Harry’s POV:
“It seems like we’ve been having quite a few of these ‘important talks’ lately, huh?” I asked Anna, pulling her legs onto my lap as we sat on the couch. She had come over late Sunday afternoon, visibly upset. She just said she needed to tell me something important.
“Yeah, I know. I just don’t know what else to do here.”
“It’s fine.” I said, starting to get worried about what she would say. She tugged on the sleeves of her sweater, pulling them over her small hands, looking anywhere but at me.
“Anna, please, tell me what’s wrong?” I said in the kindest voice I could.
“Okay. Well, today when we went to the movies- it was Me, Molly, Keenan, Bryce, and… we got Oliver to come with us. He’s been ignoring me for days, so I thought this was a good thing, maybe he could try and get past everything. But he just, kept on ignoring me. And so I went with him to go talk during the movie. And I was trying to tell him that I want to just get everything out in the open and know why he was SO mad at me. And- Um, he told me he had feelings for me. And then, and then he kissed me.” It wasn’t until she had gotten the last word out that she looked up at me with pleading eyes. She looked so scared.
“Wh-“
“I pushed him away the second it happened. He wanted to know if I felt anything, I didn’t. I tried to tell him that, but he just left! And I’m so, so sorry. But I just felt like I needed to tell you because if I kept it in I know it would just keep eating away at me and I wouldn’t be able to handle it, and I’m terrible at keeping secrets. So, yeah… Please don’t hate me.”
“Babe, I could never hate you.” I sighed and laced my fingers through hers, “I just hate the idea of anyone else kissing you.” The corner of her mouth twitched.
“I’m sorry.” She repeated, squeezing my hand.
“Do you think I could maybe, go and talk to this guy?”
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea…”
“I’ll be perfectly pleasant. I just need him to hear what I have to say straight from me.”
“He’s just sort of… I don’t know, angry, jealous? That sounds terrible for me to say-“ She put her other hand over her face in frustration.
“No, it’s not, If I were in his position, I would be jealous too. I’m just not willing to give up so easily. He kissed you, and I’m not okay with that. We’ll just have a little chat, totally innocent.”
“At some point, maybe, but just not right now, okay? It’s not a good time, too soon.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”

I lied to Anna. I hated doing it, but I had to. So, while she was with Eleanor and Danielle a few days later, I went to Anna’s school, and I found Oliver, which was surprisingly a lot easier than I thought.
I had worn my ‘disguise’, not that it did much good. I still had to dodge into hallways or restrooms every time I heard a group of girls gossiping or talking. But thankfully, the staff was sort of clueless, not even looking up from their computers when I asked where I could find him.
“Room 424 dear.” An older woman at a desk said.
“Thank you.” I trudged up the stairs, location Room 424 fairly easily. I knocked a few times, until the door opened.
He was a good –looking guy’ a little shorter than me. He wore a baggy t-shirt and sweatpants, holding an IPhone in his hand.
“What the hell?” Was all he said.
“Hi, uh, I’m Ha-“
“I know who you are.” He said bluntly, no emotion in his voice.
“Do you think we could have a quick chat?” I asked.
“Bout what?”
“I think you know what.”
“No, I don’t. Bout what?”
“About Anna.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why the hell not, mate?”
“Because I’m not interested in talking to some big-shot superstar who thinks he can get whatever he wants just because he is in some shit boy band. No thanks.” He began to shut the door, until I blocked it with the toe of my white converse.
“Actually, I can already tell you’ve got me wrong.”
“Oh really? And ho is that?”
“Let’s have a talk and I’ll tell you.” Our conversation was quick and dry. It was clear neither of us wanted to be the first one to crack. But eventually he gave in and let me in.
“Can you make this sort of quick?” He said, sitting down on his bed. I opted for the desk chair.
“Yes. I can. I just wanted to talk to you about what happened the other day.”
“What happened the other day?” He said, pretending as if he had no idea what I was talking about.
“Anna told me you kissed her.” He had the decency to look a bit embarrassed when I said that.
“Yeah, well, what do you wanna say about it?”
“I wanna say that I’m not okay with it. That it pisses me the hell off because I like her, a lot. And she was trying to be a friend to you and then you went and did that which was sort of a dick move. So I just wanted to tell you that I know, and that if you really like her that I’m not going to give up that easily.”
“Well I do-“
“And I can understand why! I mean, she’s incredible. Clearly we both know that. But don’t force her into an awkward position where she has to consider losing you as a friend, okay?”
He didn’t say anything for a while. “Look, she likes you. We can all see it. I haven’t got a chance. But I just had to tell her, er, I mean, I had to do SOMETHING to show her. So I’m sorry if I hurt your ego or whatever, but I just had to.” I just nodded.
“Well, not that I think you’ll listen to what I have to say but- I think you should try to be a friend to her. As much as I hate to say it.”
He nodded this time, his floppy hair falling in his face.
“Alright then, cheers.” I mumbled, getting up and walking towards the door.
“Might wanna take the back staircase-“ he said quickly, “ Far less chance of getting noticed.”
I gave a small smile, thankful that he had been nice enough to say that, before I left.

