Another Life

“So you definitely went for the second option?”

“Yes, Andie,” Olivia sighed, picking out a shirt and fiddled to find the price tag, “If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be here right making me spend my whole weeks pay on my day off.”

Andie shrugged, “It’s just, it’s been over two weeks and you’ve hardly seen Harry.”

Olivia ignored the comment before searching through another rack in the crowded TopShop store. Although she knew she was well past the half way mark with this, they’d be spending most of the next two weeks together, so she wasn’t too worried about it. In the past few days, Olivia had been working full days and in between trying to keep up with Harry’s constant texting, she was also the only one really planning their trip up to Scotland. She’d confirmed with everyone last night that it had been sorted and Louis had made sure he had everything to do with V Festival all figured out. The wish had been the last thing on her mind lately, but Andie was determined to bring it up practically every day.

Heading over to the fitting rooms, Olivia noticed Tay stood with Louis just outside of them and a very lost looking Harry behind.

“Ah, just who I was looking for!” Louis beamed, shoving a piece of pink material into Olivia’s face, “Andie thinks you’ll look hot in this, babe.”

“Did you just call me babe?” Olivia gave him a puzzled look, “And why the hell do you two just turn up everywhere now?”

“You’ll get used to it,” Harry mumbled, not once letting his eyes leave the game he was playing on his phone. Olivia was confused as to what question he was answering, but she figured it was both of them.



“Liv, let’s see the dress then!” Andie called from behind the curtain.

Olivia rolled her eyes and mumbled a quick ‘hold on’ before using one hand to pull off her white jeans and another to hold herself up on the wall. She removed her cardigan and shirt before pulling the tight dress over her head. Tugging on the bottom of it, Olivia stared intently at the reflection in the mirror. She had to give it to Andie, the dress did look nice on her, she’d admit that, but it was way too short for her to ever feel comfortable in it.

She sighed and turned around to open the curtain of the small area, revealing Andie, Harry, and Louis all sat on the sofa just outside. She laughed quietly when she noticed Harry sat on top of Louis and his legs resting on Andie’s lap.

“Okay, you seriously need to buy that,” the blonde threw Harry’s feet off of her and stood up, pushing Olivia’s shoulder and making her turn around.

“No,” Olivia said stubbornly.

Andie rolled her eyes before heading into the changing room next to her, she knew there was no point arguing about clothes with Olivia, it was one of those things where she knew she wasn’t going to win.

“I like your tattoo,” Harry quickly spoke, causing Olivia to turn back around to him, “I always wanted one like that back in high school,” he laughed quietly.

“Thanks,” Olivia mumbled, her fingers distractedly tracing the tattoo. Harry’s comment had reminded her of the signing last week, she’d seen his arm where his matching tattoo once was. She’d never really thought why he’d gotten it removed, but now Olivia had to wonder if the tattoo ever existed.

“You guys are still coming round for pizza tonight, right?” Louis interrupted, sticking his head around the corner of the fitting rooms. Andie called an agreement from her cubicle, leaving Olivia to quietly head back into hers and get changed.

Harry, on the other hand, wondered out of the store to find the nearest Starbucks, he found himself more and more confused each day that he found himself with the new additions to his friend group. He had no idea why he suddenly felt the need to always want to be around Olivia, because to him, it wasn’t even like she acted the same.



Later that night after a few pizza’s and a movie, Olivia found herself on the floor of One Direction’s apartment, discussing the final details of their road trip tomorrow. They’d already figured out that they were to stop off in Cheshire and Doncaster, seeing as both Liam and Andies parents were away for the summer and they obviously couldn’t go to Ireland.

“Alright then,” Andie interrupted the small chatter that had grew amongst the group, “Are you gonna play us something or what? I wanna tell everyone I got a special acoustic performance from One Direction,” she laughed and manoeuvred herself around on the floor so that she was lying on her stomach, staring directly up at the boys all sat on the sofas. Niall laughed loudly before giving the other boys a soft shrug, he’d been messing around with his guitar all night, and he was always the one up for singing.

