Jessi

I rushed up the steps to the hotel; I was running late. I had finished school until September and I was now working pretty much full time at Columbia. It was fun but pretty tiring. I was looking forward to tonight. I looked around the bar and finally spotted him, he'd cut his hair. He was sitting at a table with two super comfy looking armchairs. He stood up as he spotted me coming.

"Zayn!" I smiled, pulling him into a hug.

"Hey Love-cup!" He laughed.

"Honey Bunny!" I smiled, sitting myself down. "How are you? Harry sends his love." Zayn had left the band three weeks ago.

"Just Harry? I'm okay. I miss the guys but I enjoy having the freedom to do what I want every day." He said.

"They all miss you Zayn. Even Louis who's still not talking to me. Harry just knew I was coming here that's all." I smiled.

"He still blames you?" A waiter brought over a bottle of wine and Zayn poured me a drink.

"Yeah. They all did for a while, even Harry didn't really understand why I hadn't just told you to stay. He gets it now and I think Niall and Liam do too. It terrified me when you called and I thought if you stayed you'd do something stupid." I said, squeezing his arm.

"So was I." He said, taking a drink of his wine. "So apart from my drama how are you and Harry?"

"If you want to, we can talk about it?" I said, trying to get back to the first topic of conversation. I didn't want him to bottle everything up.

"You'll be first on my list if I do, Jess. Now come on, tell me about you and Harry. I need you to restore my faith in love." He grinned. I'd heard him and Perrie had been having problems.

"Me and Harry are good. I think. As good as you can be when you're thousands of miles apart and haven't seen each other in over a month." I sighed. I hated being away from him.

"You still haven't seen him since Valentine's Day? That's shit. Your sexting game must be gettingpretty good by now." He laughed. The two girls at the next table glanced over at us. Zayn flipped them off, the one with the dark hair glared at him but the blonde girl smiled. They were pretty.

"Nah. Sexting scares me, I mean knowing my luck his phone would get hacked. We tried Skype but of course, Harry chose to do that on the tour bus so about two minutes in all I can hear is Niall yelling they can hear everything we're saying." Zayn burst out laughing. "It's not funny, now every time I Skype Harry at least one of them teases me about it." I smacked his arm as he was still laughing.

"Next time they tease you tell them I said if they don't stop it then I'll tell you all the secrets I know about them."

"Thank you. How are you and Pez doing?" I asked.

"Not great. We both know it's over but we haven't gotten around to admitting it to each other yet." He sighed.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"Don't be. I spent months fighting for something that was broken beyond repair. I couldn't fix it on my own. Besides, she hated you." He smiled.

"She hated me?" His words stunned me. I thought we got along well at Harry's party. We'd even danced together.

"Oh yeah. At first she thought we were having an affair and then I think she felt threatened by you, probably because I was telling you stuff I wasn't telling her. She tried to turn Soph and Eleanor against you too." He said.

"No offence Z but you're like my brother, the thought of kissing you is just wrong. And I seriously thought she liked me, she said she wanted us to have lunch when she was in New York. I'm normally good at telling when people are being fake."

"Same." He said, nudging my arm causing me to spill red wine on my trousers. Thankfully, they were black. "Oops!" He smiled. "Come on, we should go eat before I've had too much wine." I linked my arm through his as we headed to the hotel restaurant. Being here made me realise I missed the rest of the guys as well as Harry.

I waved goodbye to Zayn and headed up the steps to my apartment; he made me promise we'd have dinner in L.A. next time. I pulled out my laptop when I got in and Skyped Harry.

"Hey beautiful!" He smiled.

"Hi. It's so nice to hear your voice." I smiled.

"You okay? How's Zayn?" I could hear the worry in his voice.

"I'm good. Zayn is doing well. Where are you?" I asked.

"Just finished rehearsals at the venue. Why?" He smiled.

"Good. Go get my boys." I smiled, and I watched him disappear. I drummed my fingers on the table as I waited for him to come back.

