Best Friends Means...

Harry's P.O.V.

I woke up to a buzz coming from my phone. I rolled over and grabbed my phone from Elle's bedside table.

I forgot to set an alarm :( I was running late and didn't have time to even shower this morning so I'm sure you're still sleeping. If you go anywhere today you should do me a huge favor and bring me some food because I forgot to bring my lunch. :(

I smiled as I typed out the reply.

I'm not asleep anymore, but I'd be more than happy to bring you something by whenever I can muster up the strength to leave your comfortable bed.
You're the best. You looked cute when you were sleeping.
You guys must be slow. You looked beautiful when you were sleeping. :)
Yeah, and I'm letting Chelsea handle most of everything this morning to see how she does. I'm back in the break room guzzling some horrible coffee.
Would you like me to bring you some when I come by?
No, but thank you. She needs me now so I'm headed up front. Feel free to use my shower, and the key to lock the door is on the kitchen counter. Just bring that back to me when you bring my food. Surprise me. You know me better than I do.

My heart fluttered at the last part of her text as I smiled and crawled out of her bed. I checked the time- 10 o'clock. I can't remember the last time I had slept this late. I walked out of El's house, grabbing the key and locking the door on my way out. I drove back to my place so I could shower and change clothes before I went to see her.

"Hello?" I answered my phone as I was leaving the house.

"Hey, Harry! What are you up to?" It was Paul, so I knew it would be something related to the band.

"Just taking a friend some lunch. What's going on?"

"Well, we've got a few meetings for you guys coming up in the next week or so, just to go over the tour. Want me to tell you the dates or just text them to you?"

"Well seeing as I don't have a pen on me, text would probably be the best mode of delivery." I ran a hand through my almost dry hair as I pulled up to the Chinese restaurant and parked in the parking lot. "How many days will we be busy?"

"About five or so. They're all in London at least, so you won't have to be flying out anywhere. We're still trying to set up a few US meetings that need to happen too but you guys might not have to go to those. You'll still be able to go to fashion week, so you can breathe." I let out a sigh, glad that I'd be able to still go. "You staying out of trouble?"

"Trying to. I'm surprised Kendall hasn't tried calling me or anything."

"It's only been a few days, mate. Her management has been blowing us up. Better be glad you're so charming." I rolled my eyes at Paul's remark. "Just lay low for a while. It'll blow over in a few days."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm laying as low as possible."

"Well I'll be seeing you in a few days. Have fun laying low!" I knew he suspected something, he had never told me to lay low more than once in a conversation.

"Alright, bye Paul!" I hung up as I walked into the quiet restaurant. There weren't many people in the place, seeing as it was only 11:30. I ordered for Elle, knowing what she usually got from Chinese. We had never eaten Chinese together before, but she had always told me things she was craving and it was almost always Chinese. I paid and left, and made my way to Elle's boutique.

"Can I help- Oh, you must be here for Elle? I'll go get her, I think she's in the back." I gave the girl, who I was assuming was Chelsea, a thumbs up and looked around as I had the take out bags. I had gotten enough food for me too, hoping we could eat lunch together. "She said you can go ahead and go back there. I'm Chelsea, by the way."

"Harry." I said, shaking her hand and giving her a smile. "I've heard a lot of good things about you. If I would have known you were here, I would have brought you some food too."

"It's fine, really. I brought my own today anyway. Go have lunch with her! She's been talking about you all morning." I felt my cheeks heat up as I walked to the back room. Elle was sitting at a table, looking through a bunch of paper work. She looked stressed out and exhausted, but I smirked at her choice of outfit. "Stealing my bands, eh?"

I noticed her jump as she laid the papers down she was sorting through. She smiled and visibly relaxed as she saw me enter. "You stole them from me, Styles. You can set the food down on the counter, I'll work on clearing these papers out of the way so we can eat. You have time to stay and eat?"

