So..... do I really need to say something else apart from SORRY???

Hum.... I dont think so XD. Here is the next chapter I toook forever to upload. We only have three more chapters to go -god that feels awful to write!!-. But don't fear, the sequel -'s sequel, actually- it-s been written and goes for chapter 8... I think. So enjoy this!!!

Thanks for read, really and don't hating me, too! lol

Love!!

XOXO

PS: My cousin tiny computer it-s giving me headachs, so any thin you find wrong.... I-ll revise it this weekend!

XVIII

"… Did you really need to come to this point to realize what you want?"

I barely listened to James' tranquilizing voice; I was too preoccupied with hating myself for causing so much disaster. I didn´t remember when I kneeled on the floor, but now James sat next to me.

I turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"So you didn´t realize it yet either…" He sighed, offering me a soft smile. He then leaned toward me, passing an arm around my shoulders and dragging me to his chest, hugging me closely and kissing the top of my head. "Don´t be so dramatic, Tallie. Everything is going to be ok."

"No, it's not. I'm a bitch. I'm the worst of the worst."

To my surprised, he laughed.

He laughed.

"Hey! Don´t you understand this is not a moment to laugh?!" I snapped. But when I thought over what I had just said, I realized just how stupid it was and I started to laugh along. Not too much after, both of us were cracking in the floor of the garage. "Ok, if I put it like that… it is." I accepted once we stopped.

James grinned and stood up.

"Look, sorry for whatever I said, ok? I acted like a bastard." He said.

"Oh, no! No, don´t. I'm the one-"

"I'll forgive you if you forgive me, deal?"

I smiled and kissed his cheek. I couldn´t help it.

"Deal."

"We should probably get going, don´t you think? It's late…" James offered a little awkwardly. I nodded too eagerly, knowing that I wanted to… make sure he was fine. I felt so bad and guilty it was difficult not to go into hysterics.

James guided me to the car, and opened the door for me, closing it after I sat. He went to the driver's seat and started the car soon after. We were in the hotel in less than ten minutes.

But Harry wasn´t.

Maggie, Danny, Fletch and Mike came a while later, when James and I had indulged ourselves in some room service to eat our hearts out.

But Harry wasn´t with them.

We stayed in the cafeteria of the hotel talking and chatting and laughing, and Harry never came back.

When two hours had gone past, I started to get worried.

Well… I started to get a lot more worried.

James noticed it.

Maggie would have probably done it too, but it was too late after she had gone to sleep. It was only Fletch, James and me, and the barman that was enjoying some TV while no one ordered anything.

"He's going to be ok." James repeated for the umpteenth time. Of course, I didn´t believe him.

"You can´t know." I demanded.

"Well, he's Harry. He will." Fletch insisted.

That conversation went on for a lot longer than that. The three of us and the barman were the only ones in the cafeteria now, and the lights were slowly turning off. I was tired and I had fallen asleep over the table, but at any mention of just getting my ass in the bed I recoiled with all my might. I needed to stay there.

However, when I opened my eyes again, I found James' chest, and a second later, his whole face, as he left me down on my bed and covered me with the blankets. I pouted up at him while I cuddled under them, protesting.

James laughed and kissed my forehead. "Your choice is clear, Tallie. I respect that. He's not as much of a bastard as I said he was." He said, waving goodbye. I wasn´t sure if that is what I heard or if I was just sleeping and dreaming, but it sounded quite reveling in that moment as my eyes closed completely and I drifted back to sleep.

Of course, it didn´t last long.

I can´t tell how much longer after it was, but the door started to bang loudly. I was confused, and I was sure that either the hotel was going down, or the aliens had attacked. That's why I shrieked when I opened the door and saw… Harry.

I thought the aliens had taken over his body and he was there to rape me or torture me for being a bitch.

"We need to talk." He said, slurring just a little. Not really thinking, and really stupidly since I was sure it was an alien, I let him in, closing the door after him.

