Light Up The Fireworks In Me

“Oh, how romantic!” Marnie was caught up in the tale of how Harry and I first met. She clasped her hands together, visibly enjoying the idea. “Getting stuck in an elevator! How very Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan of you!”

“So wait.” Rose was getting into the story too. “Your boyfriend is British?”

I nodded my head in response. Of course I kept some details scarce, like who he was for example. I did manage to bend the truth a little.

“How divine!” Marnie exclaimed. “Did you call him after that?”

“I actually didn’t.” I frowned. Both Marnie and Rose shared a perplexed expression.

How was I going to explain this one? The truth was, I was scared at the time. This big-shot had somehow managed to find something interesting enough about me that he wanted to see me again. I remember getting home later that day and making a promise to myself to not call him for at least two days so I didn’t seem too desperate. But day two came and just as I was about to pick up that phone and text him, I noticed his face was on the cover of my roommate’s People magazine that was laying on the coffee table. Naturally I was curious to see what they had to say about Harry so I flipped to the page where the article was written. Before I could even get to the second paragraph, I had enough. The magazine had mentioned that he’s been seen leaving ‘NYC’s hottest clubs’ with girls in hand. I closed the the stupid magazine angrily and immediately deleted his number. I convinced myself it was stupid to try anything with the kid anyways since he was an international pop-star after all.

“Obviously that’s not how it ends.” Rose interrupted my thoughts. “How did you met up the second time?”

I bit my lip with uncertainty before starting the story of our first date.



The wind was fucking crisp.

That was my first thought the minute I left the double doors of Student Hall. I tightened my beige scarf around my neck and wrapped my glove-covered hands around my cherry red peacoat. To match, I wore my knitted beanie that grandma made for my birthday (bless her heart) and my favorite black chiffon dress underneath with black flats. The weatherman made sure to tell us to wrap up this morning since there was a cold front coming in for the Fall season and boy, was he right. I didn’t mind it, though. After being stuck in the city all summer, it was a nice change to not sweat all the damn time when I walked around. I rather preferred New York City in the fall because everyone was a lot more...cheerful. You see more smiles on the streets and happier vendors with their trolleys. It was my favorite time of year. Not to mention, Turkey day was just around the corner and that meant I didn’t have class for a whole week!
Even though it was late into afternoon, I had every intention to go back to my apartment, change into my pajamas and watch HBO with a mug of hot cocoa.

As I relished in the perfect weather, I took my time walking off NYU campus and toward my apartment. I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my coat and looked at the pale blue sky with a grateful smile. I take the same route home everyday after class. I walk pass the two main iron gates, make a left, walk two blocks, make a right at the stoplight and ta-da, there was my less than perfect apartment building. It wasn’t my favorite place to live but it was close to campus and pretty sizable for a two bedroom. It was home, for now.

Just as I walked out of the main iron gates, I noticed a black town car parked right in front of them. At first I thought it was a little strange because I was pretty sure that was a no parking zone. One can only assume it was one of the rich brat’s drivers. We had a lot of diva students going to NYU. I mentally rolled my eyes as I walked out of the gates and pass the car. I couldn’t help the internal debate I was beginning to have in my head about how much I hated those rich kids. They were literally like those bat-shit crazy people on Gossip Girl. You couldn’t escape them either, which was the worst part.

“Violet!”

I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t just imagine that. I turned around to see who called my name but I didn’t see anyone on the sidewalk. Just when I was about to start walking again, I heard it again.

“Violet! Over ‘ere!”

I whipped around and looked at the black town car. With the backseat window rolled down, I saw that ridiculous mess of curls and bright smile.

Harry Styles.

No fucking way.

I hesitated at first, not entirely sure how to react to what was currently happening.

“H-Harry?” I slowly walked over. “Is that you?”

“Violet Beaumont, you never rang!”

I starred at him in shock. I was speechless.

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, of course!"

I gulped, finally finding my voice. “How did you know I was here?”

“It’s NYU, isn’t it?” He smirked. “Once upon a time, you told me you went here for uni.”

“Yeah but how did you-”

“I didn’t. I was just..kinda hopin’ I’d see ya out here.” He shrugged innocently.

My cheeks immediately turned red, like they always do when Harry takes me by surprise. I had so many questions and I was so confused but I just didn’t know how to start.

“Will you get in the car with me?”

“Umm...it depends on where you’re going.” I eyed the driver suspiciously as he pulled himself out of the front seat and walked towards me.

“It’s a surprise.” He grinned. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

Without another word, the driver opened the door and Harry scooted over while patting the seat he was once sitting in. I held my breathe, looking down the street I was just about to walk down before reluctantly getting into the black town car with Harry Styles.

We were quiet at first. I know for a fact I was being completely awkward because I had no idea what was going on. I haven’t seen this kid since August. That was over three months ago! Why was he even back in town? Why was he even looking for me?

