Best Friends Means...

"So what's the plan for today?" I asked, fastening my hair into a bun on top of my head, and reaching for my mascara.

"Why are you putting on makeup? I'm the only one who you should be trying to impress, and you've already impressed me." Harry propped himself against the bathroom doorway.

"So I can feel like a decent person. I put makeup on for myself, not you." I scowered back at Harry as he rolled his eyes. "I feel like I gained a whole size after eating those cupcakes last night." We had spent the rest of yesterday lounging around, sleeping, and eating. Harry had run into town while I was sleeping to gather baking supplies and made me my favorite red velvet cupcakes. "But they were so good." I kissed Harry on the cheek as I pushed past him to our shared room. I slipped out of my bath robe and threw on a pair of black skinnies and Harry's cream jumper I had stolen.

"I'm never getting that back, am I?" I shook my head as I walked over to him, and wrapped my arms around his neck. "It's alright, it looks better on you." Harry placed his hands on my hips and quickly pulled me close to him, causing me to let out a giggle. "But it looks even better on the floor." He mumbled into my neck as he kissed my neck softly, biting at all of my sweet spots.

"Please can we actually do something today?" I fought to resist Harry trying to get me in the mood, "other than each other." I smirked as he pulled away and rested his forehead on mine.

"I actually had something planned, thank you very much. We need to leave soon anyway and grab something for lunch, then we can go to it."

"What are we doing?!" I clapped my hands together and grinned like a small child.

"I can't tell you! But wear some comfortable shoes. The cab should be here anytime soon."

I walked over to my bag and picked up my pair of Vans. I sat on the bed and watched as Harry kneeled at my feet to put my shoes on for me. "They probably stink. I'd hold my nose if I were you."

"They're not terrible. Not as bad as Louis'. God, his smell terrible."

"Been putting his shoes on for him, eh?"

"No, smart mouth. You can usually smell them from a mile away." I rolled my eyes as I watched him carefully tie and loop the laces on my dirty shoes. "Hey, remember that time when you got so frustrated that you couldn't learn to tie your shoes?"

My face flushed red as I recalled the memory. "I used to get you to retie my shoes every day at school. I would slip them off and back on the next morning as carefully as I could because I didn't want my mum to be embarrassed that I was the only kid in the class who couldn't tie their shoes."

"So all that time she thought you knew how to tie your shoes?" Harry looked up at me as he finished tying my second shoe.

I nodded, "Yup. Until I finally learned from watching you do the bunny rabbit ears so many times on my shoes, that's the only way I know how to tie them now."

"Well I'm glad I could help you learn how to tie your shoes." Harry stood up and once he was to his feet, he pulled me up to stand with him and pecked me on the lips.

"I can't get over how nice this house is."

"Yeah, Niall's family loans it to any of us whenever we need an escape. Louis and Eleanor came here last. This is usually where all of the Horan's have their holiday festivities."

"Oh, how wonderful!" I said, looking around, just imagining spectacular Christmas decorations all through the house.

"Now let's get going!"

We walked out of the beach house to be greeted by a sleek black vintage car. Not quite the cab I was expecting. "Who's-"

"Not telling you. We've got a driver for the day though. We're going to lunch, then my surprise, then back home to change for dinner, and then we're going out tonight for our last night here." I sighed, hating that we had an itinerary for the whole day "off" but I knew that's the way Harry is used to having his days, so I let it slide. I was also sad that our weekend had almost come to an end so quickly. We had wasted most of our Friday in the bed enjoying each others company.

We arrived at a small corner coffee shop to that served soups, salads, and sandwiches along with a huge selection of coffee drinks. I let Harry order for me as I picked a table in the back corner. A few minutes later he came back with two big bread bowls full of soup, and two cups for each of us.

"Water and a coffee drink." I nodded, as I'm sure he could see my questioning look at him when I saw him coming back with four cups.

"Thanks." I said, taking a spoonful of the scalding hot soup and blowing my breath onto it to cool it down. "This looks delicious. Have you been here before?" I asked, and Harry remained silent but nodded as he ate a bite of soup. "Niall bring you and the guys here before?" Harry shook his head and kept on eating his soup.

