Never Give Up: Harry Styles/One Direction Fan Fiction

5

Chapter 5

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I could feel myself getting lost with Rae. The longer we stood there together, the more I could feel the rest of the world slipping away. It was like we were the only two people who were real in that moment. With Rae, everything was easy and it just made sense. The night was a blur after that. Before I'd wanted to, I'd been forced to let Rae go, and rehearse more. Rae gave us excellent advice about stage presence, and she gave me the impression that she knew more about performing than she let on. Soon enough, the arena began to fill up, and the screaming started.

It was a hard thing to keep your energy up so long when you were as tired as I was. Despite all the wishes of luck from Rae, our managers, and friends, knowing that Rae was watching was nerve wracking. I felt like I had to impress her. Since the X-Factor, I'd not felt like that when I was performing in front of a crowd. I didn't even feel like this when we were at Madison Square Gardens last year. It was crazy. During the performance, I felt distracted. I started to realize how much my life was passing me by. I'd spent so much time on my career, which had been fantastic, but now I realized that I was making everything else take a backseat to it. I didn't want to quit, I was sure I'd never want to, but I needed to slow down. The nice thing was that this was the last performance of the North American leg of the tour. I wouldn't have to be anywhere or do anything until mid-September after tonight. I would finally be able to slow down for a minute instead of jumping straight to the next thing. Part way through the show, we took our fifteen minute intermission. I walked toward the wings of the stage to get a drink of water, and to see Rae's reaction to the performance so far. After grabbing a bottle of water, I wandered around looking for Rae. I finally found her further backstage chatting excitedly with Perrie, Danielle, and Eleanor.

"So then what did he say?" Eleanor continued pressing Rae, clearly not noticing me approaching. Her brown eyes excitedly looked at Rae. They were all gossiping like schoolgirls, clearly anticipating Rae's future entrance into the girlfriend clique. I stopped and ducked into a nearby hallway entrance. I stood there listening hard, hoping to gain any insight into how Rae felt about earlier today.

"It was kind of cheesy, so don't laugh," Rae replied, and I could tell from the tone of her voice that she had a huge smile on her face, even though her back was to me. "He said, 'Nothing else matters as long as I've got you.'" All the girls had the hugest smiles on their faces after listening to the story. Clearly I'd done something right.

"Aw, who knew Harry was like that?" Danielle spoke up. "I almost want to steal him away from you." 

"You want to know what's really freaky about it?" Rae asked, and the other girls nodded. "Right before he'd said that, I'd been thinking almost the exact same thing." Eleanor's facial expression said it all. Her mouth dropped open. 

"It's like a fairytale," Eleanor commented. "That's a good sign. Harry is a great guy; they're all fantastic. But it's uncharacteristic of Harry to be romantic like that, so he must really fancy you." That's true, I agreed mentally.

"Is that so?" Rae seemed genuinely shocked. Danielle, Perrie, and Eleanor nodded furiously. "I'll keep that in mind, then." I was pleased. Perrie and Eleanor seemed to be working on my side, and they gave me nothing less than a glowing report, so I was feeling good. Especially since two of the group were dating the biggest divas of the band: Zayn with his hair and Louis with his sass. I decided it was a good time to fake walking around the corner.

"Looks like I've found my way behind enemy lines," I said as I approached the group. All the girls turned to look at me. The way they stared at me could only mean one of two things: either they were reading my mind, or I looked seriously bad. I assumed the latter and looked myself over. "What?" I asked when I found nothing wrong.

"Nothing," Eleanor said, exchanging a glance with Perrie and Danielle. "We were just talking to Rae here to see if we should grant her official entrance into the girlfriend's clique." Rae, who had turned to look at me as I approached, immediately spun around to give a surprised look to Eleanor.

"What are you doing back this far, Styles?" Danielle asked, clearly amused by his statement. "You should know fully well that there are a lot of things we could do to you for discovering our camp." I was quite surprised that Danielle played right along with me. 

"Well, seeing as how you've taken my new girlfriend hostage," I replied not missing a beat, "I had to make sure she was holding up alright back here." Sometimes I even surprise myself with all the things that come out of my mouth. I just openly called Rae my girlfriend. I wasn't sure that it was the right move until I glanced over at Rae to see her bright blue eyes sparkling. I could tell she was about to fangirl, but unexpectedly she  held herself together. I stood right next to Rae, and wrapped my long arm around her waist. Eleanor's eyes widened, and she exchanged a knowing glance with Rae. There was so much more to the expression than I'll ever understand, but clearly girls are telepathic, just as I suspected. These girls barely knew each other, and they could already communicate with just facial expressions like best friends. Suddenly I became aware that what I'd said hadn't been a slip up, I really meant it. It felt good to have my true feelings be known. 

"I'm alright," Rae finally spoke. "You're doing really good out there, Harry!" Now it was my turn to freak out. Even though there were thousands of girls out in the crowd screaming encouragement to me, for some reason, the only approval I needed was from Rae. It gave me butterflies in my stomach, which is not something I thought I'd ever experience in relation to a girl. 

"Harry, mate we've got to go, the second half is about to start," Louis called to me as he came rolling around the corner on a skateboard. He hopped off and walked over to Eleanor before planting a quick kiss on her cheek.

"Oh, thanks," Eleanor replied nonchalantly as he turned around and patted me on the shoulder before heading back toward the entrance to the stage. I glanced down at Rae, not wanting to leave again. I turned and hugged her, her head nestling itself in the crook of my neck. I lifted her up slightly off the ground. As I set Rae down again, she pulled away slightly and planted a soft kiss on my lips. It was unexpected and sweet, and it left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

"Encouragement," she whispered before separating herself from me entirely. "Now go kill it out there." I'd never felt so good in my life. With Rae, everything was electric and unexpected. I didn't feel nervous at all heading back out for the second half of the performance. As long as Rae was nearby, everything would be fine.