Pretend (Harry Styles) - Book 3

Chapter 39: "Is it always like this?"

22 Weeks Along

-Ava's POV-

"Is it always like this?"

"No.. Not always."

"Arthur?" Gemma directs her question to the front seat.

Arthur's eyes meet mine in the rear view mirror and I shake my head, silently begging him to keep quiet.

"Yes, it's usually like this." He answers truthfully.

I quietly groan as Gemma raises her eyebrows at me. "Does Haz know this?"

"More or less." I shrug.

"I'll take that as a no. This is ridiculous Ava. We barely made it out of the cafe and to the car."

"It wasn't that bad."

"That bad?" She scoffs at me. "We're being followed right now. Harry's not even here and we're being followed! Fans egged your car last week..."

"Those were just kids." I cut her off. "Everything is under control."

"I don't care how bloody old they were... Look!" Gemma points past me out the car window as we pull up to the gate.

As usual there's a few fans standing next to the driveway, each holding a sign.

"Don't you have anything better to do?!" Gemma yells out the window, leaning over me. "You know how upsetting this would be to Harry?!"

A few of the girls actually look guilty as Gemma scolds them. But most ignore her, one even flips her off.

"They call themselves fans.." She scoffs, falling back into her seat.

"Just ignore them."

"Arthur, please escort them off the property once we're inside." Gemma requests as we pull up to the house. "And for the love of God, don't be nice about it."

"Of course." He nods with a slight smile.

I breathe a sigh of relief once we step through the door. I'm exhausted and it's only one in the afternoon.

Gemma only arrived yesterday, intent on spending the week with me after she saw a few articles on Twitter about how rude fans were being to me.

She's made it her mission to put them in their place at every opportunity since she stepped off the train from Cheshire.

And she hasn't wasted one.

I appreciate her sticking up for me, but she doesn't seem to understand she's giving them the exact reaction they're hoping for.

A reaction that only fuels the fire. Which has been proven by the tweets splashed across my feed just this morning.

Apparently I've now not only intentionally gotten pregnant so Harry would have to marry me, I've also turned Gemma against the fans.

I can't even think about the constant tweets about Liam and I having a secret affair.

I do my best to ignore it all, but it's hard. I considered getting off Twitter altogether, but I decided I wouldn't be bullied into doing that. Not again.

I won't be pushed around. I won't give them the satisfaction of yelling at their hateful remarks, or tweeting back and defending myself against ridiculous accusations.

I don't need to. I've done nothing wrong.

I'm determined to be the bigger person. Not just for myself, but also for Harry. He needs to see I have a thick skin, that I can handle a few disgruntled fans and nosy reporters.

I've been through so much worse in my life.

This is not going to be what gets me down.

This is not going to affect our relationship.

I just wish Harry felt the same way.

He can ignore hateful remarks about himself all day long. He has for years. But when it's something said about me and the baby.. It's a completely different story.

I understand why. I know it's because he loves us so much. Because he wants to take care of us.

But it's tearing him up inside. I can hear it when I talk to him on the phone. He's so worried about how it's affecting me. He's so hurt people would say such horrible things about me.

He blames himself, which makes everything ten times worse.

"So what do you usually do all day?" Gemma suddenly appears in the living room, plopping down next to me on the couch.

"I've been working quite a bit. Just trying to keep myself busy." I force a smile on my face.

"Arthur said you don't leave the flat much."

"You guys have become best buddies haven't you?"

"Oh stop!" She rolls her eyes at me. "I just wanted to know what's going on and I know he isn't completely truthful with Haz about everything."

"He knows Harry would only worry more then he already does. He's making himself sick over all this."

"It seems like he has reason to."

"Gemma, please."

"Love, you barely leave the house. Think that shows how bad things are."

"Everything will calm down, just give it some time."

"And until then you just plan on being a hermit?"

"I plan on being boring so they'll leave me alone."

"Well you'll have to forgo that this evening. Finn is picking us up to take us to dinner."

"I don't think that's..."

"Rubbish!" She shakes her head at me. "We're going. And we're dressing up and it will be brilliant!"

I sigh, knowing I won't win this argument. I'm a bit apprehensive about going out again today, but it would be nice to have a fun evening instead of just sitting in my pajamas watching Netflix for the eleventh night in a row.

But I also have a bad feeling about it.

"Come onnnnnnn." She begs. "Please!"

"Yeah, alright. Fine, I'll go."

Gemma claps her hands, a big smile overtaking her face. "Great! I'll ring Finn to let him know we're on."

I sigh as she leaves the room, resting my head back on the couch and my hands on my rounded belly.

Maybe I'm overthinking it. It's just dinner.

What's the worst that could happen?

___________________
Please vote!