school. We’d all gotten together at his house to watch movies since we were still 18 and not old enough to get in to bars. He was being a bit handsy all night with me and I was the last to leave. Once we knew our friends were gone we had sex in the basement guest bedroom at his parents’ house. It was awkward. We’d been close friends since we were 14. I've realized since then that if sex is good you aren't thinking about anything but the sex. That night I was thinking about what I wanted for Christmas and how to organize my room for break.” She laughed a little at herself. “Being around him now is just still strange. It’s like ‘Hi, I’ve seen you naked and you know things that the rest of this room doesn’t know’. I pretty much avoid group functions at home now.” She took another giant drink of her wine. “That wasn’t totally terrible. Dimples, your turn.” It was my turn to laugh. “Drink baby.” She threw my words back at me and I stuck my tongue out at her in response.
“Fine. I was 16, it was a girl back home. The X-Factor shows had already started airing or I’m sure she wouldn’t have thought of me that way. I was terrified that we’d get pregnant. Hell I was terrified that just thinking about sex with her would get her pregnant.” Annie laughed at me.
“Does the UK have shit sex ed classes or something?” she asked. “I mean condoms generally help prevent pregnancy and I’m assuming you used one.”
“I did. And I did take sex ed class. But I was 16, nervous and scared out of my mind about the concept of children. It was literally the most nerve-wracking moment of my life up to that point, other than auditioning for X-Factor. I’m sure I was complete rubbish.”
“Annie, you should judge that,” Kim said. I saw her glare across the table at her friend who smiled proudly.
“Your turn meanie,” Annie said. Kim started to laugh. “Drink up Kimmi Ann.” Kim flipped Annie the middle finger as she took a drink.
“It was in college. A guy in one of the bands that played near campus a lot. We flirted a lot at shows and after one of them we went to a party. I had a bit too much to drink and we ended up having sex in his room. I tried to avoid him like the plague afterward.”
“That bad?” I asked.
“No, well I guess at the time I wouldn’t have known. But it just was weird and I don’t like weird. I like to avoid weird. So I avoided him.”
“Niall,” I said glancing at my mate at the opposite end of the table.
“Can I take a shot instead?” he asked. I knew that he was shy talking about this. He hated that early on in our careers it was a frequent question. He was more private about his sex life. I just typically laughed. Everyone assumed I had sex with every woman I was photographed with so there was no need to give details and either confirm or deny the story. No one would believe me anyway. Niall was always worried what his Mum and Dad would think.
“We all answered it,” Annie said. “Plus you’re amongst friends. None of us are gonna judge you. I mean to be honest it took me a year after that first time to have sex again. And several years before I realized what good sex was like. I could tell you plenty of horror stories about my life, not just my sex life, I’m not like that.” She glanced at me and smiled. “But I don’t judge people for their experiences.”
“Fine,” he said. “I was 18, it was a girl I met in a pub. We were out in Sweden."
"That leggy blonde?” I asked. Niall nodded. “She was hot.” Annie hit me hard in my shoulder. “Not nearly as beautiful as you.”
"Nice save," she said leaning across the corner of the table to kiss me. I could taste the spaghetti sauce on her lips. It was amazing, she was a good cook.
"You're gonna have to not kiss me so I can eat," I said making Kim and Niall laugh. I moved to kiss by Annie’s ear and started to whisper to her. "And because I want to go back to your room to finish what we started earlier. When you kiss me you make it a lot harder to stay here and eat dinner."
"Fine," she said turning and kissing me quickly and going back to her food. "So Niall why would you rather take a shot than tell that story?"
"It's embarrassing. I was older than the rest of the lads. And we'd been lying for awhile saying none of us were virgins when asked that question. Harry was the only one that knew I still was, the other guys assumed I wasn't. He eventually just stopped asking and figured out I wasn't anymore."
"I honestly thought it was Barbara. You two dated for a bit. And you didn't tell me about the Swede."
"Yeah, the Swede was before Barbara. I honestly still haven't slept with all that many people. It just seems like something that should be done with someone I care about. Not that you guys are bad for your decisions. It just feels weird to me. I've only had a few one night stands."
"So I'm like a rare bird. A Niall Horan one night stand. I like that." Kim was smiling with pride.
"We had sex this morning...twice. Wasn't just one night. So you're not classified as a one night stand." Way to go mate. Sex twice this morning. Wait a second…where? They hadn’t been in Kim’s room napping. Where else in this flat had they had sex?
"Ruin my hopes and dreams why don't ya," Kim said laughing.
"We should've bought condoms for them at the store this morning," I said making Annie laugh.
"I know she has a stash in the bathroom that hasn't been used in a while. Figured I'd steal it," Kim said.