"Only been here once before. But I got the same thing, and it's just as good as it was then, if not better. Because you're here with me. I love coming over here to Ireland, just don't let Niall know that. He'll go on his speech about Ireland being the best country in 'teh' world." As Harry was speaking his voice was slowly turning Irish to mock Niall perfectly.

"I almost spit out my soup, you sounded just like him."

"Well, when you're around someone for three years, you learn how to talk like them." I shrugged as we continued eating our soup, but there was something eating at the back of my mind.

"So, who did you come here with? Gemma?"

"No, just quit asking." Harry placed his spoon down in his empty bread bowl then began to pick at the outer edges of it. I could tell he was getting frustrated but I wasn't letting him get away with this.

"Oh, I know who it was."

"You do?" His bright green eyes shot up to meet my sad brown ones.

"You only tell me everything, I just had to think. You brought Taylor here for her birthday, didn't you? You wouldn't talk to me that whole weekend because she thought you had feelings for me. In fact, she hardly ever let you talk to me that entire "relationship."" I made sure to use air quotes.

"That relationship wasn't bullshit, believe it or not." Harry was fuming by this point and I was laughing at how quickly I had pissed him off. "And she didn't have to "let" me do anything. I can do whatever I want."

"Alright then. So, is she why you didn't pick the other bedroom for us to sleep in?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "God, you're so fucking childish."

"Me, childish? You wouldn't even tell me. Like I give two shits that you brought an ex-girlfriend to the same country, the same family house, for a weekend getaway. Obviously that weekend meant something to you if you're acting like this." I let out a cackle.

"But it's not the same. You're completely different from them, Elle." Harry reached his hand to grasp mine under the table but I quickly swatted his hand away.

"Sometimes I don't feel like that though, Harry. When I know you're saying the same things to me you said to them. I know I'm you're best friend but I still can't help but wonder-"

"Except I actually mean what I say when I say it to you. But god, just fuck off. Seriously. Forget the rest of today. I'll just leave you here to finish eating, all by yourself. Or you could just call Niall to come get you. I'm sure he'd ditch rehearsal come save you from me." Harry got up and threw his water cup away, slamming it into the waste bin. I watched as his lanky legs walked over to get a refill on his coffee, before he walked out of the door to the coffee shop. I couldn't believe he was doing this to me. He never walked away from me like this.

I was stirring the soup in my bread thinking about what had just happened when it hit me what Harry just said about Niall. Did he really think I only ran to Niall when he was being an asshole? The more I thought about it, the more I realized how that could look like that to Harry. I needed to stop getting too close to Niall before anything else happened between us. I heard the door to the coffee shop open again and my head shot up to see Harry storming over to my table where I sat.

"Hi, love." I grinned up at an angry Harry.

"Get up. We're going to miss our appointment time." Harry grabbed my plate from me and chunked my leftover food into the waste bin and basically pulled me out of the coffee shop.

"Listen Harry, what I said, I'm really sorry. I was just trying to get you riled up for a minute, I was only joking. I had no idea you'd get so pissed off."

"You had no idea?" We stepped into the sleek black car once again. "No idea that bringing my ex up like that like you're some... some teenager who still cares about that shit, would make me this mad?"

I shook my head, "Like I said, I'm sorry. It was dumb."

"Yeah, it was." Harry crossed his arms after he put his seat belt on and I watched the scenery out my window as we traveled through the fields of Ireland. I had never seen the country like this, but boy, was it a beautiful place to see.

"Do you really feel that way about Niall?" I asked to the silent car.

"And Liam. I just. Elle. I'm a really jealous guy, anyway, but especially over you. I want you all to myself. I'm glad you get along with them, but I don't want you becoming best friends with them, too."

"That's really not fair. They're all so nice."

"Yeah, they are super nice. But I don't want you giving off the wrong vibe that you're interested in them."

"Harry, I lost my job for you. I lost my best friend for you. I-"

"Sorry that all of this is my fault, god damnit." Harry propped his head on his elbow against the window of the car. "Just go back home and don't come on tour, then. Since you already lost everything."

