I waited three days and didn't hear a thing from Modest Management or from Harry himself. Elenore spent every hour of those three days (when she wasn't working) trying to force me to contact them again and demand a response, but I'd gotten so tired of the whole thing that I almost wanted to forget about it. They clearly had.

We were spending our Saturday evening on the sofa with store-bought pizza and buy-one-get-one-half-price ciders while watching the X Factor. I shouldn't have really been watching it considering it was associated with Harry, but Elenore had insisted as she'd bought the food and drink. Nola was sound asleep in her cot which had been newly decorated with pink plasters.

"And now for our performance tonight, the boys who reached stardom right here on this very stage, it's the one and only – One Direction!" Dermot O'Leary ran off the stage as the band appeared behind him, all grinning just as they had been when I'd last seen the on television.

"Did you know they were performing on here tonight, Ele?" I frowned, glaring at my best friend, but she was too busy gawking at the screen.

"I figured it out, I figured it out from black and white, seconds and hours, maybe they had to take some time...."

"The bastards!" Elenore suddenly shouted, waving her pizza around as if it were a battle flag. She got up from the sofa and charged at the screen, pointing a tomato stained finger at Harry's face. "THAT doesn't look like a lad who has just been told he's a father! Am I right?"

I took a swig from my bottle and cocked my head to one side. I'd always found Harry to appear very serious and somewhat troubled when he performed live. His eyebrows were often pushed firmly together, only separated by the deep groove of a frown line, but tonight his eyes twinkled and the light bounced off his teeth.

 "Perhaps he's happy about it?" I suggested, shrugging at Ele who was still pointing at his face and waiting for an answer. When she pulled away there was a smear of red across the screen.

"You and I, we don't wanna be like them, we can make it 'til the end, nothing can come between you and I..."

"Pah!" She snorted. "More like they haven't told him yet! Those toffs, who do they think they are?" She crammed the crust of the pizza into her mouth and remained silent until she'd swallowed, her eyes burning. "I mean, he has more of a right to know than they do. It's complete bullshit, Marn!"

"I figured it out, saw the mistakes of up and down, meet in the middle..."

"I am aware, thanks," I laughed, taking another swig. I watched as Harry sang the chorus of 'You and I', still looking delighted with himself. "Perhaps they haven't taken his sample yet?"

"...never together, 'cause they see things in a different light, like us, but they never tried like us..."

Ele strode over to the coffee table and retrieved another slice of pizza. "Of course they've got the sample," she rolled her eyes. "Their tour starts like next week. Aren't they supposed to get fit etc?"  

"...we don't wanna be like them, we can make it 'til the end, nothing can come between, you and I..."

"I have no idea." I sighed. "By the time they've told him he'll probably be half way across the country."

"...could separate the two of us..."

"Actually I think this tour spreads into Europe." Ele bit her lip and smiled at me innocently.

"Well that's just fabulous. Why am I wasting my time?" I slammed my bottle on the table and groaned loudly.

"Enough of that!" Elenore thrust the bottle in my hand again. "It's not your fault his management team are a bunch of wankers. Just wait until he starts playing daddy, then you sweet talk him into dropping them, or better still, get Nola to do it."

"She's not even fluent in English yet," I reminded her, shaking my head at her ridiculous idea. "I suppose you want her to sweet talk Niall Horan into asking you out?"

"It's Niall, not Niall Horan. You're not his mother, Marn." Ele rolled her eyes and picked at the pineapple that remained on her pizza base. "You do realise that if you don't contact them, I will."

"...not even the gods above, can separate the two of us...."

"Well that would be very stupid now wouldn't it?" I smirked.

"Not really," Ele shrugged as they gave their post performance interview. "I've been more involved in that little girl's life than he has. I think I deserve a say at some point in this whole fiasco."

"If you say so!" I laughed.

"Congrats on the new single, lads!" Dermot cooed, pulling them all in for one of his famous embraces. "A new single this week, a new tour next week. You're busy boys!"

"It's definitely busy." Harry said bluntly.

I turned to Ele who was staring at me with wide eyes. "Do you think he knows?" I gasped.

"Um, yeah. So how does it feel to be back in front of the judges?" Dermot thrust the microphone under Zayn's nose instead.

"We'll always have a special place in our hearts for this stage, this competition and that judging panel," he laughed "But even after everything we've achieved it's still scary being up here!"

I zoned out from the interview and turned back to Ele. "But Harry seemed so...okay?"

"Maybe it was an act," she said quickly. "He was performing after all; he can't let the fans down, or the X Factor for that matter. They created him!"

"But Ele," I threw my hands up in the air. "Do you think he knows?!"

"Well it was very odd," she nodded her head eagerly. "I guess it's entirely possible, Marn."

"Well, shit." I whispered, collapsing back onto the sofa and taking a swig from my bottle.

"Well, shit." Elenore echoed, doing the same. "Niall practically knows I exist."

"Oh shush," I shoved her lightly. "But if he knows, why haven't I heard anything? Right there at the end he seemed so...angry? Do you think he hates me for ruining his life?"

"Stop jumping the gun would you?!" Ele cried. "How can you assume these things if you haven't spoken to him? Yes it's annoying that he hasn't contacted you, but he's probably allowing it to sink in. Remember how long you were in denial for when you found out you were expecting her?" Ele pointed to my bedroom where Nola was completely comatose and unaware.

This was true. I hadn't wanted to believe I was pregnant, no 18 year old did, especially after a stupid and drunken one night stand. But the fact it had been with Harry Styles had made everything so much worse. At the time Ele had tried to convince me that most teenage girls would have killed to be in the position I was in, but I hadn't felt  quite so fortunate. Especially when I was chucking up noisily into the toilet bowl every morning with no one to hold my hair back.

"Maybe his management aren't as bad as we thought?" She added, abandoning her now bare pizza and taking another slice. A habit she'd had ever since I'd known her. Her voice was beginning to submit to the alcohol, all the words growing forever close together.

"I wouldn't go that far," I shook my head. "They said they would be the ones to contact me, not him."

"Maybe they only just told him? Or are waiting for his decision rather than taking over. That would be pretty decent of them to be fair." Sometimes I could describe Ele as your stereotypical blonde bimbo. She was also somewhat indecisive when it came to her opinions of people. One minute she was cursing about them, or wiping tomato sauce on their virtual face, and the next she was excusing them for every poor thing they had ever done. Quite often I couldn't keep up.

"So they are good people now? Not toffs or wankers?" I raised an eyebrow as she took another swig from her bottle.

"Oh, I don't know!" She exclaimed. "I think it's the cider talking." She rubbed her forehead, smearing tomato sauce and cheese into her hairline.

"So what do I do now?" I asked her, trying to  keep a straight face. I pulled my feet up onto the sofa and crossed my legs. Harry and One Direction had disappeared off of the screen now and some poor soul was attempting to sing a Queen song for rock week.

"You wait." She replied simply and shrugged.

"But I've been waiting!" I groaned, tilting my bottle to the side to see if there was anything left.

"Well wait longer." She slurred. "Now let's put Magic Mike on before you bore me to sleep." 

a/n: so, does Harry know?...