If there's one thing Suzy Lestrange is hoping for, it's getting through her second year of university without a hitch, so that she can spend her third year abroad in France.
But when Harry Styles shows up in her life once again, she quickly finds he...
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Thursday, 26th of March, 2015
In retrospect, I should have known flying across the planet to spend time with Harry was not the smartest thing to do. Sure, I missed him a hell of a lot and really needed a break from stressful situations in my life, but I should have weighed out the pros and cons before agreeing with Harry's suggestion in the first place. Maybe then, and only then, would I have come to terms with the fact that flying out to see Harry Styles, who was constantly linked in the media to whatever female he spent any amount of time with, would only increase the chances of that happening to me.
So, really, I should have expected my lunch date with Gemma and Sophia to be cut short by a very demanding phone call from Harry to return to the hotel in the car he sent for us. The whole drive back my palms were sweaty and I was fidgeting in my seat, already beginning to panic over what could possibly have happened for Harry to react in such a way. It wasn't until we were in the safety of the hotel, away from screaming fans at the front entrance, and holed up in a room I didn't recognise that Harry finally broke the news—my identity had been revealed to the press.
I froze completely, unable to move or speak. I couldn't believe what I had heard. Hell, I was struggling to even process what was going on, let alone answer Harry and Gemma's questions about if I was okay or not. At one point, though I wasn't even aware she had been in the room, Lara asked if I needed some water or wanted to sit down, but I was in too much shock to understand anything going on around me.
Someone had not only insinuated that Harry and I were an item, someone had actually leaked my identity to the press. I was no longer someone in the background of Instagram photos with Nick Grimshaw or Daisy Lowe—I had become Suzy Lestrange, potential girlfriend of Harry Styles.
"I think I'm going to be sick," I eventually said, cutting Harry off mid-sentence on how I should try and keep under the radar to avoid any more media attention until it all blew over.
Before I could even comprehend what was happening, a chair was pushed underneath me as Harry crouched down and sent Lara off to fetch me some water. "Hey, hey," he said with a soft and calm voice, entwining his fingers on one hand with mine and cradled my jaw with the other as he forced me to look at him. He tried to search my eyes, maybe to see if he could find what I was feeling or what was going through my mind, but all hope was lost—nothing made any sense to me, and so there was nothing for him to find. "It's going to be o—"
I shook my head, repeating "no" over and over again as I interrupted him. I knew what he was going to say, I knew he was going to try and tell me that everything was going to be okay, but he didn't know that—he couldn't know that.
Harry's jaw was clenched and his eyes were full of worry as he gulped, watching me slowly pull away from his touch—watching me slowly pull away from his reassurance. "Please, listen to me, Suzy," he tried to plead, clasping hold of my hand even tighter than before. "This has happened before, and whether it's been real or not, things do get better."
