Cut!

Take 9 - I Want - Part 2

A/N: Please comment as you read. It'll mean the world to me.

Harry looked surprised, and I mentally cheered because he hadn’t counted on my response. Nevertheless, he walked after me, his hands in his pockets.

We took the elevator in silence. There were several stops along the way down, but as the other people saw my appearance, they smiled at Harry and said they’d take the next one. No one would risk getting paint on his or her fancy clothing.

Even if I had been worried about being spotted publically, Harry took the elevator to a parking basement, avoiding any potential crowd. Secretly, I was happy that he wasn’t going to force me through the walk of shame in the lobby.

His car was more like I’d imagined. It was black with tinted windows. I took the passenger seat, my purse on my lap and sat completely still as Harry got behind the wheel.

This ride was just as silent as the one with Zayn, but this was worlds apart. The tension between Harry and me was so thick; I could basically cut it with a butter knife.

But Harry still didn’t speak, and an annoying voice in the back of my head wondered if I was just imagining things.

Every time he stopped at a red light, I was tempted to speak. I wanted to apologize for what he’d heard, but I also wanted to ignore it, hoping he’d forget. Most of all, I wanted to explain everything to him. I wanted to tell him about Ludmilla, the haters, and myself. I wanted to confide in him, and have him tell me everything was going to work out in the end.

I wanted to say that his smile made my heart race. To tell him, that in another time, with some other circumstances, things would be different. I would have been so obsessed with him that he’d have no choice but to love me for it. I needed him to know that any girl would be lucky to have him and that nothing could convince me otherwise.

But I kept my mouth shut.

He stopped in front of my hotel, and I was out of the door so fast I didn’t even say goodbye. The paint was starting to itch on my skin, and I ran straight to the elevator. Ludmilla had fans all over, and this hotel didn’t offer the same security as the hotel where Harry and Zayn were staying.

Lucky for me, no one seemed to take notice or recognize me, and I arrived in my suite safely and without any run-ins.

I ran to the room to the bathroom to wash my hands and turned on the water for my shower. With my hands clean, I could hold my phone again, and to prepare Ludmilla for the talk later, I snapped a picture of my colorful self and sent it to her.

My superman pajamas were already ready on my bed, and all I needed to get was a set of clean underwear.

The steam in the bathroom made me relax almost instantly, and with hard scrubs, I managed to turn my skin from a blue-green to a light pink color. The hardest part was my hair, but I lathered, rinsed and repeated at least five times, hoping it’d do the trick.

My shower was cut short, when I heard my phone ring. Jumping out and do a quick dry with one of the hotel’s massive towels, I answered the call and put it on speaker.

“Just a moment,” I said. “You’re on speaker-phone. I just need to get dressed.”

Ludmilla’s laugh echoed in the bathroom. “I figured you were almost finished.”

“Actually, you interrupted me on fifth rinse, thank you very much.” I quickly got dressed, taking my time to towel dry my hair. I couldn’t see it entirely in the steam-coated mirror, but it seemed I’d gotten the worst of it out.