Emotional Vacancy

Two days had passed since our show in Columbia. Two days since I had received some weird yet needed insight from the unsuspecting mind of Harry Styles. Also, two days since I had gotten that oddly endearing albeit incredibly weird note from Harry as well. I hadn’t exactly spoken to Harry about it in depth like I really wanted to; I mean, that night when I was brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed, he’d wandered into the bathroom, getting ready to take a shower, and I’d thanked him then for the beautiful flowers, but I got too scared and gave him a hasty good night after rinsing my mouth and putting my hair into a messy ponytail. But since then, I didn’t know how to go about asking him what his note meant. I mean, how do you go about asking him to explain what this reoccurring yes means without sounding like a total bitch or weirdo for not remembering a question I’d asked him, or even if I’d actually asked it.

But unlike my brain, time moved on, and I was currently sitting at a table downstairs at the hotel’s restaurant next to Zayn who looked to be trying to prove to me that he had the sexiest Sex Playlist in existence. We were all grabbing breakfast before going our separate ways. Sage and I had an acoustic set in this beautiful city square and the guys had a couple of interviews and a photo shoot.

“How do you not have Led Zeppelin on here?”

Before Zayn could react to my statement, Harry’s approaching figure stopped me and made me look up. I was instantly met with his infectious and incredibly boyish smile. In turn, I smiled back at him—it was hard not to.

“I love the new body wash you’re using. It makes the whole bathroom smell like watermelon.”

Yes, those were the first words out of his mouth this morning, which kind of made me choke on my own spit a bit. Of the five days I’ve been around this odd human being, he’s proven to be the most awkward person who says things that are about as awkward as his occasional pigeon-toed stances. I was starting to think that Harry just liked saying random things just to see how everybody else reacted.

Zayn shifted in his seat.

“You can thank Kevin. He got me and Sage a shower gel basket as a congratulatory present for our first show in Columbia,” I answered, shrugging a bit at Sage who was making a weird face behind Harry. I’m sure my face was a light pink.

Before anything else could be said to cut the weird vibe that was now settling on the table, Zayn and Sage sharing looks of weirdness between them, Louis bounded into the hotel restaurant, Niall’s voice ringing out their approach.

“It’s time for the Shake!” he announced loudly, excited as he rushed past Louie and towards me.

That got me up and out of my seat as I scooted out from the table and began to clap excitedly. “It’s time for the Bake!”

I should probably tell you that in the past two days, Niall and I had perfected a super secret friend handshake. Yeah, Niall and I had gotten surprisingly closer in the past two days, swapping snacks and laughing at stupid jokes. I found that snacks were actually where Niall and I bonded seeing as the dude constantly ate.

Niall sauntered up to me and we turned in a circle two times, perfectly in sync, patted our thighs three times not doing the sing-along part of the whole shake. After we backed away from each other, wiggling our fingers, our arms outstretched in front of us, we rushed back together and gave each other a high five, that circled into a backward high-five.

“What the hell was that?” Louis asked, taking a seat on the other side of Zayn. I turned to see everyone looking at Niall and me like we were weird.

I shrugged, “Something you’re not invited to.”

Liam was the last to take a seat at the table, settling down to pour himself a cup of tea, his iPad sitting on the table next to him.

“Are you all ready to order?” asked a lady with long brown hair, dressed in the hotel uniform and a heavy Peruvian accent.

“Ah, yes. I’ll take a coffee, latte, and as many scones as you can give me,” Niall started.

As we all started ordering, I poured myself another cup of tea, dumping a couple of teaspoons of sugar before looking at everyone, wondering if we were going to be joined by Kevin and Paul at some point before we started eating.

Before I could say anything, I heard Liam hum a “humph”, making my ears perk a bit as I turned to look at him. Everyone else did the same thing and we watched him a moment as his eyebrows knitted together and he read from his iPad silently. It was when a lengthy silence followed that we all got a bit impatient.

“What’s the ‘humph’ about?” Louis said. “Is there another rumor that my hair isn’t fierce today? It doesn’t feel as fierce it normally does.” Louie’s face dropped a bit.

“Aw, I like your hair today,” Zayn comforted, putting an arm around Louis.

“Seems someone tweeted me a link to a story and the story is about us and the girls,” Liam responded, not looking up from his iPad.

I felt Niall shift beside me and I looked at him as he gave a weird look to Sage. I tilted my head as he looked back down, a light blush on his face.

“Niall?”

He looked at me, the blush still dusted across his usually pale cheeks.

“What was that look?”

Before Niall could say anything. “So there’s a rumor that Martie is Harry’s new fling.”

“Whoa what?” I asked, jumping up and rushing to stand right behind Liam. How could they think that I was seeing Harry? We hadn’t even—

I started skimming the article and my eyes dropped down to the grainy photo of Harry and I standing at a restaurant, alone together, waiting to be seated and then another photo of us sitting down at the bar, alone together.

Shit.

“Oh god.”

“Wait, you were wearing that last night? Was this while you two were waiting for everyone to meet up?” Liam asked, looking back at me.

