Chapter 22

July passed more quickly than I expected, so it wasn't long until we had to go back to Wembley Arena to start coaching our acts. It was the 12th of August, and Harry and I hadn't talked since I was out with Eleanor. In all honesty, I didn't know how to feel about it because one part of me was relieved while another missed him.

The part of me that was relieved was aware that things would be even more tense between us the next time we would meet since we had brought up our breakup the last time we were in the same room. The part of me that missed him, on the other hand, didn't want anything but to see his face and be around him again. It was challenging to have two parts of me that desired something so different. I just didn't know how to feel.

Without caring too much about what clothes to wear for the day since we weren't going to record anything for the show, I pulled a grey hoodie over my head along with a pair of black track pants up my legs. I then snatched my black Adidas cap from my shelf and put it on before leaving the room to go down to the kitchen.

Clifford followed me close behind curiously, wagging his tail from side to side as I opened the fridge. I looked down at him with a cocked eyebrow. "Are you hungry, boy?" I asked, to which he started wagging his tail even more intensely.

"I'll take that as a yes," I smiled.

So instead of preparing my own breakfast, I grabbed Clifford's food bowl from the floor and poured some dry food into it before refilling his water bowl. "There you go," I said, petting his head. He eagerly dug into his food while I watched him in amusement.

After getting some breakfast into my system, I took Cliff out for a walk before grabbing my wallet from the shelf in the hallway and leaving the house. I then drove my Audi to the arena, and about twenty minutes later, I parked my car in an empty space outside the building.

It turned out more fans were waiting outside the arena today than any other day, and I assumed that was because they were starting to realize that we would start spending a lot of time here from now on until December.

I greeted them on my way inside, taking a few pictures with some of them and flashing them the bird because I knew it strangely made them happy. It was a bit weird if you thought about it, but since I knew they didn't take anything personally, I didn't see a reason not to.

It wasn't until I reached the lounge room door behind the stage that I started getting nervous. It felt like no matter the situation, these nerves wouldn't leave me alone when I knew that I would be face to face with Harry at any second, and I didn't know if I liked it or not.

Feeling my hands getting clammy, I rubbed them on my track pants before turning the handle, swinging the door open. I was met with a room full of people, and I first didn't recognize anyone since there were so many of them. Eventually, though, I could make out Perrie sitting on the couch with Patrick and a few other people of the crew, and Logan standing on the other side of the room, talking to Leah and another woman. There was no sign of Harry or Nick, though.

"Louis! Come sit down," Patrick called out, and when I turned to him again, I noticed that he had a wide, welcoming smile on his face.

Not seeing any reason not to, I stalked over to the couch, Perrie scooting over to make room for me. The second I sat down, she placed an arm on my shoulder, leaning her body against me. "I've missed you, Louis."

I turned to meet her gaze, seeing the pout on her lips. With a smile on my lips, I reached up to tug at her blonde hair playfully. "I've missed you too, Pez. Did the Judges' houses go well?" I asked.

She pushed my hand away, faking annoyance, but it was instantly replaced by a grin as soon as I finished talking. "Yes! It was really nice. I went to Miami, and I just laid on the beach all day when I didn't have to work," she replied. "What about you? I heard both you and Harry went to Ibiza with Liam and Niall. How was that?"

Pursing my lips, I shrugged my shoulders. "It was quite alright. I spent most of my time working on a tan too, but Liam dragged me to the beach one day to meet up with the other guys," I explained, taking off my cap to run a hand through my feathery hair.

Perrie had an amused smile on her face. "Yeah, I saw that. You and Harry seemed very close, what with lying next to each other on those sunbeds and you wearing his sunglasses. A real power couple," she joked.

I sent her a playful glare. "Funny, aren't you, Perrie? No, but really, those pictures looked worse than what it was. I just stole his sunglasses because you know that I don't like him wearing them, and I'm pretty sure it pissed him off. Then he pointed me out for staring at him, but that's another story," I said, biting my bottom lip.

She looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Wait, what? He pointed you out for staring at him? Did you stare at him?"

I could feel my cheeks heat as I blinked at her. "No! Of course not. I just..." I trailed off, not finding any words to say.

It made the amused smile return to her face. "You so did, didn't you? Well, I can't really blame you. He's hella fit. I'm sure everyone was staring at him if he was only wearing a pair of super-short swimming trunks," she winked.

