The Adjacent Room [h.s]

Chapter 6

I wake up to feeling soft lips on my cheek. Hold on. I'm in a hotel, in a bed with Harry, his arms around me and..wait. Lips on my cheek? Oh god. It's bad enough waking up in his arms two days in a row let alone waking up to him kissing my cheek, but I can't bring myself to stop him. I fight the urge to nuzzle into his chest further and I know I've dug myself a very deep hole. Shit.

Before I can overthink the kiss any longer, I hear a knock on the door and Harry jump out of the bed in shock. I listen to him walk over and open the door, greeting whoever it is on the other side as though nothing just happened. At this point it's too late for me to pretend to 'wake up' and it's going to look so suspicious anyway because I can't act to save my life, so I'm going to have to fake sleep. It seems to be a new theme in my life to dig holes I can't get out of. My thoughts are cut short when I hear Mitch's voice.

'I was just wondering if you and Sophie wanted to come to my room? We've ordered a massive breakfast..oh shit. Is she asleep?'

'Yeah she is..I think.' Harry says, with a tone I've never heard before. It's very soft and it sounds so genuine..almost filled with love. Fuck, I can't keep thinking about Harry like this. No matter what has happened throughout this trip. As soon as we get out of Sydney and onto the next destination, this confusion and craziness will all be over. Honestly, Harry is probably still drunk and didn't even mean to kiss my cheek. Mitch's voice cuts my thoughts short again.

'Dude wait. Do you like Sophie? I mean we all kinda know you've always had a thing for her, but I didn't know it was this serious?' What the hell? I'm starting to panic. I really don't want to hear Harry's response, regardless of what it is. I'm going to have to pick the better of two bad options. It's either fake sleep and pretend like I don't hear whatever Harry responds with, or fake wake up and hope to god it looks believable and distracts the two boys from the conversation at hand.

Before my brain catches up to my body, I'm sitting up in bed and yawning as loud as I possibly can, praying Mitch and Harry spot me. Surprisingly, my plan works.

'Nevermind. Tell me later, Haz. Anyway, we're all at my room and there's heaps of food on the way. It's 108. Can you come too Sophie?' Mitch asks. I need to play it cool, and I respond with the first thing that comes to mind.

'Oh. What's happening?' I offer a sleepy smile with my question and put on my best 'I just woke up' voice.

'Harry can explain. Hopefully we'll see you soon.' Mitch says with a smile, and walks away down the corridor. As Harry shuts the door and turns around to face me, I can see he's flustered and hungover. His face has gone red and his green eyes are shadowed by the dark circles underneath. He starts picking at a loose thread on the black hoodie he must have just changed into; picking at loose threads is a habit I can only assume he's picked up from me. I bite my lip to stop myself from smiling at the thought.

My fake sleepiness is wearing off, and the events of last night start flooding back. The nasty comments and the 'I need you's' are on the top of my worry list. I enjoyed the momentary distraction to put my acting skills to use, but I need to face reality. I don't know what to say to Harry, but luckily he jumps in before I have to make small talk.

'Mitch invited us to his room for breakfast. The band is there.' He says. I can tell he's being very careful with what he says.

'Oh' I pretend I didn't already hear all of this 5 minutes ago.

'I'm going to go in a few minutes. Do you want to come with me?' He asks.

'Um, yeah. I just..I need to clean the room, so I'll come later..like, in a bit.' I don't know what to say and so I make up the excuse of cleaning the room to avoid having to walk there with him. I feel so awkward in Harry's presence. I'm not used to this feeling and don't like it at all.

'Okay.' He says.

'I'm sorry about yesterday.' He quickly adds, and I really don't know what to say back. I could ask about his comments last night because I need to bring it up at some point, but I just don't have the energy right now.

'It's fine. Don't worry about it.' I respond, hoping my short response will end the conversation.

'I couldn't sleep without you last night. I mean, before you got into the bed.' What? I tell myself to push down the feelings threatening to reach the surface.

'Oh.' Why am I at such a loss for words today?

'Sorry I shouldn't have told you that...um...I'm just going to brush my teeth, change and meet them. It's room 108.'

'Okay.' I offer a small smile to try and ease the tension.

5 minutes later, Harry is out the door and I'm left alone in the room. I am at a loss on what to do. I know I need to change rooms today or it's never going to happen, I also need to broach this topic with Harry about whether or not he's going to get a new assistant if I'm so replaceable, and..oh shit...Harry has a show tonight too. My list of today's events seems to be ever-growing.

I spend half an hour tidying up random things in our, or I guess I should say Harry's room. Basic things like making the bed, folding Harry and my scattered clothes, and discarding all the wrappers and uneaten food and drinks. Once this is done, I practically force myself to get ready and walk out the door.

Once I make it to the door of room 108, I can hear the laughter and chatter from behind the door already. I wish my mood could be as upbeat and happy as everyone else's, but today clearly isn't my day.

I knock on the door and only have to wait a few seconds before the handle twists and Sarah appears with a smile on her face.

'Come on in Sophie! The food just arrived!' She beams.

As soon as I walk in the door, I spot a brown haired girl I've never seen before with her arms draped all over Harry. It is totally inappropriate and unprofessional for this to affect me, but it does nonetheless. He thinks he can kiss me and tell me he needs me, and then flirt with some random girl all in the span of 12 hours? What a fucking asshole.

'Sorry guys, I've just been hit with a major headache. I think I might just go back and lie down.' I lie. Everyone looks at me with puzzled expressions, and Adam hands me a croissant and an apple to take back. I return his kind gesture with a forced smile, and hurry out of the room before everyone sees my tears.

As I close the door behind me and rush away, I hear the door reopen and Harry shout,

'Sophie wait!'

I nearly drop my croissant at his frantic voice, but pretend I don't hear him and practically run down the hallway. If I turned around, he'd see the tears falling down my cheeks.