When Harry Met Luna

A sleeveless red flannel shirt.

Harry was wearing a freaking sleeveless flannel shirt when he picked me up in his dumb black Range Rover the following afternoon.

And he said the only reason he wore it was because it was hot out.

Yeah, bullshit. He knew he looked good.

I had to stop myself from staring at him throughout the entire drive to Holmes Chapel. His hair was standing up perfectly on it’s own - which reminds me, I have to find out what the hell kind of hairspray he uses - he was wearing a sleeveless red flannel shirt and a pair of classic black Ray Ban sunglasses that were shielding his eyes from the bright and sweltering sun.

He looked unbelievably handsome.

And here I am, stupid lazy Luna, who was too tired to even put enough thought into my own outfit earlier today. I rolled out of bed somewhere between 12 to 2pm and somehow ended up in a pair of old floral patterned shorts and a loose white tank top. I didn’t even think twice about throwing my hair up in a high, loose ponytail the minute I stepped outside to meet Harry at his car; the heat was sometimes unbearable in the middle of summer.

I didn’t really get much sleep last night. In fact, I barely slept last night. How could I when all I could think about was what Harry said to me before he went on stage. Harry blatantly implied he wanted me. I’m not crazy, right? The kid freaking finger-banged the hell out of my arm and tried the whole broody ‘only if you want to make this a romantic trip’ bullcrap on me. Are you kidding me? Hell yeah I want to make this into a super sexual, let’s-make-out-on-your-childhood-bed-for-the-next day-with-our-shirts-off, trip.

Even after he pulled that stunt on me, the sexual tension between us last night did not stop there. When Mallory, Eleanor and I stood side-stage, waiting for the boys to run out on stage for their opening number, I wasn’t aware that they would be coming out from the side we were standing on. So you can imagine my surprise when I felt Harry come up behind me and tickling my exposed skin between my cropped top and high-waisted jeans with his incredibly soft, warm hands. It didn’t help that the lights were completely turned off, because it was the moment right before they walked out on stage. I was 99.9999% positive he brushed his hand up against my butt before he finally went out on stage too.

I couldn’t handle it anymore. The sexual tension was killing me.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Harry’s voice cut into my musing. He reached over and tapped my forehead for emphasis.

I quickly slapped his hand away. “Just plotting an elaborate plan to steal as many things from your bedroom as possible and selling them on eBay. Nothing major.”

We both shared a smile when he briefly took his eyes off the road to give me a look. I turned away and looked down at my lap with a giggle while he scoffed loudly.

According to the GPS in Harry’s car, the trip to Holmes Chapel would take us three and a half hours, which wasn’t at all surprising due to the lack of traffic on the roads. We drove through Northampton, rounded Birmingham city, eventually drove through Stafford, passed the city of Stoke-on-Trent and finally, took an exit off at Holmes Chapel Road.

The drive itself was surprisingly pleasant. After getting over the shock of Harry’s exposed biceps and his always charmingly good looks, we spent the majority of the ride listening to his road trip playlist he apparently made earlier this morning - “Bloody proud of it, I am! Spent a solid sixty minutes constructing the perfect flow of tunes” - and I had to admit, it was a great playlist until I noticed he put ‘Sweet Disposition’ by The Temper Trap and ‘Moon River’ by Frank Sinatra, both of which held a very bizarre connection between me and Harry. When they started playing in the car, I made sure to look every else but Harry’s smiling face. Maybe it was by coincidence they ended up on the playlist but after recent events, I was beginning to believe otherwise.

I’ve never been to Holmes Chapel but it was almost identical to Mollington, a town that was only a little more west from here. When I was younger, I used to go to Mollington all the time to visit my grandparents. They always insisted on me staying with them on the weekends, especially after my mother died. My grandma in particular, was there for me no matter what. We were always close when I was little but even after my mother’s death, our bond tightened. It’s only in recent years that we spoke less. What with my departure to the States, and in the time span it takes to send a letter via snail mail, we barely spoke. I missed her.

