My One and Only

“God, I look like a sumo wrestler.” Nicole groaned from the dressing room. She wasn’t the least bit pleased with any of the dresses she’d tried on so far. She felt fat and ugly. It wasn’t fair. Pregnancy was supposed to give the mother a beautiful glow, but she got stuck looking like a sumo wrestler.

“Come off it Nicky, I bet you look amazing. Come out and let me see!” Emily replied. She was growing a bit annoyed with Nicole’s constant hysterics over her weight. In Emily’s eyes, Nicole was beautiful, and would remain that way even if she was the fattest woman on the planet.

“I apologize if you’re so repulsed by my presence that you’re forced to run off to the loo and vomit.” Even though Nicole was being completely serious Emily couldn’t help but laugh, but as soon as Nicole appeared from the dressing room, the blonde became silent. The dress was gorgeous. It was strapless and black at the top with a sweat-heart neckline, and the bottom was white, short in the front but long in the back and swooshed around whenever she walked.

“You look fit.” Emily said after taking a second to absorb the entire outfit.

“Hardly.”

“I promise you don’t look pregnant at all! Harry is going to flip when he sees you.”

“You think?” Nicole asked, making eye contact with her friend through the mirror as she took in her appearance once more. Maybe she was overreacting. Maybe she didn’t look like an obese cow. Maybe Harry would still be able to find her attractive even if she was as round as a beach ball.

“I know,” Emily insisted before reaching to give Nicole’s arm a quick squeeze. “I wish my boyfriend would take me to Paris for the weekend.”

Nicole sharply turned to face Emily, her eye wide with surprise. “Zayn is the most perfect boyfriend ever and he adores you. He would buy you Paris if he could.”

A wide smile spread across Emily’s bubblegum pink lips. “I know.”

Nicole rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help to find her friend’s infatuation with her boyfriend to be absolutely adorable. They two were perfect together because they were complete opposites. He was the bad boy and she was the girl next door. They were basically the characters from all of Nicole’s favorite romantic comedies.

“Do you know why he’s taking you to Paris? Is it just because or-” she stopped talking once noticing Nicole’s eyes narrow.

“Or what…”

“What if he proposes?” Emily immediately covered her mouth after the words slipped from her mouth. Her cheeks began to flush as red as a tomato and Nicole couldn’t help but stare at her suspiciously.

“Did he say something?”

“No, but c’mon, haven’t you ever seen a film before? This all just screams marriage proposal to me, and you are pregnant-”

“I’m 19, Em! He knows me better than to think I’d ever agree to marry him at such a young age.” Nicole said, almost trying to convince herself more than Emily. Getting married might have been the expected next step for the couple, but that was honestly the last thing Nicole wanted at the moment. She didn’t have time to plan a wedding, and she wasn’t Miley Cyrus. She believed two people should be well in their 20s before getting married if they want any chance at having a successful marriage. Sure, her and Harry had a kid on the way, but that shouldn’t be an excuse to rush down the aisle.

“Whatever you say,” Emily said while reaching to grab her phone from her back pocket. Nicole assumed she was expecting a phone call because the blonde had been checking her mobile all day.

“Is Zayn harassing you?” Nicole joked, slipping back into the changing room to put her regular clothes on. She’d decided she was going to buy the dress. Despite the fact she was tired of trying things on, she had started to like the dress, and Emily had insisted the dress looked brilliant on her, and Nicole trusted that she wouldn’t lie.

“No, his fans actually. I get hundreds of mentions by them on Twitter every day.”

“And that’s why I deleted my Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and YouTube accounts. Those girls are too obsessed.”

“I don’t mind it necessarily. Most of them are really nice, but they just pester me about things I obviously know nothing about! Like just because I’m dating Zayn doesn’t mean I’m all knowing about every detail concerning One Direction. Like, how do they honesty expect me to know Niall’s penis size or what brand of hair product Liam uses?”

“They’re insane.” Nicole said simply, stepping out of the changing room with her dress slug over her shoulder. The pair started towards the check-out counter, and tried to ignore the stares from the lad’s nosey fans.

