Kissing Fire.

“So, uhh, care to explain?” Marina asked with a smug grin on her face as we traipsed through the zoo. My eyebrows crinkled in confusion on my forehead as I glanced over at her.

“Mm, that depends,” I replied before shaking my head a little.

“On?”

“What I’m supposed to be explaining?”
Marina let out a scoff.

“You and Harry, of course,” she answered, causing a loud laugh to escape my lips and for the five European boys to look our way.

“But see, that would imply that there’s actually something going on between myself and Harold. Wait a second, how is this coming up now? It’s been a week since we fell asleep together!”

“Well, I didn’t wanna ambush you right away and then we hadn’t seen them for a couple days, so it slipped to farthest regions of my mind,” she spoke, putting on the strangest of voices. “But we’re seeing them now and I was reminded of it, so. Spill, chickadee,” she huffed as she adjusted her sunglasses.

“Again, there is nothing to spill. We fell asleep next to each other, that’s all,” I tried to explain. But there was no reasoning with Marina when she was set on something.

“Please, you were not ‘next to each other’. You were literally wrapped in each other’s arms. Try to tell me that’s nothing.”

“It’s nothing. Honestly.”

“Did you hook up with him?” she suddenly asked, her eyes wide.

“No!”

“Oh my God, you slept with him, didn’t you?” she gasped as she turned to grab my arm.

“Marina, no! Seriously, I would never do that. Well, I mean, we did technically sleep together. But only in the sense that we slept in the same bed!” I exclaimed as I dragged her over to look at some seals.

“Okay, fine. Let me make my question real clear. Did you have sex with him?” she asked, her grip still not loosening on my arm.

“No, Marina. I did not have sex with Harry Styles,” I said pointedly. We heard a scoff come from next to us and we quickly turned to see a girl who couldn’t have been more than thirteen.

“You only wish you could have sex with Harry Styles,” she said before snapping her gum.

“What would you know? I could have sex with Harry Styles any day of the week,” I snarled before hearing a low chuckle behind me.

“Yeah, babe? I’m ready whenever you are, you know where my hotel room is,” Harry said from behind me and I watched as the little girl’s eyes became the size of saucers. With a loud groan, I pulled my arm from Marina’s grip, shoved Harry out of my way, and stormed away, only to hear Marina calling after me. Great. Just great! Like I needed Harry thinking I wanted to sleep with him. My hands busied themselves by playing with the cuffs of my sleeves, something I’d been known to do when nervous or upset.

“Em, wait!” I heard Marina call, causing me to stop in my tracks and simply wait. “I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have pushed it,” she gasped out, having run all the way to catch up to me. I guess I walked faster than I thought.

“It’s fine. I just hate children,” I muttered darkly. She let out a laugh before we fell into a comfortable silence. Of course, this silence was broken rather quickly when we heard Louis and Liam shouting at a cage full of monkeys and making faces at them. Boys will be boys. Marina and I stood a few feet away, just watching their antics for a few minutes.

“Remind me why you two have girlfriends?” Marina called jokingly, causing Louis’ face to twist in feigned hurt, only to turn into a sassy scowl seconds later.

“Bitch, I’m fabulous.” He even threw in a snap, in case you were wondering. After laughing with the rest of the boys, I’d wandered farther up the path to where the giraffe pen was. I’d always had a small thing for giraffes. There was even a baby one!

“Zayn! Zayn, come look at the giraffes!” I called back to him, but he was still watching Louis and Liam play with the monkeys. Only Harry had looked up, but that didn’t stop me from calling Zayn’s name again. “If you don’t get your ass over here and look at these giraffes right now, I’m gonna chop all your hair off!” I cried, satisfied when I saw that he had turned to face me and was heading toward me.

“I will buzz your head if you even think about touching my hair!” He yelled back at to me as he ran over with a goofy smile, tackling me in a hug.

“No, not my hair! It’s my only redeeming quality!” I wailed, mocking his love of his hair. I let out a giggle as I clutched the taller boy back. Zayn had quickly become one of my best friends over the past week. It was astonishing really, but I wasn’t complaining. I hadn’t had a close guy friend in a long time. “Look at them, though!” I squealed excitedly, pointing at the giraffes as one of them cleaned its ears with its tongue. “Aren’t they cute?”

“Yeah, they’re adorable,” Zayn replied with a chuckle as he slowly untangled his limbs from mine, leaving one arm around my waist.

“Look at their tongues though! You could literally style your hair with your tongue if you were a giraffe,” I gasped as I ran a hand through his hair. This idea clearly tickled his fancy as he burst into laughter, only causing me to laugh along with him. Something about his laugh was infectious.

“But I don’t want to be a giraffe, I want to be me! Oh, but maybe! Maybe I can just get a tongue transplant and get a giraffe tongue, yeah?”

“Problem solved! Oh my God, can we actually look this up when we get home?” I cried without thinking. “I-I mean, obviously your hotel is your hotel. I don’t necessarily get to go back, I shouldn’t have-“

“Oh, stop. You’re like family. My home is your home,” he smiled with a shrug. I let out a laugh before wrapping my arms around him once again.