“Do something different, though!” Tay suggested and Louis eyes instantly lit up as he mentioned for Niall to play his favourite song.

Niall started to play a familiar song on his guitar and Olivia held her breath for a few too many seconds before putting the acoustic sounds to the name of the song she knew far too well. The boys seemed to know the song as well, and Liam kicked in with the first verse.

“Stay with me, baby stay with me tonight, don’t leave me alone. Walk with me, come and walk with me, to the edge of all we’ve ever known,” he laughed lightly at everyone else in the room falling silent and Andie seemed to be staring awkwardly at him.

Olivia on the other hand didn’t know what to do. She fiddled around with her hands in her lap, of all of the songs in the world, Louis went with this one?

Liam pointed over at Louis, who was on the other side of the room next to Zayn, causing to him to sing the second part of the verse.

“I can see you there with the city lights, fourteenth floor, pale blue eyes. I can breathe you in. Two shadows standing by the bedroom door, no, I could not want you more than I did right then, as our heads leaned in,” he playfully grabbed Zayn and attempted to kiss him but the dark haired boy pulled away almost instantly, as if he knew exactly what Louis was going to do before he even did it.

Olivia pulled her focus up to the boys, her eyes flickering from one of them to another. They all had small smiles on their faces, probably from Louis actions seconds ago. Harry’s smile faded a little as Niall sped up on the guitar and his eyes instantly dropped to his hands in his lap, much like Olivia has done minutes ago, before he started to sing.

“Well I’m not sure what this is gonna be but with my eyes closed all I see is the skyline through the window, the moon above you and the streets below,” he paused and took a breath whilst Olivia continued staring a little too harshly at him. She didn’t want him to finish the chorus, she sat there and hoped that something out of the blue would stop their little acoustic session so she didn’t have to hear the next part of the song.

“Hold my breath as you’re moving in, taste your lips and feel your skin. When the time comes, baby don’t run,” Harry paused for another breath, subtly lifting his head back up. Olivia bit her lip as she considered walking straight out of their apartment right this very second, but something made her stay there. Something made her want to hear him sing it.

Harry slowly lifted his eyes up and caught his own with Olivia’s stare before lowering his voice slightly and singing again, “Just kiss me slowly.”

And that was the exact moment that Olivia tasted the familiar metallic taste in her mouth from biting down on the inside of her lip too hard. It was as if he knew. It was as if Harry knew what that song had once meant to them and he was doing it just to spite her. Olivia tore her eyes away from Harry’s and slowly excused herself from the group before rushing out of the front door, a harsh hand running through her tangled hair.

She stood unstably outside their apartment against the cold wall trying to steady her breathing. It was one of those times when she knew a panic attack could occur at any second, and she tried anything and everything she could remember to stop it from happening.

“Olivia,” she turned her head slowly, seeing Harry slowly pulling the door closed beside her, “Are you alright?”

“Y-yeah,” she stuttered, “I just-“ Olivia tried explaining before she was cut off by a pair of lips on hers.

Olivia didn’t respond at first, she just found herself stood there trying to figure out what just happened. Harry gently moved his hands to hers, placing his fingers in between Olivia’s. This action sparked something in Olivia and she instantly responded to the kiss, seconds before Harry pulled away.

Their stares was locked for a few seconds before Olivia pulled away quickly, nearly banging her head against the brick wall in surprise. She stared at Harry for a few more seconds before untangling their hands and moving her body from under his.

“I – uh, I’m just gonna head back home, I’ll uh, see you guys tomorrow,” she mumbled quietly before turning around and heading down the hallway at a slightly quicker pace.

Olivia couldn’t quite comprehend what had just happened, and she honestly didn’t know whether she wanted to or not. All she knew for sure was that she wanted to kill Andie for starting it all.