Chapter 26

Nothing really happens in this chapter, but the next few chapters are about them going public soon and dealing with it! xx

____________________________________________________________________

Carly’s POV:

     “So are you gonna go public yet?” Eleanor asked the next day.

     Danielle, Eleanor, and I were sitting in Eleanor and I’s hotel room and talking about the date last night. We didn’t get enough time to talk about it last night because everyone was asleep by the time Harry and I had gotten home. So now it’s morning with the sun seeping through the windows as us girls sit on the beds in our pajamas, talking about the date. I told them how it went and what Harry and I talked about. They squealed at all of the right places and they had grins throughout the whole thing. I’m pretty sure I was smiling like crazy too.

     I sigh as I take in Eleanor’s question. “I don’t think so. At least, not yet.”

     “How come?” Danielle asks, bringing her tan legs up and sitting criss cross on Eleanor’s bed.

     “I want to see if this gets anywhere, yanno?” I shrug. “I don’t want us to announce our relationship, and have it not even work out.”

     The two girls nodded. “I guess I can see where you’re coming from,” Eleanor says.

     We talked about it a bit more until Danielle says, “Oh, shit, I forgot! We’re all going to breakfast,” she says, jumping up from the bed. “We have to get ready.”

     We nod and Danielle runs out of the room and I say to Eleanor, “You can take the first shower. I need to talk to Ashley.”

     Eleanor nods and grabs some clothes and goes into the shower. Opening up my bag, I pull out my laptop that I bring everywhere with me and turn it on as I sit on the bed. Once it was on, I opened up Skype and saw that Ashley was indeed online. Clicking to video chat with her, she answered immediately and I once again saw my best friend. Her black hair was tied into a messy bun and it looked like she was sitting in our living room.

     “Carly! Hey!” Ashley grins.

     “Hey babe!” I laugh. “How are you?”

     “I’m good, what about you?” she asks. “What’s up with you and Styles?”

     I laugh, but then a blush appears on my cheeks. “We’re sorta um, dating.”

    Ashley’s eyes widen and her jaw drops. “No way!” she exclaims, and I can see her laptop moving around a bit as she sits in a more comfortable position. “When did this happen?”

     “Last night, actually,” I tell her with a small chuckle.

     I then launch into the story of our date and tell her everything that I had told Eleanor and Danielle. Just like them, Ashley grinned and squealed and I just smiled throughout the whole thing. After a few minutes of talking, I hung up because Eleanor had exited the bathroom and I had to get ready. Walking into the bathroom, I took a quick shower and then dried my hair. I then changed into high waisted black shorts, an off the shoulder light blue top that exposed my bare shoulder, and purple Converse. My hair was blow dried and straightened and make up done naturally, so I was good to go.

     “We ready?” Eleanor asks me.

     I nod. “Let’s go!”

     The two of us exited our hotel room, only for each of us bumping into someone. Looking up, I saw that Eleanor bumped into Louis and I bumped into Harry. “Oh hey,” Harry chuckles down at me.

     “Morning,” I smile up at him, and he answers by placing a sweet kiss on my lips, but enough for my stomach to do a hundred somersaults.

     “Aw,” Louis and Eleanor coo in unison, causing Harry and I to laugh at them. “Are you guys ready for some breakfast?” Louis asks.

     We nod but Harry says, “You two go on down. I need to ask Carly something.”

     The two nod and walk away, leaving just Harry and I. “What’s up?” I ask.

     Harry takes a breath. “I wanted to ask you about going public,” he says, causing my breathing to hitch. “How do you feel about it?”

     “Honestly,” I sigh. “I don’t think we should go public, at least not yet.” I watch as Harry’s face slightly falls and I bite the inside of my cheek. “I just want to see if this gets somewhere, you know? Let’s see if this relationship goes somewhere, and if it does, then we can announce it.”

     I see Harry think about it for a moment as the gears in his brain turn. He then takes one look at me and nods. “Okay, we can do that,” he finally says, and then laces both of his hands with mine. “I just want to be able to hold your hand in public and not care what people think,” he whispers. His face comes close and just when I think he’s gonna kiss me, he leans down even more until his lips are on my bare, exposed shoulder. “To kiss you in public and let the world know that you’re mine.” As he says this, his soft lips brush against my shoulder, causing shivers to run down my spine.

     “Don’t worry,” I say, my voice dropping to a whisper. “You’ll get that soon enough.”

     Harry smiles softly at me, kissing my forehead and saying, “Come on, they’re all probably waiting for us.”

     The two of us went down the elevator and to the lobby. Crossing the lobby, we went to where the dining hall was. No one recognized us as the two of us walked, which I was thankful for, and entered the dining hall where we saw a bunch of tables lined up full of different types of breakfast foods. I saw our friends sitting at a table off in the side eating, so Harry and I decided to get our food first. Since I wasn’t that hungry, I just got a bagel, a banana muffin, and some orange juice. Once Harry and I had our food, we walked over to the boys and Eleanor and Danielle and sat down with Harry sitting right next to me.

     “Lookie here, it’s the new couple,” Zayn smirks, chewing on his French toast.

     I blush slightly but take a bite of my bagel. Everyone chuckled and we continued to eat as Eleanor asks, “So what are our plans for today?”

