Harry’s P.O.V.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” I asked, not sure if I heard him correctly.
“I’m Stephanie’s brother, Elijah,” he repeated, introducing himself. Stephanie? My Stephanie? The one who moved to America? I wracked through my brain trying to put this together.
“But Stephanie never mentioned a brother,” I stated.
“That’s because she probably doesn’t know,” Elijah responded.
I stood up from the couch and began pacing. My best friend Stephanie who I haven’t seen in about 9 years has a brother, a brother that she obviously didn’t tell me about because she never knew she had one.
“So let me get this straight. My best friend Stephanie, who moved to America, has a bro-”
“She moved to America?!” he questioned, shocked.
“Yeah, almost 9 years ago…” I explained.
“That makes so much sense now!” Elijah exclaimed, tipping his head back and looking at the ceiling.
“What makes so much sense? Are we talking about the same Stephanie?” I asked.
The expression on his face gave me the answer. They look so much alike, I knew there was something familiar going on.
“It’s a really long story,” he began. “I don’t think your mum…”
“Hold on,” I replied.
I headed into the kitchen and told my mum and Gemma to start dinner without me. My mum hastily agreed and I padded back to the family room, making sure to close the door tightly behind me.
“Talk,” I delivered, sitting back on the couch. Elijah sat up and spilled everything he knew.

Stephanie’s P.O.V.
A few weeks later, we still hadn’t succeeded at my mum accepting Rachel and I to go. We tried simply talking to her again, but she knew we were bringing it up, so before we could even explain, she instantly said no. We told Rachel’s mom about it, and she was alright with the idea, but wanted to talk to my mum about it, which made things more complicated. I was becoming hopeless by this point.
Spring break arrived and that meant that the musical was over and I finally had time to relax. Since I had time, I felt like this was the perfect time to talk to Harry again. I hadn’t spoken to him since our videochat over Christmas and I needed to tell him that we’re not going to England. He’ll be devastated, but I don’t make the rules.
I messaged him asking if we could Skype sometime today and he replied almost instantly. His message asked if we could wait a little bit because he was apparently busy, so I reponded back, ‘Sure.’ He must be busy with the band, I thought.
My mum was cleaning upstairs, so I decided to watch some TV and hopefully she wouldn’t ask me to go clean something. It’s my spring break and I wanted to relax, not do some spring cleaning. I turned it on and found out one of my favorite shows was playing, so I kept the channel on.
About 15 minutes later, Harry messaged me back and said that he was ready to video chat. I opened up my laptop, got everything set up, and saw his face on the screen.
“Hey, Harry,” I greeted.
“Hey, Steph,” he replied, smiling and waving.
“How’s everything going?” I asked.
“Pretty good, we’ve got most of our songs planned out,” Harry responded. “I can’t wait for the album!”
“Me either!” I exclaimed, smiling.
“I can’t wait for you to hear it. You’re going to love it,” he added.
“Don’t spoil anything for me!” I answered.
“I won’t, I won’t,” he spoke. “So how’s life over on your end?”
“Eh, somewhat good,” I said, remembering that the main reason why I wanted to video chat him was because I needed to tell him about England.
“Somewhat?” Harry asked.
“Well, the musical went great, and I’m glad I finally get some time again,” I responded.
“That’s good,” Harry replied.
“On the other hand…”
“What? Did someone hurt you? Is everything alright?”
“No, no one hurt me,” I answered. “Harry…I can’t come to England.”
He was silent for a moment, trying to process everything in. He looked up and over the camera, and it seemed like he was glancing at someone who wasn’t on camera, but in the room.
“W-what?” he stuttered, his eyes moving back to the screen.
“I can’t go, my mum won’t let me,” I repeated.
“But your br- I mean, we’ve been preparing for you and we can’t wait to see you,” Harry begged.
“I know, and I’m sorry. Rachel and I have tried ever since Christmas,” I explained.
Harry became quiet again, deep in thought.
“Is your mum around?” he finally asked.
“Yeah, she’s cleaning upstairs,” I answered.
“Do you think I could talk to her?” he questioned.
“Um, I’ll ask, hold on,” I replied.
I ran up the stairs and into the bathroom that my mum was currently cleaning. I knocked on the door before entering.
“Mum? Harry wants to talk to you,” I informed.
“Me?” she responded, pointing at herself.
“Yeah,” I answered. She stood up, brushed herself off, and swept past me to the hallway.
“Oh, would you mind finishing? There’s not much left to do,” my mum spoke, turning around to face me.
“Um, sure,” I said, and she stepped down the stairs. I was curious as what they were going to talk about, and just like a regular teenager, I bailed on the cleaning and snuck down the staircase, making sure to stay hidden. I heard my mom sit down on the couch and they greeted each other.
“So what would you like to talk about?” my mum asked, her mood bright and cheery.
“Why won’t you let Steph come here?” Harry blurted out.
“That is none of your business,” my mum demanded.
“Oh, I think it is,” Harry said, standing his ground. “Eli!”
I heard my mum gasp as something happened on the other end.
“Elijah?” my mum asked. “How did you-”
“Now that is none of your business,” Harry repeated.
“What is going on?!” my mum shrieked.
“I think you have something of mine,” the guy apparently named Elijah said.
“She belongs to me! I am her mother!” my mum shouted. Are they talking about me?
“Just because our biological mum died doesn’t mean you can replace her!” Elijah yelled. Biological mum? Our biological mum? What?
“I think I already have,” my mum implied.
“Then why is my sister living 6,000 miles away from me?!” Elijah spoke. Sister?
“I did it for your own good!” my mum said.
“Oh, yeah, because living with my sister is such a bad thing!” Elijah sarcastially remarked.
“She doesn’t even know who you are!” my mum revealed.
“You haven’t told her?!” Elijah and Harry said together.
“Why does she need to know? She’s got a great life here, a completely different one than the one she would have had if we stayed in England!”
“You don’t know that,” Harry spoke. “You ripped my life away from me! Did you ever think of that?”
“Mine, too! I barely got to know my own blood sister!” Elijah shrieked.
The tears were real now. My best friend and aparently my brother who I had never even known I had were defending my life against my mum, if she even is my mum.
“Your dad was having a hard enough time as it was. I brought her in with me to make your lives easier!” my mum replied.
“You didn’t have to move across the world,” Elijah quietly remarked.
“She referred to me as her mother by that point, and she thought she was an only child. She was so young, and if I would have given her back, her head would have been spinning and her little mind would be asking all of these questions,” my mum defended.
“I would rather have that than not see my sister at all,” Elijah affirmed.
I couldn’t take this anymore. I stood up from the stairs and faced this woman.
“Mum?” I asked, my face wet with tears.
“Honey, I-”
And before she could finish her sentence, I ran upstairs to my room and locked the door, shutting myself away from this world I thought was mine.

Notes

Aaaahh! I'm so happy how this chapter turned out! Wanna know what's going to happen next? Keep reading!

Also, please read my other fanfic, a Niall Horan story, "Drama" here on this website and on Wattpad, too! Username: leikelamichelle

Thank you so much and please follow us on Twitter: @_FriendNeverEnd to get updates on this and follow our personals: @leikelamichelle and @_StepHarry_, we all follow back!

Rachel and Stephanie :)