Chapter 29 ― Havi 

Time had passed and a few things had changed. Others remained the same. The contest, regardless of the calls from haters, was going great. We received many calls and it was incredible as we were getting closer and closer to the last week. It was the last Friday already and Harry was supposed to come to the station to announce the last five winners. The next week Liam was going to be our guest to announce the last details for the little gig. Zayn and Niall had already come for the second and third week respectively. And related with the fans, there were still some fans outside the station. Some of them were there expecting to see the boys, other group was their to still hate on me.

They were pretty violent and even when I tried to keep it low profile, some of the other group of fans took pictures and some videos to show how wrong this was, but that only got to Louis who was madder about it with each day that passed. I knew he was dying to tell the fans to fuck off, but he couldn’t. I had to keep telling him that it wasn’t necessary, that I didn’t mind. I did mind, though, it was unfair and stupid of them to attack me just because I wasn’t them, or Harry. But I learnt to not give them much thought. I just dealt with them and then carried on with my life. It was the best I could do.

In one occasion, Maquita –yes, we became really good friends with her to the point to call her Maquita sometimes. It kind of fitted her as it was a sweet nickname and she irradiated sweetness all the time– had to help me go through the mass of fans trying to get a piece of me. She couldn’t believe they were treating me like that and I knew that scared the hell out of her. Probably that was the reason why she didn’t want to go on another date with Harry, no matter what he did to try to convince her. The curly-haired boy was persistent. She told us that she had had a great time with him, that they got along smoothly, but she didn’t think she was capable of coping with what I had to and it was better to avoid something that could lead to that situation, and that was dating Harry Styles. It was sad because Harry was really into her. Every time I was in Louis’ flat and Harry was there too, he asked me if Maca had changed her mind or requested some advice to convince her to go out with him again. After that first date they had, which none of them wanted to tell us about, it was evident how much Harry fancied her, but Maquita was scared and to overcome that wasn’t easy. Even Joy tried to help to get Maquita to go out with Harry again as my friend saw how much Harry wanted that.

My relationship with Louis was still a mystery for the media. They couldn’t confirm if we were official or not and I knew that was driving them mad, which gave us a little bit of pleasure, to know that he had control over that. It was hard and we couldn’t spend much time alone, but it was great at the same time. Even if it was for five minutes, I loved every second I could spend with Louis.

We were doing great. Sometimes we argued about silly things, mostly the fans and their passion. It was funny how I had to defend them and tell Louis that it was okay, that he couldn’t react badly to all of them just because a groups was misbehaving. If the fans knew how much I did to keep Louis calm about it, none of them would’ve hated me. Despite how difficult it was to hear all those calls, or the girls screaming at me at the station, I couldn’t hate them all for what they were doing to me because there were nice fans. I’d met them.

“You’re Havi, right?” Asked me once a lovely girl one day outside the station when we were leaving. It was really late and there were just a few fans still waiting. I nodded expecting her to say something mean, as normally they did, but she didn’t. “Oh my god, you’re so cute! You look so cute with Louis, I ship you both! I really want you two to be together, can you tell me? Are you his girlfriend?”

I didn’t know what to say, I was just looking at her with my eyes wide open. “How–?”

“I’ve seen some pictures on twitter,” she explained. “Sorry, I don’t wanna sound stalker-ish, I just have a lot of feelings.”

I laughed and the girl’s cheeks turned bright red but she smiled. “Thank you, love,” I told her. “We are great friends,” I told her, which wasn’t a lie, Louis and I were more than a couple. We were friends, too. “It’s all I can tell you.”

“Well, I hope you two get married and have lovely little Louises and Havis!” She said so excited and I just laughed.

Girls like her made me realise that not all the fans were immature or mean or stupid. There were cute and nice girls too, girls who wanted the best for the boys. And I always tried to remind that to Louis.

With all those fans they were getting to know me too. They were pushing me and of course I was going to hit my limit eventually, I wasn’t made of iron, after all. I had had a bad day and they just got to my nerves easily that day. I exploded and many reactions came from that day.

“Stop it! Okay? Stop it!” I screamed at them during the third week of the contest. I yelled so loud and with so much anger that everyone shut up. “You don’t know me, you haven’t talked to me once and yet you think you can judge me? You can’t just hate me and want me to die for living my life and doing my job. You don’t even know for sure Louis and I are together yet you scream at the top of your lungs I’m the worst piece of shit? How dare you? What have I done to you to hate me so much? Huh? Tell me, what? Have I hurt you? Have I done something as mean as what you’re doing to me?” I kept screaming and none of them could open their mouths, they were looking at me in shock and it was understandable as it was the first time they got a reaction from me. “No, I haven’t. It makes no sense that you hate me, so stop it! If you really love Louis and the boys as much as you claim, then you should care for their music, their talent and that they are happy. You know what hurts them? Not me, all of you doing this. All this hatred and childish behaviour hurt the boys more than anything because it comes from their fans. With this you hurt them more than you hurt me. Are you proud now?”

Nobody said anything and I felt lighter after saying all that, but probably it had been a mistake. I turned around and soon I heard all the murmurs at my back, but I didn’t say anything else. I had already said all I had inside and since that day I could think better and I was fine. Yelling at them hadn’t been my brightest move, but it had helped me deal with everything.

