Harry Styles, I'm Not Your Puppet (Harry Styles Fan Fiction) (On Hold for Now)

Ch. 16 "I'm Sure of More Things"

―Aria―

I dove to the opposite side of the bed and onto the floor. And just in time too. The moment I was on the ground, Kim opened the door and, in a few seconds, she closed it and laughed.

She went back downstairs and she started talking with Niall. What is she saying? Something about him lying… oh crap.

Niall.

“Shit…” I curse silently. “Liam,” I shake the Wolverhampton-lad’s shoulder and he moans softly. “Liam,” I say a tad more urgently.

“Danielle?” Liam moans. I bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

I’ve never talked to a sleeping Liam. I make a decision to go with it.

“Hey, baby,” I’ve never talked with Danielle, but I’ve seen texts from her when Liam left his phone unoccupied. The ‘hey, baby,’ was what I saw. Perhaps she wouldn’t really say that? Oh well.

“Why aren’t you at home?” His face scrunches up in confusion.

I think of a reason. “I missed you.” I say, and I snicker.

He smiles and I feel bad. He must miss his girlfriend so much. “I missed you, too.” He puckers his lips and makes a kissing sound.

That’s where I die laughing and fall to the ground once more.

Even in sleep, Liam makes me feel better. He makes my life happier.

―Harry―

I went to bed last night angry and thinking Kim couldn’t be a bigger bitch.

Now, I can feel Louis’ eyes fixed on me. He doesn’t understand that I want to talk to him, but every time I feel I’m about to, my walls come up and I can’t. He must know about Kim. He must know what I did.

“I can feel you staring at me,” I say.

Not surprising me, Louis chuckles.

“Well, should I keep staring or are you gonna talk to me?”

I breathe in deeply and then the words are out of my mouth. "I feel like somebody I don't even know anymore, Lou."

"Harry," His voice sounds like he's about to start lecturing me.

I sit up and stare at his blue eyes, large and worrisome for me. I sigh and, literally, sense that a rubber band has snapped inside of me. 

"It all started when we met Kim..."

Louis' mouth gapes open for a moment, and he snaps its shut. He doesn't believe I'm actually telling him after so long.

I stop as he situated himself on the mattress, attentively listening to every word I say.

"When Niall...brought his family to meet us." I smile as I remember. "Kim, all shy and stuff. She was so happy for Niall, wasn't she? She was crying so hard..." I shake my head in disbelief that it was the same girl.

Kim has changed. I may have been a big part of that change. But then again, we've all changed.

"Her hair was in that braid down the side of her head, but it was different. It was skinnier than most..."

"A fish tail?"

"Yeah, that." I ponder how he knew that, but I just continue on. "She introduced herself to us, and when I saw her, dude, my heart raced."

Louis smiles at me to show that he understands. I thought she was pretty.

Heck, I still do.

"But, when I shook her hand, her hand was so soft. And do you remember what happened then?"

He shook his head no.

"She hugged me…No, not just hugged," I said. "I think she took my breath away." I sit there and think back to that moment.

"But she was Niall's sister, so you didn't try anything." Louis said.

"That, and there's also the reason of Jessica."

"Jessica..? Ohhhh," Louis remembers the brunette I was privately dating during X-Factor.

Jessica probably was the dumbest person I've ever met. She couldn't hold a conversation for more than 20 seconds. And even then, the conversation would be about something stupid.

"So, yeah. For the sake of both Niall and Jessica, I decided that it was best for me to try and not hit on Kim. But, it was hard being around her and not having... feelings..." I let out a sharp outtake of breath. "I couldn't get her out of my mind. I decided we should be friends, get to think of her as a sister...didn't work."

"No, duh." Louis chuckled. "So, what happened after that? You guys went from being best friends to sworn enemies."

"The plane. That girl. Remember?"

Louis gapes at me again. I couldn't believe I was surprising him so much. He pretty much saw everything that happened. Am I really filling in the dots this much for him?

"Kim? She liked you too?!"

"Shhh..." I whispered. "Not so loud. But, yeah." I nod solemnly.

"Harry!" Louis looked mad. "Why would you do that?"

"I liked her. I didn't want to. I thought I could...I don't know."

What was I thinking then? I liked Kim. Why would I ever want to hurt her? I deserve what she did to me.

Then it hit me. What she had done also hurt herself.

Louis rubbed his temples angrily. "Let me guess, you were trying to disguise your feelings toward her. Harry, that's low. That is so low." He got up and slammed the door behind him.

Great, now Louis is mad at me. I lie down and felt sorry for myself.

―Kim―

“You liar!” I yelled at him.

Niall looks at me like he usually did, the way only an annoyed brother could. “What?”

“She’s not in there.” I smiled at him. “I’m going on my date with Jake today.”

Why am I releasing all this information to him? I know he’s going to only use it for bad, bad against me.

“Jake?” He asked. “Jake? As in: Jake Oliver?” He doesn’t look thrilled. “That creep wants to take my sister out on a date?” I get a vacant expression on my face. I don’t care. “No. Absolutely no.”

“You’re not the boss of me Niall.” I reminded him. “And I can’t believe you would tell me a lie like that to get me distracted from going. Why can’t I go on a date?”

“You said it! Guys are pigs!” He yelled at me as if it were obvious. “Heck, I am one and I agree with you!”

For that, I had no response. I just gaped at him like a fish.

“Aria is upstairs. I am not lying. She was in that bed with Liam last night. It looked like nothing happened, but she was sleeping in his bed so I told you. If I really didn’t want you to go I would cut the tires to the car out front.” He caught himself as he said that, actually pondering it as a viable option.

I frown. “Aria was with Liam?” So that was where she was. The call in the hotel, the secrets she’s been keeping from me, it really was over Liam.

Niall nods and pours another bowl of cereal.

I stand at the end of the staircase, wondering what the next plan of action was. Do I go upstairs again? Do I wait for her to come down? Do I even talk about it with her then? Do I talk about it at all?

The lying was my whole issue right now. I didn’t care about her being friends with Liam, I didn’t care that she wasn’t there for me last night, all I cared about was the fact she could not tell me about it.

Is she even my best friend at all?

Is Aria even really her name?

“By the way, if your date’s this morning, sorry.”

“Why?” I asked angrily. My date was tonight but I wouldn’t tell him that.

“Zayn’s gone to get milk.”