Typed • h.e.s

Chapter 23: Faded Memories

"Our mates knows that you're writing a book being promoted by One Direction." Ellie says, walking our way out of the uni. "Oh, it has been two weeks since it was announced and they just reacted to it now. I didn't want to expose my stories before, I only keep it between you and me and some mates online." I say. "I remember that. You know, I really think you have superpowers. You're a legend, Tara!" Ellie says and I laughed. "No. I am not. But I believe that I really have superpowers." I say. "Let's have tea?" She asks. "Brilliant idea." I answer. "Can we have it home? I prefer to feel comfortable now." I ask her as we stopped walking and waited for a bus to come. "Of course!" She agrees and as the bus came, we step inside and went straight home.

"I seriously broke up with Calum." I say as I hand her a cup of tea and sat beside her. "What? Are you serious?" Ellie says and minimises the volume of the telly. "Have you just heard what I've said? I seriously broke up with him. He went here a few days ago then I told him, we can't continue it anymore." I tell Ellie and she doesn't seemed surprised. "Oh, well, it's up to you, love. Wherever you feel happy." Ellie says with a smile. "Anyway, I just can't wait to see Harry soon." I say with a smile. "Don't you think he'll remember me?" I ask her. "I don't know. I wish I know what you're talking about though." Ellie frowns. "Uhm, well, forget about it." I smiled and she laughs. "Has the boys revealed the title yet?" She asks. "Nope. Not yet. I want to know Harry's reaction about it." I grinned. "He tweeted before that he has read a few chapters." "I just want to know his reaction. I feel so shy now. What if he doesn't like it?" I say with a laugh. "Of course he will! He should! You gave everything in that story." Ellie says.

"Is that your phone ringing?" Ellie says and we remain silent. "Where is it?" I ask. "I don't know." Ellie looks everywhere but we can't find my phone. We both stand from our seat and I pick my phone up from the floor. "Gah." I look at who's calling and it's Ms. Johnson. "Footprints." I say and looked at Ellie. She tells me to answer it so I went inside my room and answered the call.

"Good day, Ms. Shaw." Ms. Johnson says and she sounds so happy it made me nervous and excited. "Good day, Ms. Johnson." "I know you have seen on Twitter weeks ago that the boys have tweeted about the book." "Yes, I have thanked them as well." I say. "Please come tomorrow, ten in the morning, here in my office. The printing is now done." She says and I smiled to the ground. "Blimey. Gah, thank you so much. I can't wait for tomorrow. Will the boys be there?" I ask as I smiled. "We'll see, Ms. Shaw." Ms. Johnson answered. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow." She adds. "Thank you so much." I say and we ended the call.

I screamed happiness from the top of my lungs and Ellie comes in my room.

"What?! What is happening?!" Ellie says as she barges in. "Ten o'clock in the morning, we're going to Footprints." I say and Ellie smiles. "I'm so happy for you!" She says and gives me a hug. "Will the boys be there?" She asks me. "I don't know." I shrugged. "But what's important is that the printing is done now." I say.

I had to set my mind free for tomorrow's meet up with Ms. Johnson in Footprints. If it is possible, I wouldn't like to think about Harry today or I would lose my focus again.

I lay on my bed after Ellie left and she'll fetch me here tomorrow nine.

Am I even ready if ever I see Harry tomorrow if he comes? I don't think that I'll be able to talk again when I see him.

"Good night everyone."

I tweeted and drifted myself to sleep.

•

"Ellie! You are so excited!" I say as I get in her car and wore the seatbelt. "I am very excited!" She says and started to drive. "What if the boys are there? Ellie! I can't breath!" She squeals and I laughed. "Stop fangirling! You're driving. Look at the road!" I say. "Aren't you excited?!" She looks at me again and back to the road. "Well, I am. For the book." I answer. "Excited to see Harry?" She asks me and I looked outside the window.

I remained silent and she doesn't talk anymore after asking me that. I don't know if I feel excited or not. I don't know! I just want to be in Footprints now and meet Ms. Johnson and I'm done!

