Papillon - HS

Chapter 5

The boys were right. 

Harry did spend the night and met with us afterwards. We had to get up early for the bus to leave and arrive to Vegas on time. For the first half of the trip, I slept, still a bit tired from the night before. When I woke up, I quickly wrote the blog post for LA and sent it over so the webpage could publish it. 

I tried distracting myself from even thinking about Harry and Kendall but I simply couldn't. Everything kept replaying in my mind like a distorted film sequence. A nervous Harry on the drive there. How his eyes gleamed with joy and adoration as she called his name. The way he lifted her off her feet and spun her around without a care. Watching how they exchanged glances during our conversation. These scenes kept playing in my mind over and over again. I tried closing my eyes, leaving them open, anything and everything. I tried looking out the window, writing, listening to music, but as hard as I tried, my mind kept screaming, you're not her.

Four hours later, we arrived to Las Vegas. I decided to let the sinful city drive my distraction from whatever happened last night. 

"We're going out again tonight," Niall told me.

"Great, I'm excited," I responded, walking into the hotel.  

He lifted his brows, surprised at my answer. "So, no more hesitation towards going out with us like yesterday?" 

I rolled my eyes, "understand I was nervous because I was at a Kardashian's house, Niall."

"Jenner," he corrected

"Same shit."

He chuckled and we walked to the front desk. I said my name and they handed me my card. However, I heard Niall whisper something discreetly to the lady, who later handed him his own key. I wondered what that was all about but we made our way to the hotel rooms.

Niall finally made the group chat with the boys and I. They kept sending memes and spamming my phone with so many messages that it actually froze for a little bit. After that settled down, Liam texted that Harry was on his way and would meet us at the venue. I was kind of dreading seeing him after yesterday, not wanting to trigger my mind to spiral into the tiny movie it had created out of his and Kendall's story. 

I quickly got ready and met the boys at the van that drove us directly to soundcheck. As soon as we got to the venue, I hid in my dressing room. The boys were running late anyway so there was no time to spare, they had to prepare themselves to sing and get everything done for the show. I was lowkey hiding in my dressing room, saying I would be writing about the show instead of everything behind the scenes. It was my excuse to not see Harry and feel crushed all over again. 

My prayers we're not answered because after three gentle knocks, Harry swung the door open, "here you are, I've been looking all over for you." He smiled as he closed the door behind him, making his way to sit right next to me. "I told you there was nothing to be worried about yesterday, you had fun, right?"

"Yeah, I did, but you also said you would be right with me the whole time and I saw for a total of, what, five minutes?" I say truthfully. "Didn't know you were a liar, Mr. Styles." I made sure to keep my tone playful, not wanting to create any tension. Even if it did hurt me that Harry didn't keep his word, I didn't want to have any kind of barrier between us. At the end, this was still a new and developing friendship.

Harry's smile faded a little and his eyes showed a bit of hurt. He played with his rings, "sorry about that, got too caught up wit-" 

"You don't have to explain yourself," I interrupted, "I was kidding."