"You aren't allowed. I might actually need those at some point." Oh I hoped she needed those at some point. Dammit Harry. GENTLEMAN. She just bit her lip when she smiled at me. Screw being a gentleman. How much longer do I have to sit here pretending that we are paying attention to our friends before it is socially acceptable for me to steal her to her bedroom?
"Okay, stop bickering ladies," I said. "What is the wildest thing you've done sexually?" I wasn’t exactly sure what would be Annie’s answer or if I even wanted to know. She did have a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey on her nightstand. I mean I don’t want her to be unadventurous, but I also don’t know that whips and chains are something I’d be okay with.
"I’m not answering that," Niall said as he walked to the kitchen and looked for booze. "What can I do a shot of? You've got no whiskey or anything in here."
"The pitcher with the green Kool-Aid looking drink in there, get that and there's shot glasses in the cabinet to the left of the sink," Annie said.
"What is this?" Niall asked.
"Irish Kool-Aid."
"I like the name," he said sitting down and pouring a shot. He drank it quickly. "It tastes like Kool-Aid."
"It's yum. Pour me one. And Dimples, sorry but I'm not answering that question."
"Me either," Kim said.
"Make it a round of shots then. I'm not going to be the only one answering that question," Harry said. We all raised the shot glasses, Niall having poured himself another. After clinking glasses and we threw back our shots. "That is really good. I may just refuse to answer questions for another shot."
"It is good. It's the only thing I will normally do a shot of if I'm doing lots of shots," Annie said. “Occasionally I can be coerced in to doing shots at a bar. But I used to have a weakness for Jaeger and now my stomach gets weak at just the smell of it.”
"Next question." The questions continued as we ate. I asked several questions that were a bit tame during dinner so that we could enjoy the food and conversation. Favorite foods, ideal vacations, deserted island needs, ideal romantic dates, favorite seasons. It was a good chance for all of us to get to know more about each other. We all cleared the plates and I immediately jumped in to do dishes from dinner while Annie frosted cupcakes. Niall dried the dishes while Kim put them away and opened a third bottle of wine for the night. Once the kitchen was clean we went in to the living room and I started back in to the questions. Kim and Niall were sitting next to each other under the same blanket with his feet rested on the coffee table and her's on his ankles. I was doing the same on the opposite couch and Annie’s legs were across my lap. I had a hand rested on her thigh between her legs under the blanket. The questions kept coming and the answers got funnier. There were quite a few that everyone was refusing to answer though.
"What is your favorite body part on the opposite sex?" I asked.
"V!" Kim shouted. She to be a bit tipsy.
"Oh you're probably right about that," Annie said. "I was gonna say dimples until you said that. I'm gonna have to go with that. I caught a glimpse of a pretty fantastic one earlier."
"Yeah, Harry you've got a nice V for a skinny little twig boy,” Kim said.
"Hey!" I said, as I tried to defend myself but ended up laughing. "I've gained weight this winter. I've been working out more and Sugar over here seems to want to fatten me up with baked goods."
"It's how she woos people," Kim said laughing. "She won over the last boyfriend with cannoli."
"Where did you find him?" I asked.
"The pub, they work together," Kim said. Wait…what? She had a boyfriend. Or I hope it’s past tense. If she has a boyfriend I could be in trouble.
"You've had a boyfriend since you moved to London?" I scanned her face hoping she could read every question I was thinking. I needed to know what Kim was talking about. How is it that we’ve been friends for six months and I had no idea she had a boyfriend in that time.
"Yeah, actually the first time I made red velvet cupcakes for you were somewhat for him. We’d been together for a month at that time.” She looked a little worried about what my reaction would be. “He spent time in the States for an internship when he was at uni and developed an obsession with red velvet cupcakes from a bakery where he lived. So I found the recipe for that bakery online and made them. I brought you a couple to the bookshop and took him some at the pub that night because Lizzy and Frankie were on vacation and we were covering for them so they could take the girls to the beach."
"You wooed him with my red velvet cupcakes?"
"They weren't yours and I'd already wooed him. I won him over with cannoli. He took me to a little Italian place in Brixton on our first date. So I made him cannoli about a week later, did the trick."
"So you had sex with him?" I asked. Fuck. Why I am I so jealous at the thought of her with another man? I can’t honestly think that she’s been single the entire time she’s been here. She’s incredible and I can’t possibly be the only bloke in London that realized that about her.
"Harry I did admit to not being a virgin earlier. Yes, I had sex with him. You're telling me you haven't had sex since the first time you saw me?" I hesitated. I had sex just last weekend in Los Angeles and after was texting Annie because I missed her. I decided in that moment that there wasn’t going to be any more hesitation on my part with her. I wanted to explore the possibility of more than just being friendly at the bookshop. "See you can't answer me."