“How’ve ya been?” He asked quietly as the driver started up the car and pulled into traffic. “Why didn’t you call?”

It took me a second to tear my abashed gaze away from my shoes to look at him. I didn’t want to blush for the fiftieth time in front of him, nor did I want to stutter because lets face it, I was pretty nervous right now.

“I don’t know.” I finally said. “Maybe I saw pictures of you and your...American gals in all the tabloids.”

He shook his head and did that stupid Harry Styles chuckle. “Look at you, gettin’ all moody with me.”

I narrowed my eyes at him before crossing my arms across my chest and turning my face to the window so I could glare at the buildings passing by. “Yeah, well...whatever.”

“Those were old pictures, Violet.” Every time my name left his mouth, I could feel my ears tingle with excitement and sheepishness. It was heavenly the way he said it. “They were taken before I even met ya. You can’t really believe those tosser magazines.”

I tried to hide the small smile that was forming on my lips. I wanted to be stubborn but it was quite difficult when Harry spoke in that devilish british accent. Ugh, he was killing me.

“Oi, there’s that smile I’ve been waitin’ for.” He knew his damn spell was working on me. “I missed ya.”

I finally turned to look at him, my expression softening. “You barely know me.”

“I’d like to change that.”

I couldn’t find the words to express how I was feeling so instead, I gave him another smile and nodded.

“Are you hungry?” He asked.

“I’m starving!” I exclaimed.

He laughed at my eagerness. He turned to the driver and spoke. “Peter? Can you take us to the Four Seasons, please?”



“Wow. Now this is pretty fancy.”

I pulled the fingers of my leather gloves one by one as I stood in the foyer of Harry’s Four Seasons suite. I walked around as I pulled my last glove off and place them in my purse. “Are you sharing this place with the rest of your band?”

“Nah.” Harry replied as he pulled his leather jacket. “They have their own rooms as well.”

I turned around to give him a pointed look. I could feel the sarcasm rising to my throat. Before I could stop myself, I said. “You guys must be living from paycheck to paycheck, huh? Rough life.”

He caught onto the sarcasm pretty quickly because he rolled his eyes and smiled. He walked over and placed his hand on the small of his back. “This way, me good lady!”

He steered me through what I’m assuming was the living room, the kitchen area and up a couple of steps. Once we reached the top of the steps, I stopped in my tracks. There was a small table, set up for two, situated right by four tall glass windows that had a breathtaking view of all the skyscrapers in Manhattan.

“Harry...” I walked right up to the window, looking down at everything. We were on the 52nd floor, so we were pretty high up in the sky. I tried to spot the pedestrians on the sidewalks but from here, they looked like little ants. “This is both beautiful and terrifying.”

“It is something, isn’t it?” He joined me at the window. I almost had my face pushed up against the window at this point. I was beyond mesmerized by the view. “Come on, let’s eat! Our food is going to get cold.”

Apparently our food had been delivered to the room while we were on our way here, and was sitting on the table under a very large silver cover. I couldn’t help but laugh when he lifted it and revealed a regular cheese pizza.

“What?” He questioned me immediately.

“Nothing, nothing.” I calmed down from my giggles. “I was just expecting escargot or something.”

“Ew! I’d never eat that stuff.” He crunched up his nose for emphasis.

I watched him as he pulled a piece of cheese pizza and put it on the plate in front of me before serving himself. He was concentrating so hard on everything. He looked almost nervous.

“So.” I broke the silence and picked up the slice of surprisingly hot piece of pizza. “Is this like a date or something?”

“‘Course it is!” He answered immediately. “Look, I even wore a button down shirt for you.”

He puffed out his chest with pride, looking down at his crisp white shirt.

I grinned at his goofiness. The dinner went exceptionally well after that. I listened to Harry’s funny tour stories and he listened to me complain about school. He told me about the silly halloween costumes he wore as a child and I told him about how crazy my family was on the holidays. I learned rather quickly that conversation was easy between us. I felt so comfortable around him that it was kinda frightening. This was only the second time I’ve ever been around him but it felt like we’ve known each other for much longer than that.

“8:30!?” Harry glanced at his watch. “Is that really the time? Christ, we’re going to be late!”

“Late?” I watched him with wide eyes as he jumped out of chair. “Late for what?”

“Another surprise! Quick, grab your coat! We have to go!”

Without another word, he grabbed my hand and pulled me down the steps and out of the suite. By the time we got to the lobby, Peter and the towncar were already waiting for us outside the hotel. Once we were in the car, I kept asking him questions but all he would do is keep a stupid smug expression on his face and pretend he was locking his mouth with an invisible key. I gave up on finding out where we were going sometime between 5th Ave and west 45th street. The minute we took a left onto Penn plaza, I looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow.

He brought me to Madison Square Garden.