“You’re the best, Zayn,” I murmured into his shoulder. I was slightly unsettled though as I glanced up and saw Harry watching us like a hawk. Uhm, that’s unusual…

--

Louis, Liam, and Zayn had fallen into conversation as we walked through the zoo later that day. Marina and Niall were walking together and constantly gabbing and looking at each other with silly grins on their faces. And I had slowly but surely fallen a little bit behind the pack, unaware that Harry was practically next to me. As I glanced up from my shoes, I couldn’t help but notice that Niall’s fingers were now intertwined with Marina’s and a soft smile flitted to my lips. She literally had not shut up about him since the night she met him.

You see, Niall was completely different from anything Marina had ever known. She typically went for your usual “bad boy” and typically got her heart broken numerous times. She always said it wasn’t her fault, that there was just something about them that drew her in. They were your stereotypical “tall, dark, and handsome” kind of guys. They were “mysterious”. Pfft. They treated her like shit and ultimately broke up with her, some cheating and some not. Now let’s look at Niall. Honestly, he’s not tall, he’s not dark, but sure, he’s handsome. And yeah, I guess he could be mysterious if he wasn’t so busy being happy and carefree. So naturally, I was shocked when she chose the Irish boy over good ol’ Zaynie. But hey, I’m not complaining! I was glad that Marina had finally decided to be interested in a good guy. It was about damn time, really.

“They’re cute,” Harry murmured as he fell into step with me. I gasped lightly, so lost in my thoughts that I wasn’t expecting him.

“Yeah, they are. I think she really likes him,” I replied, the smile still reaching my lips.

“They remind me of some people,” he muttered, clearly meaning me.

“Look, Harry, the whole thing about sleeping with you earlier was a joke-“

“No, I wasn’t talking about us. I was talking about you and Zayn.” I quickly stopped walking and turned to face him.

“Excuse me?” I asked, my eyebrows knit together.

“You guys are just always really close and everything. I saw you two earlier, by the giraffes. Looks like you get on really well.”

“Harry, we’re just friends. He has a girlfriend,” I retorted, not at all liking this observation of his.

“And you’re proper fit,” he replied nonchalantly.

“And he’s got a girlfriend.”

“And you’re proper fit, Em.” That was the first time he ever called me Em. And if I wasn’t so concerned that he thought I was into Zayn, I probably would’ve acknowledged the few butterflies that were awakened in my stomach.

“And I’m also not a homewrecker,” I huffed as a small glare set into my features. He threw his hands up in defense.

“Hey, I’m not saying you are. It just looks like there’s something there. Just making a friendly observation.”

“It doesn’t sound too friendly, Harold,” I muttered as my arms crossed over my chest, a breeze sending a chill through my body.

“I like it when you call me Harold,” he replied goofily, a stupid smile on his face.

“Good, I’ll be sure to never call you it again.” The smile dropped from his face before it suddenly brightened again. Oh lord. He was scheming.

“But I said I like it!” he cried, adding a few more i’s to ‘like’, as his hands found my waist and started tickling me. A scream escaped my lips as I thrashed about in his grip.

“No, Harry, stop!” I cried between laughs as I literally jumped about trying to escape his hands. But it seemed the more I struggled, the more his arms wrapped around me and soon he was practically holding me, my feet slightly lifting from the ground. “I’m gonna kill you!” I yelled between more laughs as my hands came to rest on top of his. I struggled around some more and unfortunately for me, Harry used my momentum to start swinging me about, causing more screams to filter from my lips. After a few more seconds, he gently placed me on the ground and I whipped around to face him. “I literally hate you,” I muttered, slamming my fist on his chest weakly. A crooked smile reached his lips as his slipped his hand over my fist.

“Ah ah, it’s not nice to tell lies, love,” he chided, taking my fingers in between his as we started walking again.

I thought of pulling my hand from his. But honestly, my hands were freezing and his large hand practically swallowed mine up, keeping it nice and warm.

“You’re so dumb,” I mumbled stupidly as I let out a sigh.

“I like you, too, babe,” he chirped, giving my hand a light squeeze. Hello, stupid smile.

--

“So how long are you guys here for?” I asked as I flipped my hair over my shoulder, Harry watching my every move. Though I was trying to ignore that.
We were seated in this Mom & Pop Shop kind of Italian place and everyone was in love with it. Plus, it was a little off the beaten path, so we weren’t getting hounded by the paparazzi or screaming girls.

“We’re here until October 2nd, and then we’re off to Australia,” Liam explained before taking a sip of his water.

“So you’re here for another three weeks? What are you guys doing for three more weeks now that the tour’s over?” Marina asked curiously, though I was about to ask it myself. Surely they couldn’t be doing press for three more weeks.

“Nothing, really. Just relaxing,” Niall replied as he shoveled more food into his mouth.

“Wait, you’re off? What’re you doing here? Shouldn’t you be back home?” I asked, genuinely surprised that they were hanging around instead of going to see their families and girlfriends.

“Well, our families are extremely busy right now so they all told us to just relax and have fun. But El and Dani are coming to visit in a week!” Louis exclaimed excitedly.

“What about Perrie?” I asked quietly as I looked to Zayn on my left.

