Still the One

The man quickly retaliates letting his fist meet Harry’s mouth. Harry uses one of his hands to hold the man around the neck and punching him repeatedly with the other. The man hits Harry again with the help of the others grabbing Harry off of him. A blow to the stomach causes Harry to let out a groan. I push the other ones off of him where he goes back to fighting the man. One of the others grabs my arms back where I couldn’t help Harry, ‘let me go!’ I shout squirming in their grasp. Harry punches the guy in his face over and over until the man doesn’t bother moving again.

‘Get the hell off her.’ Harry hissed angrily. He threw his fist past me hitting the guy in his face. A pool of blood rushed from his nose. I duck getting out of the way. Harry finishes up and practically drags me out the side door. He opens his car door and pushes me lightly inside. As his hands grip the steering wheel I see how bloody his knuckles are. A mixture of his and the different men in the pub. ‘Why- did you go to the pub?’ he asks, words less slurred than earlier. I open my mouth but no words managed to escape. I’ve never seen Harry fight before but I must say he’s pretty darn great at it. He took on two or three different guys and they barely made a scratch on him. I studied his lower lip, there was blood into the corner. He looked over at me before pulling his lip in between his teeth.

‘I came to see why you weren’t back yet.’ I finally find the courage to say. He lets out an exasperated laugh.

‘I am more than capable of going out without my girlfriend having to check up on me.’

‘Well you left your girlfriend waiting in your flat for hours.’ I bark back. Why did you just say that?

‘You don’t need to check in on me. In fact, that probably wouldn’t have escalated to that if you weren’t there.’ Yep. He was still drunk.

‘What did you just say?’

‘If you weren’t there things wouldn’t have got to that level.’ He states.

‘Well sorry you had to defend me and my nuttjob of a mother.’

‘Libby I-..’ he starts.

‘Leave me alone Harry.’ I look out the window for the rest of the way back to his flat. I sit on the edge of the bed staring at the wall. Harry pulls off his clothes and slides in beside me.

‘Baby.’ He murmurs against my neck giving it a small kiss. I brush off of him sliding down onto the floor. I drag a pillow with me and Harry’s throw blanket. I wrap myself up on the floor slowly closing my eyes before feeling Harry's breathing against my face.

‘Move.’ I roll my eyes at him turning the opposite way.

‘I’m sorry.’ He says quietly, ‘you know I didn’t mean it that way. I was just pissed okay.’

‘Why?’ I ask with my back still to him.

‘Because someone hurt you. Earlier today outside Louis’ game when the paps flocked us. Someone told them about your mum. Just when you felt comfortable enough to open up to me. You don’t know how badly I wanted to kick someone’s ass out there. Then tonight at the pub those pricks were saying all that crap. I didn’t care about them talking about me or any of that but then they brought you into it. He said something about getting a hotel room with you and I just lost it. Thinking about anyone touching your body makes me sick to my stomach. Mostly I wanted to destroy anyone who hurts you so that’s why.’ He touches his lip gently. I realize his hands are still busted open.

‘Come on.’ I stand up and walk into the toilet. I get a wash cloth and run it under warm water then easily dab Harry’s knuckles. He jumps biting down onto his lip. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘For what?’ he looks up at me as he sits on the edge of the tub while I stand in between his legs.

‘Putting too much pressure on your hands and for coming down to the pub tonight.’

‘Well I’m sorry for what I said in the car. Truth is, it would’ve gotten pretty bad there with or without you around. I’m actually glad you were there.’

‘Why? You were handling your own very well tonight.’ I stiff out a laugh taking his other hand in mine cleaning it.

‘Because of you I didn’t completely lose it on that guy. I didn’t want you to see my like that at all.’ I nod in response looking at him. ‘So..’ he pauses, ‘how bad did I give it to em?’ we both burst out into a fit of laughter. I kiss his forehead before pressing mine to his.

‘You’ve really been practicing your boxing, yeh?’

‘You tell me.’ He smirks. What felt like minutes later Harry's alarm was blaring throughout the room. He groans as he reaches over to turn it off. ‘Can I take you to the airport?’ I inquire.

‘Do you want to?’ He kicks out of the bed and stands to his feet. I nod in response then watch as Harry goes into the toilet to shower. Once he's finished I brush my teeth and my hair then slip into a pair of trainers. Harry is dressed in a gray sweater, black jeans, and black boots. He shakes his head and carefully rakes his fingers through his hair. ‘Ready.’

‘My car.’ I remembered once I spotted only Harry's Range Rover and vintage white car outside.

