Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Missed Phone Calls Or The Morning After

Hi everyone, after seeing some comments on the last chapter (the article), I decided that it was time to quickly publish another chapter tonight, to calm the fears of a potential Clarry breakup. All the love, Summer xxx

The 'morning after' or as I liked to call them hell on earth were never fun. When I finally managed to open my eyes, it was past ten pm and the sun was already casting her bright light across the room. I vaguely remembered Liam dropping me off last night and was overcome with a wave of gratefulness when I saw the advil and the glass of water on my night stand. After I had taken the pain killers, I slowly stood up and waddled into the kitchen in my pyjamas, where I made myself a cup of tea. While I waited for my tea to cool down a little bit, I made a short trip to the bathroom where I spontaneously decided to take a quick shower after a look into the mirror.

Back in the kitchen, I remembered that I hadn't checked my phone since seven o'clock last night and unlocked it before sitting down on one of our kitchen chairs. When I took a closer look at the notifications on the screen, I nearly dropped my phone. For some reason, I had received over twenty calls and fifteen text messages, most of them during the last three hours. With shaking fingers, I looked through my caller list and noticed that half of the calls where from Harry. I also had received several from Ed and Liam and another number which I didn't recognise. The text messages mainly contained messages of said three to call them, so I started with Harry.

He picked up after two rings. "Claire?" he asked, desperation in his voice. "Harry, hi, you decided to call me back?" I asked him in a somewhat snippy tone and took a small slip from my tea. "You were the one who didn't answer- no, wait a second. What you mean 'call me back'?" he interrupted himself, obviously confused. "Excuse me? I called you yesterday and some girl picked up the phone and said you were busy when I clearly heard you in the back ground. I asked her to tell you to call me back, but you didn't and then I went out with some friends and didn't really check my phone until now." I explained and absentmindedly started to drum my fingers on the table.

"You called me?" Harry asked bewildered and I snorted in response. "You're kidding right? Some girl answered your phone all chirpy and giggling and you could clearly be heard in the background, Harry." I said in a defeated tone and I heard him take a deep breath at the other end of the line. "Claire, I love you, so whatever it is you think might have happened never did. I accidentally left my phone in the make-up trailer yesterday and one of the girls must have picked it up. One of them, Aimee, seems to like me, but I never gave her any indication that I like her more as a friend and I would never ever cheat on you, Claire, you must believe that. She probably saw your name and noticed that I wasn't paying attention and took the chance to mess with my love life a bit because she's jealous. But I am kind of disappointed that you would even think something like that about me in the first place."

There was a short silence during which I tried to process everything he had just said. After a few seconds of silence, I finally spoke up again. "I'm sorry, Harry." I said quietly and heard him sigh at the other end of the line. "It's fine, love. But the reason why I tried to call you this morning was another one. Your little night out is all over the Internet and people are freaking out because it suspiciously looks like you were getting very cozy with both Ed and Liam." He sounded bitter and his words were like a punch in the guts. "What do you mean?" I asked him and pulled my laptop towards me and turned it on, while trying to remember what had happened last night. Most of it was a bit of a blur after we had entered the club, but I vaguely remembered feeling dizzy and needing some support.

"There are photos of you and Liam and you and Ed holding hands and clinging onto each other all over the fucking Internet, Claire. Do you even know how bad that looks? How bad this makes Liam and Ed look? And me? I look like a complete idiot who is being fooled by a girl who's only looking for some fame!" he spat out. Trying, not to freak out and say soemthing I could most likely regret later, I opened the Internet and typed 'Claire Winters' into the search bar. The first thing that came up was an article by The Sun and what I saw made me feel sick. I scanned the horrendous article and then scrolled down to the photos and the video.

"Claire, are you even listening?" Harry's voice seemed to be very far away. "I'm still here." I confirmed and clicked through the photos which allegedly "proved" that I was cheating on Harry. "Harry?" I asked quietly, after he had finished another rant. "Yes?" he replied, his tone still angry and bitter. "Can I talk for a minute now?" I asked him and bit my lip to stop myself from adding something else. He grunted in response and I took a deep breath. "I unofficially passed my degree yesterday with the best mark in my whole year. That's why I tried to call you, I wanted to share this with you. But when I called you, I was greeted by Aimee, or whatever her name is, and then you didn't call back so I rang Ed and he agreed to meet me in town with some friends to celebrate. In the pub, I talked to Ed about my insecurities and he told me that you'd never do anything like that, but a tiny part of me still told me that I'm just not good enough for you, so I decided to have a couple of drinks and was already very drunk when we left the pub, hence my clinging onto Ed. 

In the club we had another few rounds of shots and then Grimmie, Ed and Liam tried to distract me and we all danced for a while, before we went back to the bar where we had some more drinks. Unfortunately, I had had a little bit too much to drink and started to feel dizzy and Liam was standing next to me, so he caught me and then decided to take me home with the others. The photos of me and him holding hands is from when he tried to get me into the taxi without carrying me and his arm was wrapped around my waist because I couldn't even walk properly. I was a drunk mess and he helped me. Nothing else happened, I swear. 

So, then, um.... I think Ed and Grimmie dropped us off at my flat and I can vaguely remember that Liam helped me into bed and promised me to send Sophia over this morning. So whatever Dan Woottoon, who is -as you very well know by the way- the last person to trust on stuff like this, is saying is a pile of bullshit which he and the others made up to make money. I would never cheat on you either, Harry. I sometimes tend to drown my pain in alcohol, which isn't really the best coping strategy, but Ed and Liam were only being amazing friends when I needed someone to take care of me." I tried to tell him as calmly as possible. While I was recounting the events from last night, my memories seemed to gradually come back and I was happy that I could confidently tell him the true story.

After I had finished, there was a short pause and the only thing which could be heard was Harry's breathing. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions." he  said after what seemed like hours. He sounded tired and in that moment I wished he wasn't so far away from me. "You weren't the only one to jump to conclusions, Harry, and the photos look really bad, so I can't really blame you." I tried to assure him. There was another short pause during which both of us seemed to collect their thoughts. "What is the best way to deal with this mess?" I asked him quietly after a few seconds and took another sip from my tea which was cold by now. "I have been on the phone all morning, and so have Ed and Liam. Both of their managements have probably tried to contact you, most likely Liam's, because they need you to be aware of their cover story or explanation. I think the best thing you can do is to call both Ed and Liam, probably Liam first, and talk to them. I can't really help you from over here." he said in a defeated tone, obviously unhappy with the whole situation.

"Alright, I'll ring them in a minute, thank you." I told him and heard someone call something in the background. "I've gotta go, love, but congratulations on your degree. I'll call you again, when I'm done with the next scene, alright?" he asked me. I quickly called out, before he could hang up on me. "Harry?" There was a shuffle and I thought he hadn't heard me, but then he replied after a moment. "Yes?" I took a deep breath and loosened my tight grip on my kitchen table, resting my hand on my thigh instead. "I love you." I told him in a quiet tone and felt a small grin appear on my face. "I love you, too, Claire." he said without hesitation, before he hung up on me, but I could have sworn that he sounded a bit happier than he had seconds before.