Last Girl Standing

“Why do you think you should stay?”

Sadie’s breath caught in her throat, as she stared at Zayn from her place on the chair. Her hands were shaking, and she couldn’t stop from kicking her legs back and forth.

When she found out she was up for elimination, Sadie couldn’t believe it. Sure, there were only ten girls left in the house, but wasn’t her relationship with Harry strong enough to keep her from being one of the three?

Sadie took a deep breath, as she attempted to hold back her tears.

Her gaze moved to Harry, who was simply lounging back in his chair, staring at her. He didn’t look half as upset as she was. In fact, he didn’t look upset at all.

She began wracking her brain for reasons why he’d want to put her up, but she couldn’t come up with anything. Just the day before, they’d gone on a date together, and she had though it was perfect.

“Sadie, love,” Louis said, setting his hands in his lap. “Why do you think you should stay?”

She looked back at Harry, whose dark eyes immediately settled on hers. His expression was blank. Not solemn, not confused, not upset, not reassuring at all. Completely blank.

Harry had told her the stories about how Niall and Zayn had practically jumped across the room to save their girls, but he wasn’t even smiling at her. He wasn’t giving her any reaction at all. She didn’t know if she should be angry or upset, but she certainly knew she wasn’t happy.

“I – uh.”

Sadie was stammering, her words stumbling as her mind attempted to catch up with her tongue. Her answer should have been easy. If they had asked her half an hour ago why she thought she should stay in the Love Games house, she could have come up with a thousand reasons, but that was before they put her up for elimination.

She could confess all the feelings that she had for Harry, but that didn’t seem right anymore. She was up for elimination. She was one of the girls they had decided they weren’t sure was worth staying. If the feelings that Harry had said she had for her were true, why was she up for elimination? And more importantly, why wasn’t he fighting for her to stay?

“I guess, uh.” She paused again, looking down at the floor. “I guess I don’t know.”

A single tear rolled down her cheek, and she quickly pushed it away. She didn’t want the boys to know how upset she was, but her attempt failed.

“Sadie, baby.” Harry stood up from his seat as soon as her tear fell. Before she could say another word, he was sitting right next to her, cupping her head in his hands. His eyes roved over her face, trailing over every inch of it, before landing on her bright blue ones. “Sadie, don’t cry. You’re not going home.”

He pulled her to him, pressing her head against his chest. His hand moved to her hair, as his fingers wrapped up in it. He knew Sadie well enough to know that playing with her hair was the best way to soothe her.

As his hands moved back and forth through her chocolate hair, he pressed his lips to her ear, whispering to her. “Sadie, we were never going to send you home. I would never let them send you home. You know that, right?”

“But-“

Her words were muffled against his soft shirt, but she barely had a chance to speak them before he cut her off. He pulled her from his chest, as he pressed their foreheads together. His dark eyes met her tearstained ones, as his fingers moved to her cheeks.

“But nothing. You’re not leaving. I don’t want you to leave. Nobody wants you to leave.”

“Then why would-” she paused, looking over at Zayn. “Why did he put me up?”

Half of Harry’s face turned up in a smile, as she turned back to him. “We already know who we’re sending home. We all agreed beforehand. Louis and I just wanted to see what you guys would say. Louis wanted to see how serious Kelsie was about him, and I was waiting for you to confess all your feelings for me, but clearly that backfired.”

Sadie squinted her eyes, as she pursed her lips at Harry. What an ass.

Balling her hand into a fist, she punched Harry’s shoulder, giggling as she did so.

“You are such an ass!”

She shoved him again and he was quick to grab her hands, tossing them to the side as he wrapped his arms around her.

With her head pressed against his chest, several soft laughs escaped her lips. “I hate you so much.”

His hands moved to her hair again, wrapping his fingers around it. “No you don’t.”

“Yes I do.”

Harry shook his head, as he pressed his lips to her ear. His warm breath landed on her skin as he spoke, sending a small chill through her body. “You forgive me.”

“Not quite.”

“Please, forgive me.”

While all their words before had been whispered, this time when Sadie spoke, she spoke loudly enough for the other boys to hear, mostly Louis.

“I’ll only forgive Harry if you let me warn Kelsie about what you’re planning to do.”

Louis glared at her, a small smile on his lips as he did. “But then I won’t know how she really feels.”

Sadie laughed, cocking her head to the side. “She likes you, Lou. I can promise you that.”

Louis’s eyes shifted from Sadie to Harry, who was giving him his best puppy dog look. Sighing, Louis nodded his head. “Fine, you can warn her.”

Turning back to Harry, Sadie smiled. “It looks like I forgive you.”