ANNA’S POV:
I was having a rare night of normalcy, doing homework in my room, when there was a knock on my door. I opened it, expecting to see Molly, but it was Oliver. I hadn’t tried to talk to him since the day at the movies.
“Uh, hey.” I said awkwardly.
“Hey. Can I talk to you for a minute?” He stepped into my room and took a spot, leaning against the wall.
“Sure, I guess.”
“I just wanted to tell you that I talked to your boyfriend yesterday. He came by and we spoke ab-“
‘Wait, what? Harry was here?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No, I didn’t. Why the hell did he come talk to you?”
“Well I think you know the answer to that.”
“Yeah, but-“
“Look, I’m not trying to prolong this. But, as much as I don’t want to admit it- he was right. I was an arse, what I did. You were a good friend and I messed that up completely. So all I really wanted to say was I’m sorry, and I hope you can forgive me eventually.”
“Uh, yeah, me too. I just- I was really shocked, you know?”
“Yeah…”
“But you’re my friend, some hopefully we can get back to the way things were.” I couldn’t really focus on this conversation, as much as I wanted to. I could only focus on the fact that Harry had come to talk to Oliver. What had he said? How the hell had he even gotten in and out without being noticed?
“Okay well, I’ll let you get back to your work.” He said awkwardly, clearly noticing that my mind was elsewhere.
“Yeah, um, I’m sorry. I just- need to think about some things.” I said as he walked out.

All of the boys were doing appearances every day this week, meaning the only time I could talk to Harry was either over the phone, or if I showed up at his door at 11:30 on Wednesday night. I knocked a few times, and the door eventually opened. Louis stood in front of me, looking tired and cranky.
“Oh, hey Anna. What’re you doing here?” He asked, rubbing his eye.
“I need to talk to Harry.” He let me in.
“He’s in his room.” He mumbled, shuffling back to his bedroom.
I knocked on Harry’s bedroom door which was already halfway open. I pushed the door and saw him lying on his bed with his laptop on his lap.
“Hey!” He said, sitting up. “What’s going on?”
“I need to talk. And I know you’re gonna say we’ve been having a lot of these talks, which we are. But it’s important.” I had the intentions of coming over here, saying everything I wanted to say as sternly as possible. But now that he was standing right in front of me, it was becoming less and less possible.
“Come here.” He motioned for me to sit next to him.
“No, no. Just- I need to know why the hell you would go and talk to Oliver. Even after I told you not to.” He looked uncomfortable the moment I mentioned it.
“I’m sorry. I just- I couldn’t just sit around. It was driving me mad, thinking about him kissing you. I needed to talk to him.”
“But why didn’t you at least TELL me?!”
“Because I knew you would tell me not to.” I couldn’t argue with that, we both knew he was right. “Anna, come here, look at me.” He pulled me over closer to him, his arm now around me; “The only reason I went to talk to him was because I was afraid that if I didn’t, nothing would get resolved. And I couldn’t just sit by and watch you be so miserable, because that kills me more than anything. So I went because I was trying to help, not that I think it did much good.”
“You don’t know that…”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, really. Oliver came to talk to me today. He was very nice, he apologized for everything. So I guess I have you to thank for that.” I looked up at him and gave a weak smile. “When is anything with us ever just going to be easy?” I said truthfully. He looked upset.
“I know, I wish it was. I just don’t think anything in my life is really, easy anymore. There always was to be drama or, I don’t know, something always just seems to get in the way.”
“Yeah…” He just pulled me closer, his head resting next to mine as we sat there in silence for a minute.
“So have you uh, maybe thought at all about what we talked about?” I knew he was referring to the whole ‘go public’ thing.
“Yeah, I have.” I took a deep breath to calm my nerves as best as possible.
“Let’s go for it.”