"About what?" I wondered, rubbing my eyes and sitting on my bed again. Maybe if the conversation got really bothered I could just fall asleep.

"Us. So you have to listen." He ordered. "I know I'm possessive, overly jealous, and I act like a bastard 99% of the time. But that's only because I care so much about you I don´t want to lose you. I want you near me the whole time. Sex is not the base of our relationship, it's just something we do and we're great at it. I'm sorry for making you believe I only wanted you for that. I like you. I really do. And surrounded by so many men, you'll find out you can have so much better. Like James, for example." Harry said in one go, sitting next to me and not stopping to breath.

I was amazed, I wanted to kiss him.

"Harry, what-?"

"Hush, let me finish. I'm here to prove to you that I want much more with you than that. I asked you once and you laughed at me. I'm willing to ask again, if you would… like to be my girlfriend." He said, blushing.

I smiled widely, but he couldn´t see me because he was avoiding my face. The only thing I had to object was him asking me once. He had never done it. I'm sure, I would remember something like that unless it was only a…

Wait a second…

"You mean that that was actually serious?!" I exclaimed, surprised.

Harry scowled at me. "This isn´t working. I'll leave now." He announced, standing up from my bed and walking towards the door.

Thank god, I reacted before he could open it.

"Yes!" I exclaimed.

Harry stopped, but didn´t turned to me. "Yeah, I already say it. It has no sense to repeat it just to make me feel bad."

"No, stupid!" I snapped, and that was enough to force him to look at me, if even before I had insulted him. "I mean yes to being your girlfriend."

"Real nice, Tallulah." Harry said crossing his arms over his chest. I wasn´t sure he had understand completely what I had just said. Not sure at all.

"Harry. I want to be your girlfriend if you're willing to be my boyfriend." I said clearly.

"Yeah, I understood you the first time. I'm not stupid." He answered me. "I was just trying to process it."

I smiled and walked the few steps that separated him from me. It seemed to be clearer now, all was clearer. Harry was the one I loved, more than any other man. He was just so…

Liked. I mean liked. Not loved.

"You really mean it?" Harry asked, grabbing me by my shoulders as soon as I was close enough.

"What, you're backing off already?"

"No, of course not. But thought you would… well, run away at any kind of commitment coming from me, or maybe even laugh it off."

"Well, I can´t laugh it of when you say it's real, right?" I said grinning. Harry's hands had started to slide down my arms until he reached my wrists, grabbing them and putting them behind my back to draw me close to him. "It's going to be hard." I had to announced, not really sure why.

No, wait. Actually, I was.

I was having cold feet.

But not because I didn´t want to be with him, but because it seemed too good to be true.

… And I was still sure he only saw me as a sex toy.

What if he only asked me to be his girlfriend to win over James?

"Of course. I'm always hard. I can be hard for hours and hours." He smirked, licking my cheek slowly.

"Really? That hard?" I asked with my sexy voice.

… What if he is my sex toy? Could I be that much of a bitch?

"Oh, yeah." Harry nodded, before kissing me with a passion he had never showed before forcefully (which has to mean something in itself, right?) as he pushed me towards my bed making me lay down and crawling over me.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

*·*·*·*·*·*·*

I was about to hyperventilate.

My cheeks were a deep scarlet and my palms were sweating and my mascara was growing blotchy by the second and my lips were swollen and my hair was a mess and I down right needed a shower.

All in all, I looked like shit.

And that was a good enough reason to run away, but I knew that if I did it, I would never be back where I was again. Ever.

But I needed to do it.

So I knocked.

When no one answered after my really loud, really demanding knocking, I turned around and started to run.

Hell, I had knocked! I had tried!

"Tallulah, what the fuck are you doing?"

Oh, bloody hell…

I turned around again and plastered my biggest smile on my lips. "Mike, hi! What are you doing up on this lovely morning?"