"You never told me you had a boyfriend though. And all of the flirting that we did, there was no mention of a boyfriend."
"You can't be mad about this. We aren't dating and I've got two words for you buddy. Kendall Jenner." Niall and Kim both started laughing really hard as she had this proud look on her face because she thought she had won the argument. And truly I couldn’t continue it. I had met Kendall after meeting Annie. Things were casual between she and I because I wasn’t in Los Angeles often. Okay, well I thought they were casual. She didn’t feel quite the same.
"I'm more offended by the ‘we aren't dating’ comment than anything."
"We aren't," she retorted. "You haven't taken me on a date. You've just been hogging the blankets for the day. And really Harry. You can't hide it from me. It's all over the tabloids and I work with teenagers. Lyla tries to defend you because she adores you but Sami just tells stories about you being a manwhore that she reads online. I swear every day was a new bit of gossip from Sami on what Hendall had done the prior day in Los Angeles. Well she likes to repeat what she hears from her sister."
"Her sister?" Niall and I both asked.
"Yes, her sister claims that you hit on her in a pub last spring and that she can describe the layout of your house from memory."
"Not true. I never take girls home." Well I rarely took girls home. Sami has an older sister? She was one of Lyla’s friends that worked at the shop. Though Lyla had admitted to me that she annoyed her most of the time but they’d grown up together. Lyla and Sami were nothing alike. Lyla was smart, kind and very well mannered unless she hit a certain level of comfort with you, then she was a cheeky pain in the arse, a lot like her sister. Sami was bold, forward, and a bit aggressive. She’d tried to help me one day about three weeks after I started coming in because Annie was in the middle of going over some computer things with Lizzy. She wrote her phone number on my take away cup, I’d always found excuses since then to let one of the other girls make my coffee when I came in. I didn’t want to have to be mean to her but also didn’t want her throwing herself at me anymore.
"Of course you don’t take girls home. They could be a stalker and claim that they know the layout of your house," Annie said laughing and taking a drink.
"You're mean." I started to pout. She leaned forward and kissed me. "Oi! What did I tell you about kissing me?"
"That it was tempting you to take me downstairs."
"Yeah and we aren't quite done here yet. Tell me about this boyfriend." I should’ve stopped while I was ahead. Taken her downstairs and made her forget all about the boyfriend.
"Why?" she whined, throwing herself back on the couch.
"Because. What did he look like?"
"Cameron was hot," Kim blurted out. She was drunk. "I like you more though." She kissed Niall's cheek. "You're just so cute and perfect."
"Oh he has a name. Cameron, huh? Stuffy shirt kinda guy?”
"His name is Cameron, he goes by Cam most of the time. But he and I are still good friends, so you have to watch what you say about him. He’s important.”
"How long ago did you break up?" I asked. I saw Niall lean down to kiss Kim on the neck just below her ear.
"You're distracting me from what could be potential entertainment. Harry looks like the vein in his neck might burst," she said not being concerned about us hearing.
"He's been infatuated with her for months. He's entitled to be a bit jealous," Niall said. Damn right I’m entitled to be jealous.
"We broke up at the beginning of November but stopped sleeping together right before Christmas." Well that’s slightly comforting news, though the fact that they kept sleeping together after they broke up seems a little strange.
"He didn't ever touch my quilt did he?" I asked. I didn’t want anyone other than she or I to use that quilt.
"No, I liked that it smelled like you. Plus he makes fun of me for it. I tried to analyze the cologne you wore and I drug him to fragrance counters after Christmas when it stopped smelling like you. He smelled like a whore when I was done with him. I thought the top contenders needed to be tested with man scent
"He smelled like 10 different colognes for a week. Asshole made the whole apartment smell bad," Kim said.
"So he's an asshole?" Harry asked. I smiled at Annie. I was happy to know that not only did they break up but she wanted something to smell like me and forced him to try on the cologne. He must’ve known I existed, which made me feel special.
"No!" Annie defended and giggled a bit.
"No, he's not. He's sweet actually. The tattoos and beard throw people off," Kim added.
"Let me see him." Annie hid her phone underneath her so I couldn’t reach it. Within seconds Kim’s was flying from their couch in to my hands. I glanced down at the phone to see a man with a large brown beard and tattoos covering nearly every inch of his skin kissing Annie on the Instagram picture. I scanned through the comments to see if they gave any hints about her relationship with Cameron. "So is this why your Instagram is private?" I asked. "Because I wasn't to know about you kissing your bearded boyfriend? Are you still together?"
"I honestly thought nothing of it. Cam always knew about you. Didn't realize you needed to know about Cam. Get over it. I can call him and he can confirm that we aren't together anymore. Seriously." She pulled her phone back out from behind her back and I heard it making a call on speakerphone.