"We're here." Ellie says and pulls over at the car park. We both went down and went inside the building. We didn't have to stop by the front desk since it's just for information and I've been called by Ms. Johnson.

"I can smell them." Ellie says inside the elevator. "Because you're using their perfume." I say and we laughed.

We walked out the elevator and the to the inside Ms. Johnson's office.

"Good day." I say and Ms. Johnson was walking with some papers on her hand. "Ms. Shaw! Ms. Bennett! Glad to see you both here." She says and stops walking. "Oh, please follow me. We aren't going to talk here." She says and we walked outside her office and went inside the elevator. "I can't wait to show you your book in a while." She says as she presses the eighteenth floor button. "I'm excited. Where are we going? If you don't mind." I ask. "To the conference room. We'll be meeting some people." Ms. Johnson said and Ellie and I exchanged looks. "One Direction." Ellie mouthed and I laughed.

We walked out of the elevator and Ms. Johnson walks towards a room. The security opens the door and I take a deep breath before seeing whoever is inside.

"Tara! Aren't you going inside?" Ellie shakes my shoulder. "Oh, gah, yes. I will. I'm just nervous. They're inside." I say after hearing their voices as the door opened. "Tara." Ms. Johnson looks outside and asks us to come in.

I walked inside and Ms. Johnson introduces me to the team and the boys. My heart started to beat so fast as my eyes met Harry's again. He smiled at I looked away.

"Very nice to meet you." Louis, Liam and Niall stands and gives me a hug. I couldn't say anything but my eyes are looking at Harry who stood from his seat. Zayn gives me the last hug and Harry walks towards me.

"Oh, you did so well." Harry says and hugs me. "Yeah, Harry kept on talking about the book whenever he reads it." Louis says. "The book looked so real like you've know him personally." Liam says. My eyes gets watery after seeing Harry again.

"It was brilliant." Harry says and nods. "You don't remember me?" I say. "Remember? You?" Harry asks and he shakes his head. "Have we met before?" He asks. "Oh, I guess, Tara has mistaken you for someone. I'm sorry. She's...she's just a little surprised seeing you all." Ellie says and I left my jaw slightly dropped. "Why won't we all be seated?" Ms. Johnson says and we sat down.

I take a glimpse of Harry and he looking at Ms. Johnson who is currently discussing things.

"We're very happy for the soon release of Tara's book tomorrow. The book launch will be held here first before touring with you lads." Ms. Johnson says.

She discussed about the tour and the book that the boys will be promoting it too as it is their official fan fiction.

It took us three hours before the meeting finished. I'm glad that I have focused but of course, I can't stop myself from looking at Harry.

The book launch will be held tomorrow in Footprint's hall which is a few floors from here, there will be a small conference and then the launching. It's exciting that how big that launch will happen for just one book. It isn't the first time that they'll be doing a massive launch like this. Ms. Johnson told us that the past fan fiction authors had the same launch, it was always massive since every fangirl loves fan fictions and Footprints gives value to this genre.

"We'll see you tomorrow, Tara." Ms. Johnson says and I nod. "Thank you so much." I answer. "Thank you, Ms. Johnson. I'm very happy for my friend." Ellie adds. "Take a rest now and tomorrow is your big day." Ms. Johnson says and I nod. Ellie and I turned our back and saw that the boys were still there by the door. We walked towards them to say goodbye.

"We have to go now. I'll see you lads tomorrow." I say with a smile. "Oh, Tara, we're really happy that we have a new member of our team." Liam says. "I'm really honoured. It's really...I've been dreaming about this for so long." I answer. "You did a brilliant job." Harry says and I looked at him. His was holding my book. "I'm halfway through it and it's really nice. How did you know this things about me? Even my little things were written here that I wouldn't...wouldn't show in public." He says and we both smiled. "I...I just imagined it and researched about you." I answer. "I would like to ask a few things to you about the book. Would you like to join us...uhm, for tea or coffee?" Harry asks and I nod. "Sure." "We'll meet up then. We'll see you later." He says and tells me the location and Ellie and I walked away.

