Pictures and Words

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

“BELBY! We have to go! We’re supposed to meet Riley and Dylan in Piccadilly Circus in half an hour!” Katy yelled at me as I heard her walk down the hallway.

“Just a sec!” I called back, sitting up on my bed. “Hey, I gotta go.”

“Aw, how come?” Harry whined into the phone.

“For one, you’re supposed to be bowling with the boys and I can hear them complaining about you talking to me in the background. For two, Katy and I are meeting up with some friends that came to visit us from America.”

“Oh. Well, have fun, love. See you tonight?”

“You bet.”

“SHELBY!” Katy yelled louder.

I rolled my eyes. “Coming!”

*****

“Shel!” Riley grabbed me in a massive bear hug as soon as I was close enough, lifting me up and spinning me in a circle.

“Rilers!” I laughed, returning his hug.

Dylan did pretty must the exact same thing to Katy, except when he set her back on her feet he ruffled her hair. “You cut your hair.”

Harvard smoothed her blonde locks back into place. “Not that much. I just got some shorter layers.”

“It looks good on you.”

Katy shot me a look.

You see, we kind of had a thing for these boys a couple of years ago. They were brothers and had moved away before things ever had a chance to play out. We weren’t even sure if they had ever liked it, but considering the remark Dylan just made, it seemed like things we’re going to be a tiny bit awkward today.

“Hey, do y’all remember when we used to go swing dancing every Friday night?” Riley asked as we walked down the sidewalk.

“Ha, yeah! Katy and I still went whenever her older brother was in from college before we came here.” I said, smiling at the memory.

Riley suddenly grabbed my hands and started dancing in the middle of the sidewalk. I giggled, but followed along, surprised by how much he remembered. Katy and Dylan soon joined us, drawing a crowd that cheered us on. We both ended in the ‘Sweetheart’ pose, leaning against our partners with our arms intertwined. The group watching all clapped as we curtsied and bowed to them, causing me to laugh uncontrollably.

“That was so much fun!” I giggled.

Katy held a hand to her side. “Oh my gosh, I’m so out of shape!”

“Well, we haven’t really done anything productive since we’ve been working with the boys.”

“‘The boys’?” Dylan repeated, giving us a confused look.

“One Direction,” Katy explained.

Riley cocked an eyebrow. “Y’all refer to them as the boys?”

I shook my head. Clearly, he did not visit Twitter very often. “All Directioners do.”

“All five off them are ‘the boys’,” Katy further explained before giving me a wink. “Niall and Harry are our boys.”

I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips.

Riley looked a little annoyed, but his tone was casual when he spoke. “Oh yeah, we heard you girls were dating famous people now.”

Katy was looking behind her as she went to cross the street. “They’re not just ‘famous people, they’re-”

“Katy, watch out!” Dylan grabbed Katy’s hand and yanked her back, causing her to crash into his chest just in time to avoid getting ran over by a little old lady in a smart car.

“Holy crud, Kaitlin! You could’ve gotten yourself killed!” I reprimanded, grabbing her and holding her at arm’s length to check her for injuries. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine.” She looked behind me at Dylan. “Thank a lot, Dyl. You saved my life.”

Dylan ran a hand backward through his hair, making if stick up on top. “I’m glad I saw that car. Be more careful, okay?”

“No problem there.”

*****

Harry’s voice blaring from my phone woke me up at seven the next morning. With blurry eyes I looked at the screen, having to blink a few times before recognizing Linda’s name. This couldn’t be good.

“Hello?” I answered, trying to sound more alert than I actually was.

“What the heck did you do now?!” She yelled at me.

“Linda, I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Check Twitter,” she insisted before hanging up on.

Oh great. Nothing involving me on Twitter could be good.

My feed was overrun with comments about me cheating on Harry.

“What the heck?” I said out loud, scrolling through hateful tweet after hateful tweet.

HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO HARRY??!!!!

Are you insane?!!!

What’s your problem??!!!

My problem was I had no clue what they were talking about. I clicked on trending topics and cringed. The first one was about me cheating on Harry. I clicked on the first picture that came up. It was Riley bear hugging me yesterday afternoon. The next one was of us in the Sweetheart pose after our outburst of swing dancing, which people apparently thought was just us in each others’ arms.

I clicked out of that trend and clicked into the next one, which was about Katy cheating on Niall. The picture of her and Dylan in the Sweetheart pose was the first one I saw. The next one was of when Dylan pulled Katy out of the way of the car, but you couldn’t see the car in the picture and it just looked as though they were crossing the street hand-in-hand.

“Crud,” I muttered, jumping out of bed.

I saw Katy sitting on the couch with her phone pressed to her ear as I ran through the living room. I stopped for a second to check on her.

I pointed at her cell, mouthing, “Niall?”

She nodded and gave me a thumb’s up, signaling everything was fine and worked out.

I nodded back and continued to run across the hall. I beat my fist against Harry’s front door, dancing around to relieve some stress while waiting for him to answer. When he finally answered, it was clear he hadn’t been up too long. The only thing he had on was pajama pants and his hair was sticking out in every direction.

“Have you been on Twitter?” I asked frantically, biting my lip.

He nodded and yawned at the same time.

“Okay, well, I’m not cheating on you, I swear.” I rushed to explain. “Riley and Dylan were the friends Katy and I met up with yesterday. The hug was nothing, just us excited to see each other after so long. The other picture was us randomly deciding to swing dance in the middle of the sidewalk.”

Harry took the chance to laugh as I paused for a breath. “Don’t worry, love. I knew it was nothing. So did Niall. People make a big deal out of nothing.”

I sighed in relief before giving him a massive hug. “Oh, thank goodness.”

He patted my back, yawning again. “Do you want to hang out today?”

I winced. “I can’t. Katy and I promised to meet up with Riley and Dylan again. They’re only here for a week and since we leave Friday to go on tour with y’all we promised to spend a couple of days with them.”

Harry’s face fell, his gorgeous green eyes saddening. “Oh. I understand.”

“Tomorrow I promise!”

“Yeah, okay…”