Best Friends Means...

I looked down at my phone for what was probably the 15th time in the last hour. It was nearing 12:30 at night and I hadn't heard from Harry. Niall hadn't replied to my texts and I really didn't feel like contacting all five boys if they were still in rehearsal. I had cleaned the entirety of Harry's house, ate half of my weight in candy I found hidden in the kitchen, and watched movies all night long by myself. I sighed, stood up off the couch, and walked back to the bathroom to ready myself for bed. I changed into one of Harry's soft black shirts and a pair of sleep shorts, washed my face and brushed my teeth. It was 1 AM by the time I was done getting ready and my phone started ringing, Harry's name lighting up the screen.

"Hello?" I answered, plopping down on the bed.

"Hiiiiiii." He sounded entirely too cheeky to still be sober. "Wanna come pick me up?"

"Not particularly. I just got ready for bed."

"Come on. All the cabs are full and I don't feel like waiting."

"Well, I'm sorry Mr. Popstar but you didn't tell me anything about what you were doing tonight so I had no idea where you even were. If you would have at least warned me you were going to be out late and needed a ride home, I would have waited."

"I didn't know I had to tell you my every move." He shot back, his cheekiness turning into snark.

"You don't, but I haven't heard from you since you left and you told me you'd only be a few hours. I sent you a text at 10 asking how much longer you'd be and you read it and didn't reply."

"Please come get me. I miss you, and I don't want to be here anymore." Suddenly I couldn't hear anyone talking and I knew he had moved to a different room. "Please, Elle."

"Harry, just get a cab." I flopped over onto my stomach, burying half of my face in the cold sheets.

"There's something going on tonight and there's loads of people out, and it'll be 30 minutes before one can come get me."

"Where's everyone else?" I asked, hoping one of them had a way that Harry could get home safe.

"Still here. I just... Don't want to be here anymore. Please come get me."

I sighed, closing my eyes tight. "Fine. Send me the address and I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you so much. I love you!"

"You too." I said, hanging up the phone and waiting for Harry to text me the address. Once I received it, I grabbed my keys and one of his jumpers before I headed out the door in my pajamas.

It took about 15 minutes for me to arrive at the club where Harry was and by the time I made it there, Harry was waiting for me outside and talking to a few people who I assumed were fans. I patiently waited a few minutes before he and Niall both climbed into the car.

"Wanna take- whoa, you could have put more clothes on than that, couldn't you?" Harry took off his blazer and draped it over my legs. I rolled my eyes at him before pulling away from the club.

"Hi Niall!" I spoke to the clearly drunk, red faced, Irish boy in the back seat.

"Hi, love. Mind taking me home?"

I chuckled, tempted to quote a line from one of the boys songs but decided against it due to Harry's foul mood that was reeking from the passenger seat.

"Not at all!" I smiled in the rear view mirror. "Who'd you guys go with tonight?"

Niall waited for Harry to answer me, but he wasn't speaking. Just staring out the window with his hand propping his head up. "Just the lads from the crew. Zayn didn't come out, Perrie is home for a few days so he'll be up hers every free minute he can get."

"Who can blame him?" I almost slammed my foot down on the brake of the car, causing Harry to jolt forward and slam his hands on the dashboard. "You alright there, Elle?"

I shook my head, not wanting to say anything back to him. "What is your problem lately, Harry? You go from being super sweet to a complete jerk off in less than ten seconds."

"I really don't want to argue with Niall in the car. I don't want him to think any less of you."

My jaw flew open at the exact same time Niall's dehinged from his mouth, "maybe I'll just drop you off and stay at Niall's tonight."

"Your legs must be freezing, I'm sure he can keep you warm."

"Harry, lad. Knock it off."