"It's not morning yet. It's five in the freaking morning! Fletch was ready to call to security, we've been hearing you prancing around outside the door for ages." Mike snapped. He was standing in the doorway of his bedroom in the hotel of Belfast, wearing his pajamas and his bed hair. And I was standing stupidly right in front of the wall with the window leading to the pool outside. Half a second later, and I was going to be crashing through it, probably ending up falling right into the pool.

I had run in the wrong direction. Damn it!

"Oh, really? Five in the morning you say? I didn´t know… Sorry! I'll go now, you have to sleep and all. Buh-bye!" I said fast, starting to walk away in the right direction this time.

"Hey, come here, girl! You already woke us up. So now you're going to get inside and tell us what you wanted to say. We have to be up in an hour, anyway, so it's not going to be any good to go back to sleep."

"Are you sure? Because I wouldn't want to-" I started, but Mike grabbed me by the arm and pushed me inside the room forcefully. "Ok, I'll come… Hiya, Fletch!"

"I'm hating you right now, don´t be too perky. I may kill you."

"…Ok…"

I was thinking that maybe Mike had made me get in to kill me. Would he be able to do so? I thought over that, tilting my head to my head, sizing him up. Almost two minutes later, I realized both men were staring me as if I was crazy.

"Hum…. Hi?"

"Tallulah! Sit your ass here and tell us what the fuck you came here to say!!!" Snapped Fletch, patting the end of his bed. I did as I was told but only because I was still wondering if he would kill me.

"Spill." Ordered Mike jumping next to me.

"Ok." I accepted.

It was our third day in Belfast.

Which meant that I had being dating Harry for the past day and a half.

And no one knew apart of him and James. I had to tell James, it was the right thing, but he knew already. I didn´t even need to say it out loud.

"Well…. I… I'm…. I'm kinda not really not single anymore." I said.

Mike and Fletch stared at me for a long time, confused, trying to understand my words.

I didn´t even understand them myself.

"Don´t go all Jack Sparrow on us, now. What do you mean by that twisted phrase? Are you or are you not?" Mike demanded, elbowing me hard.

"Not single? Yes."

"That means you're single or not?!" Fletch snapped.

"…. Not…" I felt my cheeks turned red as they stared at me surprised, knowing that I needed to clarify the whole deal. So I took a deep breath and close my eyes. Please, have mercy of me.

"ThefactisthatI'mdatingHarryJudd." I blurted out as fast as I could.

Of course, it didn´t work and they both caught up to what I had say.

"Oh my god!" Mike snapped.

"I knew it! Pay up!" Fletch exclaimed happily, extending his hand in front of him towards Mike.

I looked at both of them outraged. "Did you two bet on me?!" I complained.

"Of course. I said you were going to wait until we were in the train, and Fletch here said that you were going to come in the night." Mike explained, shrugging. They didn´t give it too much importance and just shrugged me off.

"…You're not surprised I'm dating Harry?" I asked some time later, after Mike had paid up his debt.

"Not really. We saw it coming." Fletch said.

"Hell, everyone saw it coming." Mike agreed, nodding eagerly. "It was clear you like him and it was even clearer that he's head over heels over you."

I would have loved to deny it and say something smart about the fact that that wasn´t true at all. But I wasn´t the best judge, after all, seeing as I was dating him now and stating to think that I might be in lo-…. Like with him. Everything was possible. "… Really?"

They nodded.

"Completely crazy for you." Fletch grinned.

"Wacko."

"Delusional."

"Horny, too." Mike finished. It was hard not to laugh at that. And after doing it, I jumped up in my place to reach both of them and hug them close. I love to have friends like this. "You know, I thought I would never see this day. It feels like my baby sister is growing up!"

"So much for not making me feel uncomfortable…" I muttered.

"Oh, girl, how sweet of you. I never said I wasn´t going to make you feel uncomfortable."

"I should have know."

Mike kept mocking me the rest of the morning, until we needed to go to the airport. I was trembling when Mike, Fletch and I got out of their room. This was going to be worst like my Cotillion when I was little. I was going to introduced Harry as my boyfriend to the world.