I nodded as I watched her neatly pile everything together. "Yeah, I have nothing else to do today."

"What about tonight?" I watched as she raised her eyebrow at me and winked.

I shoved my hands in my pockets as I felt my body warming up, "Nothing. What do you have planned?"

"Girls night with Kaitlin. So you can't come over tonight." She smirked as she grabbed the bag of food and placed it on the cleared off table.

"Good. I didn't want to see you anyway." I stuck my tongue out at her as I sat down across from her. "You look cute, by the way."

"Eh. I know. My day old hair in this rats nest, and these clothes that I don't think are even clean. I was half asleep when I got dressed this morning and-"

"Learn to take a compliment from me." I said to her as I stuffed food into my mouth.

"Thanks." Was all she said as she smiled and bit into the Chinese food.

"I got a call from Paul today. There's a few days coming up I'll be pretty busy with meetings."

"Where?"

"Here, in London." I watched as she started stirring her food. "I'll still be able to see you, but I can't make any promises. It's five, six days max."

"What for?"

"Just, tour stuff."

"But that's not for three months? Why would they have you come to meetings if you're not leaving for three months?" She was becoming defensive more than usual.

"Because there's a lot of stuff we have to go over. Press, tour dates, just a bunch of stuff." She just nodded and didn't say anything as she continued eating her food.

"I really don't want to talk about tour right now. I feel like I just got you back."

"You did, and we don't have to. You've got over two more months of me being home."

"Yeah, I guess." Her voice was small and she was fidgeting with her feet in her chair. I watched as she closed the Chinese food up after she ate about half of it and she walked it to the refrigerator. "Thanks for bringing that over for me." She grabbed the papers and started spreading them out over the table again. "You can stay back here for a while if you want, I've just got some paperwork to fill out."

"Kaitlin can't do that?"

She shook her head, "She can, but it wouldn't get done until the last minute. I'd rather just go ahead and do as much as possible. It's less stressful on everyone if I just do it." I nodded as I watched her writing numbers down on different sheets of paper. She looked stressed out still, and I hated seeing her like that. I knew what happened when she got stressed out.

"Are you okay?" I asked, but she didn't look up. "Elle? What's wrong? You look st-"

"I'm really stressed out right now, okay? Jack text me this morning and it just has me really bothered." I clenched my fist around my fork as I waited for her to say more, but she didn't say anything else.

"And? What the fuck did he have to say to you?"

"Haz, calm down." She still wasn't looking up from the papers. I knew that jackass had said something to her. "It's fine."

"If you say something is fine one more time-"

"Lower your voice, I don't want anyone out there to hear you yelling at me."

I took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Can we go outside?" I pointed to the back door of the store. She stood up and I followed her out, and I could tell she was about to cry as she turned to face me in the back alley way. "What's wrong? I'm sorry if I yelled and upset-"

She shook her head, "No, you didn't. I just wish he'd leave me alone, Harry. He's starting to scare me. He followed me to work this morning apparently. He hasn't come in the store but he's been watching the store front from somewhere today. That's why I've been stuck back here all day. I don't want to leave. He really wants me back, Harry."

"But you don't want him back, do you?" She shook her head as she walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me. "You should probably call the police if he's sitting out there and watching you. That's really scary. I don't want you leaving by yourself today, alright?" She nodded her head into my chest and I took a deep breath. "I wish he'd just fuck off."

"Me too. I heard from Kaitlin that he was at the same bar they went to last night, so hopefully he's found a new girl. She said he was with someone. I haven't heard from him since about 10 o'clock, though. I didn't see his car out there earlier when I checked. He might be gone by now."

"I don't want you taking chances, alright? I'll come pick you up at 4 and I'll bring Liam with me to drive your car back home so you don't have to go by yourself. We can take him if something happens." I felt her nod again and I kissed the top of her head. I felt her muscles relax at my small gesture.