"Annie, you alright?" Cam answered.
"I am, you?"
"Yeah, trying to stay warm. I was gonna call but figured you were fine. Winter doesn't phase you,” he said.
"No it doesn't. I’m from the Midwest. Snow isn’t scary,” she said.
"Get to the point," I whined.
"Cameron, we broke up, correct?"
"Yeah, you broke up with me in November. That little boy bander sent you flowers when you tweeted about being homesick around Jason's anniversary. You broke up with me when I said I should ask for the name of his florist because you liked the flowers more than you liked me." I smiled. Jason's anniversary had been tough on Annie and I hated that I’d been working in another country and not able to be here to keep her mind off of the sad thoughts. She had told me that she wanted to spend the entire day in bed but one of Lizzy’s girls had gotten sick so she had to work. I spent a small fortune sending her a bouquet of peonies because she’d off hand mentioned they were her favorite once. I didn’t realize there was a peony season and it was not fall, but I didn’t want it to be less than perfect. I’d worked on the card for ages to make it perfect before I had the employee at the flower shop write it out while I was on the phone. Wish I was there with you today. He would be proud of you. Thinking of you always. Harry xx. And I knew he would’ve been. It’s not that I knew Jason, but what she said about him made me believe that he’d be proud of her. "Why are you asking me this? You were the one that broke my little heart." Cameron started laughing over the phone.
"Because he thinks I'm lying to him and that we are still together?"
"He thinks? Wait did you finally shag the poor bloke?"
"Cam! Watch it! And no, I didn't. But we went to The World's End last night and he and his friend had a bit too much to drink and stayed here. Low and behold Mother Nature thought we should spend the weekend together."
"So I'm on speaker confirming that we aren't together?"
"Yes," Kim yelled. "I am mean the picture I showed him of you guys is the one I took of you kissing outside the coffee shop."
"Kimberly Ann, be nice to the poor guy. He stole my girl away from me. The least he could do would be ACTUALLY do something to her. She's alone and sexually frustrated. Her hand and imagination are going to get tired soon." Kim started to laugh loudly.
"Why does he know about your sexual frustrations?" I asked.
"I can hear you mate," came Cameron’s voice through the phone.
"Because I may or may not have been drunk last weekend when you texted me and told me you missed me and couldn't wait to see me when you got home. And I may or may not have drunk googled you and saw that you'd been out with that Jenner girl again and I may or may not have booty called him. It didn't work,” Annie said sticking her lower lip out in a dramatic pout.
"I spent a great deal of time being a fill in for you. I wasn't about to pity fuck her because you weren't man enough to do it."
"Cam, you're not supposed to help him here. He's mad at me for not telling him about you months ago."
"Give up mate. If you haven't seen her arse in those little pink knickers that I know she bought thinking of you then you'll forgive her when you do."
"Pink knickers?" I asked raising his eyebrows.
"You're giving away my secrets Cam."
"Kimmi, we still on for drinks Wednesday?" Cameron asked.
"Of course. She picked up a shift during the week. We need to go bother her. And catch up. You've been so busy I haven't seen you since The Battle of Cologne."
"Oi! Mate what cologne do you wear so I can buy it? That girl drug me through Harrods for an entire day trying to figure it out."
"Tom Ford."
"I'm fucking buying stock," Cameron said.
"I fucking hate you Cameron Eugene."
"I fucking hate when you call me that Ann Marie."
"I'll see you Wednesday," she said laughing.
"Bye Annie," he said. "Bye Kimmi. Call me."
"I will. We'll do dinner Wednesday too. Pick the place, I'm tired of the pub. She drags me there all the time."
"We'll grab barbecue since she won't eat it with you."
"Perfect!"
"Bye girls. Bye boy band." And with that the call ended.
"See, not still dating."
"Sorry," I said leaning over to kiss Annie. "I was just shocked. Didn't realize you had a boyfriend. I feel like I was disrespectful."
"You were fine. Honestly, Cam didn’t give a shit and when I told him you asked me for drinks the first time he tried to steal my phone and text you to meet me at O’Brien’s.” Well he’d been trying to get her to agree to drinks. This guy might not be so terrible after all.

Notes

Hey everyone? How are you doing today? I'm hoping well. I'm about to let the cough syrup take over and crash but I just needed to get this Harry chapter out of my head and in to the story. :)
Sooooo....Annie hid Cameron from Harry, though Cameron is even Team Harry after those flowers. Admittedly who wouldn't be? *swoon* And Harry's questions definitely got a bit more out of the group than they originally expected, that's for sure.
I'd love to know what you think of this chapter (and every chapter). Message me, comment below, or contact me at one of the links at the bottom so that you can tell me what you think! :)
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! xx

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