Save You Tonight

The morning after my run-in with Cameron, it seemed as though fate was mocking me. My entire life had been a secret. I never became close to anyone except my computer genius friend, Margo, and my insider knowledge, the CIA agent named Tom. The two of them were so good to me. Due to my lack of normalcy, Margo and Tom were there to make me feel not as alone as I truly was. If the regular human was to find out my secret, all hell would break loose and I’d be at the very core of it.

However, when I stepped into the tiny coffee shop that morning, I guessed who I saw was not, in fact, a regular human. Harry was sitting at a small, round table. His macbook was atop the circular stand and a coffee was placed in his hands. My heart leapt into my throat, setting me into a worried frenzy. This boy was the only one that had ever come that close to witnessing my secret. If anything, he could have been watching the rest of the fight by peering around the corner of the building.

Keeping calm on the outside, I discreetly made my way past the table and to the counter, hoping he wouldn’t look up from his screen that he was staring so intensely at. I could hear him talking quietly as if he were conversing with an invisible person at his table, but I couldn’t hear anything clearly over the music that was playing overhead.

“Can I have ya order, miss?” a small redheaded girl asked. I tore my eyes away from the boy at the table and onto her small frame.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Medium cappuccino, please.”

She went off to prepare my morning crack as I twiddled my thumbs. I shut my eyes tightly, somehow believing that if I did this, Harry wouldn’t be able to see me. Unfortunately, my attempts were futile.

“Hey!” I heard him shout as I slowly opened my eyes in defeat. He stood from his table, coming over to me quickly and greeting me with a confident, yet red-cheeked grin. Although it went against everything my head was saying, I smiled back in spite of myself. “You know, I never got your name.”

“Maya,” I said softly, my heart pounding at the sight of him in the daylight. He was cute. Almost too cute. And there was an air about him that made me realize that I had seen him somewhere before.

Harry paused awkwardly, running his long, skinny fingers through his mass of untidy hair and averting his eyes to the tile flooring. When his green eyes snapped back up, they had a completely different expression. He had a mischievous look about him.

“Come meet my fans!” he exclaimed, grabbing my arm and dragging me to the table, pulling up a chair next to him and pointing at the screen of the computer. When my eyes trailed to where his index finger was directing me, I saw myself on the screen, sitting next to him and mirroring the look of terror that was currently upon my real face. In the top corner of the frame, it read “Live stream.” Whatever that was, it did not seem to bode well for me.

“Hey guys, this is Maya. I met her last night. Most amazing girl I think I’ve ever met,” he began, cutting off when he looked over at my ghostly white face. He didn’t go into much more detail, which I was thankful for. The last thing I needed was the CIA coming after me for spilling my own secrets. Surely they’d be able to find this. Harry, probably finally understanding that what he saw was not something he was supposed to, added weakly, “Say hello to the fans.”

“Hello,” I said softly, watching as the numbers in what I assumed was a viewer counter nearly tripled. I forced a smile as I realized exactly who the boy sitting next to me was. He was Harry Styles from that new boy band One Direction, the one that gained an immense amount of fame in England after coming off the X Factor show. Everybody knew his name in London. How did I not notice it before?

“Well, show’s over for today, ladies. Maybe next time I’ll bring Louis out of his cage for a good laugh. Bye bye!” He told the camera quickly, clicking the off button and slamming down the top to the Macbook, ensuring that the camera wasn’t accidentally still on. He opened his mouth to say something to me as the girl behind the counter informed me that my cappuccino was ready. As I went up to pay for my order, Harry threw his laptop into his bag and followed me. I made my way out of the shop, but he continued to silently walk beside me.

“So you’re American,” he said slowly in his deep voice, clearly trying to come up with some conversational material. “Why are you in London?”

“I moved here two years ago,” I answered shortly.

“Why?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Well, where are you from?”

“America.”

“Shut up, you know what I mean. New York?”

I laughed genuinely at this notion that all who were from the States were from New York.
“No, I’m from North Carolina.”

He seemed to ponder this, as if trying to locate the state on his rusty mental map. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he turned his head and took a good look at my face. “I’m not going to beat 'round the bush any longer. I saw what you did to that big man. It scared the shit out of me to be honest, but there’s something about you that I can’t get my mind off of. You’re so little and I just… I don’t know what to think. You’re no secret assassin or something, right? Ya didn’t come to kill me, did you?”

I smiled as I met his green eyes. “No, I’m not an assassin. Yes, I’m good at fighting. It’s something I learned to do because I needed to and let’s keep it at that. If you would, please don’t tell anyone about what you saw. I can’t afford to get the wrong parties interested.”

Harry gawked at me. “You’re like a spy. Oh my god, that is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

At this, I couldn’t help but laugh at his adorable, carefree attitude about something that had always been so serious to me. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I had laughed so easily. He placed a hand on my shoulder as his fits died down and he stared sincerely into my eyes. “Don’t you worry, though. I won’t tell a soul about your ninja skills.”

I sighed in relief, letting the smile loosen on my face.

“But I will tell the boys that I met the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.”