Holmes Chapel was nothing short of your average English town with it’s fish n chips on every corner, wide fields full of boys playing soccer games against each other (or should I say, ‘football’ games; I’ve gotten into the habit of calling it soccer after living in the states for two years) and frustrated mums and their younger daughters leaving the convenience stores with their little Twister ice creams. All of these generic things started making me feel bad for not visiting my grandparents back in Mollington since being home.

It was precisely 7:20 PM when we pulled into a driveway of a two-story house. His house looked like every other house on the block with it’s extended white window sills and triangular, brown tiled roof.

The minute we walked in the front door, the sound of barking and loud thumping came from the upstairs part of the house, giving me a fright. Within seconds, two beagle dogs came barreling down the stairs and started jumping crazily onto Harry’s legs. He had to sit on his knees to pet them, which seemed to worsen their excitement. I laughed while they attempted to cover him in kisses.

“They’re adorable.” I commented, now bending down to pet their heads. “What are their names?”

“Doodle and Gizmo.” Harry quickly turned to me and narrowed his eyes. “Mum picked the names, not me.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “I’m so sure.”

After ten minutes, Doodle and Gizmo finally calmed down but the minute Harry reached for their leashes hanging by the door, they started up with all the excitement once more. When we managed to hook the leashes onto their pink collars, Harry opened the front door and in no time we were instantly jerked outside.

Harry talked excitedly while we walked Gizmo and Doodle around the neighborhood. It was close to dusk outside, which was also considered magic hour because the sky was a dark blue, the temperature had finally dropped and the street lights were blinking on. In a word, his neighborhood was picturesque. He pointed to several areas, telling me stories about each designated area. The time he broke his ankle playing football in the park when he was eight, the house he egged on Halloween as a dare, the little convenience store he stole gum from when he was six years old. I loved listening to him talk, especially about the childhood stories he clearly cherished. With every new story, came a wider smile and an extra twinkle in his eye. I couldn’t help but wonder if he held onto these memories more dearly now that his life has taken a turn for the more complex.

By the time we did a circle and a half around Harry’s community, it was officially dark out and the streets were quiet. It was a different atmosphere from the city which was an ambience I welcomed greatly.

“I don’t know about you, but I definitely fancy a cuppa tea right about now.” Harry stated as we turned into his driveway with Gizmo and Doodle. “Shall I make us some?”

He didn’t give me time to answer because before I could open my mouth, he whistled at Gizmo and started jogging the last couple of feet to the house. Doodle, who’s leash I was holding, started running after both Harry and Gizmo, clearly misinterpreting it as a race.

“Okay, okay! Jesus!” I laughed, catching up to the other two. “Hey Styles, get that kettle going. I’m thirsty!”



“Are ye ready for the grand finale?”

“Harry, you’ve been asking me that for the past hour already. Can you just show me whatever the hell you’re talking about already?”

“You can’t rush what I’m about to show ya, Luna.” He simply stated, walking around his bedroom with folded arms. “Patience.”

I fell back onto his bed dramatically with a huge huff.

After eating leftover chicken and mash potatoes that his mom left for us, Harry started going on and on about this ‘grand finale’ thing. At first, I was positive he was going to strip naked in front of me and dance to Vanilla Ice or something (which I wouldn’t have entirely hated, by the way) but all I got was a strict order to change into my ‘jammies’ - you bet your ass I gave him shit for even thinking it was okay to use that word out loud - and to meet him back at his bedroom. When I did finally come back in my old Lakers basketball tank and blue running shorts from American Apparel, Harry had already changed into a white t-shirt and grey sweats. Even in his laziest outfit, he looked unbelievably divine.

“Almost time.” Harry hummed, looking around his room. For some reason, he had every single light on his room. It was so bright in here, I was convinced I could get a tan. “Yup, that should do it.”

“What are you even on abou-”

“Quick! Get into bed!” Harry pushed and poked at me until I moved to the other side of the bed. “It’s time!”

“You’ve officially lost it.” I sighed, rolling to the other side of the bed and crawling under his black duvets. “Are you seriously getting this excited just to go to sleep?”

