When Harry Met Luna

“How about this? Does this look alright?” I emerged from the bathroom and into the bedroom, where Mallory was stretched out on my bed watching The Graham Norton show with a bored expression.

Her eyes flickered over to me and groaned. “For Godsakes, Luna, yes! The outfit looks great! The outfit looked great four changes ago too!”

For the past hour, I’ve been switching in and out of skirts, high waisted jeans, low rise jeans, collared shirts, tank tops, regular tshirts, you name it. I was struggling to find the right combination for the One Direction concert we were working this evening. It felt like I was trying too hard in any of the skirts I put on but then I felt too casual in jeans. Now I found myself standing in a pair of black high waisted jeans with a white cropped slouchy tee that said “L.A’ in black college font lettering.

“In theory, that outfit will be very convenient later on.” I raised an eyebrow at Mallory, apparently slow on what she was implying. She smirked and pointed at my exposed midriff. “Easy access to the hills, if you know what I’m sayin’.”

“Right, thats it! I’m changing again!”

“No Luna!” Mallory laughed, sitting up now and grabbing the digital camera she brought over. “The outfit’s perfect. Come on, we have to leave now or we’ll be late.”

I don’t know why I cared so much about how I looked. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I haven’t seen Harry in over twenty-four hours and I didn’t want him to think I rolled out of bed and just put on anything.

Or maybe him kissing me on the cheek two nights ago probably sparked my interest in paying closer attention to how a pair of pants sat on my body.

Yeah, that was probably it.

Mallory was in higher spirits since the break up with William. I was both surprised and impressed by just how quickly she got over it. When I woke up Friday morning on that Godforsaken loveseat with an ache in my neck and a trickle of drool on the corner of my mouth, I found Mallory sitting on the opposite couch already scrolling through her facebook. After she noticed I was awake, I didn’t get a ‘hello’ or a ‘good morning sleepyhead’. All I got was a, ‘I’m currently scrolling through my newsfeed to see who I can fuck next’.

I swear, I was learning new things about this girl every single day.

I made sure to spend all of Friday with her, considering she was under suicide watch until further notice. We mostly watched movies, and ate every greasy piece of crap food you could think of.

Now it was Saturday and in my opinion, it came a little quicker than I would have liked. I hated that we were already more than halfway through our four day weekend and I haven’t had the chance to sleep in past noon yet.

I yawned and made my way over to the closet by the bedroom.

It wasn’t even close to five pm when I started getting really annoying texts from Harry, asking if I was at the venue yet. It was around two pm when I got the first text from him: ‘Just finished press stuff. Come to the venue, I’m bored! xx’. I initially panicked because my hair was still in a greasy bun, there were like fifty bags under my eyes and Mallory wasn’t even close to being on her way over to my apartment yet. I texted back saying there was no way in hell I was getting anywhere near that venue until I’ve had at least four cups of coffee but Harry just kept continuing with his texts. Mallory loved it, thinking he was being so adorably persistent but it just made me nervous. Overwhelmingly nervous.

When I voiced my feelings out loud to Mallory, she could barely handle her excitement. “I knew it! I knew it the minute I saw you two outside my apartment building. I was thinking ‘oh yeah I ship them so hard’”

I had my back to Mallory when I was sifting through the pile of shoes stacked in my closet. I turned around to look at her. “‘Ship’?”

“You know, like relationshipped” She explained, now fixing her hair in the mirror. “It’s this thing crazy kids say on the internet when they’re all about a new relationship.”

“I don’t understand?”

She sighed, clearly frustrated by this. “You need to get a tumblr already. You are so behind the times.”

I finally found a pair of brown leather sandals and quickly slipped my feet into them, stretching the straps behind my heels. “Yeah, yeah. You ready?”

“I’ve been ready, Dollface.”

I grabbed my satchel off the doorknob and shoved my wallet and concealer into it before picking up my phone and heading downstairs after Mallory, who was already waiting in the foyer impatiently. Just as I was about to lock the front door behind me, my phone buzzed twice.

