Everything About You

That morning I was woken up early because I was finally allowed to leave the hospital and go home. Although I hated early mornings it gave me the chance to admire the beauty of a rising sun.

My Aunty had come by oddly without Harry to pick me up and as I questioned her as to where he was she just shrugged her shoulders completely ignoring the question. I was slightly worried but all my worries left when I found my Aunty driving me up to my best friend’s college. I was thankful I had decided to put a dress on and do my hair and make-up before leaving so I didn’t look like a troll when people saw me.

It was currently break time and my Aunt stayed in the car as I wandered around aimlessly searching for her familiar face in the crowd.

I felt a sudden tap on my shoulder that sent me spinning around from shock.

“MIA!” My friend Casey’s arms flew around my shoulders and I let out a sharp hiss before giving her a slight hug back.

She had a concerned expression on her face at my hiss as she spoke, “What was the hiss for?”

I rubbed the stitches lightly before speaking, “I had to go into hospital to get um… to get more cancer removed.”

My friends eyes widened and she pulled me over to a quieter place to talk as her friends wandered off until they disappeared into the sea of people.

“What Mia?! Why didn’t you tell me?” I put a hand on her shoulder and spoke calmly. “It was nothing too serious. They got it at an early stage so it wasn’t as much of a scare as last time.”

She let out a sigh and nodded, not fully convinced. She all of a sudden shot up from where she was seated and her eyes widened.

“Oh my gosh.” She sat back down and nudged my shoulder and winking. “How’s Harry? I literally see pictures of you guys ALL over magazines.”

I felt my face grow hot. “Uh… he is good. Although I haven’t seen him since yesterday afternoon and my Aunty won’t tell me where he is. Quite frustrating really.” I rubbed the back of my neck before changing the subject. “Did I tell you I got a record deal? Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber’s manager, signed me.”

She started bouncing up and down excitedly as she went in for hug before realising she couldn’t. “Oh gosh. Mia, that is incredible & seeing as we are talking about big opportunities guess what?” She let the silence go on for a second before speaking. “I GOT INTO A DANCE SCHOOL IN ENGLAND! I’m moving in a week.”

I mimicked her excited bouncing from before and let out a tiny scream. “That is so cool Casey and you’ll be coming to England when the boys and I leave!”

“Are you free from school now?” I asked her trying to calm myself down from all the excitement.

“Yeah. I only had one class I was actually just heading home. Why?” I smiled.

“Yay! We should go out for a coffee or in my case a hot chocolate. You can say hello to my Aunty as well!”

“Okay!” She chimed.

“Maybe I’ll invite Harry and the boys so you can meet them!” She started fangirling before taking a deep breath to calm herself.

“That would be so cool. I’ve got to admit, I kind of have a thing for Niall.” She winked at me as a dialled Harry’s number on my phone.

For a moment I thought he had answered but my heart dropped when I heard, “Hi! Harry here. I can’t get to my phone right now so please leave a message after the tone and I will get back to you as soon as possible.”

I shut my phone and stared at in my lap; what could possibly be keeping him so distracted?
I turned back to Casey who was biting her nails; an old habit of hers. “He isn’t picking up. Looks like it’s going to just be you, Tracey and me.” I smiled, trying to hide the hurt because I was not in the mood to talk about it.

We had drove to a local café with my Aunty chatting excitedly the whole way as she caught up on what had been happening in her life. I heard her mention something about a boyfriend but I didn’t catch much of the conversation after that as my mine was too preoccupied with why Harry hadn’t called back.

I picked my phone up off my lap and check to see if I had any missed calls or message but the screen remained blank with nothing.

“Would you please stop checking your phone Mia? I’m sure he is fine, probably just very busy.” My Aunty trailed off at the end as if she was hiding something. I shrugged her weird act off as we stepped out of the car into the beautiful summer sun.

- - -

After we had our coffee, hot chocolate in my case, and sat down for a catch up session we had walked along the chain of shops and all of us came out with more than one new item.

As we walked out of the last shop and turned the corner I noticed a familiar face that sent my heart racing, my face hot and made my hands clench into fists.

“Ricky.” My voice came out in a quite hiss and I felt my Aunties hands push down on my shoulders in preparation to hold me back if needed. Casey who hadn’t noticed my sudden change in moods bounded over to Ricky’s side and pecked him lightly on the lips.

At that moment I felt my heart in my chest shatter into tiny pieces. It felt as though she had ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped it until bloodied and bruised. Never in my 19 years of living had I ever felt so much betrayal.

I smiled anyway because I loved my best friend and I wanted her to be happy, even if it was with what I considered to be the most disgusting and horrible piece of scum, human being ever.

“Hey… Ricky.” His name slipped out of my lips in a growl and my Aunty slapped my back.

“It’s so good to see you again.” I faked a smiled.

He leaned in for a hug and I put my hand up to stop him.

