The Gambler

Harry had barely slept that night. He and the boys had ended up staying at her house until the very early morning hours, laughing and playing video games. They had managed to become drunk from the beers that Elle continued to bring out of her fridge. They had decided to call it quits after Harry had taken to Elle’s house sound system and blared Jay-Z and Kanye West through the speakers. He had been dancing on the kitchen countertop with Elle when Niall had made the not so sober decision to take a photo on his phone. Innocently, he had sent the picture to Twitter and thus began the photoshoot.

Elle had ran to her room to grab her Nikon and the six friends began to take photo after photo after photo of them doing ridiculous things. Eventually the Nikon was forgotten and Harry began snapping away the photos on his iPhone. Taking to Instagram, he pulled Elle into a hug and placed a lazy kiss to the side of her cheek as she giggled. The photo was blurry, but he sent it anyways. By the end of the night, there were at least 10 different photos posted online from their various accounts and they hadn’t even realized it. They were just six friends enjoying a night in away from the hustle and bustle of their lives. It was like living in an alternate world where they were just a group of teenagers having a party while their parents were out of town.

The incessant sound of his phone ringing was what awoke him in the morning. Sunbeams shone through the open balcony of the hotel and he grimaced at the sudden light. He rolled over and reached for the phone on his bedside table. He could barely make out the name on the screen, but after a few blinks of his eyes, he could read it.

Mum.

There was always that fleeting moment of panic when a teenager realized that there mother has been calling them and that those calls have gone unanswered. Harry sat up in bed quickly and pressed the answer button, took a gulp of air before putting the phone to his ear, “Mum?”

“Harry! For God’s sake, I’ve been calling you for the past hour!” Anne’s voice rang out in a state of panic, “I though something had happened to you.”

Harry rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair before speaking, “Everything’s fine, I was just sleeping.”

“Busy night out then, yeah?” Anne asked, but with her tone, Harry knew she knew something.

Harry shrugged and stood up, stretching his back, “I guess.”

“Well,” Anne began and Harry waited for the beginning of a rant, “I turned on my mobile this morning and checked Twitter to see what my lovely son was up to when I see a flurry of photos from you and the boys and thousands of replies from fans asking if I approved of your relationship with a certain pop star.”

“Relationship?” Harry asked before he groaned, “Mum, I’m not in a relationship with her. We’re friends, you know that.”

“Harry, those photos do not look like just a friendship.” Anne said quietly.

Harry, who had yet to see the photos, walked over to his laptop and pulled up his Twitter page. He scanned through the photos that the boys, Elle and he had posted and ran a hand over his face. The photos definitely hinted that there may be something more between Elle and him, but if they only knew that they were just joking around. Of course, he had those feelings for her, but last night had just been about friends celebrating.

Harry sighed, “I like her, mum. But, she doesn’t think of me that way. And those photos were only taken in a friendly way. God, the fans are probably going crazy.”

“Mental, as usual. Most of them only mean it out of love for you, but my word.” Anne said and gave a sigh of her own, “Harry, I’m just worried. Do you really think you should be getting into a relationship with someone right now? Nevertheless the biggest pop star on the earth?”

Harry remained silent. He read through some of the replies he had received and immediately felt bothered by what some of his fans were saying. Some were positive and defended Elle and him, while others were downright rude. Some weren’t even rude about Elle like they had been about Caroline Flack, instead some of them were directed to him. He began to get frustrated and upset, when his mom’s voice pulled him out of his daze.

“Just be careful, ok?” Anne pleaded in that motherly tone before continuing, “And get her autograph or something for Gem, yeah? You know how much she loves her.”

Harry smiled at the memory of his sister’s love of Elle, “O’ course, mum. I should go though. I’ll be home in a week.”

“Ok. Love you sweetie.” She said with a sad sigh.

“Love you too.” Harry replied before hanging up the phone.

He threw his phone gently to the side and it landed with a puff onto the fluffy duvet. He ran both hands over his face as he sat on the edge of his bed in nothing but his boxers. He had a slight headache from the amount he drank the previous night, but it wasn’t anything that would make him feel sick. He padded his way to the bathroom to take a shower and clear his head.

When he came out of the washroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, he jumped onto his bed and picked up his phone. He checked his messages, most of them from his friends about the possibility of Elle and him being a relationship, but he chose to ignore those. She had texted him five minutes ago and he quickly opened it.

We’re on the front page of CNN’s website. New level of fame. Text me when you’re ready to go touristing. ;)

Harry chuckled at the message, pleased that she at least seemed to be handling the attention well. It was then that he realized she had dealt with this much longer than he had. She had been in the spotlight since she was much younger whereas he had only had to deal with all of it in the past couple of months. His fingers moved quickly across the screen.

I’ve just come out of the shower. Can you be ready in an hour?

He opted to take the time waiting for her response to get dressed. And for the first time in his life, he had no idea what to put on. His wardrobe wasn’t overly exciting nor did it vary in colour terribly, but there he was struggling to pick out an outfit. Eventually, he wound up texting Crystabel to ask for her advice. It was in the middle of texting that Elle replied.