HARRY’S POV:
It was Friday night and we were doing an appearance on a news show. They had all 5 of us sitting on tall stools. I was nervous because I knew that this interview was going to be different. It was going to be where everything changed. I took a deep breath to try and calm my nerves.
“Calm down, mate. Everything’s gonna be fine.” Louis said. All the boy’s knew I was nervous, and they were doing everything they could to try and help.
“Alright, boys. We’re gonna start in just a few minutes. Can I get you anything?” An assistant of the TV station asked.
“Could I just get some water, please?” I asked, my head spinning.
“Sure thing, I’ll be right back” The girl said, scurrying off in the direction of a cooler.
“Just take a breath, Harry. You do want to do this, right?” Zayn said. He was sitting next to me, the strong scent of his aftershave filling my nostrils and making me feel slightly nauseous.
“Of course I do, it’s just a bit of nerves.” I ran my fingers through my hair, a nervous habit I’ve picked up. When the assistant came back with a bottle of water, I chugged almost the whole thing immediately.
“OKAY EVERYONE, 2 MINUTES” A director shouted, taking his seat behind a camera. The interviewer, a woman in maybe her early thirties took a seat next to us.
“Hello, I’m Mia Kelly. I’m going to be conducting the interview today.”
“Hell, I’m Liam.” He shook her hand politely. We went down the line, introducing ourselves.
“Nice to meet you. So, we’re just going to ask a few questions, nothing too crazy. Just be yourselves, have fun, I’m sure everyone will love it.” She said with a grin.
“WE’RE ROLLING IN 5…4…3…2…1-“

The interview was going alright so far, just the usual questions about the album release, the fans, and our journey from X Factor to here…. Then, they got to the point that I had been on edge about all day.
“So, 5 strapping young lads. Tell me, are we all single? Or have some of you got girlfriends?” Mia tried to say this in a casual, lighthearted way, but it was clear that she wasn’t willing to change the subject.
“Louis and I are in relationships.” Liam said, the way he always does.
“And how about you Zayn, Niall?”
“I’m single.” Zayn responded.
“Yeah, me too.” Niall said.
“And Harry? I hear you’re a bit of the ladies man of the group.” She said, smiling slightly. “Can’t see you settling down any time soon, huh?”
“Well um, actually… I am- sort of, ‘settled down’ in a sort. I’m just, uh. Yeah, I’m seeing someone.”
“You are?” She said, really seeming surprised by my response. I quickly pulled myself together.
“Yes. I am.” I smiled, loving the way it felt to finally just say it out loud.
“Alright then, who is the lucky girl?”
“Um well… I think people know by now. I don’t really want to get into too much detail, but I think it’s quite easy to figure out.” I grinned.
“Well, there you have it folks. There are two left up for grabs.” Mia said to the camera.
“AND, CUT!” The director yelled.
“Very nice meeting you boys. Keep a look out for the interview, it’ll be airing on Saturday evening.” Mia said, giving a smile as she walked away, her heels clacking on the floor.
“Well, there you go! You did great!” Niall said.
“Thanks Nialler. You don’t think I was a bit, spazzy?”
“Maybe in the beginning, but you got it together. It was good. Now at least everyone just knows.”
“Yes. Absolutely.” I smiled to myself, realizing what I had just done.