“Who are we-”

“Shh, don’t ask questions!” He opened the car door and walked around to open mine. Apparently, we were using the back entrance because there was no one around except two tour buses and a lady holding two All Access Passes.

“Thanks again Peggy, for doing this for us.” Harry grinned at the woman. “I owe ye one!”

“You best be hurrying, now. The show is literally starting.” She responded, ushering us inside.

Inside was an endless hallway, filled with a thousand doors. The fluorescent lighting was bright and blinding. I looked to Harry, hoping he knew the route we were suppose to take.

“Do you know where we’re even going?” I asked finally.

“Yes of course I do, Violet. I have played a show or two here before, ya know.” He replied with a grin. I rolled my eyes in response.

As we walked further inside, the noise from the audience in the stadium got louder and louder. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach flutter with both excitement and curiosity for who we were about to see. We finally came across the ‘stage door’ which Harry opened with ease, and just like that, we were inside the arena. It was dark, loud, and smokey. I trusted Harry knew where he was going because from my point of view, it was almost pitch black. We went up a couple of more stairs and finally, the stage could be seen. The minute we got up there, the lights lowered and the music started. The roar of the crowd instantly gave me goosebumps. When the first string of notes blasted throughout the arena, my ears perked up and my heart dropped. I knew the melody instantly.

He brought me to a Coldplay concert.

“We’re seeing Coldplay!?” I yelled at Harry with excitement.

He nodded and leaned in to respond. “Tickets were already sold out by the time I found out they were playing here so I called in a few favors for us.”

“Oh Harry!” I got so excited that I managed to jump up on my tippy toes and kiss him right on the cheek. For once, it wasn’t me who blushed.

The stage was immaculate and wide, filled with beautiful graphics and screens to zoom in on the musicians. I would glance over at the crowd every once in a while during the set because they were made up of different colored lights. I remember reading an article a couple of weeks ago that Coldplay had their entry wrist-brands embedded with glow in the dark colors to go along with their current aesthetic and when they would play their songs, the wristbands will blink and glow to the beat of their music. It was positively magical; I couldn’t believe I was witnessing in real time. During the set, I looked at Harry and noticed he was mesmerized by what he was witnessing as well. I suddenly felt an overwhelming amount of emotion. I couldn’t believe how today was spent. Harry went out of his way to set all of this up, even though there was no exact certainty that he would even find me today. If I didn’t go to class today, or even walked through those iron gates at that particular moment, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened. And if that wasn’t overwhelming enough, for some ungodly reason, Harry did this all for me. He actually liked me.

Harry liked me.

I was nothing special, okay. I was just like everyone else, ya know? I liked eating pancakes for dinner and pizza for breakfast. I liked watching my favorite soap opera in bed when it was raining cats and dogs outside. I enjoyed aimlessly wandering the streets of New York City when I was in desperate need for inspiration when I needed to finish my writing assignment for class. I slept in when I was tired, I listened to Frank Sinatra when I felt nostalgic and I cried when I watched a good cheesy romantic flick. I was nothing special, but for some reason Harry Styles liked me.

The idea had put so much warmth in my heart. So much in fact that, when Coldplay started to play ‘Fix You’, I turned to Harry and delicately slid my left hand into his. In no time, he responded by lacing our fingers together. When I noticed him biting his bottom lip to contain the wide grin on his face, I couldn’t stop the one forming on my lips either.

At the end of the show, I asked Harry if we could walk back to my apartment and then Peter could meet us there later. It wasn’t a long walk; the arena was only a couple of blocks from my house. I was just scared that our time together was ending rather quickly. I didn’t know how much time we had left, especially when the night was over. He agreed to it, calling Peter and telling him he’ll call him when he needs him. With that, he took my hand in his and told me to lead the way.

“Did you have fun tonight, Violet?”

“No, it was probably the worst night of my life.”

“You’re very sarcastic, aren’t you?” He shifted his shoulders so he could narrow his eyes in my direction. I smiled in response.

“Tonight was perfect.” I responded truthfully. I squeezed his hand for emphasis. “Thank you.”

“It’s a good thing I found ya outside your uni or else all of this would have been rather lonely.” He grinned when I rolled my eyes at him.

“I bet you could have easily found any girl on the street to do all of this with you.” I retorted.

I was tugged back slightly and I realized Harry had stopped walking and smiling. I immediately regretted the words that came out of my mouth. I didn’t mean for them to sound ungrateful or rude, I was only trying to make a joke. Before I could explain that he spoke.

“You must truly know that I did this all for you, Violet.” He searched my face for answers. “I’ve been planning this surprise fer weeks.”

Weeks? I was baffled. No guy has ever planned anything for me, ever. I was so close to blurting out ‘I like you’ and just kissing him on the lips in that very moment. I think Harry thought I was about to do that too because he waited for me to make the next move. He was also now starring at my lips and I knew I had the green light, but I chickened out. I couldn’t be courageous enough to just kiss him. Instead, I just changed the subject.