Yeah, of course. I’ll come pick you up? What hotel are you at?

He texted his response quickly before he checked Crystabel’s answer. She suggest a pair of black chinos, converse and a navy plaid shirt.

For the next hour, he tried to tame his somewhat restless curls and applied deodorant, cologne and his signature paper plane necklace. He had looked in the mirror more in that hour than he ever had before, which was ridiculous considering the amount of times he studied his outfits before events. Finally, Elle texted him telling him she was out front and that there were only a handful of fans out front.

He popped into Louis’ room to tell him where he was off to before he quickly made his way downstairs. He stopped for a moment out front to sign some things and take a few photos before he looked around for Elle. He expected to see a black town car or a black SUV, but instead he found himself staring at a beat up, fire engine red truck that looked like it was from the early 90s. Behind the wheel sat Elle with an excited grin on her face.

Harry walked over to the truck and climbed in and before he had the chance to put his seatbelt on, they were driving away. He was surprised to see zero paparazzi following the truck and looked over at her with confusion, “Is this yours?”

“Is what mine?” She asked as she switched lanes.

“This truck.” Harry said with an amused smile.

Elle laughed and nodded, “I know it’s not exactly the most luxurious of cars, but it’s the only vehicle I can drive around without being spotted in. The paparazzi are looking for the sleek town cars, y’know? Not the beat up, old Ford.”

“I like it.” Harry replied, “It’s refreshing to see a celebrity in a car like this.”

Elle nodded and turned to look at him briefly with a smile, “It was my dad’s. When we moved out of our house, my mom had just wanted to leave it. She didn’t even want to sell it. I think it hurt too much, y’know? He treated this truck like it was his baby, he was always out in the garage working on it or washing it in the driveway.”

Harry stared at her in comfortable silence as she explained the story behind the truck. She told him about the day that her dad had bought it and he couldn’t help but feel like he could listen to her voice for days, weeks even. It wasn’t until she looked over at him with a confused stare that he realized she had stopped talking and was asking him what he was looking at.

“Sorry.” He offered lamely and was relieved when she laughed. He looked out to see that they were now on the freeway, “Where are we off to?”

“I thought we could head up to Venice for the day. I know you said you wanted to see LA, but I want to take you to the beach and boardwalk there. It’s something everyone has to experience once.” Elle said with a mischievous grin.

Harry narrowed his eyes at her in mock suspicion, “Is it safe?”

“Most days.” Elle answered. After realizing he had been silent for a few seconds, she turned to see him looking at her with a scared expression on his face. She let out a loud laugh, “Relax, Harry. We’ll be fine.”

“I trust you,” He said with a nod of his head before continuing, “Most of the time.”

Elle smiled over at him, “Good. Then sit back and look at that beautiful coast view while I focus on not getting us in a car crash.”

The rest of the drive was relatively silent, save for the odd conversation about something random that caught their eyes. It was comfortable, though silence wasn’t something Harry had always found comfortable. He found it oddly soothing, sitting there with Elle while driving. It helped that she was adorable as ever. She tapped her fingers against the steering wheel lightly whenever a song came on the radio that she recognized and just when Harry thought she was completely focused on driving, she let out a tiny yell and leaned forward to turn the volume up.

The familiar sounds of piano were suddenly overwhelming Harry’s ears and he looked over at Elle, half in shock and half in amusement as she began to sing along-rather scream along-with the radio.

“JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL! LIVING IN A LONELY WORLD! SHE TOOK THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN GOING ANYWHERE!”

He began to laugh and pulled out his phone and began to snap pictures of the girl who was so enthralled in the song.

“JUST A CITY BOY! BORN AND RAISED IN SOUTH DETROOOOOIIITTTT! HE TOOK THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN GOING ANYWHERE!”

It was at this point that she looked over at Harry with a grin and waved her hand at him, “Come on, sing with me!”

Harry laughed as she began to make the sound effects of the guitar and before he knew it, he was singing the lyrics along with her. Both of their voices, though being musicians, were loud and obnoxious, each trying to out sing the other. As the song carried on, they would break into fits of laughter before yelling the next line at each other.

By the time the song was fading out, Harry had tears in his eyes from laughing so hard. He held onto his stomach as he continued to laugh while Elle was trying to catch her breath and still focus on driving. They finally stopped laughing, wide smiles still evident on their faces. Elle turned to him with a grin, “God, that was amazing.”

“I think we probably terrified any of the passing motorists.” Harry said with a chuckle and sighed, “I have no idea where that came from.”

“It was Journey, man. Anytime Journey comes on, if you don’t scream your head off, you’re totally lame.” Elle explained with a grin.

Harry laughed, “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”

“We’re here, let’s get this day started, shall we?” Elle asked as she pulled into a parking lot.

Harry nodded and looked over at the girl, happier than he had been in a long time, “Let’s do it.”