After that day, many said that I was rude and I didn’t deserve to be friends with the boys, even less to be with Louis, but little by little I was gaining support from other fans, saying that the Sass Master from Doncaster had found his Lady. They said that I had screamed what probably all the girlfriends from famous boys wanted to say, that I had opened many eyes and they respected me for that reason. Event management talked to me saying that it hadn’t been a good thing to scream at the fans like that, but that it had brought good results so they were okay. I even started to get calls saying I was great and they loved me, that they wanted me to be with Louis and those calls always made everything better.

I still received hatred, but I received a lot of love as well and I just had to focus on the latter. Plus, I had something that made everything worthwhile: Louis.

With every day we spent together, I fell deeper and deeper and no matter how much we could argue about this situation and how the fans treatened me, at the end we had each other and that was all we needed to be okay. We could deal with the other factors later.

It seemed like it was yesterday when we started the contest, when I met him and so many things had changed in my life. Some weren’t for the best, but if I put them in contrast with the other positive things, I was perfectly okay with all that had happened.

I wouldn’t change anything.

* * *

Harry didn’t walk alone that Friday afternoon, a brunet with blue eyes and a beautiful smile was next to him and when I saw him, my heart skipped a beat and I felt like running to his arms. When our eyes meet, his smile grew wider and he started to walk faster. Soon, I was in his arms and his lips crushed on mine.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you today!” I told him still smiling and with his arms tightly wrapped around my waist.

“I finished quickly in the studio so I could come with Harry and see you. I was a good boy today, I did my job well,” he told me with a sheepish smile that made me giggle. Joy and Harry were next to us watching us with amused expressions.

“I’ve never seen him work so hard and so focused. We’re all proud of him,” Harry said and Louis just stuck out his tongue at him. I loved their friendship and it was sad that when they were outside they had to act colder towards each other and put some distance because the Larry shippers would always find something to read between the lines where there wasn’t anything.

“Are you ready to announce the last winners?” I asked him turning to see him better. Louis kept one arm around my waist keeping me close to him.

“Yeah, I’m just a bit hungry. We could go to–”

“Maquita is not there,” Joy told him cutting him off. You could see how sorry she was for him, but we all knew that was the only reason for him to go to the cafeteria. Harry looked down and his expression got darker, which made me feel terrible. Maybe I should talk to Maquita again, Harry really liked her and I was sure she liked him too. “I’m sorry, Harry.”

“It’s not your fault,” he said but his voice sounded so disappointed it was heart breaking. I definitely needed to speak to her again.

“Why don’t you go to the booth first, guys? I need to go somewhere else first,” I told them and Louis looked at me worried, so I smiled to put them all at ease. Harry and Joy nodded and kept walking towards the booth were the show was hosted every day.

Before Louis could ask me something, I grabbed his hand and walked in the opposite direction. Maquita wasn’t in the cafeteria, but I know where she might be and that’s where I went dragging Louis along with me. And as I expected, she was helping Kevin that lately was staying till very late because he was working on a new project. Since that day when he told Louis what had happened, we hadn’t talked much but I knew he still cared about us. He helped me again a couple of times but he didn’t say anything. He respected that I had made my decision. Louis didn’t like him, he had already made a few comments about he not deserving to have Kevin for a name.

Maquita was helping him as the cafeteria didn’t demand much work and she was helping there only. I wasn’t sure yet, but I thought Mr Boss was going to promote her to be Kevin’s assistant as I was Joy’s. Everyone already loved Maquita in the station.

“Maquita, here you are! I need to talk to you,” I told her letting go of Louis’ hand. Kevin looked at me confused but he didn’t say anything, he looked once at Louis and then he went back to his work with his computer. It was obvious he didn’t like Louis either.

The black-haired girl looked confused, but she followed me when I led her away from the two boys there. “What’s wrong?” She asked a bit concerned.

“It’s Harry,” I told her straightforwardly. “I know you’re scared because of the fans and you think that all of them are gonna hate you, but they won’t. Not all of them are bad, you know? There’re some very sweet and lovely fans out there who will love you!” I told her but she didn’t smile.

“I don’t think that matters anymore. I don’t think Harry’s still interested in me,” she trailed off and I chuckled softly.

“You’re wrong. He’s still very into you. He asks me about you almost everyday. Look, what I’m trying to say is that if you really wanna go out with him and give him a chance, which I’m pretty sure you want, you can’t let the fans stop you. C’mon, give him a chance, I know you want to. I can see it and I know Harry wants the same. Why would you let the fans get what they want?” I spoke quickly running out of breath.  “If you really wanna go out with Harry, then you must. Don’t listen to the haters because they are wrong, not you.”

“I don’t know…” She mumbled avoiding my gaze. I knew it was hard for her and that she probably felt torn, but I had to keep pushing. For her and Harry’s own good.

“Please, think about it. I know why I’m telling you this, probably I’m the one who can understand you the best here and I can tell you this,” I said taking her hands and squeezing them softly. “It’s always worth it. What the haters can do is never comparable to what you can have with him. Just promise me you’re gonna think about it more, okay?” I begged and I saw her doubting for a couple of seconds.

“Okay, I’ll think about it. Thanks, Havi,” she said with her lovely smile and showing off her dimples. I smiled because I felt I had done right and I had a good feeling about it.

I looked over her shoulder and met Louis’ eyes. He was watching us intently, curiosity written all over his face. I just smiled at him. I was right, everything was always worth it if I could be with him.

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Dedication goes to @alexandrajoy because it's her birthday tomorrow.

Bel, xx