Protected [Harry Styles - AU]

chapter 17

Skye's POV

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"Perrie, it's okay!" I wrapped my arms around her torso and squeezed her tight.

"I know, I know. I just can't ever let Harry get with a girl like her again. That night, the night we found out that Casey was doing it for money, he was so hurt. I couldn't get him to talk for days. He was heartbroken, and seeing him like that, killed me inside," she said, wiping the smeared mascara from under her eyes, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to cry in front of you."

"You can cry in front of me as much as you need to, obviously Casey has hurt everyone in the group in some way. She hurt Harry really badly, but she has no control over him anymore!" I reassured her.

"I know," she stopped crying, "Ahh, I hate crying!" she laughed and forced a smile.

I smiled back at her. We got makeup wipes to try and deal with the smeared black lines surrounding her eyes. While we were trying to clean up Perrie's makeup we heard a knock on the door.

I opened the door and saw Harry standing there. He engulfed me into a hug and he kissed the top of my head, "Skye, I need to talk to you."

I turned to Perrie and she nodded, allowing me to leave her alone. We stepped out into the hallway.

"I know that seeing Casey there probably sucked. But I want you to know that she means nothing to me," he grabbed my shoulders, "You matter so much to me and I don't want you to leave because of something as dumb as this."

"What makes you think I would want to leave because of this? I'm in this for the long run."

"Oh, thank god!" there was obvious relief in his voice.

"Do you really think I would ever leave you?"

He thought about the answer for a second, "I don't know."

My eyebrows knit together in a sorrowful manner, "Harry. I will

never leave you unless you give me a reason, okay? I promise."

"I know, but I've done things in the past that you probably wouldn't be proud of." he looked to the ground.

"That was the past, I won't judge you from your past." I had enough to be judged for, myself.

He responded by cupping my cheeks lightly into his hands and pulled my lips to his. His lips were tender and soft whilst we savored each other's touch.

He pulled away and traced my jawline as he brought his hands back down to his side. He kept his deep green eyes locked on mine. Interrupting our moment, I heard Perrie call my name from inside the room. She opened the door and had her hands over her eyes, "I don't want to see anything, is it safe to look?"

"Yes," I laughed.

She peeked through her fingers and smiled, "Your phone went off and I let it ring but whoever it was called a second time so I thought I would bring you your phone if you want to call them back. It might be important."

"Thanks Perrie!" I grabbed my phone from her and checked the screen. I did, in fact, have two missed calls from a blocked number. I ignored it, because I assumed it was a wrong number.

I kissed his cheek. "So I'm going to go back to my dorm, unless you want me to stay," he raised an eyebrow at me.

"I would love for you to stay, but Perrie is still a bit overwhelmed from the party so I think I'm just going to stay with her for tonight."

He nodded his head in understanding and kissed me on the forehead before walking away, "Bye Haz!"

He turned around and winked. Instead of walking off, he walked back over to me and kissed my lips. The kiss grew and I was soon placing my tongue across his plump lips. His mouth opened and our tongues fought for dominance. Something felt different in his mouth and I pulled away. "Did you put in a tongue ring?" He grabbed my bum and gave it a squeeze before pulling away, "Maybe."