*Harry’s POV*
*Monday*

“So, are you ever going to tell her?” Amanda broke the silence.

By now Amanda and her friends patched up the feud between themselves and our girls. From being sworn enemies, they were more like sisters now. Destiny described their relationship, as the kind of friendship that blooms in the centre of your heart. That sort of friendship that grows from seed basking in the warm soil to a huge tree with many ups and downs, many – but not enough disguise the enormity or the grandeur of such a tree, the sheer brilliance and beauty of it.

Later finding out that Neal had moved into town due to his parents’ divorce, and that Destiny’s mother suggests that moving to England would be a great fresh start for both Neal and his Mum. Neal and Destiny are still best friends, while he managed to catch Amanda’s eye. Soon enough they began to date.

Josh, Antwon and Allen all patched up their issues with Destiny and the rest of the group. They would occasionally join us during lunch, along with Amanda’s friends whom they’ve become close to.

Right now, my mates, Neal, Amanda, Elizabeth and June were hanging out together at our regular lunch table, while Destiny, Ally, and Mabel were off somewhere working on a class project.

The boys, Neal, Elizabeth and June, were at our regular lunch table while Destiny, Ally and Mabel were off somewhere working on a class project. Everyone had been trying to study for their finals, so no one was really in the conversation mood.

I massaged my throbbing temples as I glance at another flash card, Destiny had helped me make earlier. The words seemed to blur together, when Amanda repeated her question, again, “Are you going to tell her?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked her, confused, as I looked up.

“Destiny. Are you going to tell her?” Amanda repeated.

“Tell her what?” Niall chimed in, so was most likely bored out of his mind and needed an escape from his jail cell of studying.

“You guys know exactly, what? Don’t act stupid.” Amanda says, rolling her eyes.

“We really don’t,” Louis demanded, by now everyone had lost all interest in their books and wanted to know what Amanda was going on about.

“What is she talking about?” Elizabeth asked Louis, who merely shrugged, confused, as we all were.

“Look, I’ve grown a liking to Destiny now, so don’t go and hurt her, Harry,” Amanda demanded.

“What are you talking about, Amanda? Why would I hurt her?” I asked, narrowing my eyes, wondering where she was coming from.

“The bet, guys. The bet. Remember? The whole reason you and Destiny even started to get close.” Amanda brought up, stopping my blood circulation, cold.

“What bet? What is she talking about? Guys? Louis!” Elizabeth demanded.

“It’s a bet we had at the beginning of the year.” Louis slowly says, who didn’t dare to look Elizabeth in her eyes.

“What did this bet consist of?” June asked, starting to get angry.

“Uhm, well we really weren’t close to Destiny and, you know us, we aren’t the brightest or nicest people out there, or at least weren’t …” Niall started.

“Cut to the damn point!” June demanded, getting anxious.

“They bet against how long it would take Harry to get Destiny into bed.” Amanda quickly answered.

“Why would you bring it up, Amanda?” Zayn interrogated her.

“Why would she?! Destiny has a damn well right to know, that you idiots have been playing her this whole fucking time!” Elizabeth spat out.

“What! No!” I cried out, finally managing to say something, “We can’t. I-I can’t.”

“Why not?” June asked.

“Because of –,“ I was begun but was cut off by Destiny, who appeared at the lunch table with Mabel and Ally next to her.

“Hey, guys!” Destiny happily exclaimed, hugging me from behind as she planted a kiss on my cheek before plopping herself next to me. Everyone’s quick tried to recover from their angry faces.

“Jeez, who died here?” Ally laughed, sitting between Amanda and Liam.

“I know right, you guys look like something horrible happened.” Mabel agreed as she leant against Zayn.

“Yeah, did something happen?” Destiny asked, looking around at us.

“No – well yes. This studying is just getting to our head and draining out all our happiness. I need a break.” Liam quickly adds.

“Yeah, it's bringing out all the evil thoughts from us. Things that should be kept under the carpet.” Niall sneered at Amanda, subtly.

“Sorry.” Amanda mouthed, throwing her hands in the air.

“Oh well, then you’re just going to love us. We convinced Marcus to throw a party at his place, as a year-end celebration.” Destiny announced.

“Oh, my gosh, that nerd from physics.” Zayn laughed.

“Shut up, Zayn. He is actually a very sweet guy.” Mabel says, lightly smacking his head.

“But, yeah his parents are going leave town the day before the last day of school and won’t be back home until like next week. And clearly his parents trust the crap out of him, so he’s going to be home alone that entire week.” Ally explains.

“Naturally, if this were last year, we’d have a different girl home every day of that week if that were us, and a party every night.” Niall laughed.

“So glad it isn’t last year anymore,” June shot at him, making him stop laughing immediately.

“Destiny, show them the dresses you found for us. They are so adorable!” Ally exclaimed.

“Oh! Yeah!” Destiny exclaimed, pulling out her phone as she tried to find the dresses.

“Wait, I thought you guys were working on some school project,” Louis questions them.

“Yeah … duh, did she say dresses? She meant math equations.” Destiny stutters, putting her phone away.

“Anyway, what were you guys doing, because I’m pretty sure you haven’t been studying the whole time.” Ally laughs.

“Well, babe, believe it or not, we actually were.” Liam shrugs.

“Oh yeah? What you studying for?” Destiny questions him.

“Math.”

“What the equation for a quadratic formula?”

“A what?” Liam asked, dumbfounded.