“Don’t you love the city at night?” I asked as we started walking again. We were walking down 5th Ave but it wasn’t as packed as it usually was since it was now past midnight. We were the only ones on the sidewalk, save for the dog walker and a sleeping hobo on the other side of the street. “Do you come here often?”

“Not as often as I liked.” Harry admitted, who was slightly swinging our clasped hands back at forth as we walked. “We do come here the most for interviews and events and stuff.”

“Have you ever been to Georgia?” I asked. “I’m from Georgia.”

“I knew that American accent of yours was southern!” He exclaimed. “It was too innocent and sweet to be a New Yorker accent.”

“Hey British kid, I ain’t that innocent!” I countered. “This southern girl got some fight in her. And a lotta sass.”

“Oh, I believe ya got sass alright.” He laughed and pulling me in closer to him. Without warning, he tapped my nose. “Those big brown eyes are trouble.”

“That curly hair is trouble.”

“No! It’s just fabulous!”

I laughed at his reply, but stopped abruptly when I heard thunder above us. I looked at Harry before looking up. In a second, I felt a small raindrop hit my nose. Then another one on my cheek. And then another one on my eyelash.

We both started running the minute the little raindrops turned into a straight up downpour. The sheets of rain came without warning and were exceedingly cold. We were drenched within seconds. I started laughing when Harry complained about how “bloody freezing” it was.

“We’re almost there!” I yelled over the thunder as we crossed the street. Once we got to my apartment, I forced the key into the lock and pushed the door in. Both Harry and I were dripping onto the old carpet in the foyer. We were practically soaked to the bone.

I led him to the elevator and pushed the triangle button. Once the elevators binged open, we walked in and waited for them to close. Harry stood opposite me in the compartment, watching me with a smirk.

“What?” I finally asked.

“Nothing. It’s just quite ironic how many times we’ve been in an elevator together today.”

When we got to my apartment, it was quiet and dark, leading me to believe that my roommate was either absent or asleep. Regardless, I whispered instructions to Harry to follow me to my bedroom. Once we were there, I turned on the light and closed the door behind us.

“This is so cozy.” Harry commented as we pulled off our soaking wet coats and beanies. I took his coat with mine and carefully laid them out on top of the heater that sat beneath my window.

“I think I have an old shirt you can borrow.” I walked over to my dresser and started pulling the drawers out. “And a pair of soccer shorts, too. Just until, you know, your clothes dry.”

He took the folded clothes from me and changed in the bathroom. When I was left alone, I quickly peeled my wet clothes off and changed into my old Led Zeppelin t-shirt and my favorite silk shorts that had a fine lace trim. While I waited for Harry to return, I fell back on my bed and stretched out. The rain was still pouring outside and was quite audible from my windows. Finally, there was the sound of my door creaking and Harry was back. I didn’t even have to open my eyes to know it.

“Your shirt was a bit tight on me so I decided to just go shirtless.”

My eyes were open wide in seconds.

He looked so good standing in my doorway. His curls were still damp, but his extremely defined torso was dry and my old soccer shorts sat on his hips perfectly. I could feel my estrogen levels spiral out of control when I blinked at his beautiful body.

“You’re totally teasing me right now.” I couldn’t even deny it anymore.

“I haven’t the slightest clue as to what you’re referring to, Miss. Beaumont.” The sarcasm was practically dripping from his tongue. He joined me on the bed, dropping into the spot next to me and propping up his hand to rest his head on. He smirked down at me. We were quiet for a while, taking each other in by the dim lighting from the lamp on my bedside table. It was so retardedly romantic and sweet, especially with the loud rain in the background.

I finally had the guts to lift my hand up to his face and with such daintiness, traced the contour of his face. “You have lovely cheekbones.” I whispered.

He sheepishly grinned at me before placing his fingertips on my arm and then tracing along my skin to my shoulders, neck and eventually, my chin. Every part of me he touched was on fire and I couldn’t prevent the goosebumps forming. He slowly placed his forefinger on my bottom lip, making my heart flutter. It wouldn’t stop beating rapidly as he traced my lip with such softness and delicacy. He finally whispered. “Your lips are lovely.”

I looked to Harry for permission and his fervent eyes said it all. I planted a soft kiss on his lingering finger and waited a second before I reached up to Harry and caught his lips with mine. Harry let out a small whimper and gave into the kiss immediately. It was so soft and innocent. I know we’ve both been anticipating this all day. Harry pulled me closer to him and carefully shifted his bodyweight on top of me to deepen the kiss. My fingers were lost in his curls and every time I moved them, I could feel him shiver against me.

When we pulled apart, we were breathing heavily. I gave him a small smile, pecked him on the lips once more and whispered.

“Stay tonight?”