"You were amazing, Baby." For the fourth time running, Harry and I were on the phone the morning after the performance show.

So far, two groups and one of the over 25's had been eliminated. Thankfully, all four girls were still in the competition.

Harry and I had by now formed a ritual of him sending me a surprise gift the night of the show, and talking on the phone the next morning. The gifts were always different, and I was always surprised.

"Yeah, well let's hope I don't get kicked off tonight then," I joked, even though it was a huge fear of mine.

"You'll be fine. You're 'Australia's Sweetheart'. You'll probably be the first through." The press had nicknamed me "Australia's Sweetheart', something I found ridiculously funny as Harry called me sweetheart all the time.

They had also taken to guessing who my boyfriend was, as word had gotten out about my presents.

Some of the favourites in the running included actors, singers and even another contestant on the show, Sean. It was actually quite entertaining waiting to see who they would come up with next.

After my phone call with Harry, the thirteen contestants left in the competition, including me, rehearsed our group performance. Once it was perfect, we went and signed autographs and had a mini meet-and-greet with fans waiting outside the studio. After a few hours of that, it was off to hair, make-up and wardrobe to get ready for the night.

Usually, my surprise gift from Harry would arrive while I was getting ready for the show, but today nothing arrived. I was puzzled, but now worried or annoyed. I'd told Harry a million times that he didn't need to buy me gifts, but he just said that he loved spoiling me.

We were in the cafeteria when we were called to come meet the guest performers of the night. I had almost had a heart attack in the second week when Taylor Swift had arrived, but no one else had really left me starstruck yet.

We met The Script, who I love, before walking off to our individual dressing rooms. I opened the door, instantly being picked up and twirled around, finding none other than One Direction in my dressing room.

Surprise.

I stood there, after Louis had put me down of course, in shock as Niall, Liam and Zayn hugged me. Harry practically ran over to me, pulling me close. "They made me hug you last because they said I'll never let you go again so they wouldn't have gotten a go."

"You know it's true" Zayn stated, smiling.

I shushed him, holding back a laugh as Harry sat down on the couch, pulling me onto his lap.

"So, what are you guys doing here? Not that I'm not glad to see you."

Harry laughed, playing with my hair. Louis sat down on the couch opposite us. "We're impulsive. And the guest performers next week."

"Wait, what! You're performing next week?"

The boys laughed, "yes, they're announcing it tonight like always."

I left for the group performance, but came back to the boys for a bit while two of the guest performers were on. Eventually, though, it was time to go hear the results.

We walked onstage holding hands as usual, Simon walking behind us.

Luke stood to the side of the stage, the ominous looking envelope in his hand.

"I can now reveal that the first safe tonight is…Sean Davidson!"

Sean whooped, hugging Ronan before exiting the stage. Eleven more spots until the bottom two.

"I can also reveal that tonight will be a double elimination." Great, make that ten more spots.

Andy squeezed my hand, shaking from nerves just like I was.

"The next two contestants through are…Charlotte Montgomery and Jess Henley!"

Lottie and Jessie squealed, hugging us as they left the stage. Andy and I linked arms, holding on tightly to each other. I bit my lip, praying that I would be the next contestant called.

"And the next contestant through, will be revealed after this ad break."

I bit my lip, my hands and legs shaking. Simon put an arm around my shoulders, something unusual for him but still welcomed.

The ad break was excruciating, but eventually it was over.

"And back to the results. The next contestant through is… Ailey Corteese!"

I almost cried out of relief. I wrapped my arms around Andy, hugging her tightly.

Harry was waiting for me as I got off stage, and he pulled me tightly against him, not letting me go for a good five minutes.

By then, one more group and one more over 25 had been called.

Eventually, it was down to just Andy, a group, and two under 25 boys.

"Come on Andy." I muttered, practically clinging to Harry as I prayed that she would get through. Not that he seemed to mind.

"Okay, the last person safe from this week's bottom three is…Andy Lott!"

I let out the breath I'd been holding as Andy came running off the stage, Simon tagging along after her.

I broke my hold on Harry to hug her as she near crash tackled me.

We soon remembered that two acts were still going home tonight, and we quickly turned serious again.

The three acts performed and eventually it was decided through the judges that one of the under 25 boys, Sammy, would be the act to stay another week.

We all went up on stage to say our goodbyes, Lottie in tears as the other under 25 boy that she had become close to, Aaron, said his goodbyes.

I was sad that they were leaving, but I was also so thankful to be staying for another week. Five acts had already left, leaving only eleven. And knowing that there would be more double eliminations due to the higher number of contestants this year, my place in the competition was more uncertain than ever.

I sat with Andy, Jessie and Lottie, watching the boys rehearse for their guest performance.

We had been told previously that this week was actually a triple elimination; something I had thought was unheard of. Obviously the public loved it when more than one person left. Votes fuelled the show, after all.

Lottie leaned over to whisper to us, "gosh, Harry is so hot. You think I'd have a shot?"

I stayed silent while the other girls told her how she should ask him out, one of my hands balled into a fist with my nails digging into my palm.

After the boys had finished rehearsing, we went up onstage. Lottie instantly made her way over to Harry, obviously ready to take Andy and Jessie's advice.

Everyone seemed drawn to them, not letting them talk privately like I knew Lottie wanted to.

She sighed before launching into the question. "Harry, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out sometime?"