"What's going on? Is she okay?" I could hear Niall's voice. He sat down. Then Harry and Liam.

"Louis wouldn't come. Sorry, Baby." Harry frowned.

"It's okay." I smiled but secretly it hurt.

"Are you okay?" Liam asked.

"I'm fine. I just miss you guys." I smiled.

"We miss you too. Harry is grouchy without you," Niall laughed. 

"Oh, guess what he did on stage last night?" Liam laughed.

"Liam, shut up!" Harry yelled, knocking him off the sofa.

"He cried." Niall yelled.

"I hate you guys." Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest and throwing himself back against the sofa.

"Oh no Sweetie, what happened?" I asked. I knew it couldn't have been anything serious because Liam and Niall seemed to find it quite amusing.

"We were singing Half a Heart, and he cried because he misses you." Liam said, sitting back down.

"I don't even know what happened. I wasn't even feeling sad at the time," Harry sighed.

"I think it's sweet." I smiled.

"Ooh Lori is calling me." Niall smiled.

"Tell her I said 'Hi and to call me when she gets here'" She was heading home after spending a week with Niall and the guys, she must be on her stop over.

"I will." He smiled and disappeared.

"I should go call Soph." Liam said, disappearing too.

"I wish I could hold you." Harry sighed.

"Me too." I smiled at the thought of his arms wrapped around me.

"When can you come visit?" He whined.

"Hopefully soon. You were the one who said I should take the extra work at Columbia remember?" I said.

"I know I did. I thought it would keep you busy and stop you missing me too much but now I miss you too much. In the future, don't listen to me." He laughed.

"I love you." I smiled.

"I love you too and I'm proud of how well you're doing at work, I just wish you were here, baby." He smiled. I heard somebody call his name.

"Sorry I have to go. Call me in the morning. Night Jessi." He said.

"Night Harry." I smiled and closed my laptop. I got undressed and pulled on Harry's sweatshirt, it didn't smell like him anymore but I still liked to sleep in it. I set my alarm for the morning and pulled out my iPod. I pressed play on the playlist I'd been listening to every night since Harry left. Harry had sent me it, it was him singing his favourite songs. I smiled as I lay down and listened to him sing Landslide by Fleetwood Mac.

My alarm woke me up, my ear buds tangled around my arm. Harry and Lori were always telling me off for sleeping with them in, they were scared I'd end up strangling myself. I dialled Harry's number and put on speakerphone while I got ready. Justin had asked me to go to a meeting with him and his boss. I was nervous. I put on some burgundy skinny jeans and a white shirt.

"Hi" Harry answered sleepily.

"Morning Handsome, I didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep, I'll call you later." I smiled.

"No, no. I'm awake." He yelled.

"How was the show?" I asked.

"Good. I didn't cry." He laughed.

"That's good." I giggled. "Are you guys heading to Australia next?"

"Yeah in a few hours. We're hanging out on the tour bus. You ready for your meeting?"

"No. What if they fire me?" I sighed. I kept trying to think of what I'd done wrong.

"Then they are crazy. You are literally the best photographer I know." Harry said.

"Columbia won't fire her. They know how lucky they are to have her." I felt my heart do a little leap as I heard Louis' voice, and he said something nice about me.

"Thanks. I hope you guys are right." I smiled. "Hey Lou, you'll never guess who I met yesterday?"

"He left. He'll come around, eventually." Harry replied.

"Yeah." I sighed.

"What you got planned for the rest of the day? I won't be able to talk to you while we're travelling. I'll call you when we land." He said.

"Not sure. Justin invited me to go to the cinema with him and his boyfriend but I might give it a miss." I replied, my mood had taken a dive again. I fixed my hair into a high ponytail.

"You should go. Have fun." Harry replied.

"I might go visit Danny at The Ace instead."

"Yeah. That'll be good. Oh, I meant to tell you a fan at the show tonight had a sign that said I should ask you out." He laughed.