His hands moved to her cheek, as his dimples grew larger. His large fingers moved back and forth across her skin, and she couldn’t stop the warmth that flooded her body.

Even though he had unintentionally made her cry just a few moments before, he was still the greatest person she had met in a very long time. She wanted nothing more than to crash into his arms and have him hold her for the rest of the day, but he was still going to have to pay for what he did. She figured an hour of her pushing him away would be enough.

“You two can have your little moment later, yeah?” Niall said, smiling at them from across the room. “We’ve got an elimination to get to.”

Tanisha pulled the other girls into the room slowly, their footsteps moving as if they carried a thousand weights. Harry still sat next to Sadie, causing an odd look to pass over the two other girl’s faces. She tried to push him away – to send him back to his appropriate place with the other boys – but he refused to remove his hand from around her shoulder. He was far too comfortable by her side to leave.

The all-knowing Tanisha was too well versed in Harry and Sadie’s relationship to even make an attempt at sending him to the other side.

“I guess we should just get to it, then,” Liam said, resting his elbows on his legs. “Aurora, you are nice girl, but you haven’t made a connection with anyone. As much as we’d like to see you stay, you haven’t really put yourself out there or made yourself available to anyone. My vote is for you.”

The boys went down the line, until Liam, Niall, and Louis had each said Aurora’s name. The girl didn’t appear to be shock. She seemed more calm than anything else, and she was quick to stand from her place.

“Aurora, I need you to pack your bag. I’m sorry, but your Love Games are over.”

Tanisha kept her voice low, attempting to show compassion to the girl.

When the rest of the group stood up, ready to make their way out of the elimination room, Tanisha spoke again. “I’ll need the rest of you to stay seated.”

Everyone’s eyes went wide, as they looked at Tanisha with confusion. Sadie had never been up for elimination before, but she knew enough to know that they didn’t make you stay after someone had been eliminated.

Sadie’s eyes flashed to Harry’s, as she looked at him with worry. His teeth tugged at his bottom lip, while his arm pushed her closer to him.

“In light of last week’s elimination, where the eliminated girl was brought back,” Tanisha said, folding her hands in front of her. “In this week’s elimination, we’re going to be sending home two girls instead of one.”

Harry was quick to stand up, his hand wrapping around Sadie’s as he did so. His voice was almost snappy as he spoke, which was very unlike him. Sadie had never seen him that way before.

“Well, sorry Kelsie,” Harry said, standing in front of her, with Sadie next to him. “It looks like you’re going home.”

“Harry,” Sadie said, tugging at his arm. “Don’t be so rude.”

He looked down at her, his chocolate eyes taking in her blue ones. “I’m not letting them send you home, Sadie. It’s gotta be her.”

“I’m sorry, Harry,” Tanisha said. “We’ll have to take a vote on it.”

“Kelsie,” Louis said quickly, as his eyes flashed between the girl, Harry, and Sadie. He stood up, taking a few slow steps towards her. Taking the seat next to her, he faked a smile, as his hand wrapped around hers. “I’m sorry, love. I know we were just starting to make a connection. I don’t want to send you home. I really don’t. If I had known.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, but Harry’s my best mate. He and Sadie are perfect together. She’s gotta stay.”

Tears flooded Kelsie’s eyes immediately, as her hands flew to her face. She pushed Louis away and stood up from the sofa as quickly as she had sat down. The girl was out of the room in seconds, before anyone had any time to react.

Louis’s teeth nibbled at his lip, but he didn’t make a move to console her. Instead, he stayed seated on the sofa, staring off at the peach walls.

“I’m sorry, Lou,” Harry said, looking down at his distraught friend. “I was rude and quick to speak. I’m sorry, I just –“

“It’s okay, mate” Louis said, looking up at Harry with a smile. “It really is. I liked you and Sadie more than I liked her. But you two owe me big time.”

“What is that like three things now?”

Louis nodded, as he stood up from the sofa. “That’s right. You owe me three favors. Both of you do.”

Letting go of Harry’s hand, Sadie pulled Louis into a quick hug, squeezing him as tightly as she could for those few moments. When she pulled away, he looked down at her with a soft smile.

“Thank you so much, Lou.” Sadie smiled at him as she spoke. “I really do owe you.”

Nodding his head, he began walking out of the elimination room, following behind Tanisha and the other boys. He turned back to them one last time with a smile. “And I charge interest.”

Sadie chuckled, as she looked back up at Harry. His dimples were covering his cheeks, which only made her smile grow wider. It had only been a few minutes of the hour long cold shoulder she was supposed to be giving him, but when his hands wrapped around her waist and his lips began moving towards hers, her heart melted and she forgave him right then and there.