My eyes shift around the store in confusion. She must have the wrong girl. I have no idea why she would think she knows me, because I know for a fact that I would remember this girl standing before me. 

She is utterly stunning. Much more beautiful than your average american girl. Although she is far from the typical american teenager, with black eyeliner and tattoos down her arms, her green eyes are piercing and I want to ask her where she got her clothes. 

Instead I keep to the original thought I had when she first spoke to me. "Who?" I ask. Who does she think I am?  "I think you have the wrong person."

"You're the girl who sits on the hill in The Clearing," she says, making my eyes go wide. How the hell would she know that? "I'm right, right?"

"Uhh—" I'm frozen on the spot, unable to speak, to move, to even think.

"Wow," she breathes out. She sinks a little in her studded boots as she looks between me and the floor, working through her thoughts. "He actually listened to me."

"Huh?" I ask.

"The second I saw you with Harry, I knew you were her," she says.

"What are you talking about?" I ask. Let's not beat around the bush here, just fucking say what you need to so I can find myself a damn dress.

"I'm sorry," she says, a smile forming on her face. "I just can't believe it. After all this time."

I look at her confused again. "Explain what you're going on about, please! I don't have all day here. How do you know that about me?"

Her eyes flick back and forth between mine a few times. "It makes sense that you don't know who I am. I know Harry likes his secrets, since I was one of them."

"Julia?" I whisper, figuring it out with her words. I'm startled and confused and unsure of what's going to happen next.

"You know who I am?" she asks, surprised.

"Of course I know who you are," I state. "How do you know who I am? How do you know about my place on the hill?" I am freaking out at this point, my heart pounding harder than it should be. I hadn't even talked to Harry when they were together. What is happening?

"I'm happy he found his way to you," she says with a smile. "I always wanted him to be happy. And I always knew the only way he would be, is if he was with you."

"I don't understand," I breathe out, not hiding the confusion coursing through me. "You guys were together for so long, why would you think that?"

She stifles a laugh as if she's still in shock over this whole situation, even more so than I am. "Because it was never just about me when it came to him. I went to visit him almost every weekend, but if you were on that damn hill, he'd make an excuse as to why he had to sit on his couch by the window, to write or play guitar or whatever, as if he was keeping an eye on you every so often. It took me longer than it should have to figure it all out, but I loved him and I would have done anything to keep him. Hell, I was okay with being his secret for three years, just so I could call him mine. But there's only so much I could take, and in the end all we did was fight about you."

"About me?"

She shakes her head at what I'm assuming is how crazy she just sounded. "I wanted it to just be me. The envy I had for you was bigger than the love I had for him, and all you were was the girl who sat on the hill. It seems ridiculous, and he told me so many times he had never even talked to you before and he thought I was crazy. But I knew he was lying. I knew you were much more to him than just a mystery like he said you were."

"He wasn't lying."

"Oh," she replies. "Well, whatever. Look, I'm happy you guys are together now. I told him that he should talk to you."

"We aren't together," I tell her.

"Sure looked like it when I saw him kiss you," she laughs. "Let me guess, you're a secret too?"

I shrug, not knowing how to answer this question. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because I know he likes his secrets and you would probably never know that he's been in love with you for a very long time," she answers.

"That's crazy talk," I say, brushing her off. She's crazy. Absolutely crazy!

"It isn't crazy talk," she argues. "The day we broke up, I went to visit him without telling him, and he was at the edge of the woods while you were on the hill. I told him I couldn't do it anymore knowing that he wanted to be with you. I was upset that his love for me wasn't as great as it was for you, and if he loved you, he would let me go easily and promise me he would be with you, or at least try. And here you are, together."

I have no words. The information is flying through my brain but I can't seem to reply. I don't know what to think, or what to believe. The thought of breaking up a relationship of three years without having done a thing is baffling.

"Julia, come on honey, let's go please," a woman calls from the other side of the store.

"Boys like Harry are one in a million," she tells me, placing her hand on my shoulder. "Keep in mind what I said and see how special you are to him. Because with him, it's always been you."

I watch as she walks over to who I assume is her mother, who is carrying a prom dress. Julia smiles at me and waves as they walk out of the store, leaving me in a state I don't usually find myself in. 

Happy and in awe.

