A Day In The Life // H.S.

11. | I Didn't Even Second Guess Him

The sun shining through my curtain woke me peacefully as the morning made it's way into the room. I yawned and stretched my arms, sitting up in my bed. After rubbing my eyes, I put on some slippers and grabbed a hoodie, walking out to the kitchen to make some coffee. As I began to shuffle around in the kitchen, my eyes caught the boy that was sleeping on my couch. I nearly jumped before I remembered who it was.

I walked over to Harry and smiled. He was sleeping peacefully, cuddled up on the new couch he had ordered us. It pulled out into a bed, but he was just laying on the couch part because it was perfectly cozy. He was snuggled into the blanket I gave him, his chest lightly rising and falling. My heart felt so full just looking at him. There was not a single part of me that wanted to walk away from him, but I knew I couldn't just stand there and look at him forever. He'd eventually wake up.

Hayley left a note on the counter saying she was meeting her sister for breakfast and was going to be out for most of the day. That meant it was just going to be Harry and I. That made my stomach flip. As much as I liked being around Harry, his presence still made me nervous. I don't think that was going to change anytime soon, either. I sighed and continued making coffee while trying to find something to make for breakfast.

I finally decided on Froot Loops and then sat down at the island to start eating, scrolling through my phone and looking at news headlines. My eyes bulged from my head when I saw Harry and I dancing at the restaurant the other night. I quickly clicked on the picture and the headline read "Harry Styles and new gal-pal get cozy in New York Café". I choked on my food, causing Harry to stir on the couch. I continued to scroll through the article, my eyes glued to the screen.

"Chloe?" Harry asked, sitting up. I couldn't even bring myself to look over to him. "What's wrong?" he asked, noticing that I looked stressed. I swallowed hard. "They got pictures. They got pictures of us, together, at the restaurant," I said, my eyes finally looking up to meet his. His eyes widened slightly, and then he picked up his phone, immediately returning calls that I could only assume were about what I was reading.

According to this, Harry and I were in a full blown relationship. They knew my name, they knew I was doing an article about him but now I'm not, and now the whole world probably thinks I'm the biggest sleaze. I thought back to the reporter who had stopped me one night beside the tour bus. Part of me couldn't help but think she was behind this. I immediately turned my social media accounts private so I couldn't receive any hate messages. That was the last thing that I needed. Once Harry finally hung up the phone, he looked toward me sympathetically. "I'm sorry this happened," he said, "My team is taking care of it." He re-assured me, but I still didn't feel necessarily good about it.

Panic immediately burst out in me when I thought about the restaurant. It was probably swarmed with press. I immediately phoned down there to explain the situation to Andrew. He said he understood and that there had been a few photographers around, but nothing too drastic. I was relieved, and when I hung up the phone, my heart began to calm down a bit. "I don't want a part in this, Harry." I said, a bit coldly.

He looked confused. "What do you mean?" he said, hurt clearly written in his expression. "The spotlight. I don't think I can handle that. Not at this point in my life anyway. And now, wherever I go, people are going to be questioning me. This article literally wrote details on my life that even I had forgotten about. I don't like that," I replied bluntly. His expression was pained.

"I'm sorry. You're right. And you didn't ask for any of this. I'm sorry, Chloe. I didn't want this to happen. I care about you, and I thought that was evident," Harry said, his eyes searching mine. I nodded. "I know. I care about you too. I just, the whole being associated with Harry Styles thing, that's a bit intimidating." I trailed off, and a smirk formed on his face. "Intimidating? How so?" he said, sipping a glass of water.