"Yeah, Harry. I lost everything. Except I've got you, still. You're the one thing I never want to lose. You don't understand that. I'm not interested in your band mates. And I'm pretty sure they know that I'm yours. I just want them to like me, I don't want them to think that I'm only here to talk to you and only be friends with you. I like them all, they're great guys and I just want to fit in with you all, and with you pulling me back and telling me I can't talk to them isn't going to help my anxiety about being around them any." I placed my hand on his leg and he swatted it away, but I put it back on the same place.

"You're so frustrating." He grumbled out as he looked out the window.

"How am I the frustrating one? I'm not one with the temper of a 3 year old child, or the one who gets mad at me for being friends with your friends. Usually girlfriends hate their boyfriends friends."

"You just are."

"Great answer there, pal." I patted Harry on the knee and we continued our trip to wherever we were headed.

"We're going to one of the most famous whiskey distilleries in Ireland. I know whiskey is one of your favorites, and you never have been able to understand how its made. I set up a private tour and tasting for us, that's also why I hired a driver today so we wouldn't have to worry about driving home."

"But I'm not supposed to be drinking, Haz."

"But you're with me, and it'll be fine. I won't let anything happen to you." He said with a straight face, and I climbed out of the car with his assistance. I felt his hand on the small of my back as he led me into the wooden building. He opened the door for me, then returned his hand to the same place on my back.

"You must be Harry, our 1 o'clock tour?" A man greeted us as we opened the door.

"Sure am. Nice to meet you, I'm Harry, and this is my girlfriend, Elle." Harry introduced us and we found out the man's name was Casey.

Casey told us that his father owned the distillery, and it had been in the family for a really, really long time. As we walked through the distillery, Harry kept either his hand on my back or his arm around my waist the entire time. Sometimes his long fingers would give me a squeeze or doodle little designs in my lower back. We walked through the distillery to the part that showed the bottling of the whiskey. This was a small, local distillery so not everything had been modernized and most of the bottling and making of the whiskey was done by hand. I walked around, smelling the wonderful aroma of my favorite liquor. Someone tapped my shoulder and I turned around, coming face to face with an elderly man.

"Fancy a sample?"

I nodded, and he handed me a white cup that was full of way more than a shot of whiskey. "Cheers." I said as we tipped our cups back, and I let the smooth liquid run down my throat. "That's got to be the best whiskey I've ever had."

"The bottles yours. Compliments of Casey." The old man pointed at our tour guide who was lost in conversation with Harry. I took the almost full bottle from the man, thanking him, and walked over to Harry.

"We got a complimentary bottle of whiskey! It's delicious. You should try some." I bopped on my toes as I handed Harry the bottle.

"I can smell it on your breath, must be delicious." Harry skeptically smelled the poison. "You're crazy for being able to drink this straight."

"Crazy, or a real woman." Casey spoke up and winked at me, sending my cheeks into shades of red.

"Or both." Harry said, taking a swig of the whiskey straight from the bottle. He gagged and coughed like he was dying.

"Come on, take it like a man, Haz." I teased him and patted his back, helping him with his coughing fit.

"If you guys would like to, once he calms down, there's a pub a few blocks away where you can get a few free samples of our whiskey. They give it to all of our tours we host and there's a few different variations they have to give out there of what you saw being made today."

"I think we're just fine with our bottle, but thanks." Harry said as we turned around to leave.

"Harry, pleaaaase, can we go to the pub?"

"We're going out later, love."

"But I want to try some more whiskey!"

"You've got a whole bottle." He pointed at the bottle I was cradling like a baby.

"But I want to try different kinds we learned about!!!"

Harry rolled his eyes, "No. We've got places to be."

I stomped my foot and pouted. "Fine." I opened my car door for myself and sat in the car, with my arms crossed. Harry stared at my acting and just rolled his eyes. "I thought we were supposed to be having fun on vacation."

"We are having fun. You're just acting like a child."

"I'm not acting like a child! You've just got us on this fucking itinerary. Vacations aren't supposed to be planned minute to minute like this. I want to be able to do whatever I want to do, not worry about having to go one place at one time and be somewhere else at another time."

"Fine then, do you want to cancel plans tonight and go to the pub and get drunk at 3 in the afternoon?"

"Yes." I said, looking over at Harry who looked exhausted from my constant bitching at him.

He took a deep breath and pulled out his cell to text someone. "Fine."