Harry ignored my question and jumped under the covers next to me. All the lights were still on his room and for some reason, Harry was fiddling with something underneath his bedside table. I couldn’t have been more confused in my life.

But suddenly, something strange happened.

Yellow by Coldplay started playing...everywhere.

I looked around Harry’s room with confusion. The music was so clear and crisp that I was sure Chris Martin and his band to be performing the song right in the middle of Harry’s bedroom.

“What the-”

“Surround sound. I know.” Harry grinned, now raising his hands above our heads. “Ready?”

“I mean, at this point I don’-”

Harry clapped twice and just like that, I was no longer in Harry’s childhood bedroom.

I was transported to space.

The second Harry clapped, all five lights in his room disappeared and revealed something spectacular on Harry’s ceiling. Above us, were hundreds of glow in the dark stars, speckled across the entire ceiling. The ceiling fan had little glowing comets painting on each blade, now slowly pushing them around in a circular motion. Right next to the floating comets was a large full moon painted with such great detail, I could see the shadows coming off the craters.

I couldn’t prevent the gasp that escaped my lips when I took it all in.

“It’s something, isn’t it?” Harry whispered.

I didn’t bother looking at him. Besides the beautiful view on his ceiling, everything else was concealed by darkness.

“Harry.” My mouth was wide open, still struggling to take it all in. “How did you do this?”

“My sister and I fixed it up one Christmas a couple of years ago.” I could hear Harry smiling through his words. “She likes to paint so we bought a bunch of glow-in-the-dark paint and star stickers and just went for it.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the pink and purple nebula painted right above our heads. The tiny speckles of white stars twinkled back at me.

“It’s beautiful.” I curled my fingers into the plush duvet and pulled it up to my chin. I couldn’t stop the grin from appearing on my lips as I gazed up at the painted starry sky. It was just so peaceful and innocent.

“Told you so.” Harry chuckled under his breath. I could feel him shifting around next to me, promptly reminding me that we were in bed together. He rushed me to get under the covers so quickly, that I momentarily forgot that we would be sharing a bed tonight. “Look, do you see that little cluster of stars over there?”

Now that my eyes were adjusted to the dark, I could see the silhouette of Harry’s arm waving above me. It was pointed to the tiny cluster of white and yellow stars behind the ceiling fan. I hummed a ‘mhmm’ and let him continue. “That’s my favorite part out of the whole ceiling. If you look closely, I re-created the little dipper and Orion.”

My heart stopped beating.

“Orion.” I repeated. “As in...the..the..”

“The hunter from Greek Mythology?” Harry finished my sentence. “Yeah! His constellation is one of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky. He’s my favorite because he’s suppose to be made up of the brightest stars in the galaxy.”

Orion was also Artemis’s only love and hunting companion and Artemis was my greek goddess and oh my god, I can’t breathe.

“I remember learning about him in my english class back in middle school.” Harry continued while I laid still, my stomach bursting with butterflies and nervous. “Apparently Zeus placed him among the stars because he was a lover of his daughter, Artemis. I thought that was so interesting and beautiful.”

Oh. My. God.

I couldn’t believe it. Out of all the Greek mythology Gods, Harry picked Orion. Harry liked Orion. Harry was Orion.

And as we both fell silent and stared up at his magnificent ceiling, I couldn’t help but notice that we were written in the stars.

We were literally written in Harry’s ceiling full of painted stars.



After the glowing paint slowly faded into the darkness, Harry and I did not. We were still wide awake and loud with random discussions. We somehow moved on from Greek mythology to a heated argument about the first installment of Pirates Of The Caribbean, and from there, we migrated onto the subject of sharks which then lead into a conversation about animals, then food, then chocolate and now, brownies.

It was 2:30 in the morning and we were talking about brownies.

“I can’t take this conversation anymore.” I moaned, turning underneath the duvet and covering my face completely. “It’s making me hungry for them.”

“Ye know...” Harry’s voice trailed off into the distance.

I lifted my head up from above the covers. “What?”