I squeezed her into a hug and inhaled her scent. Although her hair wasn't particularly clean, it still smelled wonderful. Over the years of knowing her, Elle always smelled wonderful. Her smell always reminded me of home. I could hug someone else who smelled like her and all I could think of was being home with her. She had no idea how much she meant to me, or how much I cared about her.

Elle's P.O.V.

I sighed once more as I tried calming myself down, pacing around the front of the store. It was 3:45 and Brit was supposed to be replacing me at 4. Chelsea had left at 3. We were extremely slow today so I told her she could leave early. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and I took it out, seeing that it was Kaitlin calling me.

"Hey! What do you wanna do tonight?"

I walked back to the register and sat down behind the counter. "I don't know. Nothing too much. A night in, perhaps?"

"You're boring! You close tomorrow, I'm not letting you stay in tonight. I'll choose where we go. You have a lot of explaining to do. I saw Harry leaving this morning. Again." I sighed as I tried to ignore the anxiety in the back of my mind. "Everything go okay today?"

"Yeah, it did. Chelsea's learning really quickly. She's really just what we needed." I waved as I saw Brit walk into the front of the store and she motioned that Harry was out waiting on me. "I worked on this month's paper work today, too. It's almost finished for you!"

"Well then I'm treating you tonight. That helps me out more than you know, love! I'll see you at the house in a little bit. Be ready to go by 7?"

"I can do that. Bye!" I hung up the phone and walked to the back to talk to Brit before I left for the day. I walked out into the street and saw Liam and Harry waiting on me. "Hi boys!" I said as I walked up to Liam, who greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. Harry snuck a quick kiss on my lips and hugged me.

"Everything going alright?" Liam asked as we walked out to my car, which Harry had parked beside.

"Yeah, haven't heard anything else from him today, so I guess he got tired of it this morning." I shrugged as I tossed Liam my keys. "Thanks for doing this by the way."

"It's really not a problem, Haz and I got to catch up on the way here." Harry winked at me as I punched him in the arm. "Don't worry, no details. No one needs to know that. I'm just glad that he's happy."

"Whatever!" I said as I walked up to Harry's Range Rover. "Just follow us, Liam!" I climbed up into Harry's car and buckled my seat belt. He turned the radio down to a comfortable level so we could talk. "What did you tell Liam?" I saw him smirking but he didn't say anything. "Harry Styles."

"I didn't tell him anymore than he needed to know. I wouldn't tell him something you didn't want him knowing. It's alright." I sighed as I leaned my head back on the head rest. "Any idea what you ladies are doing tonight?"

I shook my head, "No, but I think Kaitlin wants to go out. I kind of feel like I need it."

"Just be careful." Harry said as he put his hand on my leg and squeezed my knee.

"I know." I smiled as his caring tone, and looked out the window as we drove back to my place. I kissed Harry goodbye and gave Liam a hug as I went inside to get ready for tonight.

---

"So, tell me about you and Harry. There's something going on and I haven't had a chance to talk to you without him since he's been back. So... Spill."

I blushed as I sipped on my cosmopolitan the waiter had just brought us. We had decided on a bar that we used to frequent. It was a bar that was lively, but quiet enough for us to still be able to talk to each other. "Well, he came back and-"

"Yeah, yeah. You guys realized you had these crazy feelings for each other. I've seen it in you every time you've ever talked about him. Right now, you're blushing as red as that lipstick you borrowed from me.."

I looked down at my lap as I continued speaking. "Anyway. Basically, what you just said... That's about it."

"That's it? Nothing else has happened?"

I shook my head, "No. Not really?"

"Not really?! What do you mean? You've got international pop star Harry Styles wrapped around your finger and you haven't done anything else with him but kiss him?!"

"Kaitlin, I've never really thought of Harry like that, so no. I haven't done anything else with him." She was pissing me off with the way she was talking about Harry. "I don't really think it's your place to be saying that about us either." I took the straw out of my drink and chugged the rest of it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. It's just, he's so gorgeous. I wouldn't be able to contain myself if I were around him as much as you."

