Just a Dream

Chapter 7

Claire's P.O.V.

I woke in my room and immediately began to cry.

"Aw Cwaire," Janelle fake pouted. "Did the wittle baby have a bad dweam?"

"Sh-sh-shut up-p!" I said through my tears, my stutter more evident than ever. "I-I-I d-d-don't need th-this fr-from y-you right n-now!"

"No this is exactly what you need," she said, suddenly right next to me and making me jump out of my skin. "You need a reality check. No one is ever going to love you. No one is ever going to care. Louis, maybe. But he isn't going to fall in love with you because let's be honest, who would."

I didn't answer. I just sat there crying. I couldn't believe I'd had to break his heart like that. I didn't want to, he was so sweet and caring, and I hated to see him like this. And I couldn't bear seeing him like this and know I was causing it.

But what was I supposed to do? I knew as well as anyone that any sort of long-term relationship could only hurt me and my mental health. I had trained myself not to fall for anyone at all and I had made it through my first two years of high school without falling for anyone. And I was not going to spend my last two years going after something I knew couldn't happen.

I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't allow myself to fall deeper into this ditch I had dug for myself that left me outcast at school because Louis wasn't there for me and I only had Janelle for company. I wasn't going to let him take me away from myself and make everything worse.

I could become an entirely different person; I could become crazier. I could mistakenly take my anger with Janelle out on him. No this was too dangerous. I knew it. And I knew I couldn't afford to let it happen.

Harry's P.O.V.

I woke up in my bed and literally felt sick to my stomach after the dream I had just had. I couldn't fathom that Claire couldn't be mine. I couldn't get it through my head why we couldn't be together. I liked her a lot. I didn't care about her stutter and I didn't care she seemed to talk to herself. I didn't even care that Louis had forbidden me to date her. I just cared that she be mine. I knew we had a connection, a chemistry. I knew there was something between us. I felt it every time I looked at her, every time we touched, every time she spoke. Her stutter and whatever past she was holding back from me was just something minor, we could move past it, I would like her in spite of it.

I needed to stop lying to myself. I didn't like Claire. I loved her. I loved her like I hadn't loved anyone before. And I had to show her that before it was too late and I lost her forever.

"Louis can I talk to you?" I asked him later.

"Sure," he said getting up and following me into the deserted kitchen. "What's up?"

"I need to talk to you. About Claire," I said nervously.

"What? What happened? Is she OK?" he asked immediately, sounding like he was her pit bull.

"She's fine," I relaxed him. "I just need to talk to you about me and Claire."

"You and Claire?" he repeated slowly. "What do you mean?"

"Well," I began fidgeting. "I-I like her a lot. Like more than I should being her friend." I finished.

"Harry I told you-"

"I know, I know," I said before he could finish. "But this isn't just some crush I'm going to get over. I'm not going to let her get hurt."

He looked at me for a moment before saying, "Harry there are things you don't know. Things that I don't know if she would want me to tell you. These things aren't just something that can go away either. They're going to take time."

"What are they?" I asked, getting impatient, but trying to keep my cool. "Because that's pretty much what she said to me when I told her I liked her."

"Harry she's my best friend," he said. "She's like my sister. I'm not going to betray her. If she wants you to know she'll tell you."

"But Louis she won't. And she doesn't believe me that I'll still like her no matter what. If I knew what I was dealing with, I could prove it better. But I can't. Not until one of you explains what it is."

"That's up to her," Louis said firmly. "It's not my decision. You're going to have to talk to her about it. I'm not the one to come to for this."

He began to walk out when he said, "For what it's worth, if it had to be one of the boys to fall for her, I'm glad it's you."

"I'm not hopelessly in love!" I protested as he laughed. "But thanks."

He nodded and walked out, leaving me alone, wondering how to get Claire to open up with me.

I needed her to talk to me, let me in, tell me exactly what was going on with her. Not only because it was the only thing separating us, but because I wanted to help her. I loved her too much to sit and watch her suffer.

I grabbed my phone and walked out the door. Time to get to the bottom of this.

Claire's P.O.V.

I sat in my hotel room all day, ignoring my school work, ignoring Janelle, not even on Twitter or my phone. I just sat there, only getting up to get more tea and go to the bathroom. There was going to be a permanent dent in that couch from my butt.

I couldn't stop thinking about that dream. Harry telling me he liked me regardless. That made me really happy, knowing that. It gave me some hope, but it killed me because I knew he wasn't going to be giving up for a while, if at all and I was going to have to break his heart over and over again. His beautiful heart that liked me regardless of who I was, who cared so much that he put himself in danger with that guy just to save me, who gave me the chance to be myself as he put Janelle and my stutter at ease, who saved me every night when I went to bed, who gave me tingles when he brushed my skin, who-

Wait a minute.

I thought back to all my memories with Harry, starting with the dreams in the field that his brilliant green eyes reminded me of, then meeting him and feeling exhilarated because the person I'd met only in dreams was real, the tingles I got when he touched me, the safety I had when he took me out of that club, away from the stranger, the way he got everything wrong with my life to cancel out when I was with him.

And it was here I realized I liked him so much more than I thought I did. Harry Styles had me falling, and I wasn't sure where I was going to land.