Hide and Seek (not continuing)

Chapter 17 - Misunderstanding

*quickly edited*

[Camille.]

The next morning I literally got a wake up call. My ringtone pierced his way through my sleep, causing me to stirr and eventually open my eyes a bit. I was too tired to check who was calling, so I picked up without looking at the ID.

“Hello?” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“Camille?” a husky voice on the other side of the line said. I didn’t have to think twice about who it was. He basically was the only male with my number, so it wasn’t difficult.

I groaned in frustration. “It’s 7 am Harry, I still have thirty minutes of sleep left… Well, not anymore, of course. What do you want?”

“Can we talk?” he pleaded.

“I’m not in the mood for your shit right now, Harry.” I said rudely, but I didn’t care because he was the one who decided to wake me up.

“Uhm… ok. But can you stop by my hotel today then? I think you really need to hear me out.”

“Yeah whatever, just let me sleep.” I said, yawning. I hung up and quickly glanced at the alarm clock on my night stand. Damn, only twenty five minutes left before I officially have to wake up. Thanks Mr. Popstar.

- - - -

It was Wednesday, so I only had classes in the morning and I didn’t have to work at Le Bouquet. Knowing I had an afternoon off, I decided to go to Harry, listen to what he had to say and be over with it. I didn’t really want to hang out with him anymore, I hated people who kept secrets from me. (Even though I had some myself, but I kept them secret for a reason.) Denise was under a lot of stress and was dealing with a lot at the same time, so I understood why telling me wasn’t a priority to her, but Harry really had no reason to keep this from me.

So yet again, I found myself at The Emperor Hotel. I walked past the check-in desk, waving to Carol as she noticed me and walked up to me.

“You know Camille, if you keep coming here this often, you might need your own key card.” she said, referring to the card that gave access to the elevator and therefore all the guest floors of the hotel.

“Thanks Carol,” I smiled, “but I don’t think that’ll be necessarry.” I wasn’t planning on coming here after today. It might seem like I was exaggerating about this whole situation, but I had my reasons.  I’ve had a horrible past with people who have kept me in the dark for too long, only to reveal their secrets and destroy my life. So as soon as I found glimpses of distrust in people, I cut them out of my life for my own safety.

So Carol made sure I ended up on the eigth floor again. I had texted Harry in the elevator, telling him I’d be coming over and as I walked through the corridor, he had opened his door already and was waiting up for me.

“Hi” he slowly said as I stood in front of him and gestured for me to enter his hotel room, or, suite. I entered and just stood there awkwardly while Harry closed the door.

“Have you had lunch already? Do you want to eat anything? I can order something if you’d like.”

“No thanks, I’m good.” I plainly said, taking of my coat and hanging it on one of the chairs.

“Ok”

“Ok”

This weird interaction was followed by a silence that took too long for my liking so I sat myself on the edge of one of the sofas and spoke up.

“You said you wanted to talk.” I stated, looking over at Harry, who was still standing in the middle of the room, as I waited for him to start talking.

“Yeah… I think there’s been a misunderstanding?” he said hesitantly,  glancing at me to see my reaction. Was he… scared? He definitely looked afraid for what I was about to say to that. I suddenly felt sorry for giving him such a hard time, maybe he did have a reason or an explanation? So I just stayed quiet, waiting for him to go on.

“Uhm… I’m not sure what you mean when you said I went behind your back?” he continued, “I mean, I did went to talk to Denise, if that’s what you are saying…” Again, he looked at me but I remained silent, not wanting to interrupt him like I had done two days ago when I came here and didn’t let him tell his side of the story.

“But I didn’t make any decisions or any of that sort.” he went on as I just sat there, listening to what he had to say, “I just wanted to know how you were doing at work and if you ever interacted with people because you said you don’t usually do that. Denise indeed said that you’re always in the kitchen and only helped her in the front of the shop on very rare occasions. Then I wondered if it would be better for you to help her a little more often, to get accustomed to having people around and interacting with them. You know, taking small steps into the right direction.” he took a small pause before he carried on, running his fingers through his hair, “I didn’t know she was giving your job away and I didn’t know you had to work as a waitress full time now, honestly.”

He looked at me and his eyes were pleading me to believe him. His look was so genuine and I knew he was telling the truth. He was such a kind person, how could I ever think so bad of him? Both of my hands covered my mouth as I couldn’t believe how awful I had been to him. He barely had anything to do with it and I just let all of my frustrations out on him. I felt so upset for misunderstanding him, usually I always waited until I had heard the other side of the story before having an opinion about it, but this situation brought back some memories of the past and I just jumped to conclusions without even thinking that it could be different this time.

“I am so sorry…” I mumbled between my hands. Harry furrowed his brows as if he didn’t understand what I was saying, so I uncovered my mouth and stood up walking to him. As I stood right in front of him, I couldn’t dare to look him in the eyes.

“I’m really sorry…” I said again. “I just… You just wanted to help and I…” I was so disappointed in myself. If I had been in the same position as Harry, I would’ve been devastated, knowing people thought things about me that weren’t true. I judged him, blamed him for nothing. Dammit, Cami. How could I do that? I felt so upset about it and I didn’t know what to do now…

Suddenly I felt warm hands cupping my face and I looked up, meeting with Harry’s emerald eyes. His thumb wiped away a single tear that apparently had fallen from my eye. Dammit Cami, why are you crying? You have no right to cry right now.

“It’s ok, Cami.” Harry finally said, “We’ve all had these moments, don’t worry about, ok? It was a misunderstanding, it happens.”

Was he just forgiving me just like that? God bless Harry Styles; he truly is the nicest person on earth.

“I’m sorry..” I repeated my self and Harry just shook his head, pulling me into a hug, which surprised me but I went with it anyway.

“And I’m sorry if I ever gave you the wrong idea.” he said with his arms wrapped around me and I didn’t mind the physical contact at all. “So are we good now? Still friends?” he asked.

I nodded as my head was leaning against his chest. “If you still want to?” I wondered aloud.

“Of course” he replied and I swore I could feel him smile although I couldn’t see his face as it was lying on my shoulder. In that moment I really felt like I had a friend in Harry. Maybe I should try not to push this one away.

[A/N.]

NIALL IS 21. Can you believe it? I can't.

Sidebar: Harry being hot >>>