Kissing Fire.

It was now New Year’s Eve, and the One Direction boys were still galavanting around New York City. It turned out that they were performing that night in Times Square, so they spent the week hanging out with us and rehearsing and doing press.

Things seemed to be okay with Harry, so far. I mean, there was obvious tension because it seemed one of us always wanted to be holding hands or cuddling or something and we always had to stop ourselves. It was getting difficult, but I think we were both hoping that if we made it past New Year’s, we’d be okay. So we were almost there!

“So are you excited for tonight?” Marina gushed as the four of us walked back into our apartment after an afternoon of shopping.

“Mm, I suppose so! New Year’s Eve is always fun,” I replied with a small grin on my face, prompting her to let out a scoff.

“Oh, piss off, you know I meant because of Harry!” We all made our way into the kitchen to make food as I let out a loud laugh.

“What about Harry? We’re friends, remember?”

“Well you didn’t buy that dress just for the general public,” Danielle countered as she pulled some sliced cheese from the fridge. A small smirk reached my lips as the three girls chortled together. Sure, maybe I was trying to look extra cute that night. And yes, maybe it had something to do with Harold. But I had suggested this friends thing with really good intentions! It just seemed that I was having a hard time following through with it.

“Oh, whatever. I do what I want.”

“Are you going to kiss him tonight?” Eleanor piped up as she grabbed the bread for us to make grilled cheese.

“No! Of course not, I couldn’t.” I shook my head slightly as I rummaged through the pantry for some tomato soup.

“But you’d like to!” she called to me with a laugh, and I couldn’t disagree with her.

“Doesn’t matter what I’d like at this point, though. We agreed to being friends. Just friends.”

“I heard Harry’s having a hard time with your agreement as well. Apparently he’s been on edge since the other night. And he’s always going on about you, but that’s nothing new. Looks like someone might get that kiss tonight after all!” Danielle chirped with a cheeky smile, prompting me to stick my tongue out at her. The room was filled with laughter and excited chatter about the evening’s festivities for the next hour while we made and ate our lunch.

The agenda for the evening was simple. The girls and I were on our own for dinner and everything, and we’d head to Times Square around ten to see all the performances, including One Direction’s. Then, we would meet up with them for the ball drop, and after that, we were off to some glitzy after party. We’d made dinner reservations at some swanky place in the heart of the city for 7:30, which left us around four hours to get ready and get a cab. Just enough time, right?

--

“I’d like to propose a toast!” Danielle called that night while we were at dinner. The rest of us perked up, glasses raised, as we waited for her to speak. “So, it’s no secret that I absolutely love the four of us together, and I’m so glad that we can ring in the new year together. I want to keep this short, so, to new friends!” And with that, we all giggled and clinked our glasses together, smiles plastered on our faces.

I’d found such solace in this group of girls, even though we were almost never together. But we constantly kept in touch, regardless of our schedules and time differences, and that was what mattered.

“So, Emerson! I thought you might want to know, it’s been rumored that Taylor Swift has her eye on our dear Harry,” Eleanor chuckled from beside me. My eyes shot up to meet hers and that just sent her into another fit of giggles.

“Are you serious? I mean, I can’t say I’m surprised. Who doesn’t she have her eye on?” I muttered as I pushed some food around on my plate. I mean, obviously if there was ever any choice between myself and Taylor, she’d win. Everyone loved her.

“Yeah, she’s performing tonight as well.”

“Mm, lovely.”

“Oh, come on, Em! Where’s your fighting spirit? Are you really gonna let her take your man?” Marina cut in, her eyebrows high on her head. The other two girls were also now looking at me expectantly, but I couldn’t help but shake my head and sigh.

“He’s not my man, Neen. Not anymore, at least. And if he’s into Taylor, then-”

“Oh, shut your mouth. We all know you’re not going to sit by and let her take him. I’m sure she’ll be around for the ball drop.” There was a sneaky tone in her voice as she played with her bracelet, causing me to tilt my head as I examined her.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“That’s all I’m saying!” She quickly brought her glass to her lips to keep any more words from spilling out and I was left to mull over everything. Of course TSwizzle was brought into the mix. Like I didn’t have my own problems with this.

--

When we arrived in Times Square, a guard was sent for us and led us to a VIP area which was reserved for friends, families, and the performers themselves. There quite a few recognizable faces in the crowd, but Marina and I had long since promised to keep our cool if situations like this arose. So we stuck with Dani and El and watched different people go on stage for about an hour and a half. And then it was time for One Direction.

“What song are they doing, El?” I asked as we moved closer to the stage for a better view.

“Hm? Oh, uh, ‘Kiss Me’,” she muttered offhandedly, her eyes glued to Louis as the boys stepped onto the stage.