Liam, Niall, Zayn and Louis all looked at me, waiting for my reaction. I just looked at Harry, whose expression was a mixture of disbelief and amusement. I waited to see what he would say, knowing that he wouldn't admit that we were together.

Which was slowly getting to me. I was his, but I never really felt like he was mine. I definitely didn't mind sharing him with the fans; it was just the fact that no one knew he was mine to share that bugged me.

"I'm sorry Lottie, but I have a girlfriend."

I stared at him in shock. He said what now?

Luckily Andy, Jessie and Lottie were confused too, otherwise it would've been obvious that I knew something they didn't.

"Really? Who?" Lottie asked, instantly curious.

Harry rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, I've been keeping it a secret for two months now. I'm just kind of going to try to get the fans used to the idea of it before I tell everyone who she is. I'm not just going to throw her into the whole 'Harry Styles girlfriend' thing. She means more to me than that." I saw that he was trying to avoid looking at me when he said the last bit.

Jessie ruined the moments, sighing and saying "aw. That's cute as".

Louis stifled a laugh, shifting his eyes to me and then back again.

Later that night, the ten other remaining contestants and I opened the show with our group performance. But this week was different. Half way through the performance the boys appeared on the stage, taking over the vocals.

As expected, all the teenage girls in the crowd went mad. I couldn't help but laugh as some of the girls took it too far. Andy, who stood next to me, laughed along as we hoped the camera didn't film us laughing.

After the song had ended, we all moved to the centre of the stage, Luke coming out with his microphone at the ready.

Louis and Liam sneakily moved me so that I was standing next to Harry, who put his arm around my waist. I looked around me, making sure that it was hidden from the cameras. We were getting quite good at being sneaky.

After the safe contestants had been called, and the final group and two over 25's went home, we all gathered in the Xtra Factor room for the after show interview.

They asked the usual questions, and we answered lots of tweets and phone calls. But even though I had hoped they wouldn't bring it up, they finally got onto the topic of my mystery boyfriend.

"So, Ailey. Another week and another present. What did you get this week?" The presenter passed the microphone over to me, but Jessie intercepted it, knowing that I would deny getting anything.

"She got a new necklace. She took the note away before we could read it but we saw the word anniversary."

Everyone in the room 'awed', making me blush.

"Ooh, what type of necklace. Give us the details, Ailey."

Again, Jessie interrupted. "It was a silver heart pendant."

I resisted the urge to hide my face in my hands as the presenter demanded to know why I wasn't wearing it, to which I did hide my face as everyone laughed.

"So what anniversary is it?" The presenter asked. I bit my lip, unsure of what to say. If I said two months, the girls would probably catch on.

Luckily, the presenter gave up. "Oh, she's not going to tell us Australia!"

I gave a small awkward smile, glad that the topic was over.

"Now, all week we've had you voting for the lucky contestant who is going to interview One Direction for us, giving them your questions. And now we have the results."

The room went quiet, waiting for the result.

"Ailey Corteese!"

I laughed at the irony of it. The whole point was to give someone the chance to meet them, but I knew them very well.

I was directed to a small room where the boys sat, a laptop with the questions sitting before an empty chair.

"Ails!" They all chorused as I walked into the room. I smiled and sat down in my designated seat, pulling the laptop towards me.

I looked over at the camera, smiling. "Well, I have a lot of tweets that fans have sent in, so let's start on those. And then we can take a phone call or two."

The tweeted questions were going really well, until I came across the twelfth one. "So, boys, who here is single?"

Niall and Zayn raised their hands. Harry rubbed his jaw, something I now knew as a sign of awkwardness for him.

Knowing that I was expected to elaborate, I continued. "So that's Danielle and Eleanor, and…" I raised an eyebrow at Harry, hoping that my acting skills were up to par.

Harry rubbed his thigh, "well, we've been dating for two months now, but I'm not really ready to tell everyone who she is yet."

I nodded, glad for the opportunity to move on. "Okay, onto the next question."

After we had finished with the questions, we moved onto the phone calls. Which was, admittedly, a bad idea.

"Harry, tell us about your girlfriend!" the overexcited fan screamed down the phone.

Harry once again rubbed his jaw. "Well, I think she's amazing. She's absolutely perfect." Knowing that I was on live national TV and that this was probably being watched all around the world, I tried to control my reaction. I knew that I was blushing, but I just hoped that no one would notice.

"Who is she? Tell us!"

Harry rubbed his cheek and nose, glancing at Louis to stop himself from looking at me. I inwardly laughed, knowing that the Larry Stylinson shippers would go nuts over that glance.

"Well, umm, I think we're just going to keep it private until we're ready to tell everyone."

"I'm sure she wants everyone to know. What girl wants to hide her relationship, let alone her relationship with a member of One Direction?" I looked down at the table. Harry and I hadn't talked about how I felt about the keeping it quiet thing, and I knew that those words would get to him.

"Well, I don't want to keep her a secret. I honestly want to go up to everyone and tell them. Because I can't believe that I'm dating her because she's amazing and gorgeous and perfect. But I'm waiting to tell everyone because I'm worried she'll get hate for it."

The fan 'awed', signalling the end of her phone call.

"Bye! We love you!" They all called into the phone before hanging up.

Knowing that I couldn't outright tell him that I understood why things were the way they were and that I couldn't just hug him for what he had said about me being perfect and gorgeous and amazing, I settled for looking at the camera and saying "wasn't that sweet. What a lucky girl Harry's girlfriend must be."