I didn't hesitate to wack her on the arm, to which she chuckled while I just continued to glare at her. "Don't say that. You're objectifying his body," I muttered.

She raised her hands in surrender, the smile never leaving her face. "You know I'm just kidding, Louis. I forgot I was talking to his protective ex, though. I should have known you would react this way."

I let out a snort, sending her another dark look. Right then, the door of the room swung open again, and both Harry and Nick came into view. Harry was wearing a grey hoodie with the word 'Damn.' on it, along with a pair of black joggers. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses over his eyes today, but they were still pushed up into his dark curls, ready to be used at any time.

I had only seen him in loose clothing a handful of times over the past few months, but it always made me feel warm inside because whenever we had a day off back in the days, we would wear these types of clothes as we cuddled on the couch and watched a movie.

Swallowing, I averted my gaze, trying to get my heart back to beat at an average pace. Meanwhile, the two walked over to sit down on the couch opposite us, Nick not hesitating to wrap an arm around Harry's shoulders once they were seated. Harry seemed a bit off, though, the way he was staring at the coffee table in front of him instead of trying to engage in any conversations.

As if he could feel me staring at him, he looked up to meet my gaze, but it only lasted for a second until he looked away again. It still made my heart flutter in my chest, which was almost pathetic. But I was in love with him, so I couldn't really blame myself.

I realized I was still staring at his figure, so I quickly looked away and turned to Patrick, who was about to stand up from the couch. "Alright, guys. We have all gathered once again, after almost two months. It's so nice to see all of your faces, and I hope you've had a great time off. I won't talk for too long since the contestants are waiting for you on stage. So all I'm going to say is that there's a pile of papers on the table over there..." He pointed at a table on the opposite side of the room. "Each with a list of what songs you get to choose for your contestants to sing on the first live show. Good luck to all of you."

Almost instantly, people started moving and getting up from their seats. Perrie was one of them, and so were Harry and Nick. They walked over to the table to grab a piece of paper while I still felt a bit off about everything, so it took a few seconds until I got up to walk over to them.

Harry was standing right in front of the pile, so I tried to move around him, but the second I took a step forward, he took one back and stumbled right into me. "Sorry," he apologized as he tried to catch his balance. On pure instinct, I reached out to wrap my hand around his wrist to steady him, but it turned out that was a bad idea.

The second our skin touched - for the first time in almost three years - he tensed under my hold. Meanwhile, I could feel shivers run through my body and up my spine, sending me completely off guard. He turned around quickly, his gaze catching mine before he pulled his wrist out of my hold as if he had been burnt.

Ouch.

I knew it shouldn't hurt as much as it did, but I couldn't help it. It was as if touching me was nauseating for him, as if I was so repulsive that he didn't want me anywhere near him.

With a lump in my throat, I reached out to take a piece of paper, suddenly not feeling interested in finding out what songs there were to choose from anymore. If anything, I just wanted to get out of here, as far away from the curly-haired man as possible. The downside was that I knew I would have to spend the rest of the day around him.

Letting out a deep sigh, I left the lounge room with Perrie, who had taken notice of my silence. She didn't question me about it, though, which I appreciated. I didn't want to explain to her that Harry was the reason my mood had changed so quickly. She had already teased me enough about him today.

It turned out all the contestants were waiting for us on the stage. Some of them played around while others talked to each other. I instantly caught sight of my three acts, so I separated from Perrie to gather them; The twin girls, the group of two girls and two boys, and finally the last group I had picked, a group consisting of five girls. I just had a feeling that this would turn out well.

"So, have you all thought of a group name over these past few weeks?" I asked, flicking my gaze between all of them, even if the group consisting of the two girls and two boys already had a name; Black Birds.

One of the girls in the girl group of five raised her hand. "We've been thinking about the name 'The Hotshots'. It just sounds a lot like us," she explained, and the other girls in the group nodded in agreement.

One of the twin girls then raised her hand. "Elena and I have come up with the name 'The Johnson Twins'," I assumed, Bella announced.

A smile formed on my face as I nodded. "That's awesome, guys. I'm impressed," I told them. "So, we've received a list of what songs you're allowed to choose from for your first live performance. To make this as great as possible, I'd like each of you to choose three songs you would like to perform while I'll pick three songs I think would fit each of you the best. Then we will choose one of them together, alright?"