     “We really don’t know,” Liam answers. “We can basically do anything.”

     Danielle, Eleanor, and I look at each other before shouting out, “SHOPPING!” in unison.

     Our burst sort of startled the boys, because they jumped in their seats, wide eyes. “Good Lord,” Harry mutters from next to me, causing me to laugh.

     “Aw, did we scare you?” I coo, rubbing his upper left arm with my right hand.

     Harry just lowly chuckles and kisses my temple, causing a smile to spread across my face. “Aw,” Eleanor says. “I can’t get over how cute you two are.”

     I smile at the comment, drinking my juice. We all ate as we made conversation, and once we were done, the girls and I had told the boys we were going shopping. Just before we left, Harry pulled me in for a hug. “Have fun, and stay safe,” his deep voice whispered in my ear.

     I chuckle as we pull away, leaning up on my toes and kissing him swiftly. Once we said goodbye to the boys, the girls and I slipped on our sunglasses and walked out of the hotel. It was a warm day and perfect for shopping. The girls and I walked in the streets of Paris, laughing and talking. We first walked into this cute little jewelry botique we saw, and I looked around. Walking over to where the necklaces were, I picked a few up and looked at them.

     “Ooh, that one would look cute on you,” Eleanor says from next to me, picking up a cute pearl necklace.

     I laugh. “That looks like something my mum would wear,” I tell her, and she looks back down at the necklace.

     “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she chuckles, putting it back down. The three of us continue to look through different necklaces until I feel a small tap on my back. Turning around, I see a girl about ten years old, looking up at me. I bend down at her, smiling. “Hey, love,” I say.

     “Hello,” the girl smiles shyly, her French accent evident. “You’re Carly McKinley, oi?”

     I nod, taking off my sunglasses. “That’s me,” I smile. “What can I do for you?”

     “Can I get a picture?” she asks, holding out a dark purple camera.

     I smile, taking the camera from her. “Sure,” I say. She stands next to me as I hold the camera out, and snap a picture of the two of us, smiling. Once I take the picture, she turns to me.

     “Thank you so much!” she grins. “You’re really pretty and sweet.”

     I smile. “Aw, thank you love.”

     She takes the camera, and before leaving, she says, “I think you and Harry Styles would be perfect together.”

     And with that, she leaves.

Harry’s POV:

     The lads and I were sitting in Louis and I’s suite. Zayn and I on my bed and Louis, Liam, and Niall on the other. We were just sitting and talking, tossing a football around. “So you and Carly, huh?” Louis smirks, tossing the football to Niall.

     I grin. “Yeah,” I say.

     “It’s about time, mate,” Liam says. “It took you a while to finally ask her out.”

     “Well, geez I’m sorry,” I mutter, catching the ball Zayn threw towards me.

     The boys laughed, but then Louis says, “Just don’t screw it up, mate.”

     I frown. “What do you mean?”

     “Don’t do anything you know you’re gonna regret and that’ll jeapordize your relationship with Carly, that’s all I’m saying,” Louis explains vagely.

     He left it at that, leaving a lot of questions swirling up in my mind. Shaking my head, I took out my phone and sent a text to my girlfriend. A smile came across my face. Just thinking about the fact that Carly is my girlfriend just makes me... Happy.

To: Carls(:

Hey babe! What’s up?

From: Carls(:

Heeyyy! Nothing, we’re just at Starbucks! x

To: Carls(:

El’s idea? xx

From: Carls(:

Haha, yeah. The girl’s in love with this place x

To: Carls(:

Definitely. When are you coming back? I wanna cuddle :3 xx

From: Carls(:

Aww. Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon. Cuddle with Louu ;D

To: Carls(:

Nah. I’d rather wait for you ;)

From: Carls(:

Cheeky, Styles. Hey, I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you soon babe x

To: Carls(: Kay, byeeeeeeee xxxxx

     “Are you done smiling at your phone like a creep, Haz?” Zayn’s voice snaps me out of my daze, making me look up at him.

     “Huh, what?” I ask, shaking my head.

     “Who were you texting?” Liam chuckles.

     Niall glances at my phone and looks at Liam. “Carly,” he grins.

     “Oooooohhh,” all of the boys sing, making kissy faces.

     As I tell them to shut up, someone knocks on the door. Liam gets up to see who it is, and when he opens the door, it reveals Kristen. “Hey boys, is Carly around?” she asks.

     I shake my head. “She’s gone out with Eleanor and Danielle,” I inform her. “Why, is everything okay?”

     Kristen nods, a smile on her face. “Everything’s perfect, actually,” she says. “I just had some news for Carly.”

     “We can tell her when she gets back,” Louis shrugs.

     Kristen thinks for a moment before saying, “Well, I just got intel that Carly’s Management wants her to film her first music video here, in Paris, for Falling Down.”

     “That’s great news!” Zayn grins. “She’ll be so excited.”

     Kristen smiles, nodding. “I know! You can tell her, but also tell her to call me, will you?”

     I nod. “We will, don’t worry,” I smile.

     Kristen smiles and then leaves. “Well, Carly will be excited,” Niall smiles, revealing his braces.

     I laugh. “Definitely.”