“There’s a 24 hour Tesco down the road from here.” Harry’s smirk was obviously seeping through each word. “We could...”

I sat up abruptly, looking down at Harry’s silhouette. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

We shot out of his bed in seconds, racing each other out of the room, down the stairs and towards the front door. Gizmo and Doodle jumped up from their beds in the living room, clearly aroused by the fact that Harry and I were running around to get our shoes and his keys.

You should have seen the looks we got from the female cashiers when we walked through the sliding glass doors of their supermarket, twenty minutes later. I couldn’t blame them for staring at us the way they did. I would be pretty shocked too if a international pop star walked into my work place at three in the morning.

Harry and I ignored them and made a bee line for the baking aisle. We were on a mission and not even the little giddy squeals coming from the the cashier lanes were going to stop us.

“Got the sugar?” I asked as I picked up the flour from the third shelf.

“Check!” Harry exclaimed. “Cocoa powder?”

“Right here.” I grinned, turning to face him.

We rushed over to where the cashier women were standing. They couldn’t stop ogling at Harry, who didn’t even blink an eyelash. Instead, he hurriedly swiped his card, grabbed the grocery bags and ushered us out of the once again empty supermarket.

By the time we got back to Harry’s house, we were wired from excitement and fired up over the fact that we were about to make the best batch of brownies in the world.

While I read the directions out loud from my phone, Harry ran around the kitchen, grabbing all the materials we needed. I quickly preheated the oven and started measuring out the ingredients in the measuring cup carefully.

“Okay, now we need to mix the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla till they are blended in the medium bowl.” I stated, throwing in both the eggs and vanilla into the bowl Harry picked out. He attentively added the oil in at the same time, accidentally bumping our hands while he did it.

“Sorry. I’m a clutz.” His eyes gleamed from beneath his lashes. I blushed and turned back to the directions. I couldn’t let myself get distracted by how ridiculously sexy Harry looked in his stupid pajamas. I wanted to rip them off his body.

Just as I started mixing the blend of ingredients in the first bowl, I heard Harry giggling beside me. I stopped and looked at him. “What?”

“Nothin’” He laughed again, pointing to my face. “It’s just, you got sugar all over your cheek!”

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the bowl. “Can you take it off? My hands are already dirty enough with the oil and-OH MY GOD, HARRY???”

I yelped in surprise when I felt Harry lean over and lick the access sugar off my cheek.

Licked.

Like. With his tongue.

“Did you really just do that?!” I lifted my shoulder, wiping off my cheek. I could feel my knees start to give out below me, suddenly feeling the sexual tension between us rise once more.

“You told me to take it off!” He shrugged with feigned innocence. The heat on my face as well as throughout my whole body was equivalent to the temperature of a thousand suns. He knew it affected me too because he wouldn’t stop smirking.

“You’re so lucky I’m on a mission to bake these brownies right now.” I huffed, going back to mixing the ingredients together. “Or I would have totally kicked your ass.”

“Yeah, I’d like to see you try and wrestle me.” I wanted to wipe that smirk right off his face. Instead, I rolled my eyes and ignored him.

We finally mixed in the coco powder, flour and salt into the first bowl, now creating the wonderful chocolate mix. I had to slap Harry’s hand away several times after he kept sticking his fingers into the mix and eating it. Literally every time I turned my back to check the oven, I caught him doing it.

“Harry!” I laughed, shoving him away from the mix and taking the bowl over to the baking dish by the sink. As I carefully poured the mix into the baking dish, I could hear Harry laughing behind me.

Once I finally emptied the bowl out completely, I set it aside and turned around to look at Harry.

I couldn’t help the string of giggles coming out of my mouth when I looked at him. He was standing opposite me with a smile filthied with chocolate mix.

“Harry!” I shook my head, giving him a look of disbelief.

“What?” He smirked now taking a step forward.

“You have chocolate mix all over your mouth.”

He took another step towards me. The smile that once inhabited my lips had immediately disappeared. Goosebumps erupted on the surface of my skin when I realized what he was going to say next.

“Take it off.”