a/n: last chapter was a short one. so here's this for you guys (but it's not edited) ð
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Their performance was amazing. They looked like they were having so much fun up there on stage. I felt...jealous, even though I know I shouldn't have. He and Lizzo just have so much fun together and are such good friends that...I don't know how to feel.
I'm not even the jealous type, and I would never ever make Harry feel like he couldn't be friends with her because of me...I loved their friendship. I was just jealous of it. The way he smiled when talking about her, and just the way he talked about her in general.
I know there's nothing going on between them, but I still feel it.
After the show, Harry was in such a good mood, he insisted on getting ice cream. Don't ask me why that was the first thing he wanted to do, I literally couldn't tell you. Lizzo came along of course. She's such a sweetheart that it makes it impossible to not like her. Not that I didn't want to in the first place.
So we all got ice cream, had a good laugh, then said our goodbyes. Harry and I went back to our hotel and Lizzo went back to hers. Harry wanted to watch a movie, but I insisted that he went to sleep instead. He'd had a long day and had another one tomorrow, so it'd be best that he was well-rested.
But I kept my promise, and we cuddled all night. I fell asleep before he did, as I usually do. No matter how tired I was, I vividly remember what he whispered into my ear right before I drifted off to sleep.
He told me he missed me. It was simple but meant a lot. To be in his arms and feel his breath as he said he missed me took the meaning to a whole other level. And at that moment, as I fell asleep in his hold, I realized just how much I missed him.
I tried to soak up the feeling of being with him, because I now know just how much I miss it when he's gone. But if we're apart, I guess it will make the times we're together that much more special.
Now we sit backstage, waiting for it to be time for Harry to be on. We were still a few hours out, but there were presumably already a lot of people out there, considering how loud the chatter of the forming crowd was, and it got louder every minute we were here.
"Do you want to go get some food?" He offers. "I'm getting a little hungry."
"Sure." I shrug. "I could eat."
Harry and I stand up, walking away from the bench we were sat on. The two of us wander around for a while, trying to find a food truck that someone had pointed us to.
Yesterday I noticed there were a lot of tour buses in the parking lot. Today there were both tour buses and trailers. The entire parking lot was filled with them.
"They said the food truck should be around here somewhere," Harry says, looking around in confusion.
"Is that Harry Styles?" An elderly British voice calls out. We both turn around to see an elderly couple walking in our direction, a camera crew following behind them. I hear the sound of Harry gasp, and I look up at him, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Malcolm! Margaret!" He calls out excitedly, a bright smile appearing on his face. He opens his arms, hugging each of them. And I simply just stand there, utterly confused about how he knew either of them.
He walks back over to me, his arms wrapped loosely around both of their shoulders, still smiling.
"And who is this lovely lady?" The woman asks, smiling at me. She seemed like the sweetest thing to ever walk the earth...and I could just tell that she made the best cookies.
"She's a new friend of your son, actually. Lili," he quickly answers her question, "these are James' parents...Malcolm and Margaret."
"Ohh," I say, everything finally clicking in my head. "Hi, nice to meet you."
Harry lets both of them go and I hold my hand out for the man first to shake. He gives me a firm handshake and I turn to the woman. She waves off my hand, and instead opens her arms, inviting me in for a hug. I mutter a quiet "oh" before putting my hand down and taking her hug.
"There's no need to be formal about it darling," Margaret says, giggling as we pull away from our short and sweet embrace.
"Harry," Malcolm speaks up and Harry turns to him. "Mind if we mic you up so you can be a part of the video we're doing for James?"
"Sure," Harry says without hesitation and a crew member immediately steps up to put his mic on.
"Would you like one too, Lili?" Margaret offers me and I shake my head vigorously.
"Oh, no I'm okay," I say quickly. "I'll just stand back by the camera out of the way."
"Alright." She shrugs before laughing.
They all scooted off to the side of a tour bus and I followed behind hesitantly. Once they had Harry's mic on him, they immediately started counting down, so I stepped away from the camera, out of sight.
