The Girl Next Door

01/04?

The next few weeks passed in a flash. I hoped that once Harry and I ‘break up’, my school mates won’t think I’m an attention-hogging starlet. Since it would be too fake if Harry’s seen with me one day and the next with Victoria, we’ve planned a breakup- which was supposed to happen any day now. And after a few more weeks, he’d be running around with ‘Queen Victoria’, and I’d be a single Pringle not yet ready to mingle.

I was laying down on my bed, paddling through my phone. Out of sheer boredom, I decided to go on Facebook- which I didn’t like at all but I was so bored I had no other choice. You see, Management has opened me a bunch of social networks- which were rarely used by me-, but didn’t really care for my old ones, so I was left with my Facebook. I had to change the name to ‘CR Hcra’, but other than that, it was pretty much left intact. I stumbled on Ana’s comment on Ariana’s video of me singing:

Ariana Williams’s Video from February 2 2013 01:36- at Puzzle’s Bar & Café

Ana Mise´, Just Ellie, Charlie Chase and 4 others like this.

Charlie, I thought, smiling.  

I clicked the like button and left a :* in the comments.

Right under that was a post from Charlie:

Charlie Hawthorne went from being ‘single’ to being ‘in a relationship’.

“I guess he’s moved on,” I muttered. I was happy for him, but it also hurt.

My phone vibrated. I stumbled to the other side of my bed. It was from Richard:

Carter, I need you at Harry’s, ASAP.

I rolled my eyes and got out of bed, putting on a pair of jeans and a baggy black ‘I LIKE CATS’ shirt. I rushed down the stairs.

“Bye, mom,” I said and ran past her.

“And where might you be going?”

“To my boy- Harry’s,” I still wasn’t comfortable calling Harry Styles my so called boyfriend.

“Have fun. And don’t do something I wouldn’t!” She shouted after me, mysteriously smiling. I didn’t bother to ring the doorbell, so I simply walked in. On the black leather couch behind the hallway wall, Harry was sitting while Richard and Paul were standing around him.

“Hello,” I said, frowning.

“Finally,” Harry muttered.

“Carter, sit,” Richard pointed me to the couch next to Harry.

“What’s this about? I was kind of busy-“

“I’m afraid it’s bad news.” I swallowed a lump. Richard took a deep breath, “Victoria’s husband, Horatio, suffered a heart-attack… He didn’t make it.”

“What- what does that mean for us?” Harry asked, his look wandering away.

“That means Victoria will have to play the widow for a few more months, and-“

“’Harter’s back on…” I guessed, my eyes locked on the floor.

“I’m afraid so.” All I could think of was this just being a twisted early April Fool’s joke. I finally thought I’d get rid of all of this pretending and now I have to keep it up for another few months. Harry took my hand to calm me down, but I got up and rushed to the door, tears streaming down my face. I opened my front door. It slammed on the wall on the right, wide open.

“Carter?” mom called, but I just went to the stairs. She was holding her phone in her hand. “Carter?!” I turned around and realised her eyes were filled with tears. “Carter,” her voice was shaky, “Your dad came to surprise you here for your birthday-“ My birthday wasn’t in another two weeks. “-on the way to the airport-“ she looked down, grabbing my hand. “On the way to the airport there was a drunk driver, and… Your dad was in a car crash. Carter, he didn’t make it.” She gripped my hand even tighter. I tugged out and ran up the stairs and into my room, collapsing on my bed. I let myself cry. I heard sounds downstairs but I didn’t care. My dad. I haven’t seen him since Christmas, and now he’s not ever coming back, because of me. He’ll never know the truth about ‘Harter’. Our last few days together were basically a lie.

“Carter?” the door opened, Harry peeking in. “Can I-“

“Go away!” I mumbled to the pillow, but I doubted he’d hear anything.

“Carter…” he sat next to me. I tried to fight him to go away, but I just wasn’t strong enough. He leaned my head on his chest and his arms around my back. He put his chin on the back of my head. The sound of his heartbeat calmed me down a bit.

“Are you okay?” he asked, slowly swinging us back and forth on the bed.

Of course not, I wanted to scream, but my voice was breaking.

“M- my dad,” I stuttered.

“Your mum told me. It’s okay.-“

“No, it’s not! Can’t you see? He died because of me.” I tried to escape from him, but his arms trapped me.

“Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t do anything.”

“I couldn’t do anything because I was here playing house with you. If I stayed home, if I never moved to London, this wouldn’t have ever happened.” Our eyes met, his faintly shining in the dimmed night light. They were so similar, both olive green, that I felt like I was looking in a mirror. His were just a shade darker than mine. He pulled me closer. In these circumstances, I was even glad he was here, not Chessie or my mom. They would make me feel better, but they wouldn’t make me face the problem. Right now, he is the only person I can tell anything. He’s the only one I can trust.

“Carter, if this is too much for you now, you can back off from the deal. I’ll just say things didn’t work out between us, and Victoria and I go way back…-“

“No,” I tried to get up, but as soon as I did I fell right back on his tear-stained white t-shirt. “I have to help you with this.”

“We’ll help each other,” he muttered so quietly I could barely hear him. He kissed my head, but I took it as a friendly kiss. I don’t think anyone in the right mind would think about their job right now. He said something else, but I was already tight asleep in his arms to hear it.