Piper ~ H.S

~Twenty-One~ *

***Edited in October 2022***

A/N: Idk what to think about this chapter so I'll leave that to you guys :p 

"Oh, Jesus..." I pushed Ashley's laptop away and anxiously rubbed my eyes, "Ash...have you seen the photos..?"

"Oh, yeah," she nodded, "they're at the bottom of the article. And may I just say: Jesus Christ, Lee – you looked like you wanted to swallow each other's faces," she said with a giggle.

"Shut up!" I threw a pillow at her, "This is serious, Ashley!"

"Hey – you don't know that. Maybe it's not as serious as you think," she suggested.

"Ashley, you know how the fans flip out about any girl that's been linked to Harry by the media – without any evidence," I told her, "with me, the evidence of a romantic connection with their idol is clear as day. Of course this is gonna be serious," I sighed, "I can't believe it...me and Harry's day at the beach totally exposed...and then the reveal of my name gets thrown in alongside it. All in an overnight process..." I buried my face in my hands and shook my head, "fuck...how could this possibly get any worse..?"

"Leah, look at me," Ashley grabbed me by the shoulders and bore her eyes into mine, "you had a good time with Harry yesterday, yeah?"

"Yeah," I nodded without hesitation.

"And do you want a perfect day like that to happen only once, or do you want them to happen again and again – getting more and more romantic every time?" She gave me a knowing smile.

"Well..." I began, "the latter sounds much better..."

"Of course it does!" She said, "Now, are you going to rob yourself of those perfect dates just because you don't wanna deal with a bit of hate?"

"A bit?" I cocked an eyebrow at her, "That's...making light of things a little, don't you think?"

"That's not the point I'm trying to get across, Leah!" Ashley rolled her eyes, "Look, if you wanna be Harry's girlfriend, you gotta deal with some hate – there's no doubt about it. But it's not all gonna be hate, babe. There's gonna be fans who support you, too. I mean, there are even people out there who still ship Haylor and Hendall up until now, for God's sake."

"That's true..." I bit my lip.

"There's bound to be fans out there who will support you, and ship you with Harry too, Lee," she smiled at me, "but it's not even up to the fans to choose who Harry dates. Every one of Harry's fans want to date Harry, but Harry wants to date you – and they can't do jack shit about it. The only one who can choose if you should be with Harry or not is you, Leah."

My teeth continued to nibble at my bottom lip as I took a few moments to think.

"Leah, anyone can see how much you want to be with Harry. Your feelings for him have been practically radiating off you since yesterday," Ashley continued, "and, you know...if the cyber hate becomes too much, it can easily be controlled."

I looked at her and opened my mouth to reply, but I was suddenly interrupted by my phone starting to vibrate on my bedside table. I pulled out the charger and checked the Caller ID – my eyes widening slightly as soon as I saw it.

"It's...it's Harry..." I said quietly.

"Speak of the devil," Ashley began to smile, "he's probably checking on to you see if you're okay."

"But I...I can't do this right now," I said, "I...I have to get Piper ready for kinder-"

"I'll handle Piper," Ashley told me as she shut her laptop and rose to her feet, "you talk to Harry."