Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Rude Fans Or Unexpected Phone Calls

Hi everyone, I'm on a roll today, so here in another chapter for you to enjoy. :) I added one of my favourite Harry gifs at the top, as well. All the love, Summer xxx

It was a week later and I was sitting in a small cafe, trying to ignore the fact that I had a meeting with my tutor in an hour, who would tell me whether or not I had passed my degree and what grade I had achieved. An open book was lying in front of me, but I hadn't turn a single page since I had sat down at the small table. The little bell over the door rang and two girls entered, both in their late teens, and walked over to order something. One of them let her eyes wander around the room and her gaze lingered on me for a bit longer, before I lowered my gaze to my book again. Pretending to read my book, I secretly prayed that she hadn't recognised me. I had been stopped three times during the past few days and I hadn't even gathered the courage yet to look online. All three of my encounters had been very nice and I had been relieved that no one had been rude in any way, at least not yet. The question was how long things would stay this way.

I sipped at my tea and turned a page of my book without reading a single word, feeling the girls' eyes on me. A moment later, I heard two pair of footsteps coming my way, but I didn't look up until one of them cleared her throat. "Hi." the taller one of them said. She seemed to be the older one and definitely was the more confident out of the two of them. "Hi." I replied with a small smile and took another sip from my tea. "You're Harry's girlfriend, aren't you?" she asked me, her tone quite rude and very accusing. "I'm Claire." I replied with a sweet smile and held out my hand for her to shake. "And who are you?" I asked her and I could see that she was surprised by my reply. "Eileen, but that's not the point here." she replied and impatiently started to tap her foot on the floor, completely ignoring my hand. "So, are you with Harry or not?"

With a sigh, I closed my book and downed the rest of my tea. "Look, Eileen, I'm sure you're a nice girl, but don't you think it's quite rude to interrupt someone when they're sitting in cafe with a very private question, without even introducing yourself to them?" I asked her and when she opened her mouth to reply, I continued "I'm a fan myself, so the happiness and health of the boys is something quite close to my heart, but don't you think that it's their life and they should be with whoever they like?" I asked her and stood up. "I, um..." Eileen started and I gave her another sweet smile, before I pushed passed her and quickly payed for my tea. "Rude bitch. Harry deserves so much better." I heard her mutter behind her to the other girl who hadn't said a word the whole time.

"Excuse me?" I asked her and turned around, one of my eyebrows raised and a hand on my hip. "I said you're a rude bitch. You're just with Harry because you want your five minutes of fame to become a model or something like that, which you're way too fat and too ugly for, by the way, so you better fuck off before he drops you and looks for someone better." Eileen spat out and took a step forward, obviously expecting me to take a step back or to be intimidated in anyway. What she probably didn't expect was that I would start laughing at her face. "Oh, honey, I feel sorry for you." I said with a chuckle and patted her arm, before I pushed past her. "Have a lovely day, ladies." I said and the younger girl sent me an apologetic smile, before I stepped out of the door and left a shocked Eileen in the cafe.

Outside, I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I might have acted very cool and collected in front of the girls, but on the inside I was very shaken up by the blunt rudeness of Eileen, who most likely wouldn't be the last one. Having been part of the fandom for years, I knew that people like Eileen only represented a tiny, tiny part of the fandom, but I also knew that jealousy could bring out the worst in people and One Direction was very popular, so it was only natural that millions of girls, and boys, would die to be in my position. Plugging my head phones into my ears, I started my walk to the uni a little earlier than I had originally planned.

After I had spent twenty minutes pacing up and down in front of my tutor's office, she finally called my name. "Claire Winters, please!" I made a u-turn and followed her into her office, shaking like a leaf. "Have a seat, my dear." she told me with a smile and I gladly sat down, my fingers automatically starting to play with the hem of my t-shirt. "First of all, I would like to tell you that it's been a pleasure to have you here, Claire. I know that the past few months haven't been easy for you, but you have done exceptionally well despite the circumstances and you can be very, very proud of yourself." I felt my cheeks heat up at her kind words and thanked her quietly. 