Thinking back to one of our conversations on the hill, Harry had told me he could see me from his window. But I never would have thought this small thing could break up a relationship. She was so nice to me. She's beautiful and kind, and I have a hard time believing that anyone would choose me over her. And yet, somehow he did in a way, if what Julia was saying is true.

It makes no sense to me as to why it happened the way it did. He had been with her for so long, probably knew her inside and out and knew nothing of me. I know he likes mystery and I intrigued him, but letting her go for me, seems a bit rash. He could have lost the love of his life and there could have been a chance he'd never gotten a chance with me at all.

I start to look around again, realizing I have wasted more time than I should have, lost in my thoughts. I need to pick a dress before Harry comes back and sees that I haven't even tried anything on yet or have any options. And like hell I'm going to mention running into his ex girlfriend. He seems to hate it when her name is mentioned.

No one else is in the store except the lady behind the counter. She isn't bothering to help me any, which is fine by me. I start picking out dresses that I would actually wear, and hanging them on the wall by the dressing rooms.

Harry walks in on my search for dress number four, scratching the back of his head and looking a little lost. I immediately think he's run into Julia and I feel the panic rising inside of me. "Um, Jayde?" he says, quietly, pushing me back into the dressing room area.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I'm going to need your help," he says, looking behind him at the lady behind the counter. "The guy in the suit store is asking all these questions that I don't know how to answer and I'm freaking out."

I start to laugh seeing how insecure he looks. He looks so cute in this moment, vulnerable in  way I haven't seen him before.

"Don't laugh at me," he smiles. "This is serious. I've never bought a tux before and he's asking what color your dress is because apparently it's important that we match. I mean, I like the idea that my tie would match your dress, but to him it's like the end of the world that I don't have a clue what color dress you're getting. And he says I need a hair cut. Can you believe that? Why was he talking about my hair when he's already not doing a good job of selling me a suit?"

I laugh even harder and press my lips to his gently. "You don't need a haircut, Harry," I tell him. "Just stay here until I'm done and we'll go over there after, so if you want your tie to match my dress, it will."

I walk away to continue my search for one more dress before trying all of them on. "Seems you have a theme here," Harry says, making me look over at him looking at the dresses I chose. "Pink and black. Does that mean I'll have to wear a hot pink tie?"

"It doesn't mean anything." I roll my eyes sifting through the dresses.

"I could pull off hot pink," he shrugs, making me smile.

I choose a different style dress, a much longer one than any of the other ones I have hanging up. I surprise myself as I take it to the back, telling the lady I'm going to try them on. She nods her head and goes back to her magazine.

"Wow," Harry sighs. "You'd look like an absolute princess in that."

I scrunch my face up with his use of princess. I don't want to look like a fucking princess.

"I like the other ones too, though," he adds, seeing the expression on my face. "Try that one first, I want to see what it looks like."

"Nope," I tell him, taking it behind the curtain. "You're not seeing anything today."

"What!" he exclaims. 

"You obviously get to see what dress I choose, but you can wait until prom night to see how it looks."

"It's not like we're getting married, Jayde," he huffs. "It's not going to be bad luck if I see you in your dress before prom."

"Too bad."

I end up deciding on the least princess-y dress. Short. Black on the bottom and hot pink on the top. Much more my style, despite no straps, but I could wear my converse and it would still look good, and I'd probably be the most comfortable girl there. 

As Harry is handing the money Anne gave us over to the lady, I find it crazy that this is all happening. I wasn't planning on going to prom, and yet here I am getting a dress paid for and actually kind of excited about going. I hadn't thought for one second about how people would respond to me showing up to prom with Harry, in a dress more fancy than I'd ever worn.

As we walk out of the store, I look over at him. Something about him seems different to me all of a sudden. Knowing that he let a girl he was with for three years walk away, a girl as beautiful and kind as she is; he may not love me, but he saw something in me. The fact he was with me in all those hard times I sat on the hill, I knew it before when he told me he had seen me sitting there before, but not to the extreme I see it now. He really was with me every step of the way, and he will never know what that means to me at this very moment.

"Ah, welcome back," the man in the store says to Harry as we walk in. "And you brought the dress. Good idea."

Harry rolls his eyes at the man, clean shaven and a nice hair cut. I smack his shoulder and smile at the man. "For the record, he doesn't need a hair cut," I tell him. "Now, sell this guy a tux and forget what his hair looks like."

