Francesca’s P.O.V
“Nice to meet you hun,” greeted a skinny, wavy-haired, British model.
“You too Eleanor,” I smiled.
Welcoming me into a hug, Danielle introduced herself next.
To be honest, it’s embarrassing.
Liam and Louis both have girlfriends who are drop-dead gorgeous.
My self-esteem dropped just from being in the same room as them; I felt like a potato.
“You’re Harry’s girlfriend, correct?” Eleanor confirmed.
Before I had the chance to answer, Harry walked in the room, “Yeah she is, unfortunately.” He joked, sticking his tongue out and wrapping his arm around my waist.
“Oh shush Harry, you’re lucky you can even get someone as pretty as her. It’s surprising you can even get a girl with those messy curls,” Danielle laughed, rubbing Harry’s hair into a big, tangled mess.
Did Danielle Paezer just call me pretty and say that it’s surprising Harry could even get me?
I must be dreaming.
“Are you okay?” Harry laughed.
I hadn’t realized that the confusion of the compliment Danielle gave me twisted my face into a very ugly expression.
“What? Oh yeah, I’m perfectly fine,” I smiled as he brought me into a kiss.
“I’m sorry to interrupt but where is Louis?” Eleanor looked upset. While she hadn’t seen Louis yet, Danielle and Liam were laughing and kissing on one side of her, while I and Harry did the same on the other side.
“ELEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEANOR!”
Before we knew it, Louis came sprinting into the room, jumping over chairs and couches, avoiding every obstacle that crossed his path.
“Hey Lou,” Her eyes lit up, and her lips curved into a big smile when she saw him.
He grabbed her tightly, meeting his lips with hers, “How are you? I missed you babe.”
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, but it was only a call from Joe so I ignored it.
“Are you all ready to go out?” Liam asked.
We all nodded and the 6 of us, along with 4 body guards walked out of the hotel and into the warm night.
“How long do you have to stay disguised?” Danielle asked, pointing to the giant pair of sunglasses covering my face and the hoodie zipped up.
“Not sure, whenever I’m ready I suppose.”
“I remember when I had to do that, don’t you Louis?”
“Yes Eleanor, but now the whole world can see your beautiful face.” He smiled.
When we arrived at the restaurant, we stayed for hours, just talking and laughing and having a good time. I may not be as rich or good-looking or famous as any of them, but for once in my life, I felt like I belonged, and I was actually happy.
________________________________________________________________
I was exhausted when we all returned back to the hotel room that night.
My mom thought I was sleeping at Jaz’s; Jaz agreed to go along with the plan only if I promised to answer her phone calls unlike the first time.
Zayn was out on a date with Amy.
Eleanor and Louis were watching a movie in the living room with Danielle and Liam.
Niall was at a bar watching a soccer game. (Poor Irish boy; he was going to be surrounded by beer, but he’s not able to drink his pints due to the age restrictions in America.)
Harry and I were inside Harry’s room.
“I’m exhausted,” I collapsed onto his bed.
“Me too,” he dove into his bed after me.
After moments of silence and what seemed to be Harry contemplating whether or not to ask the question, he decided to. “Francesca, can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“I’m sorry for asking, but you said the other day that your father is in jail. Why is that?”
Great, the subject I’ve been trying so hard to not think about.
I jumped up from lying down and sat facing Harry in his bed. Sighing, I admitted, “He tried to kill me and my mother.”
He changed from his lying position as well and quickly sat up next to me, “What?!”
“When I was younger, he was in an argument with my mother. He lost his job, and my mom was worried we wouldn’t be able to pay the bills and would lose our house. Every wife would’ve done the same thing and freaked out about it. He took it a bit too personally, though. He began to yell at her, calling her a bitch and a money-whore. I walked into the kitchen to see him screaming in her face and a scared look plastered on her face. He looked like he was going to explode. When he turned around to see me, he marched over to me and locked his hand around my wrist. He yelled things at her like ‘we wouldn’t have this problem if it wasn’t for this child.’ and ‘maybe if you didn’t focus so much on the child and more at me, things wouldn’t have turned out this way.’ I yelled at him to stop; I was a little girl, I didn’t want to hear these things. He took his anger out on me now, unleashing my wrists and punching me across the face. He beat me. He beat me until I was unconscious on the floor. My mom punched him to try to get him to stop hurting me, but he beat her up also. He’s too strong compared to us, we couldn’t win against him.”
A sympathetic expression lit up Harry’s face, “How long is he in jail until?”
“He was sentenced 10 years.”
“How long has it been?”
I gulped, “Almost 10 years.”