“She’s doing a bunch of promotion with Little Mix and they won’t let her have any time off,” he replied glumly, causing me to pat his knee in sympathy.“But you’ll love the other girls! And I know Louis and Liam are excited for you two to meet them,” he quipped with a smile, which I returned.

“Can’t wait,” I answered cheerfully.

--

A few days later I was craving a shopping spree at Topshop since I had a day off and I’d just gotten paid. Right, sorry, my job. Forget to mention that. Whoops. Anywho, I was doing an apprenticeship to a professional stylist named Amanda Whitley. Hands down, Amanda was the greatest boss anyone could ever have. She was incredibly laidback, incredibly insightful, and incredibly easy to get along with. After Marina, she was my best friend.

But anyway, I wanted to go to Topshop and everyone in the hotel suite was either asleep or just being a bum. Ps. Been practically living in that suite, what? Of course, Harry was willing to go with me. So, after a small prayer to whatever God there may be that Harry didn’t badger me about Zayn again, we were off to shop.

“I love this place,” I let out with a small happy sigh as we stepped through the doors. A smile reached Harry’s lips as he glanced over at me.

“You’re adorable, you know that?” To which I responded by sticking my tongue out at him. Yes, I was still not accepting compliments from Harry. It made life easier, hush. So, ignoring Harry’s protests, I skipped away to go look at clothes. Instead of following me around like most boys do when they go into a clothing store with a girl, Harry went off to the Topman part of the store, for which I was incredibly thankful. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend time with the boy, it’s just that I was glad he could do his own thing and we could still be hanging out. If that makes sense.

So after about a half hour to forty-five minutes of rifling through clothes and trying things on, I was situated in line, waiting to purchase my items. Honestly, I was probably spending more money than I should have been, but whateva. Have you seen the clothes at Topshop? After paying and getting eyed up by the attractive cashier, I wandered over to Topman to look for Harold. But with my luck – and coordination – I managed to practically crash into someone. Yes, as I was digging through my large purse, I caused a collision.

“Whoa, sorry, babe- oh. Emerson.” My eyes slowly rose to meet Collin’s and my stomach plummeted.

“Hello, Collin,” I answered, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible.

“How are you, doll? It’s been a while. Holdin’ up?” A small smirk touched his lips and I literally wanted to throw up. He knew exactly how much he hurt me and he was more than willing to rub that in my face.

“I actually have to meet someone, so-“ I tried to slip past him, but he grabbed hold of my wrist.

“Is this someone a boy? I’m kind of let down. I thought you’d still be at home moping like the whiney little bitch you are and-“

“Oi! That’s enough,” Harry’s voice boomed out as he removed Collin’s hand from my wrist.

“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?” Collin questioned as the two boys eyed each other up.

“Oh wait, you’re one of those faggots from that shitty boy band!” Collin jeered with another disgusting smirk on his face.

“Cheers, mate,” Harry muttered as he wrapped an arm around me and led me to the exit of the store. We had just gotten outside when I heard Collin call from behind us,

“Excuse me! Emerson and I were trying to have a conversation. Rude,” he grunted with a shake of his head.

“I think you’re the last person she wants to talk to,” Harry spat with a grimace on his perfect face.

“Em, could I have a word, please?” Collin asked sweetly, staring intently into my eyes. After a huge internal debate condensed into roughly three seconds, I pulled away from Harry’s grip.

“Give us a minute, Harry?” I asked quietly. His jaw fell slack and his eyes widened a bit, but he quickly composed himself and stepped away. Collin grabbed my hand and pulled me a few feet further away from Harry before turning to face me.

“I miss you,” he finally spoke after staring at me for a few seconds. I let out a long sigh. I’d prepared many things to say to Collin given this situation ever came up, most all of them leading to me forgiving him and asking for him back. But for some reason, that I’ll later blame on Harry, I couldn’t bring myself to remember any of them.

“That’s unfortunate,” I uttered, monotone. His eyebrows rose slightly as he was clearly not expecting that answer.

“Look, I didn’t mean what I said inside. I was just joking around. And, uhh, things didn’t really work out with what’shername. I was thinking you should come over. We could talk, have some wine. I uhh- I miss the sex, honestly. You’re great in the sack.”

“Is this you trying to win me over?”

“Babe, c’mon, seriously. I know you miss me, too. I was everything to you. Don’t even try to deny it, Emmy.” I used to love it when he called me Emmy, but now the sound of it made my skin crawl.

“I’m gonna go, Collin.”

“No, I don’t think you should.” His hand once again curled around my wrist as he pulled me into his body. “See, I think you’re gonna come over, you’re gonna let me fuck you, and we’re gonna get back together. Sound good?”

“Collin, let go of me! You’re hurting me, please-“

“Listen, you little slut! I’ve had it with this-“ But I didn’t get to hear the rest of his thought, as Harry had appeared and pulled me from Collin’s grasp before slamming his fist into Collin’s face.

“Harry!” I yelped as I quickly leapt back over to try to pry him from Collin. I did not need him getting in trouble for this. This was my issue and- Click. Click. Click. Fuck. Paparazzi. Management was going to have me murdered.