habits of my heart (h.s.)

sixteen

"So, Aly. The game plan starts now."

I stared at Niall blankly. How long had he been sitting there at the table next to me? Jesus. "Um. What are you talking about?"

He rolled his eyes before repeating, "The game plan. Operation Get Harry to Fall in Love With You?"

I almost choked on my water. "Hey, hey, hey, who said anything about love?"

"I mean, I know you said you had a crush on him, but you want it to eventually transition into love, right?" Niall asked. "Harry's not really the type of guy to do casual relationships."

Oh, he didn't even know the half of it. "Right. Well...I haven't really thought about love yet. I mean, we are still roommates, so. Remember what happened between Harry and Anna?" I asked pointedly. Hopefully he would be able to further explain the situation to me, because I definitely wasn't getting it out of Harry any time soon.

"Ah, shit, how could I forget?" Niall asked. "This is different. You're nothing like Anna."

"What's she like, then?" I asked cautiously.

"Anna's...well, she's really something, that's for sure," Niall said.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, she's fine to have as a friend, but she's the last person you'd want as a girlfriend. The word commitment doesn't exist in her vocabulary, and she gets bored easily. Always moving on to the next person, completely disregarding the mess she leaves behind."

"I thought you guys were friends," I said.

"We are," Niall sighed. "I mean, we're not as close as we used to be, because after things went to shit with her and Harry, it was kind of awkward. But we still talk. It's not that I don't like her. I just don't like her when she's with Harry."

All of a sudden, the words Harry had said to me the night of the Halloween replayed in my head: Please don't break my heart like she did. I swallowed tightly before asking Niall, "What did she do to him? Did she cheat?"

He shook his head. "Nah, she's not the cheating type. She just got bored of him, I guess. Told him that straight up. Said she didn't love him anymore, and then she just left. Harry didn't leave the apartment for a week."

For some reason, I couldn't imagine a heartbroken Harry. He seemed like the type to break people's hearts, not the other way around. I couldn't see him lying in bed, crushed over someone who no longer wanted him. And I definitely couldn't imagine anyone telling him that they didn't love him anymore. My stomach churned uneasily just at the thought of it.

"That's horrible," I said finally. "He doesn't deserve that at all."

Niall nodded. "Yeah, that's why he was really against the idea of you moving in at first. Didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Anna. He never said it outright to me, but I know he thinks you're pretty. It made him nervous. I'm sure he was scared that you might hurt him like she did. He thought that about all girls, really."

"I would never do that to him," I said quietly. "I'm sure he knows that now."

"He does," Niall said confidently. "That's why I think it's possible for him to develop feelings for you, if he hasn't already."

I sighed. I had almost forgotten that was what we had been originally talking about. "So what's step one in this plan of yours, then?"

He grinned. "The easiest way to see if any guy is interested is to make him jealous. Lucky for us--I mean, you--" I tried to stifle my smirk. "--Harry is definitely the jealous type."