“Mm, typical,” I muttered, causing the girls to laugh loudly as we continued to shuffle through the crowd. The band was just finishing their set up and the boys were all talking to each other. Niall looked a bit nervous, more so than usual, but I was just assuming that was the nerves of being on national television for New Year’s. Soon they all split apart and took their rightful spots and we all waited for the opening notes of ‘Kiss You’. But suddenly Niall’s voice cut through the crowd, causing thousands of confused eyes to find him, including the band.

“You’re so pretty when you cry, when you cry,” he sang out, and even my eyes widened slightly.

“What’s he doing?” I asked frantically, as the four of us all looked at each other. No one quite knew, honestly. Their band were all sharing glances and soon they picked up the music, though a bit shakily, to ‘Nobody Compares’. A few people from Management stood side stage, talking quickly and probably heatedly at one another. This was not the plan. At all. And then good ol’ Harold’s voice cut in, pulling my eyes back up to the stage.

“Did I do something stupid? Yeah, girl, if I blew it. Just tell me what I did, let’s work through it. There’s gotta be some way to get you to want me like before.”

Naturally, Harry’s eyes flew from the camera to the crowd, and all about, but they did keep sliding to me when they could. Clearly this was his idea. As always, he put everything into the performance and damnit, we put everything into dancing. By the time the second chorus came around, the four of us were screaming the lyrics and dancing like complete fools, but it didn’t matter.

The song ended soon, sadly, and the boys all rushed off stage to where Management was waiting. It was clear that they were getting reprimanded, but Harry stepped forward to take the blame. And while he did look apologetic, everyone knew he didn’t regret a second of it. They headed our way, but they had tons of people to talk to. In fact, it took them nearly twenty minutes to finally reach us, where the three couples happily embraced and shared cute little kisses. Feeling left out, I grabbed Zayn, pulling him into a bone crushing hug and congratulating him on the amazing performance. Harry stood on the outskirts, just watching, his eyes catching mine a few times. And there was definitely a hint of jealousy in that stare.

But we’d promised to be friends, so I pulled my arms from Zayn and moved to give Harry a quick, but tight hug, congratulating him as well. And before he could make any comments about the impromptu song change, I’d placed myself in conversation with everybody else. And then the woman of the hour took the stage and belted out her latest single, ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’. Blah, blah, blah. She finished soon enough and someone took the stage, but I couldn’t pay much attention. Because all I saw was Taylor heading through the crowd, stopping to talk to people, but her eyes stayed locked on Harry. And then there was that sinking feeling in my stomach. Of course she was going to talk to Harry. There were just minutes until midnight. Who else would she want to be near when the clock struck twelve?

When she finally did reach our group, she made it painfully obvious that she was only there to talk to Harry. Marina, El, and Dani all shot me hard glances, and even Louis looked over to see my reaction. My eyes were on the two as they made small talk, just two minutes until the ball drop. God, what was I doing? He was right there. Right there this whole time, and I couldn’t move. He was letting her openly flirt with him, and so was I. One minute left now. My palms were getting sweaty and I could faintly hear Marina urging me to do something. But what was I supposed to do? He wasn’t mine to be possessive of. He was a free man. I wasn’t allowed to sit there and stew in my own jealousy. He could make his own decisions. Thirty seconds left. Marina was grabbing my arm now, practically yelling in my ear to be heard over the excited crowd.

“Em, you have to do something. This is your chance!”

Fifteen seconds. Taylor was moving even closer to Harry, a faux coy look on her face. We all knew that gimmick.

Ten seconds.

“Do you have a New Year’s kiss?” she called to him over the shouting, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

Nine.

Her hand came up to his arm as she leaned in closer, her tongue sliding out to wet her lips.

Eight.

She mustered up her sweetest smile, her eyes glittering as she stared up at him.

Seven.

My stomach was in knots.

Six.

“I, uhh…” Harry hesitated, not quite sure what to say.

Five.

My blood was boiling as she moved impossibly closer.

Four.

I couldn’t do this anymore.

Three.

“He does,” I called as I moved to the two, Taylor’s eyes finding mine with an incredulous look.

Two.

“I do?” Harry’s eyes found mine, confusion written all over his face.

One.

“Yeah.”

I grabbed his collar, my lips finding his instantly in what was probably the most passionate kiss we’d ever shared. Cheering could be heard all around us, but I couldn’t focus on anything other than the feeling of Harry’s lips against mine again. His arms wrapped around my waist as he pulled me impossibly closer and I felt a body roughly shove past me, no doubt Taylor leaving in a huff. After a few more blissful moments, we pulled apart slightly, his arms still tightly wrapped around me.

“Just friends, yeah?” he asked with a cheeky grin, brushing his nose against mine.

