Your Addictive Heart || l.s

Forget You

The week had finally come to a painful end. It had been torturous and long. "So, is it too late to call off this stupid bet?" Harry asked Niall as he gathered his things.

"Normally I'd tell you to shove it, but I think you're on to something. I think we may have overestimated how much game we actually have." Niall scrolled though his phone while pressed against the lockers.

"I don't get it. It shouldn't be this hard, right?" Harry wasn't gentle about organizing his things into his bag anymore. He threw everything he thought he'd need for the weekend into the bag in a frustrated manner.

"Right?" Niall agreed enthusiastically. "Like early in the week I asked that girl Ava out and she was totally stoked and then out of nowhere she ghosts me!"

Harry focused on his task and tried to not give away what he knew about the girl.

"It's like there's someone actively working against us!" He shook his head.

For Niall, it was their overprotective best friend sticking her nose where it didn't belong. It hadn't occurred to him there had been someone working against Harry. "Of course." He slammed his locker shut.

"Do you have Reese Montgomery's number?" Harry asked.

Niall shrugged his shoulders as he scrolled through his contacts. "Oh, yeah!"

Harry took the phone from him and pressed the call button. He put the phone on speaker. "Hello?" Reese sounded surprised to be receiving a call from Niall.

"Hey, Reese. It's Harry."

"Styles?" His voice went up an octave.

"Yeah, sorry to be calling you randomly. I just...I'm sort of going through something and I could really use your help." Harry's mind was already racing, hoping his gut was wrong.

"Is everything okay?" His tone was both confused and concerned.

"Yeah." Harry hadn't realized how coded his words had been. "It's just that when I asked you out, you said it wasn't a good idea. I know you don't owe me an explanation but I'd just feel a lot better if I had one."

"Like I said Harry, I think you're really great and you're obviously super cute. It's just..." He trailed off again.

"Just say it." Harry was on the verge of begging.

"It's just that Liam Payne told me it'd be better if I backed off. You know how those guys can be. I didn't want to get in the middle of anything." He admitted to everything.

Harry took a sharp breath. "Thank you for telling me the truth."

"I'm really sorry. Are we good?" Harry was mortified and just wanted to end this already.

"Yeah. Of course. Hey, I gotta go. See you around?" He didn't wait for the boy to reply before ending the call.

"You've got to be kidding me." Niall shook his head as he took the phone back. "I'm going to kill them."

***
Harry and Niall pulled up to Zayn's house at the agreed-upon time, but they knew this wasn't going to be the get-together Olivia had hoped for.

The pair spotted Olivia walking out of the front door as the two of them pulled up. Even from where they were they could tell she had been crying.

They met up with her halfway up the walkway. "Liv?" Harry called out.

She broke out into tears. "Guys. I'm so sorry. I've been such a bad friend." She apologized. The two of them didn't know what had come over her.

"It's okay." Harry was sincere. He hated to see her like that.