“I’m sorry but no. I’m not okay with you Ricky. Just because you are dating my best friend now does NOT mean we are friends. Are we clear? You know, because of you I found it hard to trust anyone ever agai…” I was eying him off & my eyes turned to slits before I heard a snicker behind him as Casey was pulling me away from him. I turned to see where the snicker had come from & I spotted my other best friend Luke behind him and I had to say, he had become quite the looker.

Casey's voice broke my train of thought.

“Mia. Breathe. Calm down. Please. Can you please just be nice to him? He has changed, I promise.” I looked at her, no sign of amusement on my face. I was not happy about this.

“No, I can’t be nice to him. Sorry Casey. I may have forgiven him for what he did to me, but I will NEVER ever be nice to him until I have seen a change. But for your sake I am going to try and be tolerant of him just because I love you and you’re my best friend. I’m not okay with this, I hope you know that, but as long as you are happy I guess I have to be.” She smiled apologetically and wrapped her arms around my shoulders lightly.

“Thank you Mia. I promise he has changed.” I smiled as it was all I could manage.

We walked back over to where they all stood awkwardly and Ricky stood there rubbing the back of his neck; looks like not everything had changed. He was still the same in some aspects, especially when he stared at me. The way his eyes tried to pierce through my mask I held so well.

It was then that Luke’s voice broke my attention. “Hey Mia!! How are you? It has been way too long!”

I smiled; his friendly and always happy personality had not changed since we were in high school. I loved being around him as he just had such a great vibe around him, you couldn’t help but laugh.

Noticing the bandages under my singlet I wore he walked around to my other side and wrapped his arm around me in a side hug.

As Casey and Ricky engaged in their own conversation with my Aunt, Luke leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry. I don’t approve of this either. I’m just sticking around for the sake of Casey. I’ve promised him that if he does what he did to you I’m going to rip his balls off so he’s kept in check so far.” He winked at me, flexing his arm that was still secure around my shoulders.

I poked the bulge that was protruding from his upper arm and laughed. “Impressive. You’ve a lot more tank since I last saw you. I don’t doubt that you could seriously injure him.”

I laughed for the first time today and it felt good. “Hey, do you want to go out for dinner tonight to catch up? My boyfriend isn’t answering my calls or texts so I’m assuming he has made other plans.”

He nodded as though he had forgotten I was dating Harry. “Sure. Sounds good. It’ll be nice to catch up before you fly back to England next week.”

“Sweet.” He finally dropped his arm from my shoulders to grab something out of his pocket and I realised it was his phone. He pulled mine out of my hands and replaced it with his. He laughed and my confused expression before speaking.

“I need your number so you can tell me the when and where for tonight.” My mouth made a tiny O and I punched in my number and he did the same.

“Oi. Luke. Are you coming?” Ricky spoke, eyes on me the whole time. My eyes turned into slits and I turned away from his stare.

“Bye Luke.” He gave me short side hug before walking off with Ricky. Casey wrapped her arms around me carefully and kissed my cheek.

“Bye Mia. I love you.” I smiled and hugged her back. “Love you too, Casey.”

I stood there with one arm wrapped around myself as I ran my hand up and down my arm.

“That was weird and hurtful.” I turned to my Aunty.

“I know. I can’t believe that. I thought Casey of all people would aim higher. She deserves better.” I nodded before walking off to the car.

I waited until we were driving to question my Aunt on the whereabouts of my boyfriend.

“Tracey.” I saw her fiddle with the steering wheel and she replied with a small, “hmm?”
She knew I was about to be serious when I just used her name.

“Why won’t you tell me where Harry is?” She pretended to not hear me and I repeated myself with more sternness in my voice.

“Let me rephrase the question. Where is Harry and why won’t you tell me?”

She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know. I got a drunk call from him last night and when I woke up Liam was the only one back at the house. He had no clue where Harry or the other boys were because he left before the party got too out of hand.”

A party. Drunk. I always worried about Harry when he was drunk around people he didn’t know because he had the tendency to make some really stupid decisions.

“I can’t believe it. He got drunk and passed out somewhere instead of picking me up today. Wow. That’s just fantastic.” I threw my hands up in frustration.

“You know what? I don’t care. He can do whatever he wants. If he wants to make stupid decisions he will face the consequences of them.” My mind automatically flashed to the party in LA where Harry had his lips locked with another girl and I was immediately thinking the worst. What if he slept with someone? I don’t know if I could handle finding out another boyfriend cheated in me.

“I know what you’re think sweetie,” she placed a hand on my knee keeping her eyes on the road. “He wouldn’t have. Yes he does stupid stuff when he is drunk, but that is one thing he wouldn’t do. Trust me Mia. He loves you too much.”