"Look who we bumped into in Miami," Malcolm says to the camera as soon as they started recording. He gestured over to Harry, who then smiles and raises an arm up. "None other than Harry Styles."
"It's me," he says with one arm up and the other now wrapping around Margaret to hug her once again. "It's me," he repeats once again with a chuckle.
With his arm that was up, he reaches over to give Malcolm a high five, but they actually ended up just holding hands in the air.
"How are you doing?" Malcolm asks as they put their hands down and Harry and Margaret pull away from their hug.
"I'm very well, very happy to see you both," he says in response.
"Oh it's lovely to see you," Margaret says, her eyes on Malcolm.
"Are you enjoying Miami?" He asks Harry, whose hands now rested on his hips.
"I am." He nods. "It's warm. Uh, it's my birthday tomorrow."
I had to hold back a laugh. Of course he would find a way to mention that.
Both Margaret and Malcolm say something around the lines of "Oh is it?" And Harry nods, a smirk on his face.
"How old will you be?" Margaret asks happily.
"I'm gonna be 26." He nods.
"Wow," Malcolm says.
"When are you gonna settle down?" Margaret asks in a low voice, knowing exactly what she was saying. "When are you gonna start- Have you met someone?"
Harry blushes, his dimples popping up. "I'm- I'm looking." He shrugs with a smile on his face.
"You're looking?" Malcolm and Margaret ask in unison.
"It's- It's hard out there," Harry says in a soft voice, making up an excuse.
"Listen," Margaret says, placing her hands on Harry's cheeks. "You're very good looking." She squishes his cheeks under the palms of her hand, moving his head back and forth. They all chuckle as she lets go of his face and his looks down.
"Lili, how are you feeling about that?" She asks me next, and I blush, laughing.
"Now look, if you feel a bit tired tonight, I could come on and stand-in for you," Malcolm offers as a joke.
"That would be great," Harry plays along with a straight face.
"I could even get the ol' trousers up, like that," Malcolm continues, attempting to pull his pants up. Harry nods, repeating his previous words. "I could come on stage, do a bit of you know." As he talks, he begins to shake his hips as a salsa dancer would.
"Well I don't know salsa," Harry says, somehow maintaining a straight face.
"Do you want me to teach you?" Malcolm offers and he and Harry immediately take form. "So what you're gonna do-"
"Am I- Are you leading?" Harry asks, he obviously had no clue what he was doing.
"I'm leading," Malcolm clarifies and Harry moves around a bit, still confused. He finally gets it and straightens his back, looking right at Malcolm. "You're Isabella for today, Isabella. Isabella, now she was gorgeous."
"Oh yeah?" Harry nods, his facial expression blank, ready to learn how to salsa dance.
"I mean, you would look great in what she was wearing," Malcolm says, pouting at Harry's chest briefly.
Harry shakes his head as everyone, including myself, laughs. Malcolm then proceeds to attempt to teach Harry how to salsa dance. He seemed very confused at first, but he eventually got it.
He seemed very into it once he finally caught on, shaking his hips to their full potential.
"Yeah, you've got it!" Malcolm praises as he and Harry dance smoothly. "There you go."
"I feel like I'm from Miami," Harry says, turning around briefly to look at the camera.
"Oh, Harry from Miami, yes," Malcolm says while Margaret cracks up behind them, finding this to be the funniest thing in the world. Malcolm spins Harry. "And then we did the big finish," he explains just before dipping Harry, who dramatically bends backward over Malcolm's arm. Malcolm's arm was rested on Harry's chest, so he says, "Right on his nipple."
Harry then straightens his posture back up, his eyes wide. "Really threw me down there!" He then chuckles, going back to hug Malcolm.
After hugging him he hugs Margaret and the crew comes back over to take his microphone off.
"Now, Harry," Malcolm says, pointing a finger at him. "I want you to go home and teach Lili how to salsa dance."