I original thought it was probably Harry, asking if I died on the way to the arena or it was him giving me even more gripe about being late. When I looked down at my phone, however, I was unpleasantly surprised to see two new texts from Derek.

Haven’t heard from you in a while, Loon...

What’re you up to?

I slammed the front door shut behind me. While I followed Mallory to the elevators, I quickly clicked out of the text convo with Derek and clicked on Harry’s name instead. I tapped on the new message box and began typing:

Carefully untwist your knickers, Styles. We’re on our way.



My anxieties were at an all time high when we arrived at the O2 arena later that evening. It felt like a thousand pair of eyes shot straight to both Mallory and I the minute we stepped out of the cab in front of the main entrance to the venue. I guess we did stand out like a pair of sore thumbs, considering we weren’t fourteen or wearing t-shirts with one direction’s faces on it.

Mallory pulled out her fancy, high-tech camera and snapped a quick photo of the line of young girls that wrapped around the massive arena. When she pulled the camera down from her eyes and looked at the photo she just took, she sighed. “I feel so elderly right now.”

I extracted my phone from the back pocket of my jeans and pulled up the convo between me and Harry once again.

We’re here but the line is mental. I’ll text you when we’re inside?

He texted back almost immediately.

Haha are you kidding me? You’re not standing in line. I’m coming to get you! xx

I eyed the line of fans wearily. They still insisted on giving both Mallory and I the ultimate stink eye for not wearing any kind of One Direction memorabilia on our bodies. The daggers shooting from their eyes were not comforting in the slightest. I quickly texted Harry back.

Is that safe?..

“What’s he saying?” Mallory asked, now taking pictures of the arena.

“He said he’s coming to get us?” I replied. “I don’t know where we’re suppose to g-”

My phone buzzed again.

Walk over to the tall gates past the Main Entrance. I’ll meet you there xx

“Tall gates...” I said out loud to Mallory. “Do you see any tall gates?”

Before I could even begin to do a lay of the land, piercing screams coming from the line in front of us erupted without warning. It was so alarming and loud, I was sure there some sort of zombie apocalypse unfolding somewhere close.

“I’m going to assume those gates over there.” Mallory pointed to the tall black gates on the edge of the venue that tons of young girls were starting to flee to.

Above all of there little heads, I could see Harry behind the gates with four security guards standing behind him.

“Jesus.” I groaned. I slowly started to make my way over there, now dreading going into the mosh pit of little angry girls. “This is not going to be fun.”

“Oddly enough, I’m getting deja vu over this.” Mallory pondered out loud while we walked. “I distinctly remember trying to climb those gates when I was seeing N’sync on my 10th birthday.”

I shot her a look.

“What? I was passionate about Lance Bass, alright?” She huffed.

Harry immediately spotted Mallory and I behind the ever so growing crowd around the black gates and waved. He backed up and said something to the closest security guard behind him while motioning towards us when talking into the security guard’s ear. The security guard gave us a cold, hard stare which led me to believe he was either really hating his job right about now or he was just generally unamused by our overall appearance.

When Harry turned back to the mob outside the gate again, the security guard sprung into action and walked towards the edge of the gate which apparently was also a door. After fighting off a couple of fan girls when he opened the gate, he gestured towards us to walk over to him quickly. The angry mob of tweens were increasingly growing and getting louder so Mallory and I wasted no time in briskly walking over to the angry-looking muscular security guard. Without hesitation, he grabbed onto my wrist and tugged me through the open gate. I had to yank Mallory inside behind me in order to save her from the fans, who were now trying to push past her and into the venue.

“Holy shit, these girls are relentless!” Mallory exclaimed, brushing off the imaginary dirt from her shoulders and stepping back from the arms that were now reaching through the bars. I felt like I was in a horror film. These fans weren’t fucking around.

Harry tried best he could to sign as many things that were being thrown at him through the gates, offering his best smile to his fans. It was such a strange thing to witness. I used to the Harry who could easily lounge around and eat two Big Macs from McDonalds in ten minutes. This was a new Harry. This was the international popstar Harry.