"Believe me, it's not the easiest task." Another drink was placed on the table a few minutes later. "I didn't order-"

"The man at the back table paid for it." My heart dropped as the waiter spoke.

"Fuck, I hope Jack isn't here." I looked around as nonchalantly as possible but I couldn't see anything. "Kaitlin, see if you can see Jack."

She shook her head as she looked at the table. "No, but I do see a guy who's looking over here now. Go ahead and look."

I recognized the guy as Jake and flagged him over to our table. He was with a guy I hadn't ever seen before. Jake slid in to sit beside me and his friend who introduced himself as Aiden sat beside Kaitlin.

"What are you two beautiful ladies doing out tonight?" Jake asked me as I sipped on my new drink.

"Having a girls night that has now been interrupted." Kaitlin flirted back with both boys and I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks for the drink." I said as I turned slightly to face Jake. "What are you doing in town?"

"Work related meetings." He said, motioning towards Aiden. "Where's Harry? Figured you two would be inseparable like always while he's back here in London."

I messed with the straw as my stomach filled with butterflies at the thought of Harry. I wished he were beside me right now, not Jake. "I'm not really sure. I wanted to have girls night with Kaitlin, I'm sure he's found something to do by now." Jake nodded as we continued talking and catching up. Kaitlin got up to go to the bathroom, who was shortly followed by Aiden. "She's ridiculous."

Jake laughed, "Yeah, she seems nice though."

"Nice, but she can be quite the... I don't know what the nicest word would be for her. She's a little loose with her sexuality." Jake nodded in understanding. I checked my phone for the time and it was already 11:30. I knew Kaitlin had to open in the morning, so we needed to get going. "We really should get going now, I need to go try and find her."

"Who's taking you ladies home?"

"We usually walk to get some fresh air. I don't live far from here." I said as I scooted out of the booth after Jake. As I turned the corner, Kaitlin was walking out to find me. "Ready to leave?" She nodded and smirked. "You're unbelievable."

"What?! I'm sorry that we're not all prudes like you."

"Mind if I walk with you guys home?" Jake asked, after Aiden hopped into a cab to go back to his hotel. We both shook our heads as we walked the calm streets of London.

We chatted the whole walk home and a few minutes before we reached the house, I received a text from Harry.

I thought it was girls night? Call me when you get home safely.

He must have seen us somewhere but I don't know why he would be upset. We told Jake goodnight and went to our separate bedrooms. I took off my dress and tights and walked around my room as I called Harry.

"Why are you so mad?" I asked, before I even said hello.

"What is your problem? You said it was girls night, and I walk into the bar and see you and Kaitlin sitting at a table with two men."

"Harry, one of those men was Jake. He was in town. It would have been rude to tell him to get up and leave. Kaitlin and I had plenty of time to ourselves. It's really creepy that you're following me around, too." I said, plopping down on my bed after I had thrown a tshirt on.

"I'm not following you. Liam and I decided to go out for a few drinks and it just so happened to be at the same bar. Also, to answer your first question. I'm not mad, I'm furious. I don't want you going out anywhere with the way Jack has been talking to you. Not without me."

"Like you're going to be able to keep me locked up, Harry?! Since when have you become this possessive of me? Stop acting like we're something that we're not."

"I'm on my way over now." His voice was stern and I could hear him sighing into the phone.

"No, you're not. Kaitlin has to open in the morning and I'm really tired. Stay home."

"Then I'm picking you up and taking you back to my place."

"Harry, what the fuck is your problem?!" I heard him start his car. "Stay home. I'm not going anywhere with you. Nothing happened."

"No, nothing happened. But it could have happened. I'll be over in a few minutes." I sighed as I fell back into my bed and Harry hung the phone up. What had gotten into this boy that was making him act like this?