They all agreed and pulled out their phones to take a picture of the list. After that, they walked away to talk to each other in their separate groups. Meanwhile, I stepped off the stage to sit down in one of the seats in the audience, slouching over as I read the list of the songs.

It didn't take long until I was finished, so I lifted my gaze to look at the stage where a few people were still hanging around. Harry and his acts were some of them, and I couldn't help but observe how he made gestures with his arms while talking to them and how they in return couldn't seem to tear their eyes away from him. It was fascinating how he managed to do that, and I couldn't help but let a smile form on my lips.

"Hey, who are you staring at?"

I was pulled out of my thoughts as Logan sat down in the seat next to mine, trying to find out what my gaze had been fixated on. Letting out a dry chuckle, I shook my head. "No one. I'm just thinking," I lied, looking back down at the list of the songs.

He let out a hum, not seeming convinced but decided to drop it. "It's been a long time since we last met. How have you been?" He asked, crossing one leg over the other.

I shrugged, my gaze flicking to the stage again. Harry was still talking to his acts, his eyes filled with joy and excitement. "I've been alright, I guess. Nothing's really happened. How about you?"

It took a while until he replied, and I wondered if it was because I didn't sound exactly enthusiastic when I was talking about how I had been. If anything, I was sure I sounded pretty grumpy. "Uh, yeah. I've been alright. I missed doing the show, though, so it's nice to be back here."

I nodded, agreeing with him. "Yeah, I've missed it too."

Right then, Harry turned around to face the seats in the audience. His gaze instantly landed on us, and I could feel my heart stop beating in my chest as the smile dropped from his face, his features turning emotionless. It made a large knot form in my stomach, and I suddenly felt just as sick as I did after our conversation in the bathroom in Ibiza.

"I'm sorry," I excused myself to Logan. "I have to go talk to my acts."

He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could do so, I got up from my seat and walked away in a hurry, wanting to get out of the arena quickly. It wasn't until I was behind the stage that I started feeling bad for leaving Logan like that, but I didn't know what else to do because I couldn't stay there while having Harry look at me that way.

I went back to the lounge room to have some time on my own, lying down on the couch with a pen in my hand while going over the songs on the list again. After about half an hour, I had all groups next to three pieces. It probably wouldn't have taken so long if it weren't for the fact that my mind slipped to a particular person now and then, distracting me from focusing on what I was supposed to do.

Once I had gotten up from the couch, I left the lounge room to reluctantly go back to the stage, feeling the knot return to my stomach at the thought of having to see Harry again. I just couldn't handle him looking at me like that, as if his mood change was entirely my fault. Not when I knew that it most likely was.

Fortunately, it turned out he wasn't there, but all of my acts were, so I gathered them to have a little chat with them. "Have you found any songs you'd like to sing?" I asked, flicking my gaze between them.

All three groups handed me a piece of paper with three songs written down from the list, and a smile formed on my lips as I realized a lot of the songs were the same ones I had picked out for them. "This is awesome. Our minds seem to think alike," I told them, and it didn't take more than a minute for me to pick out one song for all of the groups.

Not long after that, they left again to start working on their tunes. I figured that it was easier for them to work on it themselves at first, and then I could give them advice after they had sung them for me.

After that, I decided to look for Perrie. It had been a while since I last saw her, and I was curious to know how things were going for her and the girls. Walking through the corridors, I looked from side to side in hopes of finding her, but I wasn't fortunate. I gave up after a few minutes and sat down on a bench in one of the corridors, letting out a deep sigh.

I contemplated pulling out my phone to call her when I could hear a faint sound of someone talking from afar. Pulling my eyebrows together in concentration, I tried to make out where it was coming from and who they were.

"I was thinking we could hang out on Saturday?"

A silence fell after that, and it lasted so long that I started wondering whether the other person was going to reply or not. "I already have plans on Saturday, I'm sorry. Maybe another day?"

My breath hitched at the sound of that raspy voice. I would probably recognize it everywhere, even as faint as it was now. But who was he talking to?

"Oh, alright." It was a female, at least. "Have fun then, I guess."