“Oh, shut up, Harold,” I giggled as I pulled him in again. He smiled into the kiss and my hands quickly tangled themselves in his hair. It wasn’t until Louis finally clapped him on the back that we broke apart.

“We are still in public, you know!” he called humorously as the others laughed. But I continued to place small pecks to Harry’s lips.

“Happy New Year, Harry Styles,” I murmured sweetly against his lips, causing him to pull me in for one more kiss.

“Happy New Year, beautiful.” He placed one last kiss to my forehead before we untangled limbs and moved to talk to everyone else. He left his arm wrapped around my waist, which was more than okay with me.

“Happy New Year, babe!” Marina cheered as she launched herself at me and pressed a sloppy kiss to my cheek, which I returned happily.

“Happy New Year, my little dumpling!” We were reduced to giggling messes and Harry squeezed my waist gently, a huge, genuine smile plastered to his face. Everyone else shared ‘Happy New Year’s and we stood talking for a few minutes before everyone tried to figure out which party we were going to. But I couldn’t care less. All I could focus on was Harry’s arm on my waist and the smile on his face. Without even thinking, I wrapped my arms around his middle and buried my face into his chest, taking a deep breath. This felt so right.

--

I woke with a start the following morning, and immediately felt my heart plummet and my head pound. I was in my bed, that was for sure. And I was alone. That was also for sure. I went to ruffle my hair a bit, but quickly retracted my hand upon touching something sticky. What in the hell had I gotten into last night? Very cautiously, I slid my hand back up to my locks, letting whatever it was get on my fingers.

What even. Was that...icing? Yes, most definitely cake icing. But what was it doing in my hair? And then I made the mistake of glancing to my right. An empty bed and ruffled blankets. He was gone. Again. With a pathetic groan, I forced myself out of bed and shuffled to the doorway. The apartment was completely silent, meaning Marina spent the night with Niall. But what had happened to Harry?

“Harry?” I called weakly into the dead apartment, holding my breath as I prayed for an answer.

“In the kitchen, love!” Immediately, I let out a huge puff of air, practically dashing to the kitchen, where Harry was wiping down the countertops.

“What’re you-?” But I quickly recalled the night before.

After stumbling into my apartment around three in the morning, Harry insisted that he wanted cake. And wouldn’t you know it? There was still birthday cake left over. Jesus, that cake was huge. So we shuffled to the kitchen, limbs tangling with one another before he pulled the lid off the box.

“Ugh, this looks delicious,” he moaned, quickly grabbing a fork and jabbing it into the cake.

“Y’know, you could cut it,” I giggled, grabbing a fork of my own. But he waved me off, claiming that that was ‘too much work’. Feeding ourselves soon turned to feeding each other, and suddenly cake was being smushed into my face. A small squeal escaped my mouth as I turned to the tall boy, wide eyed. A cheeky grin was on his face as he reached for another piece, but I beat him to it, smearing icing and cake all over his cheeks.

“You’re gonna get it now,” he growled. Sweet Jesus, take me now. Soon it was an all out war, bits of cake flying all around the kitchen before we started grabbing other random items of food to toss at each other. It was a silly game, but we were drunk and we were bored, so the mess didn’t matter. We went on for about ten minutes before Harry suddenly slipped on some banana that had been mashed into the floor, and went toppling over. Naturally, I was reduced to a giggling mess and was soon on my knees, laughs shaking my body. I’d managed to crawl over to him as he laid flat on the floor staring at the ceiling.

“Are you alright, babe?” I asked wearily, as he wasn’t moving. Oh god. I’d killed Harry Styles. I quickly started groping at his face, trying to get him to move. “Harry, seriously, come on!” I stopped for a minute to catch my breath from all the jumping around and laughing, the room suddenly serious. “Harry-”

“Rawr!” he cried, leaping up and pulling me into his arms, the two of us giggling as we rolled around on the kitchen floor.

“You son of a bitch! To think I was actually worried!” I wailed as he pinned my body beneath his.

“Oh, c’mon, Em. It’s gonna take more than a spill to take me out,” he laughed before leaning down to capture my lips with his.

“You don’t have to clean this up,” I chuckled, moving over to him and wrapping my arms around his waist. He quickly spun around in my arms, his own hands coming to rest on my lower back.

“S’no problem, I started it anyway,” he murmured before leaning down and placing a gentle kiss to my lips.

“We, uh, we were pretty drunk last night, huh?” A loud laugh fell from his lips at my words as he nodded lightly.

“Completely pissed.”

“Completely worth it,” I countered as I leaned up to kiss him again. This was the Harry and Emerson I was used to. The simple, slightly silly, annoyingly gooey Harry and Emerson.