Harry and Payton

Chapter 8

    Payton grabbed Elise in a hug before she drove back to her house until they were brought together to kick off their tour in September. Elise gripped her shoulders and smirked, gently patting Payton’s cheek.

   “Don’t forget to at least try to fix things with that boy.” Elise said, pointing a finger at her. Payton grinned and nodded, letting go of her for the other girls to give her hugs as her Dad stood patiently behind her. They followed Elise out of the hotel and stood on the edge of the sidewalk, waving as the silver car drove away. Payton sighed noisily, knowing for the next day she would be alone in the room, constantly getting visits from Andy telling her to fix things with Harry. She hadn’t seen Harry around the hotel at all since they’d had that little incident the night before and she couldn’t help but wonder if he was curled up getting thousands of pep talks from the boys, telling him to get off his lazy ass and go do something about it. Payton shook her head slightly, knowing there was no way he was doing that as they climbed onto the elevator again. 

   “So, are you going to talk to him today?” Monica asked slowly, looking over at Payton. She looked down at her Toms and sighed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

   “I don’t know.” she replied in a small voice.

   “I think you should.” Cameron said, looking over at her. Payton shrugged and prayed that the ride would be over soon so she could go back to her room and curl up on her bed, debating on whether or not she should go talk to him. 

   “Oh, c’mon Payton, I know when someone really likes another person and I know you really like him.” Cameron sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder as the large metal doors opened and Payton quickly stepped out, hurrying off towards her room with Monica and Cameron hot on her heels. 

   “Payton,” Cameron called, making her stop as she pulled out her room key. “Just go talk to him.” she sighed, giving her a knowing look. Payton’s heart raced at the thought of what would happen, everything could go great or terribly wrong. She stared at Cameron before heading back towards the elevator, taking in deep breaths as she climbed onto the empty elevator, her heart thumping loudly in her chest. The doors opened and Payton slowly stepped out, rounding the corner. Her eyes targeted his door and she pushed her shoulders back, walking confidently over to the door. She stood in front of it and rose her hand to knock firmly on the door but stopped, lowering her hand again before she quickly knocked, wanting to sprint off towards the elevator. The door quickly swung open and Harry looked down at her before sighing and placing his foot in front of the door to keep in open as he casually leaned in the door way.

   “What, Payton?” he asked, trying not to make eye contact. Payton took in a breath before taking a small step closer to him.

   “Harry, please just let me explain.” she said, giving him apologetic eyes. 

   “I think you’ve done enough explaining.” he replied quickly, looking down at her. Payton slightly shook her head, reaching out to place a hand on his arm. He unwillingly pulled away, taking a step back. Payton felt the tears rise in her eyes as she looked down at the ground.

   “I’m sorry,” she whispered, slowly looking back up at him. “I’m sorry I lied and pretended to like you and make you think we had something, but you have to believe me when I say that after I finally met you, I did like you, and I still do.” she wimpered, stepping closer to him, wiping away a tear that rolled down her cheek. He looked down at her, zero expression on his face and slowly shook his head, running a hand through his curls.

   “Payton, I—” 

   “No, Harry please just,” she took a breath and held up her hand against the door to stop him from closing it. “Just tell me you’ll think about it.” she whimpered. Harry stared at her, gnawing on the inside of his cheek to keep the tears from spilling out in front of her.