"That's funny." I laughed, putting on my jacket and bag.

"If only they knew." He laughed more. I loved hearing him laugh, it helped cheer me up. I took him off speakerphone and kept talking to him on the subway ride to work.

"Hi Jessi, come in. Sit down." Justin said. He sat with Peter, who was his boss and another guy I hadn't met before. He introduced him as Eric. My heart was racing. The fact there was three of them was freaking me out.

"Hi." I waved and immediately felt like an idiot. I sat on my hands to stop myself fidgeting.

"So, you're probably wondering why we brought you here?" Peter said.

"It's nothing bad." Justin smiled.

"We had an interesting request land on our desk." Peter again.

"A request about me?" I asked. I couldn't think of anyone who'd be looking for me.

"Somebody has requested your help with an article they are writing." Peter said.

"Now ordinarily we'd just flat out refuse, we don't want anyone to poach our staff but Justin informs us this assignment might interest you and since you've been doing such a great job, we thought we'd let you decide." Eric smiled.

"OK." I said, I was still confused. Who'd be asking to work with me?

"So Teen Vogue are going to write a piece on the fans of One Direction, they are looking for somebody to go with them and take photos of some fans and since you've taken photos of the band before and some fans might know you, they think your experience could be helpful. And like Eric said you've done such a good job for us we thought if you went you might like to have a week off afterwards?" Justin was grinning. My heart was pounding, I could see Harry.

"When would I have to go? All I have to do is take photos of the fans? They won't make them out to be crazy? It'll be a nice article right?" I blurted out.

"You'd be leaving for Australia this afternoon. The article will be complementary and yeah, they want you to take photos of the fans, outside the arena and inside at the concert too." Eric said.

"I'd like to do it." I smiled. Inside I was doing cartwheels. This was awesome.

"Great. We'll let them know and somebody will call you about flight times and so on. Enjoy your week off." Eric smiled.

"Thank you." I couldn't stop grinning. Justin walked out with me. "This is awesome."

"Well, you were getting to me walking around with your little pouty face. Go have fun with Harry and hopefully I can get smiley Jessi back." Justin laughed.

"You're the best." I said, hugging him.

"I know. See you when you get back." He smiled as I left.

I pulled out my phone, I'd need the guys help, normally I'd have phoned Louis, but he wasn't talking to me so I dialled Niall's number. I listened to it ring as I headed for the tube.

"Hey Niall's phone." I recognised Louis' voice.

"Hi Lou. It's Jess, please don't hang up." I begged.

"I'll get Niall to call you back." His voice was so cold I could almost feel the chill through the phone.

"No please Lou, I need your help." I continued begging.

"What's wrong?" I felt sure there was a slight hint of worry in his voice.

"When you get to Australia could you get an extra room key for Harry's room and leave it at the front desk, please? I'm trying to organise a surprise for him." I tried not to give anything away.

"What for? Holy shit! Are you coming to Australia? You are? Aren't you?" He more or less yelled down the phone.

"No. What makes you think that?" I tried to sound calm. I should have guessed he'd see through me.

"You're a rubbish liar." He laughed. "Harry's gonna lose his shit!"

"Lou, you can't tell him or the rest of the guys." I said.

"I won't. I'll sort the key for you." He said.

"Thanks Lou, you're a treasure." I smiled.

"Okay. I'll see you." He said and hung up. I sighed, I thought we were making progress.

----------

A little over 24 hrs later and I was in Australia. I was a little worried we might run into the guys at the airport but we didn't. We were heading straight to the venue. I was a little nervous; I didn't really know what they expected from me. They'd arranged for me to meet up with and speak to a few girls so I guessed I'd mostly be taking photos of those girls.

We pulled up at the venue and I was so nervous my palms were sweaty. I was scared we might bump into Harry or he'd somehow get wind of me being here; I wanted nothing to ruin my surprise.