“Sorry, guys. No more autographs.” The security sternly pulled Harry back from the gate, who had to reach back quickly to give a signed cd back to the fan before walking away. “You’ll see him inside. Back up, back up!”

Harry gave his fans one last wave before walking up to us with a grin. “Alright, ladies?”

I still felt flustered from fighting off the hormonal tweens that were yelling for Harry behind the gates. “I feel like we just survived the fourth installment of Residential Evil, but yeah I think we’re good.”

Harry laughed and pulled me into a headlock as we walked into the arena. I started complaining and attempted to push him off when he started messing up my hair. I could hear the fans behind us yell in protest.

We were escorted by the four security guards into a narrow, white-walled hallway that had an endless amount of closed doors. Harry talked animatedly to Mallory and I while we walked through the never-ending corridor. I only caught every other word because I was interminably distracted by how good he looked with a grey ripped beanie on his head. This was probably the first time I ever saw his forehead.

We finally arrived to what I figured was the ‘green room’ since the rest of his bandmates were sitting in there, as well as a couple of girls, a hairstylist and a rack full of clothes.

“Oi, look! It’s Luna Agnes Monet!” Niall declared when the three of us entered the room. Prior to the show, Mallory gave me a quick crash course on who was who in One Direction so I didn’t look like a complete fool when we were around them. “How goes it?”

I groaned and walked over to where Niall and the rest of One Direction were sitting. I heard Harry laughing behind me while I covered my eyes with one hand. I hoped that Harry and the rest of his band had forgotten the time I barged into my dad’s office, yelling obscenities about Janet and in turn, being called my full name. Obviously, this was not the case. “Why do you still remember that?”

“Because it was hilarious!” Zayn was sitting next to Niall on the red couch, now looking up with a huge smile. I immediately observed Mallory with suspicion the minute Zayn opened his pretty little mouth. When Mallory was teaching me the names of the other members, I remember her getting extra googly-eyed over the pictures of Zayn. Even in the cab here, she started talking about him (“Listen, I’m generally good at hiding my inner fangirl when I’m around A-list celebs but if I am within three feet of Zayn fucking Malik, I might lose it. I’m going to fucking lose it, Luna”). She hastily busied herself with her phone.

“So nice to see Harry’s finally allowing us to hang out with ya.” Louis was sitting the farthest away in a foldable chair in front of one of the mirrors that lined the back wall. A girl with lavender-colored hair was fixing his hair with some sort of hair cream to make it stick up perfectly. He was making eye contact with me through the reflection of the mirror. “He doesn’t real like to share.”

I looked over at Harry and saw him narrow his eyes at Louis, struggling to hold back the grin on his face.

“God, tell me about it.” Mallory finally spoke. “He barely even shares her with me.”

And thats when I knew Mallory was officially comfortable with One Direction. She was that type of person who got along with just about anyone under the sun and knew all the right things to say to people she barely knew.

Me, on the other hand, took a little longer to progress into being more comfortable around the rest of Harry’s band. While Mallory took a seat next to a girl, who I later found out to be Louis’s girlfriend Eleanor, I sat on the arm of the couch, listening to Harry, Niall and Zayn joke about an interview they did earlier in the day. Niall was so excited to tell Mallory and I about how the interviewer kept making subtle sexual passes at him throughout the entire thing.

Eleanor rolled her eyes and turned to Mallory and me. “This is now his fifth time telling the story. Fifth.”

“And it’s not even remotely true.” The shaved head bandmate who I believed to be Liam, walked straight into the conversation with a half-eaten apple in one hand and a beer in the other. I couldn’t help but think that was such an unusual combination.

“It is too true!” Niall’s Irish accent was infinitely more obvious when he got loud and even more excited. “The lass couldn’t take her greedy eyes off me grand physique. Look see, right here! All muscle.”

I laughed when he lifted his shirt to reveal nothing but an average, untoned stomach. Zayn reached over and slapped it, making an unflattering cringe-worthy sound.

