Happily

Chapter Nine: Still the One

Juliet King

            Harry booked a room for me the same night Luke and I broke up and Eleanor helped me move my stuff out of Luke’s room the morning after. Luke and I seemed to be on good terms, exchanging smiles at each other. The other guys didn’t seem too mad at me, still cracking jokes. Harry called Anne and Gemma to tell them I was going to accompany him on Monday. They were so excited they planned an entire lunch for us.

            My sister, Stephanie, called me on Facetime Sunday night to tell me Dad was letting her fly out to Los Angeles to join me. I told her I was planning to go home.

            “You’re not serious,” Stephanie scoffed.

            “No, Stephanie. I am serious.”

            Stephanie rolled her eyes at me. “You can’t stay for another two weeks?”

            “I wouldn’t want to.”

            “One week?”

            “How long is Dad letting you stay with me?” I asked. I saw Katie poke her head in through the door nosily. I missed seeing her little pigtails.

            Stephanie shrugged, “He didn’t say but my plane lands tomorrow night.”

            I sighed, “We’re leaving Friday night. I can’t stand another day here in LA.”

            Stephanie laughed, “What’s wrong with you?”

            I shook my head, “You don’t even know. A lot of things happened last night.”

            “Like what?” Stephanie asked. “With Luke?”

            “And Harry,” I added.

            She raised an eyebrow at me, “Harry Styles? Yikes. Not a big fan of the guy.”

            “Well brace your self because you’ll be seeing a lot of him here.”

            Steph stretched her lips, making us both laugh. I decided to wait to tell her what had been going on between Harry and I – if anything was going on. She didn’t like Harry because of what he had done to hurt me. Understandable. Thinking about it, Luke was right. If I didn’t still love Harry, I wouldn’t have let him back into my life so easily. I could already hear Stephanie’s voice inside my head telling me how stupid and vulnerable I was being. I didn’t understand what I was doing or feeling myself. It just felt right.

            “Luke and I broke up,” I added. Stephanie’s mouth dropped and put her hand on her heart like she’d been shot. “Yeah… So, just remember that when you get here.”

            “What happened?”

            There was no way of explaining without involving Harry or lying. And I was done with lying. I just shook my head and said: “Long story. I’ll tell you when you get here.” As if on cue, Eleanor came knocked on my half-opened door.

            “Hey,” she said, coming in. Eleanor was staying with me until I left. She felt bad about what happened between Luke and I she wanted to repay me by keeping me company in my hotel room.

            “Steph, this is Eleanor. Louis’s girlfriend,” I said as Eleanor sat beside me, smiling at the camera. “Eleanor, this is my younger sister Stephanie. And the little blonde girl in the back is my baby sister, Katie.”