I nodded, “Yeah, that was while we waited for nearly half an hour for you guys to show up.”

“We look good in those pictures, never mind the shit quality of them,” Harry said, craning his already ridiculously long neck right next to Liam to look at the article as well.

Another weird statement. I’m just going to ignore it this time. Like he never said a word.

As Liam slowly scrolled up, my eyes began to bug out at the picture and the heading of the second story. Sage was swimming in the hotel pool, completely naked with a very naked Niall. What?

I looked back at Niall and then to Sage. “Um, did you guys skinny-dip at some point in the last twelve hours?”

Niall blushed furiously, looking down at his plate, probably either hoping to disappear or hoping that food would magically appear on the plate so he could stuff his mouth and avoid answering the question. Sage frowned. “Yeah.”

Everyone looked at her (except Niall).

“What? Is there a picture?” she asked, standing up.

“Um…”

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to answer with. At least there was one photo, but still, what was the correct response to that kind of question. Pictures said plenty of things on their own, but as far as assisting in an answer to them—I had nothing.

She appeared behind me moments later, staring at the picture of them in the hotel pool, which according to the article was closed when they decided to go for a dip.

When Liam came to the end of the article we all were left staring at either Sage or Niall, who had yet to look up from his plate. But almost on cue, the server came back to the table with all of our orders. Niall was the first to get his food and latte, already picking up a piping hot, cranberry scone and devouring it. If we weren’t in this situation, I could chalk it up to the fact that he’s just a hungry bastard, but…

The banana nut muffin was placed on my plate and a glass of orange juice placed above the plate was the reminder that I indeed had food that I ordered. But right now, I couldn’t be bothered with something as insignificant as a banana nut muffin.

“Um, you two skinny-dipped?” I finally said, breaking the silence. Everyone was still looking back and forth between them.

“Yeah.”

Sage had answered it so simply. But without any elaboration, we all continued to stare at her (except Niall), waiting for a better answer. When I figured that we weren’t going to get much out of her, I decided Niall would be my source. Of course I couldn’t ask him now because firstly, the boy was stuffing his face to avoid talking, secondly, we were at a full table, and thirdly, I felt like Niall and I had become friends and that meant he’d be able to tell me if he didn’t feel like he was being forced and if he didn’t feel like the guys would make fun of him.

As we all finished our breakfast, Kevin and Paul had joined up, passing around two agendas. As I looked me and Sage’s over, passing the guys’ agenda when Niall was attempting to pass it to Zayn, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Kevin. He was nodding for me to follow him. Taking another bite out of my delicious muffin, I quickly excused myself and followed after him, a bit confused but letting my pokerface stay in tact until I needed to change it.

“Sup Kev-monster,” I said, giving him a friendly punch in the arm. He laughed a bit and nodded.

“I’m alright munchkin.” He let the silence settle back in before he shifted his weight and his face slowly changed from jovial to a bit serious. “Hey, I just wanted to make you aware of some of the rumors that are spreading like wildfire on the internet—“

“If this is about me and Harry dating, I already know. I wish they’d just get it right, I mean, I proposed to him last night while alone for thirty minutes at that restaurant that I can’t remember the name of,” I said, feigning annoyance before laughing.

Kevin wasn’t laughing.

“You’re a grown woman—in fact the oldest performing act on the tour—“

“That wasn’t needed.”

“My point Martinella is that you are old enough to make your own decisions. Now I know you and Harry were just waiting at that restaurant alone, but I just want to put up a caution that Harry is a nineteen-year-old boy, that means he gets into relationships, gives his heart for about a couple months and then pulls back out. His dating record isn’t spectacular. I just want you to think clearly before proceeding into a relationship with him.”

I narrowed my eyes at Kevin for a moment, trying to see if there was an ounce of humor in those icy blue eyes of his. When there wasn’t, I gave out a humorless laugh, “Shows how much you know Kevin. Did this come from the stories about him hitting me with a door?”

“He sent you flowers back in Columbia.”

“As a good luck present.”

Kevin shrugged, tilting his head from side to side before his eyes lashed back down to me, “Maybe, maybe not. I’m just trying to keep you from getting too invested in this boy.”

“I’ll be fine Kevin. You mind your business and I won’t ask why you keep talking every concierge we’ve had at hotels. Harry’s just a teenage boy, who’s thoughtful and kind and weirdly wise. Besides, why aren’t you getting on Sage? She’s closer friends with Harry than me.”

“She’ll get her moment as well. I just thought I should tell you first. You can go finish eating, you’re going to need the energy for the day.”

Turning on my heel and feeling a tad bombarded and honestly blind-sided, I walked toward the table, making sure my smile wasn’t too lopsided or painful as I sat down at the table. Like who the fuck was Kevin? And why did he need to warn me about a boy who probably didn’t care for me like Kevin was insinuating? Picking at the rest of my muffin, not sure if I was really hungry anymore, I looked at Niall who looked less pink than before and had demolished seven scones that were no longer on his plate, now sipping down latte. It was probably a few minutes after I sat down that Niall tugged my elbow under the table and nodded his head towards the bathroom. “Can I ask for your help with something?”