"Why don't you? I see the two of you texting each other all the time. Sneaking smiles behind my back. Giving her a second glance when she walks by. You-"

"HARRY!" I screamed, pulling the car to a stop in front of Niall's building. "Stop and listen to yourself. You sound like a fucking psycho. Niall hasn't done any of that shit, and if he has, who gives a crap?! All he's ever done to me is give me a place to stay when YOU had your head so far up your own arse you couldn't see what was going on."

"You're right. The two of you-"

"I don't wanna hear this. It's complete and utter bullshit, Harry. Elle if you need to come over, you're more than welcome to once you get him dropped off." Niall reached from the backseat and squeezed my shoulder before getting out. I sat, staring straight ahead for a few moments before Harry spoke up.

"I can't help but feel like you two just. Have something going on."

"And I can't believe you'd think of me like that, Harry. You've known me your whole entire life and I've never given you reason not to trust me. I'm with you. Not Niall. Not Liam. Not any of those other guys. I don't want to go on tour with you if you're going to be like this every goddamn night. I'm sick of fighting with you. All we do is fight, make up, have sex for a week, then you find something I'm doing wrong and the cycle repeats. It's exhausting. I have been put through too much these last few weeks to have to deal with your ridiculous temper when you're supposed to be the one telling me everything's going to be alright. I know you want to be that person. You used to always want to be that person, and you always have been. Until we started to date, and then something changed and we started fighting." I kept looking forward as a few tears fell down my face. Harry reached over to wipe them but I swatted him away, and watched as he sank back into the seat. "I never thought it would be like this. I thought it would be easier because I knew you so well. But this has been so hard, Harry. Because no matter what I always forgive you because you're Harry."

Harry and I sniffed simultaneously and I looked over at him to see him crying. "I'm sorry I'm such a fuck up, Elle."

"You're not a fuck up, Harry. You just... Really need to work on your temper, and feeling like you have to keep me in a bubble around your band. They're your mates. They'd never try to steal me from you. And even if they tried, they would fail miserably. I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I want you, and only you, before you actually believe me. Do I do anything that makes you believe that I don't want you?" Harry shook his head no before staring down at his lap. "Then quit treating me like that. You're making me question everything."

"Even us?"

"Yes. Even us. You're almost impossible, Harry."

"Almost?" He asked, looking over at me. "I'm so nervous that I'm going to lose you that I don't want anyone else to have a chance at you."

"Stop worrying about that. You've got me, Haz. You have me forever if you want to. Just please back off and let me be my own person. I appreciate your worry some nature over me but you just take it entirely too far sometimes. Please work on backing off. I don't want to spend every night on tour arguing with you."

"So you're still going?" Harry looked at me questioningly as I started driving to his place.

"I can't imagine not. Just please promise me and mean that you'll work on yourself. You need to be more confident. How can you go from being so confident on stage to so insecure when it comes to you and I?"

"How do you know I'm confident on stage?"

"Harry. Really? I've not ignored your fame. I've seen you on YouTube." I blushed, admitting that I had, in fact, spent a lot of time watching One Direction videos. "I'm your best friend. Did you expect me to not do that?"

"I-I don't know. You just never said much about it. Just how good the albums sounded, stuff like that. I didn't know you took extra time to research the band."

"And go see the movie... A few times. I had a friend who worked at the cinema complex at the time who let me in for free after the third time." I giggled, realizing how dumb I was starting to sound. "Sorry. I just missed you a lot... I sound creepy."

"Not creepy because I know you like me for more than just my fame and devilish good looks." He was joking, but he had no idea how accurate he was. "It's cute. It means a lot that you care about what I do."

"'Course I care." He leaned over and pecked me on the cheek as I pulled up to a stop light. "Now tomorrow, you need to go over to Niall and apologize for being a proper twat."

"Yes, mum." Harry said in a mockingly tone. "I'm still drunk." He was really stating the obvious. His speech was impossibly slower, and his right leg was bouncing up and down. A drunk habit I had noticed lately.

"Want McDonald's fries?" I waited for Harry to reply with a childlike nod as I turned my vehicle around.

