Begin Again [A Haylor Fanfic]

Chapter 7

The night before was a total blur to me. I remembered certain parts; it was all coming back slowly in flashes. What I do remember very clearly was waking up an hour ago with a pounding headache and a nauseous feeling in my stomach.

One thing I definitely didn’t expect to find was Harry sleeping next to me. But in a way, I was kind of relieved to find him here. I was glad I didn’t say or do anything last night to scare him off. I quietly pulled myself off the bed and tiptoed out into the kitchen, fixing myself some tea that would hopefully make me feel a little better. But apparently the tea didn’t come soon enough, and I found myself running to the nearest bathroom, my head over the toilet bowl, emptying the contents of my stomach. I held back my hair with one hand, the other firmly on the floor to hold myself up. This was not pleasant at all.

I ended up just sliding down the wall and onto the floor, sitting on the cold, hard ground as I tried to remember the details of the night before. That’s when I remembered. Jake. It all went downhill after that phone call from him. I ran my fingers through the knots in my hair angrily; I couldn’t believe him! But I wasn’t about to let him ruin anything else in my life. I was done giving him chance after chance. He was now just a memory that I knew I had to move on from. Sure, we had quite an extensive past, but it didn’t mean he had to be my future. I picked myself up from the ground and got back to making my cup of tea, making a second for Harry. I owed him for last night. I mainly remembered crying a lot, which wasn’t exactly something I had wanted Harry to see. I had had one of my ‘Jake meltdowns’ that the people back home were used to. Sophie and my mom had had their fair share of times dealing with me in those meltdowns.

Once I had finished making the tea, I headed back to the bedroom to find Harry waking up from his deep sleep.

“Hey.” I half smiled, sitting on the edge of the bed as I offered him the mug. “I owe you for last night.”

Harry sat up, his usual perfect hair a mess as he took the cup of tea in one hand, the other hand resting on my leg as he moved closer to me. “You don’t owe me anything, Taylor. How are you doin’?”

“Well, I’m not crying so… I’m doing a lot better. Thanks.”

He lifted his hand from my leg and pushed some hair from my face to behind my ear, grazing the side of my cheek as he did so. In that moment, it was almost like I felt… a connection? I pushed that feeling away though, coughing a little before taking another sip of my tea.

“Do you want to go and get some breakfast?” Harry offered as I just shook my head.

“I just threw up the contents of my stomach so… breakfast probably isn’t a great idea. Harry looked concerned, and I just shrugged it off. “I don’t mix well with alcohol, clearly.”

There were still so many thoughts going through my head. I don’t know this whole Jake situation was affecting me so much all of a sudden. It was as if I wanted to pull myself back to Jake because I didn’t want to get closer to Harry. He was a celebrity. The minute we were spotted together, I would be in the spotlight, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that. I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted that.

But apparently it was a little too late for that. Harry’s phone started buzzing, as he picked it up to find a picture message from Louis.

“Oh god…” He groaned, as he shook his head in frustration.

“What’s going on?” I asked him anxiously. What was happening?

“Okay Taylor, I… erm, just stay calm, okay? I’m going to show you something and erm… you may not like it.” He slowly handed me his phone as I stared blankly at the photo of the magazine cover.