The sound of footsteps getting closer made me stiffen in my seat. I knew the best idea would be to run and hide somewhere, but I didn't know where because there were no rooms in sight, only these grey walls and a bunch of seats along the corridor. Fuck, I was screwed.

No longer than two seconds later, a brown-haired girl appeared from behind the corner of the corridor, looking a little sad as she stared at the floor. My chest tightened at the sight of her, instantly recognizing her as Leah. Of course it was her. Who else would it be?

The second she noticed me, she looked up in shock, her mouth forming the shape of an 'o'. "Oh, Louis. I didn't know you were here."

A feigned smile formed on my lips as I turned to meet her gaze. "I was just looking for Perrie, but it seems like she's nowhere around here."

She nodded slowly, her eyes flicking backward in the direction she came from. "I hope you find her then. Um, see you," she said abruptly, not hesitating to walk past me with quick strides, her heels clicking against the floor.

I swallowed as I followed her figure with my gaze. It wasn't until then it registered in my head that Harry had just turned her down. Even if he said he had other plans, he could have just told her another day they could go out if he really wanted to. That meant Logan was wrong; it seemed like Leah didn't have as good a chance with him as he thought, at least not right now. It probably shouldn't, but this fact made a smile form on my lips.

Harry didn't want to go out with her.

With the smile remaining on my face, I got up from the bench to walk back to the stage, this time feeling better than I did an hour ago. It took me a while to get there because I lost track of where I was going at one point along the way, and this place was like a labyrinth, so it was with a lot of difficulties I found my way back to the stage after about twenty minutes.

To my surprise, everyone was already there, and by everyone, I meant all the judges, even Perrie. "There you bloody are!" I called out as I walked over to her. "I've looked everywhere for you. What the fuck?"

She rolled her eyes. "Did you look in the dressing room? I've been there for the last hour," she asked, raising her eyebrows at me in amusement.

I pursed my lips. "No."

"That's why you didn't find me," she smirked.

Letting out a huff, I crossed my arms over my chest. "I was positive you were trying to hide from me, but I guess not. So how's it going for you?"

She shrugged, her gaze turning to Harry and Nick, who were talking on the stage, their hands on their hips. "It's going well, I guess. The girls are off rehearsing on their own. How's it going for you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, the groups are doing the same thing."

Before we could say anything else, Nick called us over to him and Harry, much to both of my and Perrie's surprise. "What could he possibly want?" I muttered, making Perrie chuckle.

"I don't know, but let's find out."

The second we were standing in front of the two men, I focused on Nick because even if the knot in my stomach was gone, I still felt a bit uneasy by the way Harry had been looking at me earlier. It was just safest to keep my eyes away from him.

"What's on your mind, Grimshaw?" Perrie asked, raising her eyebrows at him questioningly.

Nick's lips turned into a smile. "I'm actually not the person who has something to say. Harry is," he confessed, nudging said man in the side.

Harry let out a huff as he placed his hand on the place where he was hit. "I was just wondering if you'd like to come over for dinner on Saturday? I thought it would be a good idea now that the first live show's coming up. It's been a while since we all spent time together too."

I wanted to say something because, did he just come up with these plans now, after he had turned down Leah, or had he been planning this all along? But I was left speechless as I stared at him with shock written all over my features.

Perrie seemed a bit surprised as well, probably not expecting Harry to come up with an idea like this. "I... Sure, why not? It sounds fun. Just tell me where you live, and I'll be there," she smiled.

Harry swallowed, his gaze turning to me. "Louis knows where I live. He can tell you," he muttered quietly before turning around to walk away, leaving me even more speechless than I already was.

No fucking way. There was no way he still lived there, in the house that we had shared, where our breakup took place. It just didn't make any sense. Why would he still want to live there after all these years?

Suddenly, nausea took over my body, and I took a step back from the two remaining people, a smile probably looking more like a grimace forming on my face.

"I'm sorry, I have to get some fresh air."

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Alright! I hope you liked the chapter. There's some tension between Harry and Louis, yeah? The next chapter will be pretty interesting, and it will contain an important flashback, so yeah, stay tuned for that!

Thank you for being patient with me, guys. I really appreciate your support. I'm sorry that I haven't replied to your comments, but I'll try to get better at that. Love you! x

Edited by: butterflies151

Pauline .xx