"So we will meet the girls by the main entrance, take some photos and then mix with the rest of the fans here and take any photos you think would be good for the article. Patrick will make sure we get permission from everyone so he'll let you know if there are people you can't photograph, okay?" Lauren smiled.

"Okay." I replied, following everyone out of the car. My phone vibrated in my pocket, I pulled it out and saw Harry's name. I knew he'd just worry if I didn't answer so I held back and quickly answered.

"Hey Baby, how are you?" My mind was panicking. I had no idea what time it was supposed to be back home, so I gambled on him not knowing either.

"I'm good. I can't talk now. I'm at work." It wasn't really a lie.

"Work? Isn't it like 2am or something? Why do they have you in this late?" Of course he knew what time it was. He sounded annoyed.

"Some superstar who doesn't do daytime, apparently." I'd no idea where that came from but I was feeling pleased with myself.

"Put Justin on, I want to make sure you're getting home safely." He huffed.

"Justin is busy. Don't worry. He already said he'd give me a ride home." I prayed he didn't call Justin to make sure.

"Jessi!" Lauren called my name, waving me over.

"Sorry. I'll let you get back to work. Call me when you're heading home. I love you."

"I love you too." I smiled, knowing I'd see him real soon. I put my phone away and caught up to Lauren.

"This is Jessi." She said to the group of four girls.

"You're Jessi Monroe. One Direction's photographer." The blonde girl said.

"I don't actually work for them, I was just helping Cal for a little bit." I smiled.

"How did you get that job?" She asked.

"Come on girls, Jessi is just here to take your pictures, not to be grilled." Lauren said. I couldn't tell if she was trying to be nice or if she was annoyed I was distracting them. The girls glared at her.

"It's okay. I went to a show with my best friend Lorena."

"Lorena Caron? The girl who's dating Niall?" A girl with red hair interrupted.

"Yeah." I smiled. "Well, Cal ended up seeing my photos from that night and asked if I'd help while I was between internships." I told the story Helen, and I had agreed on.

"So do you double date?" The blonde girl again.

"I have been on a double date in the past." I reply, confused.

"So you and Harry go on double dates with Niall and Lorena?" She smiled.

"I didn't say that." I laughed, they certainly weren't shy.

"Come on, girls. We need to get on with your interview. Jessi why don't you go and take photos of some other fans?" Lauren said, pointing to Patrick who was waving at me. I walked up to the new group of girls. They only looked about twelve or thirteen, they were sisters here with their older brother, he looked about my age. They'd driven for almost 24 hours to get here.

"We knew it was you." The two youngest girls smiled, pointing at my cross tattoo.

"You're Harry's tattoo buddy, the one in that Instagram photo!" The older girl yelled. I couldn't stop myself from smiling as I remembered the photo Harry had posted of our hands in the shape of a heart.

"That's me. I always liked that tattoo." I said, stroking my fingers over it.

"Do you have a crush on him?" The smallest one said.

"He's very handsome. They all are." I smiled.

"Are you friends or are you mo - o - ore?" The oldest girl sang at me and I couldn't help laughing.

"We're friends." I smiled. That wasn't a lie.

"With ben -"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Holly!" Her brother scolded. I took a few more pictures of them before moving onto the next group Patrick had picked out. Nobody else asked me about Harry. I was relieved, I didn't enjoy lying to people.

By the time I'd got all the pictures Lauren wanted it was almost time for the show to start. I quickly texted Harry to say I was on my way home and good luck with his show. I hoped he wouldn't call me, it was too loud here. Apparently it was just me and Lauren who were going to the show so we walked inside while everyone else headed back to their hotels.

"I hate One Direction." She muttered.

"When did you meet them?" I asked, thinking they must have been having a bad day when she met them because they are literally the sweetest guys I know.

"Thankfully, I've never had to." She scoffed.

"How can you hate people you've never even met?" I asked.

"I don't need to meet them, they are five, well four now, of the most self-absorbed idiots on the planet." She laughed.