“Exactly.” Destiny laughs, “Nothing.”

“Okay, Miss Smarty-Pants, what’s the answer then?” Niall questioned her.

“The equation for a quadratic formula is ax^2 + by + c,” Destiny says, without a single stutter.

“It's right …” Niall quietly says, embarrassed that he was proved wrong.

“Don’t you think I’d know the answer to my own question. How stupid do you think I am, Niall?” Destiny laughed.

“Clearly, too much,” Niall replies shyly.

“Yeah.” Destiny laughs, just as Owen Stiller approaches our table.

“Hey Destiny,” He shyly calls to her.

“Oh, hey Owen! What’s up.” Destiny replied, happily.

“I was wondering if you could send those notes to me.”

“Oh of course. Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about you.” Destiny smiles at him/

“Okay, cool.” Owen nods, before disappearing quickly.

“Woah, looks like someone has a crush on you Destiny.” Louis laughs.

“What? No. He is just shy.” Destiny insists.

“What are you, crazy? This boy is anything but shy. Have you seen him in gym class?” Niall exclaims.

“Well, no. I’m not in your gym class, smart one.” Destiny says, rolling her eyes.

“Well if you were then you would see how crazy competitive and loud this man can get.” Niall says, ignoring her rude comment.

“Yeah, okay. Whatever.” Destiny laughs, before turning her attention to me, “Babe, you haven’t said anything. Is something wrong?”

Immediately, everyone’s faces went blank, sitting up straight as they waited for my reply. Apparently, no one wanted me to tell her about the whole bet, right at this moment, and I wasn’t about to, I wasn’t ready.

I hadn’t been able to say a word, fear sat on me like a pillow over my mouth and nose. Enough air gets by it, allowing my body to keep functioning, but it's crippling all the same. I was much to worked up over the reasons that forced me to tell Destiny the truth, but I couldn’t bear it if she left me for it.

“I’m fine, just a little worked up over finals,” I managed to say, causing everyone to sigh out is a relief, seeing that I wasn’t about to tell her, right now.

“Awe, baby. Stop worrying, you’ll do fine. I swear,” Destiny smiles at me, kissing my lips, “It’s so hot, you working so hard.”

Her smile shined like the stars in the sky, with no bright city lights to dim them. It was like the sun opened its eager light to shine about her, only brightening her perfectly aligned teeth. ‘I can’t lose that,’ I thought to myself.

*Thursday*

“You have to tell her, Mate,” Liam urges. I let out a long exasperated, sigh. This has probably been the hundredth time Liam, or anyone’s told me this week. “Destiny needs to know.”

“Damnit, I still don’t understand why Amanda had to bring it up. Especially now. With exams going on and it being the end of the year.” I sighed, again, laying on the grass, as the two of us were hanging out at the park before the other boys joined us for a game of football.

“Ally’s crazy upset with me. Like super pissed. She hadn't talked to me since Monday when they told her. I’m pretty sure the other girls are super angry at us too. They haven’t actually spoken to us much either.” Liam explained, “Either way, the truth will come out. Whether from the girls, the boys, myself, or you. It's better if it were coming from you.”

“I know. I KNOW! Dammit, Liam, do you ever shut up?” I scream. Sometimes, Liam has a way of getting on my nerves, but at the moment it's taking everything in me not to snap his neck in half.

“Just trying to help mate. You have to go do. Tomorrow would be very convenient.” Liam says a little pissed that I screamed at him.

“Why, tomorrow? What’s, tomorrow?” I asked.

“It’d give both of you a week before exams start. And it’d be a good time for you two to patch things up and work it out, or … recover a bit, so you both don’t completely fail the exams.” Liam explained.

“Are you suggesting she is going to leave me?” I snapped at him.

“No, but no one would bail her if she did.” Liam truthfully replied, apparently not afraid that I’ll ruin that pretty face of his. “And mate, I’m not about to stop pushing you od this. This needs to be done. It's unavoidable.”

My stomach twists with pain. This is it, I’m really going to have to tell her. I can’t imagine her face when she knows the truth. Nausea swirled unrestrained in my empty stomach. My head swam with half-formed regrets. My heart felt as if my blood had become far as it struggled to keep a steady beat. My melancholy mood hung over me like a black cloud, raining my personal sorrow down on me wherever I went. Even the colours of the spring day were drab to me now and the birdsong like so much noise on a child's glockenspiel, grating my nerves.

“Tomorrow, Mate,” Liam suggested again.

“I can’t, Damnit,” I cry, my voice cracking as it came out as a pathetic whine. I hide my face with my hands and hold back the small tears I can feel forming in my eyes. “Fuck,” I muttered.

“You’ll be alright. Everything will be alright in the end. Just have to power through this, Harry,” Liam says, trying to comfort me.

“No. You know it won’t. We’ll never get through this. This is going to be the end. There’s no way she would want to be with me after this. I can’t, Damnit.” I mumble out.

“Yeah, but how about all the other times. She’s seen you at your worst. It didn’t stop her from loving you. She is crazy about you, Mate.” Liam encourages me.

“But, it’s almost too hard to believe her coming back to me after finding out that our whole relationship was based on a lie.”

“Damn it, Harry. Do you love her, yes or no?”

“Of course, I do. I’m crazy about her.”

“Then, man up and fight for her. Show her that you really do love her. Keep this a secret any longer, and she finds out from someone else, she’ll understand that you don’t actually love her.” Liam demanded.

Notes