"Can I back down now? I'll take a ship, a bus, I'll go running! Like in Hey There Delilah?" I said pleadingly, but Mike kept pushing me in front of him. All the baggage had been put into the trunk of some taxis already and we only needed to get in. Or die. Like it was going to happen to me.

"That's stupid. You're not Delilah, Harry's not Dellilah –and he'll kill you if he finds out what you call him, and you're not going to run anywhere. Keep walking, girl! You're stressing me." Fletch scolded me. I was almost scared of him pulling my hair.

"Then let me go to get ready. I'm sure I left something-" I was already interrupted by Mike.

"Stop it!" He snapped as the elevator's door opened in front of us. We got in. I tried to run away but it didn´t work. I was scared. I was bloody scared.

What if Harry wanted to humiliate me in public?

What if he stopped liking me tomorrow and I was just some plaything?

I wasn´t sure I would be able to support that.

"Ok, girl." Snapped Fletch once we were alone in the elevator with the elevator operator. "Stop looking for excuses. He loves you, and you love him too. You're perfect for each other. You deserve each other. He's not going to humiliate you in public and he's not going to change his mind and leave you. I know him. He's not like the bastards of your exs."

I blushed and started to tremble again. "… Thanks." I muttered. Fletch grinned and hugged me.

"Just have fun, babe." Mike smirked as the elevator door opened and we walked out. Harry was standing there with Maggie, talking in a low voice and laughing. He was perfect.

I smiled when I saw him and let Mike and Fletch pushed me to them. Danny, Tom and Dougie were close, fixing the packing of their instruments one more last time. I took a deep breath again. I hated the fact that I knew something was going to happened to put me on edge but I couldn´t know what.

Here it goes.

"Hi." I said smiling to all of them when I was close enough to grab. Harry turned to me and smiled, his whole face lighting up as he did it.

"Hello, gorgeous." He grinned, winking at me.

Next thing I knew, he was grabbing me by the hips and pushing me to him. Right after that, his lips crashed against mine. He was kissing me like the Earth was about to end.

Harry grabbed me tighter than before, sliding a hand down my right thigh to make my leg up over his hips, and then he leaned down over me. It was a movie kiss, and I felt like Marilyn Monroe kissing James Dean. And yes, I know she never kissed him.

When we broke apart, everyone was staring at us. I was too shocked and too breathless to react, so he took care of the situation.

"Yes." He said, to no one in particular. "We're dating."

Silence took upon our little group for four long minutes. I counted them. That was how nervous I was.

"Oh for Merlin's sake." Maggie breathed out, and then she jumped to my neck and hugged me with all her might, jumping up and down. "I knew it!!! I knew it! You're so perfect for each other! I'm so, so happy for both of you!" She yelled, hugging Harry next. But she stopped in the middle of her congratulation –geez, it wasn´t that important – and mocked-glared at him. "If you hurt her, I'll kill you, ok?" She muttered low enough so no one would hear her apart from me, but I wasn´t really sure I was supposed to hear her either.

"I won´t. Promise." Harry grinned, patting her back. His hand snaked to mine, and he grabbed it, intertwining his fingers with my own.

"This are great news!" Tom exclaimed hugging me and man-hugging Harry.

…Did they have some secret handshake for besties? That would be so fun.

"I'm happy for both of us." Danny grinned, acting almost as excited as his wife, hugging us both and make me spin on his arms. It was hard not to laugh.

"Yeah, finally. Did Harry man up or did you have to do the all the work?" Dougie asked with a mischievous smile. Harry elbowed him hard, but it was all joking.

"You're acting as if this is something epic. Like Montagues and Capuletsfinally getting along before Romeo and Juliet or something that dramatic. We're just dating." I said feeling a little self conscious. This was why I didn´t really want to say it. What would happen when he left me or when he realized I was boring enough to be ditched? Everyone was going to be awkward and all.

"Honey, you don´t just dated. This is important." Mike interrupted grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

He was right, of course.

Mike always was.

But still.

I couldn´t shake the feeling that this was nothing close to meant to be.