"Okay." Harry chuckles, looking over at me.
* * *
Harry was supposed to be on stage 10 minutes ago, but we haven't heard a single thing about it. They brought in his cake, along with a birthday hat that he was now wearing as we sit on an empty box by the stairs up to the stage, waiting for directions. People chanted Harry's name, as well as sing Happy Birthday to him, which made him smile like a maniac.
I feel my phone vibrate aggressively in my back pocket and I pull it out. I furrow my eyebrows once I see that Jess was calling me. I press the green button and bring the phone up to my ear
"Hey, Jess. What's up?" I say, answering the call.
"I killed Willy," Jess says quickly, her voice breaking. She lets out a shaky sob.
"You killed Willy? As in your car Willy?" I ask to clarify, furrowing my eyebrows. "I don't understand."
"I-I got in a car accident," she stutters, seemingly terrified out of her mind. My heart drops to my stomach and I feel faint.
"Holy shit, are you okay?!" I ask, walking away from Harry, plugging one ear so I could hear Jess better.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she says, sniffing. "A-And I'm sorry for calling. I know you're in Florida with Harry right now, but Jackson's out with his friends right now and he won't answer his phone. I just needed to talk to someone so I thought I would call you but-"
"Jess, do not apologize for calling," I cut her off quickly. "This is serious. It doesn't matter where I am...you can always call me." I turn to see Harry standing by my side, confusion written on his face.
"I just don't know what to do," she says to me shakily. "Jackson won't answer and he's probably been smoking or drinking a-and I don't know who else to call."
"What's wrong?" Harry whispers. I wave his head in and he leans in to hear the phone call since it was too loud around for me to put it on speaker.
"Where are you?" I ask her, my heart racing. I felt guilty worrying about this when Harry is just about to go on stage, but what else are you supposed to do when your best friend just wrecked her car and you're not there for her?
"I'm at the hospital," she says. "You're lucky I have your number memorized, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to call you. My phone fucking shattered."
"I am so so sorry Jess, but," I look up at Harry, "I don't think I can come home right now."
Harry's eyes widen and he steps away from me, his face scrunching up.
"And I didn't expect you to, I just-"
That's when Harry snatches my phone out of my hands, catching me completely off guard. I gasp as he brings the phone up to his ear.
"She will be on the next flight home," Harry tells her.
"What?!" I whisper-shout.
"Harry," Jeff hollers, running up to us. Without even looking, Harry holds up a finger, telling Jeff to hold on for a minute. "Don't tell me to hold on, this is serious."
I look over, seeing two firefighters following closely behind him. My eyes widen and I tap Harry repeatedly, eager to get him to look over. He finally looks over and his eyebrows furrow.
There were fans chanting for Harry, firefighters following an angry-looking Jeff, a helpless Jess on the phone, and all these people rushing around us...there was just so much going on, I had no idea what to do or what to focus on.
"Yeah, I know that, but you're more important than some stupid birthday," he tells Jess quickly. "Here, talk it over with her." He quickly passes the phone off to me before standing up to speak with Jeff.
"Are you really gonna come?" She asks, tinges of hope in her voice. I tried to listen to what the firefighters were telling Harry, but between Jess talking in one ear and the chanting of the crowd in the other, I couldn't hear a thing, nor concentrate enough to listen. Harry and Jeff begin to argue, and I can see the anger written all over Harry's face, his blood probably boiling.
"Umm," I say hesitantly, looking over at Jeff talking to Harry. I have a feeling it wasn't good news, given Jeff's choice of body language. And then I see Harry's face fall. "I'll let you know, I have to go."
"Oh, o-okay," she says in a small voice. "Bye then."
"Bye," I say and quickly hang up. Though I felt insanely for hanging up so quickly in a time of need, there were just way too many things to worry about at the moment. And even though I should never do something like that to Jess, I had to know what was going on outside of that issue.
I stand up just as Jeff walks away, the firefighters following closely behind him. I place my hand softly on Harry's tense shoulder, which slumped as soon as I touched him.