"That was ace! I've never been so close to the boys before! Especially Niall!" Ellie says and gets in the car, I then followed. "I'm happy you have controlled your fangirling hormones." I said with a laugh and Ellie started to drive to the location where Harry told me. It felt different when I saw Harry. He doesn't remember anything from everything we had. I'm glad, very happy but at the same time I feel so gloomy inside. Why am I the only one who knows what happened from the very first day we met? I just want to slap him and shake him and tell him everything.

"Tara, are you crying?" Ellie asks me and I simply wiped the tears with my hands. "No. It was...I don't know. I'm not. Gah. I'm so happy to cry." I answer. "Is this because of Harry?" She asks. "Absolutely not about him." I say as I shake my head. "Tara, you only cry because of him theses past weeks. You know what? I know Harry wouldn't like to make you cry before, right?" She asks me and I nod. "Maybe he came back because he knows you've been crying for weeks. That isn't good anymore. You're eyes will get puffy again!" Ellie says and I stop myself from crying. "You don't want Harry to see you cry, don't you?" Ellie tells me and I nod. "Alright." I answer.

I flipped the book open and I can't believe that I have already published a book. As we reached the restaurant where we will be having some coffee or tea together with some of their crew.

"They aren't here yet." Ellie says. "They are." I say as I see Liam and Louis coming out from the car. They came in and smiled to us. "We're eleven." Louis says and the lady accommodates us to a table good for eleven.

We sat down and started talking about the book. I can't help myself to look at Harry every minute. I don't understand why I remember everything and he does not.

We're getting comfortable then at the middle of the conversation.

"There were intimate scenes here too that were really good. We're you thinking about me when writing it?" He jokingly asks and we all laughed. "Gah." I say as I shake my head with a laugh. "I'm just doing my job." I safely answer. "Is the dedication for someone? Your boyfriend?" Zayn asks me and I shake my head. "No." I answer. "Then who? Since it's my fan fiction, who is this guy who introduced you to Ed Sheeran?" Harry asks. "Harry's great friends with Ed." Niall says. "He was just someone special. It was a few days before Christmas when he brought me in Glasgow." I tell them. "So, you dedicate this to your boyfriend?" Harry says as he points to the book that is in front of him. How could I respond to this? The book is dedicated to Harry but how am I going to tell them about this? I can't just say Harry's my boyfriend without him knowing he is mine, before.

"He's in the book." I say and they looked so messed. "What?" Louis asks and I was the only one who let a light laugh out. "You'll get to know him soon." I answer. "Are you dating someone?" Liam asks. "No one." I answer. "Let's just stop talking about the dedication. We're all getting confused with Tara." Ellie says and they nod. "Are you excited for the tour?" Niall asks and I nod. "Of course. I really am but I'm a little nervous since I'll be on my own. I...I never travelled far by my own." I tell them. "No, you're not going to travel on your own. You'll be with us." Harry says. "I mean, just me. I honestly feel so...awkward? When I'm with you." I answer. "You'll get used to us soon. Treat us as your brothers." Zayn says and takes a sip from his tea. "We'll protect you." Niall says with a laugh. "I like the title." Harry says as he was looking at the cover. "Boyfriend." He reads. "It's simple but the inside is heaven." He adds. "Who's Harper anyway? Where did you get the name? It's really nice." Louis asks and I smiled. "It's my middle." I say with a laugh. "I had to put myself in character too. Something like that." I say and smiled.

After having tea with the lads, we had to go home because tomorrow will be a big day for us. We had a photo together and a solo of me and Harry.

Ellie drove me back to my flat and I get inside my room and just stared all night at the photo of me and Harry.

"Met the Boyfriend a while ago! @Harry_Styles"

I tweeted.

I started to question myself again why do I remember everything and they don't?! This keeps running inside my head and I just want to talk to Harry face-to-face and just the two of us about what is happening but I think he doesn't really remember anything from before. Then again, I started to cry on my pillow.

I actually shouldn't be crying. I'll be with Harry for at least two months, we'll be together again but not as a couple but as good friends. I should be strong if ever I feel down. I should be contented of what I have and had. I should start smiling and forget about the past. It may not be easy to forget about what happened ten months ago between but I just have to get over it now.