“I just wish I didn’t get these darn notifications sent to my phone!”

After Nicole handed her dress over to the cashier she turned to Emily. “Let me see it, I know how to fix it.”

“80 euros miss.” Nicole handed over her credit card before taking Emily’s phone. She scrolled through the settings and fixed it so Emily no longer received notifications whenever one of the band’s idiotic fans spammed her mentions. Before she handed back the phone, a tweet caught her eye.



Despite her better judgment, Nicole clicked on the link and a picture opened in a new window. Sure enough, there was Harry dressed in his favorite suit with his arm around Alice; he looked uncomfortable but she looked like the happiest bird in the world with a wide smile spread across her dark red lips. Nicole’s teeth sunk into her bottom lip.

“Did you figure it out?” Emily asked, reaching to grab Nicole’s dress from the cashier because the brunette seemed rather preoccupied.

“Have you seen this?” Nicole demanded, shoving the mobile into Emily’s face. At first Emily couldn’t tell what she was looking at, but after focusing her vision her lips twisted into a frown.

“No, but are you sure that was even yesterday?”

“I fucking hope not!”

A thousand thoughts were running through Nicole’s head. Harry said he had work yesterday, but he wasn’t specific about where or what he was doing, and Niall had looked surprised when she’d asked him about coming home from work. Nothing was adding up. She wasn’t sure why he would lie to her; he said he broke up with Alice two weeks ago, but what if that wasn’t true? What if everything Harry had been telling her for the past few weeks was complete bullshit? Nicole wasn’t ready to believe her assumptions were true and that Harry was cheating on her—or with her, before she talked with him.

“I need to get home.” Nicole stated, and Emily nodded her head in agreement.

The pair remained quiet for majority of the ride back to the flat complex. When they were just a few blocks away, Emily finally spoke, “Listen Nicole, I don’t want to believe Harry did anything wrong until he proves you otherwise, but if you need some place to stay tonight, you can stay with me at my flat. I can text you directions.”

“Thanks, Em.” Nicole muttered, not exactly able to form more than a few words. She hated how easily she cried.

After Emily pulled into the car park, she reached over to hug Nicole. She knew it wouldn’t change anything though. If Harry truly had screwed things up between them, he didn’t deserve to be with Nicole, but that didn’t mean she wanted the two of them to break up. She saw first-handedly how perfect they were for each other, but they could only remain perfect if they treated each other right, and if the picture was accurate—if Harry really did go out on some sort of date with Alice while he was supposed to be committed to Nicole, that was a pretty big screw up in Emily’s eyes, maybe not even worth an apology or second chance.

“Good luck, I hope everything goes okay. Call me if you need to!” Emily insisted as Nicole got out of the car. Nicole offered her mate a smile and mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ before starting up the three flights of stairs.

Nicole took a deep breath before unlocking the door to Harry and Louis’ flat. She walked inside and tried her best not to make a lot of noise. She was scared. She was scared that as soon as she saw Harry she would start to cry, but she knew that wouldn’t do any good. She needed to confront him and get the truth before jumping to conclusions. After slipping out of her shoes and dropping her bags in the front room, she began searching though the flat for Harry.

He was in the kitchen making a sandwich; jam, butter, and bread were spread messily on the counter. At first he didn’t notice her sudden appearance; he was too busy reading through something on his mobile. She audibly cleared her throat to attract his attention, and he quickly looked up from whatever he was reading, and a smile spread across his lips once noticing her.

“’ello babe, fancy a sandwich?”

She shook her head before biting her lip, trying to hold back the tears. He gave her a strange look, noticing quite suddenly that something was wrong. He wiped the crumbs from his mouth with a napkin before pushing himself away from the table and standing up. He walked towards her, and she tried not to flinch when he reached to caress her cheek.

“Coley, what’s wrong?”

She slid her tongue between her teeth while shifting her weight between her feet. She knew it wasn’t going to do any good to prolong asking him. She needed to know, and she crossed her fingers and toes in hopes that the pictures on Twitter had been from a month ago or even photo-shopped.

“I need you to answer a question for me.”