"Well, if you'd have met them, then you'd know that's utter rubbish." This was going to be a long few hours.

"Oh, please. And that Harry is the worst." She sneered.

"Are you trying to piss me off? You know he's my friend, right?" I snapped.

"Come on, he's the most narcissistic guy alive plus he's been in more holes than a golf ball." She cackled. My mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe how rude this woman was.

"Harry Edward Styles is the kindest man, with the biggest heart I've ever met. He's nice to everyone, even people who don't deserve it. So he doesn't live his life like a Nun? Who does? If he were here, he'd tell me to smile and nod and be kind to you but he's not here so if you have nothing nice to say then shut your fucking mouth." I felt my hands ball up into fists.

"You can't speak to me like that. You're just here because nobody in the office wanted this dumb assignment." She scoffed.

"So why are you here then?" I asked.

"Well, I thought we might get to go backstage. They might be idiots but they are still hot." She laughed. This woman was crazy.

"They all have girlfriends." I replied.

"Not Harry. And he's hot. Those hip tattoos kill me." She grinned. Part of me wanted to drag her backstage and ruin her little fantasy. I felt my phone buzz. I pulled it out and saw it was a message from Harry.

"Night baby, I love you. H. x" It made me relax. I decided I was just going to ignore Lauren.

"So why do these girls think you're dating Harry? I mean you're not exactly his type are you?" She asked. I shrugged.

"JESSI!" Holly yelled, making her way into the seats in front of us.

"Hi." I waved and smiled. Her sisters waved at me too.

"Hi. This concert just got more bearable. My name's Henry." Her brother smiled holding out his hand.

"Jessi." I shook his hand.

"This is Hannah and Halle," Holly smiled.

"So you don't like the band either?" I smiled at Henry. I had an idea.

"No, definitely not my thing!" He chuckled.

"Great. Lauren here doesn't like them, we should swap seats" I smiled, stepping into the aisle, his sisters pushed him out towards me and I took his empty chair. He looked stunned, like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

"I was hoping we could talk." He whispered in my ear.

"But the thing is, me and my lovely friends here are excited for the show." I smiled, gesturing to the girls.

"Yeah, Henry!" Hannah said, poking her tongue out at him. The intro music started, and the girls screamed. I was excited too. I hadn't seen them in way too long. I danced with the girls to Clouds and whistled as they screamed. My heart raced as I watched Harry strut down the runway. He looked amazing. Black boots, black skinny jeans and a sheer shirt with red flowers on it, I loved the glimpses of his body.

I had a pretty good time with the girls, their enjoyment was contagious. Time seemed to fly past. Before I knew it, they were saying goodbye, and the lights came on. I helped the girls get their stuff together and turned around to find Lauren had already left. It was super busy.

"You take Hannah and Halle and I'll walk with Holly." I smiled at Henry. I didn't want them to get separated. He pulled a pen from his pocket and grabbed my hand and wrote his number on it.

"In case we get separated." He winked. He walked on with the girls and we followed behind him.

"He's hot for you." Holly said. I laughed. I was pretty sure he found me annoying.

"He is. He kept watching you for the whole show. I kind of wish you weren't dating Harry now. His girlfriends are never as awesome as you." She smiled.

"I'm not -"

"I know. You're not dating Harry." She rolled her eyes. I don't think I could have said anything that would make her believe me.

"I'm sure you could find a Directioner for Henry." I smiled as we got outside.

"We have to go get our bus home." Henry said.

"Yeah I better go find a taxi. It was lovely meeting you girls." I said giving them a hug.

"You should call me." Henry smiled.

"Yeah, that's not happening. She has Harry." Holly said, pushing her brother towards the exit. I waved goodbye and then hurried to find a taxi. The guys would have left already and I couldn't wait to see Harry, feel his touch on my skin, see his amazing eyes, listen to his gorgeous voice and breathe in his scent. I practically floated to the taxi rank I was so happy.