I nodded pushing the thought out of my mind and wiping the tear that escaped from my eye.
The car trip home was filled with a comfortable silence as I admired what I had been missing while in hospital. People were out surfing, there were little kids playing in the water and the sand, people were flying kites and there were kids sitting in a circle one boy in particular had a guitar in his hand. It almost looked as though he was serenading the girl next to him who couldn’t control her nervous giggling. I hadn’t realised it but I was smiling. This was my home and where I had spent most of my life and in a week I would be gone, almost too soon. I was leaving a part of myself behind.

I hadn’t noticed we were home until my Aunty spoke. “Looks like he finally decided to show up today.”

I peered in the direction she stared and Harry was walking in from the beach through the back door and with him walked the boys and a blonde girl who seemed to wearing my wetsuit. I hadn’t planned on getting angry at him but that pushed me over the edge. My hands balled up into fists and my face grew hot.

Harry’s face turned serious as he spotted my Aunt and I waking through the door. I made no effort to speak as I walked into the kitchen to grab my bag my Aunty had brought in.

“I should leave.” The blonde girl said as she stripped the wetsuit of and slipped a dress over it.

Harry walked over to me bending down to grab my bags but I snatched them away from his hands. The sudden movement pulled on my stitches and as I winced Liam came over and helped my Aunty grab my bags.

I muttered a sincere thanks to them both and I walked outside onto the sand, dragging my wetsuit with me. I walked into the garage and grabbed the hose to clean it off before hanging it up to dry off; Harry had made no attempt to follow me outside but I heard a loud whisper coming from inside.

As I stepped inside my phone rang and Luke’s name popped up. My face lit up and I answered the phone as Harry opened his mouth to speak.

“Hey Luke! Long time no see,” I joked and I heard his chuckle from the other end of the phone. I continued on, “About tonight, I was thinking we could go somewhere along the beach at 7. Is that okay?”

“Sure! Sounds great. I’ll see you then. Bye!” I could hear the smile in his voice; I hung up the phone and I turned to Harry who was sitting with his elbows on his knees and his hands running through his hair.

He saw me standing there arms across my chest and he knew I wanted an explanation.
“Mia. I am so beyond sorry about this morning and last night and….”

“Why didn’t you answer my calls? Huh? You were clearly so very busy today. I mean what the hell Harry?! You were supposed to come by and pick me up from the hospital with my Aunty and then I find out that you were at a party last night getting drunk and doing WHO KNOWS WHAT! You could have at least called me and told me yourself instead of leaving me to find out through my Aunty! Geez Harry.” I was fuming.

He stood up from the couch and he grabbed my arms holding me in a lock. I was wincing from the pain of my arm pressed against my stitches but Harry didn’t let go.

“Mia. I am sorry! I had no intention of going out last night but the boys wanted me to so I did. Yes, I got drunk but I promise you baby that I did not do anything. This morning I woke up in a house that belonged to Niall’s cousin who lives here, that girl was his cousin’s best friend who also happens to be an old friend of Niall’s. We did nothing but take her out for a surf. I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there this morning to pick you up baby, I am.” Harry’s grip had become tighter as he pleaded with me and the pain was almost unbearable now that I let out a small hiss.

“Okay, I’m sorry for getting mad at you Harry I was just extremely worried about you.” I winced again, “Harry if we are going to be here for a while you need to let go of me. You’re putting pressure on my stitches.”

He apologised quietly and released me from his grip. “Thank you. I am sorry for over reacting and I am sorry for doubting you, okay. Please just try and let me know where you are so I don’t freak out again.” He nodded like a small child did after getting scolded and he hugged me making sure not to put pressure on my cut.

“Who was on the phone?” He asked as he pulled away.

“An old friend of mine Luke. I saw him today and thought it would be good to catch up before I leave next week.” My eyes turned away from Harry as Ricky’s face popped into my head at the mention of today’s happenings.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” I looked up at him; grabbing his hands to play with his fingers.

“I saw my ex today… he’s dating my best friend, the asshole. I can’t believe he manipulated her into dating him. What a bastard. I can’t believe she is dating him after what he did to me. She gave me the “he’s changed” bull crap but you know the saying, ‘once a cheater, always a cheater,’ and…” My pacing and talking was cut off by Harry pulling me into his chest and kissing me long and passionately.

“Thanks.” I laughed as I felt my face cool down and my temper disappear. “I needed that.” I rested my head on his chest, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“Hopefully she’ll learn. Not trying to sound mean, but she has to learn the kind of person he is by herself and then she’ll see what a mistake it was dating him. What he did to you was wrong and I’m sorry you had to go through seeing him again today but just know that I love you and I will never do what he did to you. Ever. I promise.” He light grabbed my chin between his thumb and pointer finger and tipped my head up to place a kiss as light as a feather on my lips.

“About Luke as well. Have fun tonight. I’ll be thinking of you the whole time I’m singing on stage. I love you.” I smiled and kissed his neck, causing a small moan to escape from Harry’s lips.

“I love you too baby.” We stood in the kitchen in each other’s arms for what felt like ages; listening to the waves crash. I never wanted to leave his arms. Ever.