Olly Murs was set to play first, and was also the reason we left the green room. Since Mallory and I were technically on the job, we had to watch the opener perform. When Harry said he would come watch Olly with us, that was just something I assumed he would do, but when Zayn jumped up from the couch and said he would come too, I couldn’t help but grin. It was hard to miss Mallory’s face light up with delight when Zayn stood up and followed us to the stage.

My stomach started doing unimaginable flips when I could hear the crowd outside screaming wildly with anticipation. I tried as hard as I could to swallow down the feeling of exhilaration as we walked towards the huge doors that read ‘MAIN STAGE’. I’ve been to plenty of concerts, hundreds of them even, but I’ve never been on this side of wall. I was used to nose-bleed seats or fighting people to get closer to the stage, not back stage.

By the time we reached the stage, Olly Murs just started singing his first song. It was hard to concentrate on him jumping around on stage when I was so distracted by the amount of people in the arena. There were rows upon rows upon rows of screaming girls and agitated mothers and fathers. I couldn’t believe this was all for One Direction and Olly Murs. I also couldn’t believe how incredibly behind I was when it came to pop culture. I had no idea Harry’s band had this kind of following.

“Is this a sold out show?” I asked Harry, pointing my finger at the audience.

He laughed like it was the funniest thing I’ve ever said. I quirked an eyebrow at him before finally responded. “It’s been sold out for months, Luna.”

“I feel like it would be less sold out if your fans knew how badly your breath smells like fart.” I smirked when he looked at me in shock. What could I say? I had to bring him down from his pedestal somehow.

Instead of responding, he bit down on his lower lip and bumped into me with his hip. I laughed as I momentarily lost my balance after the gesture, merely shaking my head at him. He grinned with triumph.

When Olly Murs finished and we started heading back to One Direction’s green room, Harry walked next to me while Zayn and Mallory were ahead of us, clearly too engrossed in their own conversation to even remember they were with us. While we retraced our steps to the green room, I couldn’t help but notice the glares I received from backstage groupies as they watched me and Harry pass them in the florescent-lit hallway. Harry, on the other hand, didn’t even give them a second glance.

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you.” Harry spoke, slowing down purposely to let Zayn and Mallory get ahead. “What are you doing tomorrow and Monday?”

“Well, I planned on catching up on Grey’s Anatomy with my good friend, Dominos Pizza.” I answered truthfully. “Why?”

Harry beamed. “I was thinking you and I should go on a road trip.”

“A road trip?” I questioned, blatantly ignoring the glares I was getting from another set of groupies waiting in the hallway. “To where?”

“Holmes Chapel.” Harry replied. “I have to drive up tomorrow since my mum and her boyfriend are out of town. I have to feed and walk the dogs and all that.”

I had to immediately remind myself that freaking out over him asking me to go to his house in Cheshire for a night, wouldn’t be a good look on me. Instead, I ignored the fresh new batch of butterflies that exploded in my stomach and responded to Harry in a casual, joking way. “Yeah I guess I could clear my busy schedule up for you. Are you secretly trying to whisk me away into a romantic getaway or something?”

When I said it, we were right outside the doorway that led into their green room. Zayn and Mallory were already inside, talking loudly amongst the rest of the group.

It was meant to be a joke. It really was. I was only kidding about the romantic getaway part. I expected him to laugh or maybe even roll his eyes but he didn’t.

Instead, Harry stopped us outside the door and looked at me with a somewhat serious expression. Before I knew it, he reached up to my exposed shoulder and slowly traced his fingertips down the back of my arm, past my elbow, under my wrist and along my own fingertips. He was standing so close to me and I could feel the skin he touched burning with goosebumps. How was no one else seeing this right now?

He finally looked up from our hands, and shot me a wicked but playful smile. “Only if you want it to be.”

And with that, he backed up and walked into the greenroom, immediately jumping into whatever conversation the rest of the guys were having. I was left standing in the doorway, apparently unable to move.

What the FUCK just happened?