‘I'll have it towed here for you this morning.’ Harry pulls his luggage out of the flat and to his boot of the car. He climbs into the Range Rover in the same minute I did then started it up. I hold onto his arm as he drives not wanting to let go. He leans down and kisses my head at every other stop light. We arrive at Heathrow Airport too soon and walk into the lobby. From the outside paps take pictures of us entering the airport.

‘Where are the others?’ I ask curiously.

‘They're already in Australia. Everyone left after the game.’ I look down remembering all that happened yesterday. ‘Hey.’ Harry lifts my chin kissing my lips, ‘could you watch my flat?’ Before I could decline he places the keys into my palm. I look down at the white bandages covering his knuckles from his brawl last night. ‘Take care of it. And yourself.’ He slightly chuckles, ‘I'll miss you.’

‘I'll miss you Harry.’ I croak getting that annoying lump in my throat.

‘Don't cry.’ His voice is shaky. ‘You know how much I hate to see you cry.’ I wrap my arms around his torso as he does the same. I bury my face into his sweater breathing in my favorite scent, Harry. ‘Come visit me soon, yeh?’

‘Give me the dates and I'll be there.’ I confirm. He leans down pressing his lips to mine. I didn't waste time to kiss him back. Our lips moved against each other.

‘Final call for those going to Sydney, Australia.’ We hear over the intercom. Harry groans into the kiss slowly pulling back.

‘That's you.’

‘I'll call you as soon as I land.’

‘Bye Harry.’

‘Bye baby.’ He kisses my lips once more before dragging himself to the terminal. He turns before he goes in and waves. I smile holding in the tears waving back. I wipe the few tears watching as Harry goes with a few more people running late. I walk back out to his car and climb inside. I pull out of the parking lot as paps take more pictures. I make it back to Harry's flat and crawl into his bed sleeping on his side. When I woke again my car was out front next to his as he promised. I change into a pair of sweats and a tee shirt. I keep myself preoccupied by cleaning around the flat a bit. Halfway into the day I get into my car to get something to eat. A few minutes after I turn my phone on I get a late voicemail from Eleanor. I pressed it to my ear as I press listen.

Hey lib it's me, again. I don't know what's going on exactly with the paps and rumors and all that rubbish but I don't care. You’re one of my best friends and I don't want to see you hurt. I hate it. Anyway we should get together soon since the others went to Australia with the lads we have to stick together. Call me. Love you.

I breathe slowly as I dial Eleanor's number. She immediately answers asking where I am. I told her I was staying at Harry's for a bit that's when she said she was coming over in an hour. I wait on the bed until I hear the doorbell. I open the door to be tackled into a hug by Eleanor. ‘I missed you too.’ I slightly joked hugging her back.

‘Don't you ever stay away from me that long!’ she stated.

‘I won't I promise.’ And I meant it. I hated being away from all my friends because of my twisted family life. Eleanor and I settle on the sofa watching a film.

‘So, what’s going on?’ she finally asks. I sigh turning the volume on the telly down a bit.

‘You’ve read the stories?’

‘No I want to hear what’s going on from you not some rubbish article.’ She shakes her head, ‘only if you’re comfortable with it.’

‘Not right now.’ I tell her. I just opened up to Harry I wasn’t ready to tell anyone else, just yet.

‘Whenever you’re ready.’ She smiles before turning her attention back to the film. ‘I wonder what the lads are doing.’

Harry’s Point of View

‘how was your flight?’ Paul asks once he picks me up from the airport. I help by putting my bags into the car.

‘It was long.’ I grumble tiredly. I had a bad crook in my neck from attempting to sleep on the flight. I didn’t sleep long I was dreaming of Libby. God how did I already miss her? Hell I missed her the moment she left my arms.

‘The others are already asleep.’ He informs me. I nod in response taking the spare phone in the front. I’m at least ten hours ahead of Libby in London. This is going to be hard. I make it to the hotel and go right up to my room. I take off my clothes and immediately collapse in the bed. The next day we had to go to the venue to rehearse for the show tonight. I dial Libby’s number and wait as it rings. She doesn’t answer so she must be asleep.

Hey baby it’s me. Uh sorry for not calling you last night I was exhausted. Hoping to hear your voice because I’m already missing you. That sounded so cheesy. I don’t care. I miss you Lib. We’ll talk soon. Bye.

I hung up the phone and put it away, ‘hey bro! When’d you get in?’ Liam cheers walking over to me. Niall, Zayn, and Louis trail behind him as always.

‘Early this morning.’ I answer swinging my feet back and forth.

‘What happened the other day?’ Niall asks and they all shoot him glares.

‘Nothing.’ I shake my head. It wasn’t my place to blab Libby’s family’s business. ‘Just a bunch of rubbish by the paps again. Let’s rehearse.’ They all follow me to the stage. I hope she’s alright.