97

I walk through the front door of the apartment and see Amelia sitting cross legged on the couch, reading my favourite book I suggested for her a little while ago.

She looks up at me with a quick smile and goes to look back at the book but then stops when she sees my face. Her jaw drops and she shuts the old book, placing it on the table.

"What happened?" She stands to her feet and walks over to me, analyzing my face before I can even take my shoes off. She lightly places her hand on my cheeks as look at the gashes on my face.

"Relax I'm fine." I chuckle while smiling down at her intense forms of worry. I only got punched once in the nose.

"But Harry what happened? You're already bruising under the eyes." She says while running her fingers through my hair to brush it out of my face.

"I got into a fight with Louis." I answer while taking off my jacket and tossing it on the couch behind her.

"About what?" Her eyes widen in concern.

"I was pissed about the comments he was making last night towards you." I explain.

"What comments?" She arches her brown in confusion.

"The ones he was making after we were in the washroom."

"Harry that's why you fought him? Because of some silly remarks?" She says in shock.

"Yeah, you were uncomfortable." I wrap my arms around the small of her back while she keeps running her fingers through my hair- examining the marks on my face.

"Harry that doesn't mean you go in and start punching him. I can handle Louis' snide comments, even if they make me a bit uncomfortable." She shakes her head in disagreement to my actions.

"Well I just don't want you to feel that way." I mumble back.

"And I appreciate that, but you shouldn't of hit him. He's your friend." She grabs my bruised knuckled hand and lightly pulls me towards the kitchen. Her long wavy brown hair cascades down to meet at her lower back while she leaves a sweet scent in her path- pulling me through it by her hand.

"He's a guy I work with." I correct.

She rolls her eyes and brings me to the kitchen, leaning my back against the island counter and turning her gorgeous body towards the fridge. I hop up and sit on the marble counter top- not really sure why she brought me in here.

"He's your friend Harry, all three of them are. Where did you meet them anyway?" She asks while opening the freezer and grabbing some ice.

"Prison." I answer while running my hand back through my hair.

"Oh wow, that was a long time ago." She says while I watch her delicate fingers wrap the ice in a hand towel. She walks over to me with the make do ice pack in her hand.

"You're too tall to be sitting up there." She chuckles while looking up at me on the counter.

"Come on then." I murmur while siding back on the island so I'm sitting right in the middle.

She leaps up on the marble counter top and crawls over to me sitting with my legs sprawled straight open. She crawls between my legs and sits down, wrapping her legs around my hips.

I lean back on my hands a bit for support as she becomes a bit more elevated then me from sitting on my waist. She brings the ice pack up and dabs it very lightly under my eye sockets and across the sides of my nose.

"So tell me- how did you become friends with these guys anyway?" She mumbles in curiosity while keeping concentration to the bruising of my under eyes; carefully running the ice cold fabric over it.

"They came up to me one day and offered to give me a piercing to cover up the scar I was going to have." I mumble while shutting my eyes.

"So you just became friends?"

"No, not really. They were just people I stood around with- I didn't find them aggrevating like everyone else." I think back to the day when they did come up to me- god what a different world that was.

"Seems like they took you under their wing so you weren't so alone." She almost whispers.

"It's not like I needed them. I was just fine on my own."

"Yeah alright." She scrunched her brows together with sarcasm lacing her tone.

"I was." I restate but more firmly.

"Even if you were fine on your own, you still 'stood around' with them. They were there for you Harry and plus you still have them in your lives now. They mean more to you then you're letting yourself believe." She says calmly.

I've known the guys for ten years, and they have been always there for me when I need them. I really don't know what made them come up to the independent quiet young kid that day but damn- I guess I'm glad they did or I'd be working with a whole new set of guys everyday.

"Whatever." I murmur.

"You should apologize to Louis." She almost whispers.

I shake my head, making her pull the ice pack back. Fuck that, just because I kinda regret punching Louis doesn't mean I'm going to go apologize for it. He was still crossing the line yesterday at the club.

"Not going to happen." I am quick to answer.

"Harry c'mon. I know it's against your pride and stuff but you need to do it. These guys have been here for you forever. I can't bare to think that you fought over something silly like this- especially on my behalf." She comforts while placing the ice filled cloth down.

"Lets not talk about it anymore okay? I'm too tired." I say while bringing my hands up to tangle in the back of her head and pull her close to me so our lips collide softly.

"You need to talk about it Harry. You can't keep it all in." She immediately muffles against my lips.

"Kiss now...talk later." I murmur between kisses, trying to get her to let this go and stop convincing me to 'do the right thing' and all that bullshit.

She pulls back and shakes her head in rejection, making me huff again and slump my shoulders.

"Sorry baby." She says, making my heart slam against my chest at the word baby. This is the second time she called me that but it wasn't by accident this time. I smile lightly and run my hands up her sides.

"Are you still going to wanna kiss me if I look like this for a bit?" I ask jokingly, referring to the bruises forming under my eyes from the hard hit I took to the nose.

"Mhmm." She hums while nodding with no hesitation, keeping her hand softly on my cheek.