I looked up into Harry’s eyes as he held me close to his torso. Helplessly letting my head fall to his chest, I let my eyes close as I felt his lips kiss my forehead.

Once I had calmed down and Harry had checked my face for running makeup, we returned to the living room to find that there was a new face sitting before us. This must have been Haley’s stylist. Her clothes were cute, even for the winter whether. When I caught Haley’s eye, she shot up from her seat to introduce me.

“Hannah, this is my stylist, Emma. Emma, this is one of my best friends, Hannah.” Emma graciously took my hand, probably thankful that there was another girl in the room. We sat down on the couch, Harry warily allowing me to sit back in his lap, and talked for who knows how long. Everyone took turns asking Emma some questions and she seemed to be an open book – I would love to have the kind of life where I could do that. At first, I thought that I caught Niall staring at her, but then he looked away when she was finished speaking. Maybe I was just seeing things… Wait… It happened again. It happened a few more times and it began to happen while she wasn’t speaking too. What if he likes her? How perfect would that be?

“We’re talking a lot about me,” Emma interrupted another question. “I know the stereotypes, obviously, but what’re the real personalities going on here?” Then the boys started throwing out random information.

“I’m not really afraid of spoons; just don’t like ‘em.”

“I like carrots but everybody takes it overboard.”

“I like food other than Nando’s.”

“I don’t like being the ‘bad boy’,” even I could see Zayn’s arm tighten around Haley as she snuggled closer into him. I wasn’t quite sure if anyone else had noticed because now all eyes were on Harry. He looked to be thinking carefully of what he was going to tell her.

“I’m not a man whore… It’s an act. I’ve known what I’ve wanted for a very long time, and I’m just now getting her, so I no longer have a need to jump from girl to girl each night.” I thought that Emma’s jaw was going to hit the floor in shock. Looking around at everyone else, I realized that their mouths were still left agape, but they didn’t seem too incredibly surprised.

“Yup, and he’s found me!” Lou interrupted. This sent laughter throughout the room and I smiled at him, thankful for him to relieve the growing atmosphere of tension.

We talked a little bit more before Emma finally brought the conversation around to Haley’s job. I stood up to go to the kitchen and get some water. It almost surprised me that Harry didn’t follow behind me, but I tried to think nothing of it. Standing by the sink, I sipped the water from my glass until it was empty. I took a few calming breaths before I returned to civilization – as civil as it could get around those boys. I’m not sure who noticed my return first because soon, all eyes were on me. Everybody was smiling and it was borderline creepy. I slowly crept back to collapse next to Harry.

“Okay, someone talk…” I looked to each set of eyes, as they had all settled on Harry now, making their unspoken decision of who got to tell me what the hell was going on.

“Well,” he started, “the boys and I are invited to this Valentine Masquerade Ball. We go every year and every year, different people go up on stage and get auctioned off as dates…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I overlapped him. “I’m definitely not on a budget to outbid some chick for a date with Harry Styles.”

“No, you’ve got me all wrong.” My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Babe, I’m going to be the one bidding on you. Emma wants you to be one of the benefit’s ‘Masked Beauties’.” Emma’s eyes caught mine and her gleamed with the light of the room. I looked at her, making sure that she was sure about this. She moved over and took both of my hands in hers.

“Hannah, you are too gorgeous and I want you there to be auctioned off. Haley has to go out of town for that time and I need to bring in someone else for the bidding. It’s not like Harry won’t win you anyways. We just need some girls to help raise money for the charity of choice this year.” After thinking about it for a minute, I nodded my head yes and Emma practically squealed. She looked very young to be a stylist, but seemed very good at what she did at the same time. Once this conversation was over, everything else was so much more relaxed, me silently wondering if anyone else would even care to bid on me.

*Niall’s POV*

I was so caught up in Emma’s beauty that I almost missed the quizzical look that Zayn gave Haley as Emma restated that Haley would be leaving town for Valentine’s Day. Brushing it off, I tuned back in to the sweet sound of her voice. Soon, everyone else began to go off into side conversations and I lost her voice in the crowd, but I still stared at her. My shyness took over when she would glance at me and I would look towards the floor or towards my phone instead, but the red on my cheeks gave away that I was caught.