"I want them, but you can't tell anyone I ate them. 'Sposed to be on tour diet. I have to start going to the gym heavily starting tomorrow." Harry had been going to the gym when he got up early enough or couldn't sleep over the last few weeks, but he started telling me about how all the guys were basically given a personal trainer to help get them into shape for running around the stage.

"Like how often?"

"Eh. Once or twice a day, every day." My eyes almost bugged out of their sockets. "It's really quite fun. If you wanna come with me you're more than welcome to. I get my own space there so no one else is there where I am. I'm sure my trainer could help you out some. If you want. I mean, you're perfect... but I know you don't feel confident about yourself and that helped me a lot once I got more muscular. I used to hate being so skinny."

"Oh, the woes of Harry Styles." I chuckled as Harry rolled his eyes.

___

"Alright, I'm leaving. I can't stand hearing the same song one more time." I gave Harry a kiss on the cheek. Eleanor was free for the afternoon and I was sick of sitting in on practices and taking every chance I could get to leave the studio. "I'll either pick you up or you can find a ride home." I reached into Harry's back pocket and took his keys from him as he pouted.

"But you're our best critic!"

"No, I'm not. You guys sound great to me but I can only hear you sing "What Makes You Beautiful" a few times before I start losing my mind. Eleanor needs some girl time, too."

Harry let out a deep sigh. "Fine. Here." Harry handed me his plastic credit card and I hesitated, not wanting to take it from him. "We aren't having this argument here. Take it. Get yourself some new clothes for tour." He kissed me on the cheek and sent me on my way.

Eleanor was already waiting outside of the coffee shop for me by the time I got there, my latte in her hands. She had on a pair of large sunglasses and a black floppy hat, trying to disguise herself. If you knew who you were looking for, you would have recognized her. But to a random passerby, you wouldn't look twice at her.

"Here you go pretty lady!" She handed me my hot drink and kissed me on both cheeks as she hugged me. "They driving you crazy yet?"

"I walk around singing their songs in my head all damn day! I had to get out of there."

"So where do you wanna go today? I need some new jeans." I sipped my coffee as I thought about where to go shop.

"How about h&m? I need some new t-shirts and theirs are always the softest."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Eleanor piped in and we started walking to our destination. "Perrie wishes she could come along, but that would just cause a mess. You take my sunglasses, you need some kind of a disguise." She handed me her bug eye glasses and I put them on my face.

"You know, it's still pretty obvious who we are."

"It is! But maybe we'll get ignored if we look like two normal girls shopping the streets of London." She linked her arms with me as she let out a giggle.

"Why don't we have a sleepover while Perrie's in town?"

"Oh, that would be lovely. We can have it at mine and Louis' flat. Kick him out to go stay with Harry."

"I'm sure the two of them won't mind that at allllllll. When should we do it? Harry and I are going home this weekend to visit our family before we leave Monday." It was Wednesday, so that only left the option open for either tonight or Thursday.

"How about tonight? I have no plans."

"I don't think I do either. Send Perrie a text and ask her if she'd like to do that!" I pulled my phone out the same time Eleanor did so I could let Harry know about our plans.

haz, gonna have a girl night tonight. El is kicking Louis out of the house so he's going to come stay with you. Perrie's coming too!

Almost immediately Harry replied to the text.

:( no fair. We'll have fun without you, then! How's shopping?
we're only just walking into the store. I'll let you know when we're finished.
fiiiiiiine. Try not to use up all of my money. :)

I rolled my eyes and placed my phone into my bag as Eleanor and I made our way into the store. We both immediately went our separate directions, grabbing shirts, skirts, jeans, and dresses to take back to the dressing room. Just as I was grabbing my last item I wanted to take back, I heard the click of an iPhone camera going off. Without thinking, I quickly turned around to see who was taking the picture and it was a girl who couldn't have been any older than 16 or 17, snapping continuous pictures of me. I didn't know what to do so I walked around the store and eventually finding Eleanor. The girl followed me, and started taking more as I got closer to Eleanor.