I looked at him a moment. Niall naturally had an incredibly boyish, somewhat innocent face if he wasn’t smirking, and it didn’t help that his face also looked like an honest one. His eyes were kind of pleading with me to just say yes, so I nodded and stood up.

“I’m getting Niall a tampon, we’ll be back,” I announced, earning hearty laughs as I pulled him from his seat and maneuvered him and myself through the sea of empty tables and towards the hallway that had the bathrooms. So far, we were the only patrons in the restaurant seeing as it was still incredibly early and all the business trippers had already long gone. So this was about as private as we could get.

“Spit it out Four-Leaf, I know something weird is going on between you and Sage,” I said, crossing my arms and raising my eyebrows a bit, waiting for him to make a move.

“I saw Sage naked.”

I nodded, “As to be expected of skinny-dipping.”

“No, you don’t understand, I saw her naked.”

“Am I missing something? You guys went skinny-dipping in the pool, so yes, you saw Sage’s taco and melons.”

“Yeah, you’re not getting it…wait, did you just say taco and melons?”

“Yes, and obviously because you didn’t even start at point A, you just went straight for it.”

“No, that is a point A. That’s how I saw her for the first time in Columbia.”

He let me settle in with the news, my brain beginning to link the moment when I rushed across the hall, late dropping by to pick her up. I remember she opened the door, looking flustered and kind of…bothered?

“Whoa wait, so the day that I got hit in the face with the door, you stumbled into her room and saw her naked?”

“I didn’t stumble. I was meant to be there.”

I sighed deeply. I wasn’t following. Rubbing the side of my face, I looked back at him, “Were you trying to get a quickie in?”

“No!” he shouted, blushing a bit. “No, I was tryin’ to surprise her since I heard that she got in and then when I got into her actual room, she was in the middle of changin’ and I couldn’t help but get a bit freaked out at first and try to turn around but the second me eyes hit that body I was like…hypnotized.”

My mouth made the shape of a large ‘o’ and I nodded, closing my eyes a moment before opening them back up, my dark brown eyes hitting Niall. “I see. So, what do you need help with? I can’t scrub brains no matter how much my business card says I do.”

Bad joke #1 of the day.

“No, I’m just…confused. Does she even like me?”

So, I may be privy to this kind of information. But to be fair, I never got in the middle of Sage’s prospects. But when it came to Niall, he was turning into a best friend and I helped my best friends. So would it technically be bad if I nudged Niall along in order to get him and Sage to be a couple? I didn’t see anything wrong with it.

“Listen, I’m not going to confirm or deny, do you understand?”

He nodded.

“I’ll start you off with this: those chocolates you got her back in Columbia, you might be better off eating that whole box by yourself—she doesn’t really like sweets.”

“She doesn’t like sweets?!” he shouted.

I punched him in the shoulder, “Shut up, and I know, it’s like she’s an alien from some distant galaxy just watching us eat candy all day and night. But she doesn’t like sweets. Flowers are your best bet.”

“No sweets, flowers good.”

“Yeah.”

“Can you help set me up wit her?”

After agreeing to help Niall, my new best friend, get a date with my best friend I decided that it was probably time for us to get back before the whole table thought we’d ditched them to eat sweets in my hotel room—something we’ve already done in the short time we’d known each other. When we got back, Sage wasn’t at the table, Liam had taken Niall’s seat and Harry was scribbling down in that infamous journal of his, ear buds securely set in his ears. I took my seat back as Louis and Niall said their goodbyes.

“Morning Liam.”

“Morning Martie. Are you done picking at your breakfast?” he asked, setting down his iPad.

I shrugged, “There’s still this whole chunk that hasn’t been picked at.”

He laughed, nodding, taking a sip of his tea. It was then that my eyes caught something on his iPad. It was a picture of a guy and a girl, lying on the ground. The tattoos on the right arm of the guy looked vaguely familiar—actually annoyingly familiar—and was accompanied with the headline that read something along the lines of leaked Harry Styles pictures.

I couldn’t help but stare at the screen for a moment, unable to process the range of emotions I was feeling at seeing another girl straddling Harry’s waist…or at least a torso that looked freakishly like his waist as it was attached to an arm that looked freakishly like his own. I was feeling kind of…upset? I don’t know. Something was welling up in my stomach like a toxic tide and it definitely wasn’t my banana nut muffin. And with this feeling I found myself frozen in my seat, staring as hard as ever at this picture, trying to find the anomaly. Surely one of these tattoos wasn’t his. Surely I could find that these were photoshopped and conjured up by some starving gossip columnist needing to prove they could bring in readers. But, the more I stared at that arm, the more it became clear. This was Harry. In a hotel room. With that jacket he wears hanging so cleverly in the midground, blocking out the face of the girl and most importantly his face.

I felt my face burn.

“Martie!”

I looked up at Liam, confused.

“Sage wants you to meet her at the car in fifteen. You might want to hurry up and finish your crumbs.”

I feel sick.