“Does anyone want something to drink?” I decided to excuse myself. No one said anything so I drifted towards the kitchen. With my face in the fridge, I scoped out anything and everything that we had to snack on. After finally giving up on the fridge and going to open the cabinet, I heard heels walking across Zayn’s tiled floor. Grabbing a bag of potato chips, I hoisted myself onto the counter top before looking up to see Emma standing on the other side of the island. “Hey,” I smiled shyly.

“Hi,” she smiled towards the floor, seeming almost as shy as I was.

“Did you decide that you wanted something?”

“Um, a glass of water would be nice.” She leaned against the counter and her dirty blond hair fell to the side. Hopping off of the counter, I got her a glass of water. When I turned to hand it to her, she quickly looked away and her face turned red, telling me that she had been caught staring as well. She looked up into my eyes before taking the glass from my hands. Seeing her eyes almost made my heart stop. They were a striking blue that had the darkest outline around the iris that I had ever seen. The only time that I had seen those types of eyes were on new born babies that still sat in strollers, but here they were, in a face right before me.

She turned her head to the side before taking a long drink from the water, obviously self conscious but I couldn’t see why. Her hair looked natural and basically straight, only containing a slight wave near the ends. Her bangs were long and swept to the side. She knew that I was staring but I didn’t care anymore. I could tell that there was thick foundation on her face and I sighed a little. Her complexion appeared to be perfect beneath the makeup, so why did she need to wear any at all? Looking down her body, I made it to her showy heels. It looked like she would break an ankle if she fell.

“How do you walk in those things?” I blurted. Instantly feeling my face turn red, I heard her laugh as it filled the kitchen. It was the most beautiful sound of joy that I had ever heard. When her laughter calmed down, she looked down at her shoes as well, turning her toes over to look at the height that she had attached to the bottoms of her feet.

“Well, they call it ‘high’ fashion for a reason… Models aren’t supposed to be short, and neither are their agents.” She raised her eyebrows and I took a second to realize that, without her heels, she would only stand to be 5’5’’ at the most. She noticed me staring and smiled towards the floor. Reaching out, I pulled her chin up so that her amazing eyes met mine once again.

“You’re way too beautiful to hide your face. You have a beautiful smile.” A dark blush covered her cheeks and she tried her hardest to cover her teeth with her lips, but I wasn’t letting that happen. Before even I could register what I was doing, I pulled my face down to hers and brushed our lips slightly. I silently cursed myself, knowing that his would be the point where she pushed me away and told me that this was too fast. She would tell me that she was respectable and couldn’t just jump into something with both feet and there would be a million other reasons why what I had done was so wrong. Sitting still for a few more moments, I realized that she didn’t do any of this. I opened my eyes just in time to see hers flutter closed. Emma’s hands fisted the front of my shirt and pressed our lips together again.

Now, it was my turn to be surprised as I let my hands rest on her waist. I tightened my grip slightly, easing myself into the feeling of her body against mine. She hissed at the slight roughness. Then it happened. It was a little delayed, but it happened. “Niall, I’m sorry, I can’t.” She turned to walk away and I caught her forearm. A wince escaped her lips as she was spun back around to face me.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I can’t do this.” She looked shy again. “We’ve only just met.” Her hand rubbed up and down the arm that I had had a hold of and I looked down to the movement, letting the hurt sink in. Just before she turned to walk away, her hand brushed up the sleeve of her arm. What I saw shocked me. I found myself witnessing long bruises lining her arm. That’s why she had made a sound. Was that why she had pulled away from the kiss too? Was I too rough? I was left thinking about it as she left the kitchen.

