Let's Pretend It's Love

The last thing Elise wanted to do was go to a party, but Rhianne wouldn’t take no for an answer. She saw how down Elise had been that week, and she was determined to do something about it. Unfortunately for Elise, that something involved dragging her to a party that she didn’t particularly want to go to.

Rhianne had forced her to at least try to look cute, so Elise was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a lace shirt, which wasn’t normally her style but looked decent enough.

When the two arrived at the party, the first person they saw was Liam, and he quickly scooped Rhianne up in his arms while passing a quick hello in Elise’s direction. Normally, Elise wouldn’t have cared about seeing Liam, but if he was there, there was a pretty good chance that Harry would be too, and the last thing Elise wanted was to have to see Harry again.

After everything that happened and him walking out in anger, just thinking about Harry hurt, so she couldn’t imagine what seeing him would do to her. Her eyes flicked quickly around the room, looking for any sight of him so she could have a reason to just get the hell out of there.

That didn’t happen, though, and Liam chuckled beside her, his arms still wrapped around Elise.

“If you’re looking for Harry, you won’t find him. He’s gone upstairs with some girl.”

“Of course he has,” Elise said, an evil smile falling to her face. It was so unlike her to even do that, but something about the fact that she had been right all along made her less happy and more angry than she expected. Why couldn’t feeling just be easy to understand?

“You know, if you went up there, I bet he’d come down.”

“Why on earth would I do that?” Elise asked, batting her eyelashes as she folded her arms across her chest.

Liam simply shrugged, giving her a knowing smile as he pulled Rhianne out to the dance floor. The two were quickly grinding against one another, forgetting all about Elise ever having been there.

With Rhianne gone, Elise no longer had someone to hide behind. She’d have to walk around and actually talk to people, but that was not on the very short list of things that she wanted to be doing at that moment. In fact, it sounded awful, but Elise knew she couldn’t just leave the party without Rhianne being angry at her later, so she walked outside to get some fresh air.

Even on the back porch of the frat house, she could hear the music blasting inside, and it was hard to think over the loud music. It was probably better that way, though, because Elise’s thinking just led her to thoughts of Harry, and thoughts of Harry just led her to being more upset.

Letting out a deep breath, Elise walked towards the edge of the deck, resting her arms over the wooden rails that held her in. She was trying to just let her mind go blank, but that was easier said than done.

The door slid open behind her, and her ears were immediately met with the loud giggling of a girl who was clearly drunk. It reminded her of when she had to carry Ivy back into the house on the very first night she’d met Harry, and that made her heart swell up just a bit.

She turned around to catch a glimpse of the girl and nearly crashed to the floor when she did. Harry was standing behind her, one hand placed on the girl’s waist while the other was grasping onto her ass as if she’d fall if he wasn’t. The two of them didn’t seem to see her there, and Harry was quickly nipping at the girl’s neck, causing her to giggle and sigh at the same time.

Looking at them made Elise nauseous and she was sure if she didn’t slip away she’d be getting sick all over the floor and causing a party foul. She didn’t realize it, but when she looked at them, she let out a small gasp, which Harry noticed. He pulled away from the girl to see what the noise was, and when his eyes met Elise’s, his face dropped.

He looked just as shocked to see her as she was to see him and he just stared at her, dumb-founded, until the girl he was holding onto finally spoke up.

“Is everything alright?” she asked, looking up at Harry as she batted her eyelashes at him.

Harry paused for a long moment, his mouth opening and closing as if he was trying to speak but no words would come out. Just when Elise thought everything was going to come crumbling down, Harry spoke, looking right at Elise. “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

Elise could’ve sworn that, at the moment, her heart shattered into a million little pieces, but she knew it was physically impossible. That didn’t stop her from feeling that way, though, and she thought she was going to collapse when Harry looked back at the girl and began kissing her neck, just like he was before.

Elise was right about him. She had been right all along. Harry Styles was a dirty, rotten pig, and nothing good could come from him.