Not seemingly odd that Harry pulls off the hot pink tie like he said he would. It's the exact color of the top of my dress. He groans when the man puts a pink handkerchief in the jacket pocket, but I can't help but swoon over how handsome he looks all dressed up.

"It's not fair you get to see me in my suit, but I couldn't see you in your dress," Harry whines. 

"Well, if you would have just picked a suit while I was in the dress shop, we wouldn't be having this discussion,"I tell him.

"He was a little afraid of me," the man slightly whispers to me, making me laugh.

"I think the word is intimidated," I tell him.

"Was not," Harry whines again. "Can you not talk about me as if I'm not right here."

I shake my head as Harry does up the jacket buttons, and looks at himself in the long mirror. I want to jump on him right here, he looks so good. I can't believe this boy is practically mine. He looks like a man. One that I want to keep forever.

"He'll take it," I finally say.

We stop for lunch at a restaurant nearby, not having eaten since breakfast.

"We should really go out of town more often," Harry says, smiling at me from across the table. "I like that we don't have to be a secret here."

"I thought you liked that I was your secret?" I ask.

"I do," he says, stuffing a fry in his mouth. "But this is nice. Us having lunch together at a restaurant. We couldn't do that at home without having people questioning us or making up rumors."

"Those rumors would be true," I correct him.

"Yeah, but it's none of their business," he huffs. "I can't wait to get out of there. I'm over high school and all those idiots."

"Those idiots are your friends," I remind him.

"Yeah, well there's only a few of them I can stand," he says. "You know that. That's why I don't go to Niall's parties anymore."

"You probably should soon," I say.

"Not if you're at my house." He looks at me as if I'm crazy, furrowed brows and all. And I like that he's obviously decided that hanging out with me is better than going to a party and getting drunk. "Unless you'll go with me?"

"Nope," I turn him down quickly. "You know I hate parties."

"Well, then I guess I'm not going."

"Just because I'm at your house, doesn't mean you have to stay with me there," I explain. "Besides, wouldn't people start to wonder why you don't go to them anymore? Especially because they're the last ones of high school?"

"Yeah, maybe," he agrees. "Niall has been asking me why I haven't shown up to a few of them. Maybe I'll check one or two out."

Once again, I'm almost shocked by how good we're getting along. This weekend surely has been one for the books. He has made me feel like we're in an actual relationship these last few days, and I'm even more sad that I have to go home after this. Back to the realities of high school, back to being a secret and back to hiding in my room without freedom.

As dangerous as I know this whole feeling of being together is, I've decided I'm not going to dwell on it right now. For I know that I love this boy sitting across the table from me and I know that everything happens for a reason. We have just a few weeks left of school before graduation and who knows what could happen between now and then, and possibly the end of summer before he leaves for New York.

Now that we haven't been having any problems, maybe it will stay this way. Maybe I'll forget the dreams that have always been inside of me and I'll choose him. But for now, I want to focus on today. I don't want to look into the future because I know that what happens is unknown. There may be a chance that going back to reality will break us again. 

And so for the rest of the ride back home, I decide I'm just going to live in the moment, and be with him while I know things are good. Because more than ever, I don't want things to change. 

I got a glimpse of what being with him outside closed doors would feel like, and even though I love that we are a secret to the outside world, not having to listen to people talk about us, and knowing what we share, is ours and ours alone. But this small glimpse of us in the outside world makes everything about us feel all that much more real.

And I wonder how long it will be until I get to feel this again.

A/N: A quick update for ya! 2 updates in 2 days, which I'm extremely happy about! Hope you are tooo!! ☺

Thanks SO much for 66K Reads! ♥♥ Your feedback is amazing as well, so keep on voting and commenting, it all means so much to me!

Don't forget that The Fanfiction Awards are going on and if you like my books enough, I'd love to see them nominated again this year! Go to thefanfictionawards and nominate all of your fave books and writers! Thank you SO much to all of you who have nominated my books already! Love you so much!

Also, don't forget about The Wattpad Block Part Winter Edition III which I will be a part of! Head on over to KellyAnneBlount's profile and add the book to your Libraries so you don't miss out on a Harry POV for this book, which will be posted on February 23rd, plus other awesome Author's posts you don't want to miss!

Much Love,
amberlove

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