*Haley’s POV*

“I still don’t understand why you have to leave!” Zayn boomed. It was ten days before Valentine’s Day and the masquerade was that night. I let out an exaggerated sigh and threw my hands in the air as I stormed out of the room. Zayn and I loved each other and I was a lover, not a fighter, but we still seemed to do our fair share of both. Closing his bedroom door, while he was still on the other side, I started getting dressed to go shopping with Hannah. We had ten days to find her a dress, shoes and hair style for this benefit and I didn’t need this right now. “Haley! Open this door!” Zayn patronized. A look of disgust came over my face even though I knew that he couldn’t see me. I was glad because he would’ve been livid if he had seen it.

“I’m not decent!” I sang back.

“When has that ever stopped me?” He chuckled a little and I couldn’t help but crack a smirk, knowing that he was absolutely right. “Haley, please open the door.” His voice was no longer loud and sounded much more sincere. I heard his back hit the door and then it sounded like he was sliding to the floor. Guilt instantly flooded through my veins. I was about to leave and I was being a little unreasonable. Figuring that I should at least give my reasons for leaving for the most romantic holiday, I went to unlock the door, but he didn’t turn the handle. Cracking the door open, Zayn had his head rested on his arms that leaned on his knees. Not sure if he had noticed the absence of the door or not, I sat down and rested my back against his. He jumped a little and I tried hard to hold in my chuckle, not being used to him being startled.

“I’m sorry Babe.” He was still leaned forward, so I leaned back to rest my head between his shoulder blades. I felt his back expand as he sighed heavily.

“I just don’t see why you can’t tell me why you’re leaving me on Valentine’s Day, or where you’re going.”

“Don’t make it sound like I’m not coming back. I obviously am. It just happens that I’m gonna be gone for a little over a week.”

“We haven’t been apart that long since we’ve met.” I stopped speaking, thinking and realizing that he was right. There wasn’t a week – even through everything with Hannah – that we had completely been apart.

“You’re right…”

“Then I’m coming with you…” There was no way in hell that he really wanted to go.

“You should be here with the boys.”

“I don’t care.” Don’t make me tell you where I’m going. “There’s no way that you’re leaving me for that long, so I’m going with you. Where are we going?” Fuck. Me.

“It’s actually more than one place.” Zayn’s silence told me to continue. “So I’m… we’re, I guess, going to… Berrywood.” My mood saddened and I hoped that I wouldn’t have to explain further to Zayn about the importance of where he wanted to follow me. Before I knew what he was doing, he had turned around so that I was now leaning against his chest in between his spread legs. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my hair. I looked up at him and he had a soft smile on his face. “What?”

“You didn’t want to tell me that you were going to visit your mother? Why? I’d actually love to meet her.” His rough face buried itself into my neck and left soft kisses here and there, but it didn’t last for long before he paused. “Is there a specific reason you wanna spend Valentine’s Day with your mum?”

“Well…” I was really hoping that this never came up, but a small part of me knew that it was bound to, “the day before is my birthday.” Zayn’s eyes widened, in surprise, as he stared down at me.

“And when were you planning on sharing this with the class?” I let off a weak smile.

“Hopefully never.”

“Wait… Is that why your lucky number is the most unlucky number in the universe?”

“Hey, you’re finally catching on!” He made a playful noise before continuing the kissing on my neck, only to have it stop a few seconds later.

“You said that there was more than one place… Where’s the other?” My heart sunk into my stomach at his question. There was no way that he would want to go after I told him, and if he did, it wouldn’t be for any of the right reasons.

“Holloway…” It came out as a whisper, but it didn’t matter. Zayn’s body had tensed at the thought halfway through the one word that told him I was planning a visit to my dad.

Notes

Whoa! Ni's moving a little fast, but are there any predictions on what's going on with Emma? How is Hannah ever going to come to terms that Harry is not Marcus and learn to put her full trust in him? And HEEELLLLOOOOO!!!! Is Zayn still going to want to go with Haley to meet her father?!? Everyone remembers why he's in prison, RiGhT!!! Comment, rate, subscribe! I'm hearing less and less from you guys and it's making me sad :(
xoxo Hannah <3