He raised his eyebrows, clearly not expecting her response. “Alright, ask away.”

“I want you to tell the truth even if it’s going to hurt my feelings.”

He continued to look at her oddly, not quite sure what she was getting at. He hated when she was so cryptic. He liked straightforward answers. “Fine. Just tell me what’s going on.”

“Did you spend the day with Alice yesterday?”

Harry squeezed his eyes shut before ranking his fingers through his hair. He shouldn’t have been so naive to think she wasn’t going to find out. He was truly stupid. “Yes, but I can explain-”

“Fuck you.” she screamed, pressing her finger into his chest. “I can’t believe I ever trusted you again.”

He reached towards her, but she slapped him away. The tears were starting to fall now and she didn’t bother with trying to stop them. Nicole balled her hands into fists, and her lips formed a tight, straight line as her eyes narrowed. She wanted nothing more than to hit him. Slap him across the face or punch him in the gut—anything to make him feel even the slightest bit like she did at the moment.

“Coley—Nicole, please let me explain. I’d promised her I’d be her date to this wedding a month ago. We RSVP’d and everything. I couldn’t not go. I broke things off with her after though. I promise. I won’t be seeing her anymore.”

“Why would you lie to me? Why didn’t you tell me that yesterday? Why did you tell me you broke things off with her when you didn’t?”

Nicole had so many questions, but it wasn’t like the answers actually mattered. The fact of the matter was: Harry had lied to her, he’d been lying to her for a couple weeks now. She didn’t see herself ever forgiving him for this. She’d ignored her instincts and trusted him again only to be made a fool. She didn’t physically feel like she could handle being with him any longer.

“I didn’t want to upset you-”

“That worked out nicely, yeah?” she quipped before turning on her heel. She stormed out of the kitchen and back to the living room. She pulled on her shoes before gathering up her belongings. As her fingers closed around the door knob, Harry’s large hand gripped her shoulder and forced her to spin around to face him.

“Coley, I’m sorry. I don’t want to lose you. Please stay.” He begged, and she wanted to subdue to his wishes but she knew she’d regret it eventually.

“No, Harry.” She peeled his hand off of her before turning back around. She opened the door halfway before looking over her shoulder quickly. “We’re done. Forever.”

She started out the door and Harry followed her. She ran down the flights of stairs, ignoring him as he called after her until she finally reached her car.

“Where are you gonna go? You can’t go to your dad’s.”

She fidgeted with her keys, trying to find the right one to unlock her car before shouting angrily at him, “You have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do!”

“Coley,” he grabbed her wrist and she shook him off. “Please-”

“Don’t try to contact me. I’ll call you when I’m ready and have everything figured out about the baby.” She climbed inside before slamming and locking the door. She tried not to look at Harry as she drove away with tears pouring from her eyes. She could hear him shouting at her, but she didn’t bother trying to decipher his words; it was no use. She knew she couldn’t stay, but that wasn’t the easiest thing for her to understand. She had to keep reminding herself he was out of chances to keep from turning around.



Harry tossed and turned all night, not being able to stay asleep for more than a couple hours at a time. Around four-in-the-morning he received a phone call. At first he thought it was a dream, but he quickly realized someone was actually trying to get a hold of him in the middle of the night, and without checking the caller ID he slid his finger across the bottom of the screen before pressing the phone to his ear. He hoped so desperately it was Nicole; there wasn’t the slightest bit of doubt in his mind that she was phoning to tell him she loved him and their fight had been a mistake.

“Hello, Coley? Please let me come pick you up from where ever you are. I know you’re probably still mad at me, but I don’t want you staying at your dads. Please, just let me come get you. I can even pay to get you a hotel room. Please-”

“Harry,” the voice was low, and at first he didn’t recognize it, but as she continued talking everything came together. “There’s been an accident.”

“Sage, what are you going on about?” he asked feeling a bit defeated. He didn’t want to be talking to Nicole’s shitty ex-mate. He wanted to be talking to Nicole.

“Nicole has been in an accident. She’s been taken to the hospital.”

For a moment, Harry couldn’t breathe.