"But I'm sure that's not why you came here today." she added with a laugh and then started to rummage through the big pile of big, brown envelopes in front of her. "Winters, Winters... ah, here you are." She pulled out a thick envelope from the very bottom of the pile and handed it over the table. With shaking hands, I took it from her hands and opened it under her watchful eyes. Inside were a couple of documents, but the most important one was the first one. My eyes wandered over the list of modules and numbers and stopped at the very last one, my eyes widening when I read it. "95?" I asked her and looked up from my dissertation mark. "Are you that's mine? Maybe you got it mixed up?" I asked her, but she shook her head and laughed. 

"No, on the contrary, your dissertation is the best one this year! And the rest of your marks are excellent, as well, so you'll graduate as one of the five people who have managed to achieve a First this year." she told me with a wide smile and I was sure I would be on the floor by now, if I hadn't been sitting on a chair already. "Holy shit." I mumbled quietly and looked back down at my marks. "Congratulations, Claire, a well deserved achievement." she congratulated me with a wide smile. "Thank you, Amanda." We shook hands and then she ushered me out of the door, as she still had a dozen of students waiting to receive their final marks. 

The first thing I did when I stepped outside was call my mum. "Hi honey!" she greeted me cheerfully and I felt a wide smile spread on my face. "Hi, mum." I replied and carefully walked down the stone steps which led up to the main building, before turning left into the local park. "Mum, I just received my marks and you won't believe what happened! I got a First! Me! Only four other people in our year achieved this and I got a 95 for my dissertation!" I squealed and quickly lowered my voice when a woman gave me a weird look. "Oh, Claire, that's wonderful! I always knew that you would be amazing, but you can be so proud of yourself, honey! And your dad would be so proud of you, too." she gushed and I felt my eyes fill with tears at the mention of my dad.

"Thank you, mum, but I never would have been able to achieve this without your support." I told her honestly and she immediately protested. "Nonsense, honey, but now, tell me: how are you and my favourite actor and singer doing?" she asked and I could hear the smirk in her voice. "He's doing fine, mum." I assured her with a grin and sat down on a bench. "Good, good, is her really such a good kisser as everyone says?" she asked me and I nearly dropped my envelope in surprise. "Mum!" She giggled and I heard Sally bark in the background. "I'm a little bit disappointed that you haven't told me anything, but knowing you, you two probably kept it a secret from everyone and we haven't really manage to talk that much lately, so I won't be crossed with you. But you two really have to come and visit me some time." she said in a slightly demanding tone and I suddenly had a mental image of Harry and my mum bonding over embarrassing stories of me. 

"Um, we'll drop by whenever he's free for a bit longer. He's very busy with filming at the moment." I explained to her and tried to swallow the sudden lump in my throat at the thought of Harry. "It's okay to miss him, honey. I'm sure he misses you, too." I smiled at my mum's kind words. "We try to talk on the phone every night. And he'll try to come up to England to see me and his friends and his mum and sister as often as he can, but it's really difficult for him to take some time off because it's such a big movie." I explained and she hummed. "He's such a lovely young man, Claire, I'm so happy that you found someone so wonderful." she said happily and I could hear the smile in her voice. "So am I, mum." I assured her, before we said our goodbyes and hung up. 

After sending a quick text to Lily and my uni friends, before I dialed Harry's number, a wide smile on my face. However, it quickly vanished when a woman answered the phone and not Harry. "Hello, Harry's phone." she giggled and I felt as if somebody had punched me in the guts. "Um, hi? This is Claire, can I talk to Harry, please?" I asked her politely, while I was silently screaming "Why are you answering my boyfriend's phone?". There was a shuffle and I heard a voice which sounded awfully like Harry's in the background. "He's a little busy at the moment." Another giggle and something hit the floor in the background. "But should I give him a message from you?" she chirped into the phone and I felt my heart beat very loudly, drowning out her happy voice. "Yes, please tell him that his girlfriend called." I replied shortly, before I hung up on her.