"What was that about?" I ask. He turns to me, causing my heart to drop. His eyes were glossy and his face shocked.
"I can't do the show," he tells me, his voice breaking.
"What?!" I ask, utterly shocked. "Why not?"
"They said there's a severe storm on the way," he says. "They won't let us do the show under any circumstances."
"Harry..."
"Why couldn't they have checked the fucking weather channel or something and canceled the show earlier instead of doing it right before the show fucking starts?!" He grumbles angrily, snatching the birthday hat off his head. "All those people out there paid to see me perform and now they don't get to because some dumbass doesn't know how to check the fucking weather!"
"Harry, it's okay," I try to calm him down. "Maybe this storm just popped up all of a sudden. I don't think this was an intentional act."
"This is so fucking annoying." He rolls his eyes.
He wasn't really as angry as he portrayed to be. I think he was masking his hurt and sadness by mixing it in with the little anger he felt.
It was already a few minutes past midnight, meaning it was officially his birthday now. My heart hurt for him. Harry loves performing more than anything in the world...and he's being told he can't do a show on his birthday. And it's all out of his control. I can't even begin to imagine how he's feeling.
"Harry." Jeff comes rushing over again. Harry turns around to face him. Jeff gestures behind him with his thumb. "We need to leave."
"Right now?!" He asks and I stand up, preparing to leave.
"Yes, right now." Jeff nods, waving us over. "I'll have someone bring your cake to your hotel. But your car's waiting already, so come on."
Harry looks at me wearily before sighing and grabbing my hand. He leads away from backstage and I follow him until we reach the car. Raindrops began to fall as soon as we were about 20 feet away and Harry pulled me close, holding me tightly against his side by my hip.
We finally reach the car and he opens the backseat door for me and I climb inside. He follows shortly after me, shutting the door behind him. Right away, the driver takes his foot off the break, probably instructed to get Harry back to his hotel as soon as possible.
"You need to fly home to Jess," Harry murmurs, looking out the window.
"Well, I can't leave you alone on your birthday. I'll fly out tomorrow," I try to reason with him, but he wasn't interested in doing the same. He turns to me, his jaw clenched.
"Jess is your best friend. She's hurt and needs you right now," he says in a stern tone. "My birthday doesn't change that...it's just a day."
"But that's so unfair to you Harry." I frown. I hated that he thought this was way less of a big deal than I did. "You went all out on my birthday...you made me breakfast in bed, you spent the whole day with me, you even bought me a ton of presents. I feel like kind of a shitty person for not returning the favor."
"You can't let what I do for you indicate what you want to do for me." He tilts his head, his facial expression softening. "If I want something materialistic, I can buy it myself. I don't expect you to ever buy me anything, or get me presents in this case. The only thing I could ever want from you is something money can't buy."
"And what's that?" I ask without even thinking.
"Love," he says simply, his facial expression blank. He was being so serious right now, it was almost strange to see. He's constantly cracking jokes and being his goofy self, so now it just seemed...odd. "But you want to know what I really want for my birthday this year?"
"Of course," I say, nodding.
"As much as I appreciate it, I want you to forget about how I feel for a minute and go be with Jess," he says with a straight face still. "She needs you. Not that I don't, but she needs you more."
"But Harry I-"
"Lili," he cuts me off before I can say anything else. "Please. If you won't do it for Jess, do it for me. I will book you a flight right now." He holds up his phone and I stare at it, inhaling shakily.
I let out a sigh of defeat. "Okay," I say finally.
"Thank you," he says, turning on his phone, it automatically unlocking due to Face ID. "We'll pick your stuff up from the hotel and then go straight to the airport."
"Okay," I mumble quietly under my breath with a nod, looking out the window.
I felt so guilty. I either leave Harry on his birthday to help my best friend or stay with Harry and leave my best friend. I would feel guilty either way...and Harry said this was the right thing to do.
God, I hope he's right.