Anonymous

The door flew open and slammed against the opposite wall with the loudest crashing noise I’d ever heard. I startled from the sudden noise, dropping my phone on the couch mid-text, my heart racing in my chest. “What the fuck?” I snapped, flinging my head around to stare at my roommate. “Was playing videogames with Maria that bad?!”

He mumbled something as he opened the fridge and pulled out a beer.

“I didn’t catch that,” I responded with an irritated tone. “You’re going to have to talk in a voice above a whisper if you want to say something to me.”

“I said she kissed me,” he replied in a dry voice.

My face filled with a violent blush as I started to scream-laugh. “What?!”

Harry let out an annoyed huff as he explained, “We were just playing Halo, and she was beating me, as usual, and I laughed and commented how much better she was than me, and she leaned over and kissed me.”

“Did you kiss her back?!”

“No!” he exclaimed, giving me a disgusted look. “She’s fucking twelve. I pushed her off me and left.”

“God, you just get girls of all ages,” I continued to tease. I could just picture Maria planting one on Harry’s lips, Harry’s eyes open wide with shock as he shoved her back across the couch. It was perfect and hysterical, and as his best friend, I would have to make sure that he never lived it down.

“Shut the fuck up, Louis,” he hissed before disappearing into his room. The door closed with another mighty bang, but it wasn’t loud enough to drown out my incessant laughter.



“Hey, mate,” Harry exclaimed in an all-too-cheery voice as he entered my room uninvited. Clearly, he’d gotten over the assault the night before, and he was feeling much better. Which only meant one thing: he had news about me that was bad enough that his own situation didn’t feel so bad. “I’m pleased to inform you that in a short four days since the stunt you pulled, you’ve made the front page of Sugarscape, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as People and In Touch in the U.S. You’re an official trainwreck.”

It was probably the worst way to get woken up in the entire world, and I was more than a little tempted to pick up my alarm clock and throw it at his smug little face. For once, it wasn’t him that was getting broadcast all over the place, usually about some scandal with his dating life. It was me they were after.

Not that I didn’t deserve it. I saw the various YouTube videos and articles about what I’d done. I had no idea why I’d fallen for the immature notion that alcohol would make me forget about my problems. Everyone and his mother knew that I was the dumbest drunk ever.

“Are you going to sit there and sulk all day?” Harry questioned with a somewhat worried tone. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“No, I’m getting up,” I replied. My voice was kind of scratchy with sleep and from not using it much. Other than talking to Harry once in a while, when he was actually in the flat, I hadn’t spoken much at all. Our managers had canceled all our interviews and recording appointments to wait for the whole thing to blow over, and I had convinced myself that the only way I could stay out of trouble was to keep my mouth shut.

“Good,” Harry approved in a positive tone, giving me a smile that made his dimples emerge. “Because you’ve got a visitor.”

There were only a handful of people it could be, I realized as I rushed to my feet and went through my bureaus for clothes. It could be my mum to scold me in person, even though she’d already shouted and wept at me over the phone. Maybe it was Lottie for emotional support. Or it could be Jess.

I pulled out a pair of knickers and threw them back onto the bed, where it landed on top of my black skinny jeans and soft blue t-shirt. It really couldn’t be Jess, I told myself as I started to strip off my clothes. I’d hurt her beyond repair, and everything the two of us had was broken.

I should have been more understanding. I should have listened to her and acknowledged that she wanted to go through with having sex with me, whether she loved me or not. It shouldn’t have mattered.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” a voice shrieked from the doorway, followed by the sound of slapping. “Harry just told me to walk in.”

I looked down at myself and realized I was naked, my knickers pulled only halfway up my legs. “It’s okay,” I replied. “Just sit down on the bed. And it doesn’t matter if you see me naked. We almost had sex, remember?”

Jess’ face flushed further as she put her hands out in front of her, her eyes still squeezed shut. “That was different,” she mumbled, as if trying to convince herself, more than me.

Sighing softly, I finished getting dressed, leaving my pajamas on the floor as I climbed onto the bed and parked my butt next to Jess.

“Don’t worry,” I chuckled, putting my hand on her leg. “There’s nothing to scare you now.”

Her face was still red as she put her hands down by her sides. “It might sound silly, but I just kind of wanted to wait until we had sex to see you naked. I guess it was more romantic that way in my mind.”

I smirked and shook my head. “No, that’s not silly. But it’s not the end of the world.”

There was a long, tense silence between us, both parties wondering who was going to speak first. Finally, I took the plunge. “I was a wanker,” I said honestly. “I should have respected the fact that you didn’t feel the same way instead of attacking you about it. You can’t help how you feel. And I didn’t mean what I said, either, about the whole thing being just a fuck session for you.”

Jess nodded. “It’s okay. I’m just sorry that I can’t make my feelings move faster.”

“No, you shouldn’t be,” I breathed, turning to face her, putting my hand on top of hers. “It’ll come in time, okay?”

“Okay.” She leaned over and kissed me cautiously, as if she were afraid about how I’d receive the motion.

But I cooperated immediately, positioning my hand on the back of her head to move her face closer as she flicked her tongue out against my lips, asking for entrance.

For a second, I held out on her, pulling away briefly, smirking when I heard the little whimper escape from her throat.

That soft noise was all I needed to make me lose any kind of control I had, closing the gap between us and popping my tongue into her mouth, letting the kiss deepen.

My hand moved down to the bottom of her shirt, playing with the knitted hem, brushing my fingers against her tender skin. I wanted more than anything to finish what we’d started the other day, to make up for my dumb mistake.

But before I made any progress, she pulled away. Her lips were pulled up into a cute little smile as she explained, “I feel like it’s totally expected for us to have sex right now, so I don’t want to. We’ll just wait for our time.”

I groaned loudly to tease her, but I understood. “Okay. We’ll wait.”

There was another short silence before I asked, “So did you hear how Harry snogged your sister?”

“WHAT?!”