one minute || h.s

thirty

Harry.

By the time I was finally able to join her in bed, it was 9:45 and she was still out. I'd forgotten about the Skype meeting we had with management. Just routine, tour closing talk, the following agenda come November. Though it was a lot, I'd still be able to spend so much time with Hallie, which was nice. We kept having these increments of like, seven to twelve days and it just wasn't enough, but after this break, we'd be going into the final United Kingdom leg, which meant only a a few more weeks without her. When I slid underneath the sheets and wrapped my arms around her waist, she groaned and pushed me away. "Hallie, baby, hey..." I shook her gently, growing worried as the seconds passed due to the film of sweat layering her small frame. "Hallie, please wake up for me, love." She finally began to open her eyes.

"Hm...what?"

"You okay?" She coughed and buried her face into my chest. "Scared me a bit."

"I hate being sick." I knew she did. Hallie Mantegna was not a lazy person. She was active. When she wasn't going to yoga she was jogging and when she wasn't jogging she was soul-cycling and then in between she ate a lot of frozen yoghurt, but she was definitely not lazy, so I wished I could take her pain away.

"I know you do, baby, I know."

"I just want to be better so we can do things."

"What kind of things?"

"I don't know...just things. I hate this so much." Reaching over onto the bedside table, I grabbed the bottle of NyQuil, retrieving two more pills as she continued to moan sadly into my chest.

"Here. Take these. I want you to have a good night's sleep." She swallowed them down without an argument and then I pulled her back down. Penny was sprawled out at the bottom of the bed, snoring and I just hoped Hallie would be able to fall asleep, especially considering how god damn loud it was.

"I really missed you..." I felt her words vibrate against my bare neck. "And...you never said that you loved me."

"Have too."

"No..." She shook her head. "Not since you've been home." I tucked her hair back behind her ears.

"I'm sorry...I missed you so much, monkey, and I love you more than anything, okay?"

"I love you too. Don't go again."

"You coming with me when I leave on Monday would be a simple fix."

"Can't leave the babies."

"Okay...first, I think Jude could manage. Just have like, Marianne watch him or something. Second, Penny can come with us. See, like I said, simple fix."

"That would probably mean telling the world that we're together and that we have a dog together. Not simple."

"Okay, so? It's been months now, Hallie."

"I'm not ready yet." I understood her hesitation, and I didn't want the negative attention to come with it all, but I was tired of hiding the most important person in my life.

"Well, when are you going to be ready?" She only shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Anytime soon? Possibly within the next ten days?"

"Maybe."

"That's promising."

"If, hypothetically speaking, I do decide to join you...could Penny really come?"

"Boris came on with Zayn for almost half of Where We Are, and she's a massive pit. Penny can absolutely come."

"Okay. Otherwise, she'd destroy the house. She'd probably kill Jude too."

"Have they been getting along?"

"Um...Jude is kind a massive dick. Like...obviously Penny's blind spot is her right side and Jude figured that out so now he like, pounces on her and stuff from that side only. It's really sad cause she's terrified of him, I think."

"That little fücker..."

"He probably knows she has the potential to kill him, even if she doesn't know it herself. He's just trying to claim his spot as the dominant household pet."

"He's literally such an arsehole, Hallie."

"He's a ferret. It's his nature."

"Well, I officially hate ferrets."

"So you hate our feisty little weasel, yet you give the paps like, fücking cupcakes and leftover food as they follow you around and harass you. Okay, Harry."

"They don't bite me and they don't steal my keys."

"They probably would if the opportunity arose." That was a fair enough statement.

"Touché."

"Anyway. Marianne hates him too, so she can't watch him."

"Alright. I'll text Alexa and Pixie...I think they're here until Christmas or something."

"Well, cool your jets, I haven't even decided if I'm going to go yet." Something told me she'd be going, but I dropped it.

"I just want you to have the proper One Direction Girlfriend Experience."

"I don't think that's been a positive journey for any of the girls. Especially seeing as how the one who has been around for the entire four and a half years finally left. Then you add in all of the girls in Harry Styles' life. They probably need psychiatric treatment after just being linked to you."

"Do what Soph did."

"What did Soph do?"

"She made all her social media accounts private. Twitter, Instagram...you should do that. It would practically make it impossible for you to get shit on."

"Well, I'd still get shit on."

"Right, yes, but you wouldn't see it, or at least most of it."

"I guess."

"Think about it, yeah?"

"Yeah. I will." She yawned and buried herself in my arms. "I really love you and I missed you but I'm tired now."

"Alright, my love. Sleep, yeah?"

"Yeah." It wasn't even moments later that her breathing became shallow and her grip on me loosened in her sleep. I loved her so much it physically hurt.