"Erm, I'm not really sure what to do." I mumbled, motioning to the girl who wasn't even trying to hide her creepiness.

"I'll handle it." I watched as Eleanor walked over to the girl, and she smiled as Eleanor approached her. "Him what's your name?"

"Stacey." The blonde girl stared at the two of us. Her accent was clearly American.

"Nice to meet you! Can I ask you to do Elle and I a huge favor? And wait to send those out to anyone or post them online for about an hour so we can have some peace while we shop? We're almost done."

"Can I have a picture with each of you?" The girl managed to speak, but her voice was almost at a whisper.

"Of course!" I answered for both Eleanor and I, not minding posing for a picture.

"Thanks so much." She had asked for a hug from me and I gave her one, and she looked me in the eyes before speaking. "I hope you and Harry last forever. I know you make him happy."

I clutched my chest at her kind words. "That really means more than you know. It seems like all I get from fans is how much they hate me."

"Well, there's more of us than you know about who love you. Thanks for the pictures!" The girl quickly ran out of the store, all but skipping.

"That wasn't bad at all." Eleanor muttered on our way back to the dressing room. We spent about 20 minutes trying everything on, and showing off what we had found to each other before we made it to the register to check out. Eleanor paid, and I was next. I swiped Harry's card, guilt setting in at the amount of money I was spending. The girl behind the register looked at me and scoffed, realizing I was paying with his card.

"Those leopard jeans make your bum look fabulous. Harry's going to die when he sees you in them." Eleanor said to me, only fueling the cashier's annoyance with who I was.

"Have a nice day." She spoke through gritted teeth as she handed me my bags and receipt.

"That's more of what I always expect from fans." I noted to Eleanor as we made our way back to the meeting place of the coffee shop.

"Well, those people aren't real fans." She smiled back at me. "I had loads of fun! I need to go home and clean the house up. Then you and Perrie can come over around 7?"

"That'll be perfect. Harry just sent me a text that said they were finishing up, so I'll go pick him up and go home and pack and be over there around then!" We hugged and said our goodbyes.

___

"So, Niall and you seem to be alright?" I asked, placing my overnight bag on Harry's kitchen counter.

"Yeah. We've talked about what happened last week."

"And...?" I knew Harry didn't want to bring the subject up, but I wanted to know what had happened between the two. I had noticed Harry and Niall hadn't been their usual selves, but they didn't seem like they were mad at each other. In practice the other day, Harry had completely avoided being placed beside Niall on stage for one of the songs. It was very unlike him to be picky about where he was being placed.

"It's fine." Harry said, turning to open the refrigerator.

"You're going to have to give me a better answer than that." I crossed my arms over my chest and tapped my foot impatiently.

"Well, that's all of the answer I can give you right now." Harry shut the refrigerator door with a force entirely too hard and I knew I was making him mad. "We're all going out tonight, by the way. One last time before we leave Monday."

"I'm sure that'll be fun. Try not to kill Niall, yeah?"

"You know, it's not only him that I suspected."

"God, Harry. Are you really that thick that you think I fancy one of your best friends!? He's cute. Is that what you want me to say? He's cute, and nice, and kind, and he cheers me up instantly. But that's all I can say about Niall. There's no attraction I have to him whatsoever." I wrapped my arms around Harry from behind and rested my head on his back. "I wish you'd quit thinking like this, Haz."

"I just... I know he's helped you out a lot and I just worry-"

"Stop worrying. It's getting annoying." I looked at the clock as Harry turned around to face me. "I need to leave soon."

"How soon?" Harry's voice was deep and quiet, with a hint of a raspy tone.

I swallowed hard, knowing exactly what he was implying. "About fifteen minutes at the most."

"I accept the challenge." Harry smirked, scooping me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me off to the bedroom.