The Effect You Had

maddy - the outcast

The room had been silent before someone finally spoke, practically cutting the tense atmosphere with a knife. “Right… well-.” Liam begins but even he can’t think of something sensible to say. The tension in the room at the moment is unbearable. After a few minutes Harry gets up and leaves, not sparing a glance at me; Zayn close behind him. I lock myself in the bathroom and cry until the others clear out. At some point I fall asleep on the tiles in the bathroom of the foreign resort. It doesn’t seem too romantic at the moment.

I wake up and feel become alarmed, because I have no idea where I am. I roll over and fall out of bed. Rubbing a bruise on my head, I realise that I’m in Liam’s room. He’s snoring away on the other side of the king bed, completely oblivious to my stack. Good. Then my head starts to hurt for another reason. All of the incidents of the last three days come flooding back to me and I figure out why I’m not in my own room. Harry didn’t want to be anywhere near me. The worst part is that the article wasn’t all a lie. I did kiss Jai. I don’t like Harry, but I need my friend. When did this get so complicated?

~~~

Over the next two days I’m told to keep a low profile. Lounge by the pool. Don’t talk to reporters. Watch movies – in Liam’s room. They tell me my manager, Jenna, is being flown in to tell me what to do. Apparently, one wrong word spoken by me now could mean the end of my career. I do as I’m told until I need more clothes and figure that the only ones would be in Rachel’s bag. I call on the intercom first to ensure that I don’t run into Harry.

“Hello there, room 16M,” Harry answers, quite cheerfully.

My heart leapt when I hear my friends’ voice, indicating how I missed him dearly. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to bother you, can you tell Rach I called?” I ask hesitantly.

Harry’s voice turns cold upon registering my identity. “Yes. Goodbye.”

It suddenly dawns on me that this could be my chance to make it up to him. “Harry, wait! Let me talk. You know that the article isn’t true. It was just restating everything I told you earlier. But I assure you – I am not using you. You changed my life three years ago when we went to the awards night together. It didn’t instantly put plans of deceit into my head so that I could make it. All it was, was a dream come true. I had met one of my best friends in the world.” I finish and after a while, hear him turn the door for me to come in.

“What were you coming for?” His tone still like stone, yet the fact that he would look at me shows hope.

“More clothes – I packed twice as many heels than dresses and they are starting to stink. I was just going to take some of Rach’s.”

This puts a smile on his face. “I’m sorry Maddy,” Harry whispers to me.

“Honestly Hazz, what would you have to be sorry for. It’s me that has the making up to do,” I say.

“You can shout me a smoothie later hey and we’ll call it even,” says Harry, with a laugh.

“It’s a deal,” I reply.

He pulls me into a hug and plays with my hair. “It’s good to have you back.”

That night we go out to dinner, and go to the night markets where they sell some really great stuff. Jenna has informed me of what to say if I am bombarded by paparazzi. We have come to a group agreement that the best way for me to play the article is that there is nothing going on with Jai and we were arguing about a completely different matter (even though the ‘group’ didn’t involve Jai, despite my wishes and the fact that he is one of the people actually involved). We are also saying that what happened on Monday between me and Harry was no big deal, and I am taking a break from boys to focus on rebuilding my career after all the negative feedback the article has caused. Jenna has also arranged an interview with ‘Who’ magazine, where I will show them around the resort and my favourite places in Phuket and tell them the story we fabricated.