faking it ~ harry styles

23. irl

Harry panicked as he watched Rowan sit up and stretch her arms out. He didn't want to give her her still vibrating phone (Jean just wouldn't fuck off), but he knew Rowan was going to question why he was taking her phone hostage. And eventually she'd have to see articles, the comments and the tweets.

But she still looked so happy as she sleepily turned to Harry.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep on you," she said. "Literally."

"Don't apologize," Harry said, trying to force a smile. "You must've been tired."

"Night shoots still have my sleep schedule messed up," Rowan responded. Her phone buzzed in Harry's hand, bringing her attention to it. "Why do you have my phone?"

"You were getting a bunch of messages, I didn't want it to wake you," Harry answered, which was the truth. "I just messaged your 13 Reasons Why group chat to let you know you were asleep."

"Ugh, tell them to leave me alone, I've had enough of them." Rowan's laugh broke Harry's heart. He wasn't ready for her to find out the truth. Her phone buzzed again, a new tweet from Twitter mentioning her. "Is that still them?"

"N-No," Harry stuttered. "Listen Row, before you take your phone, I just want you to know that the reviews for 13 Reasons Why are out and...and they're not all...great."

Rowan looked at Harry puzzled and reached for her phone. Reluctantly, Harry passed it to her and watched her lean back onto his couch, reading through every notification on her phone.

Her face continued to fall with sadness and Harry couldn't stand it. He wanted to hold her and tell her it was alright, that the people blaming her or sending hate her way were sending it to the wrong person, and to not take any of it seriously. He even started to reach out for her when her phone began to ring; Jean. Rowan jumped up from her seat and ran out of the room to answer the call.

It felt like she was gone for so long. Harry wanted to go find her, to make sure she was okay. He really wanted to call Jean and tell her exactly how he felt, but he knew that would come back to bite Rowan on the ass.

Finally, Rowan appeared in the living room doorway, tears running down her cheeks.

"I have to go," she said, her voice hoarse.

"Wait, Rowan," Harry said, following her to the door. "Don't go, I don't want you to be alone right now."

"I'm fine Harry, it's just stupid people, I deal with worse hate being your girlfriend."

"The hate isn't what I'm concerned about, it's about your bitch of a manager."

Rowan turned to look at him. She opened her mouth to protest, but broke down in tears again. Harry wrapped her in a tight hug, letting her cry into his chest. He finally managed to coax her back to the couch, where she managed to pull herself together.

"She blames me," Rowan sighed. "Because I'm getting all the hate, she's saying it's my fault. That I fucked up the show, that I'm ruining my own career and thus I'm going to ruin hers too. She told me I needed to fix this or else she would make sure I'll never act again."

"How the hell is it your fault? You took all of this so seriously, you made sure it wasn't taken lightly. You were just given the script, you did your job."

"Tell that to basically the entire world," Rowan sighed. "God, I was so excited for this to premiere. I wanted it to start a conversation, and it was my first big TV show so obviously I was excited for that. Now, I just wish I was still a nobody in Australia and I wouldn't have to deal with all of this."

Harry rubbed Rowan's back soothingly. "I don't know if I'd go that far. I mean, wishing this bullshit wasn't happening, yes, but I'm glad you got the role. I wouldn't have met you otherwise."

Rowan looked up at Harry and smiled. "That's probably one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me."

"I've been told I'm a sweet guy."

Rowan smiled and leaned back into Harry's embrace. The two sat on the couch in a comfortable silence, taking at least this moment to forget about everything and to just relax.