When Harry Met Luna

“Ow William! That was my hair!” Mallory scolded in a hush whisper, swatting away at her head.

“Sorry.” William whispered back, trying to crouch down as low as we were. “I don’t even know what we’re looking for down here.”

“Look see!” I exclaimed under my breathe, pointing past the shrubs and towards the footpath in the distance. “There he is!”

“Where?” Mallory’s eyes darted across the park until they landed on Harry’s figure, which was currently taking a seat on my claimed bench. “Oh! No fucking way. You weren’t lying about this.”

“I.” I poked her knee. “Told.” I poked her again. “You!”

Mallory, her boyfriend William, and I were crouched down on our knees, discreetly camouflaging ourselves behind the black painted fence that enclosed Primrose Hill park.

You see, all of this started because of a stupid turd nugget, also known as Harry Styles, who has been stalking me on my lunch break for the past eight days. And when I say stalking, I mean he literally meets me at my designated bench at Primrose park everyday. And it was getting to be a real pain in my ass. After telling Mallory about my weird encounters with Harry Styles one day, she simply couldn’t believe me. She actually thought I was making it up. Luckily for me, getting proof wouldn’t be as hard as I thought it would be.

“Who is that?” William was starting to get self-conscious after noticing the weird stares we were getting from pedestrians passing us.

Mallory gasped and swiveled around on her toes to face her boyfriend. “Uh, Harry Styles? Do you even know music or life?”

I turned around and offered William partial alliance. “Don’t worry, I didn’t know who he was either until about a week ago. He’s one of the singers in One Direction.”

“You mean one of the hottest singers in One Direction -no offense, Will.” She lifted a hand up to her boyfriend before he could protest. William rolled his eyes and sighed while resting his elbows on his bent knees. It was fairly obvious he was done with our super stealth spying mission. Mallory turned back to me. “Do you not realize how big of a deal this is? He’s an A-list celebrity, Luna. He has twelve million followers on twitter and probably has Justin Timberlake’s mobile number on speed dial and he manages to take the time out of his extremely busy famous schedule to sit with you on your lunch break!? I’m freaking out.”

“Relax Mallory, yeah?” William replied.

“No William, I will not relax!” She exclaimed. “This is a big deal!”

I took Mallory’s rant into consideration. I couldn't help but agree at how weird this situation was. I found it unusual that he insisted on joining me everyday. I wasn’t interesting and I definitely wasn’t interested in him. But without fail, he came prepared for my unwavering silent treatment. I couldn’t help but wonder what it was that brought him back every time.

“I don’t know why he does it. I ignore him the whole time he’s with me.” I responded. “And any time we did speak to each other, I was extremely rude and visibly annoyed by his existance.”

“He clearly fancies you.” Mallory said it like it was the most obvious thing.

I gave her an incredulous look. “No way!”

“Hey guys-” William tried to cut in but we ignored him.

“Yes way! Are you kidding? Why else would he try to ‘woo’ you every day?” She countered.

“Guys-” William tried again.

“Woo me!? He’s literally the most annoying human being in the entire world. I would nev-”

“GUYS!” William cried.

“What!?” Mallory and I shouted in unison, turning to William.

“He left.” William pointed past us and toward the park.

“Huh?” I pressed my head up against the black painted gate to get a closer look. “What the hell? He was just there!”

“I don’t see him.” Mallory was next to me, practically pushing her head through the gap to get a better look. “Maybe he went to get a-”

“What are we all looking at?”

The question didn’t come from William and it certainly didn’t come from Mallory because it was a male voice. A deep, masculine voice.

I turned around and screamed with surprise. To my horror, Harry Styles was looking down at us with a raised eyebrow and stupid smirk on his face.

God dammit.

Mallory shrieked too and fell back onto me, making me lose my balance and fall back against the fence. I winced and started throwing out obscenities after the pain I just endured. Out of the three of us, William was the one who recovered the easiest by casually standing up next to Harry and dusting off the dirt on his jeans.

“We were just, uhh-” I pushed Mallory upright before standing up. I was racking my brains to come up with a legitimate excuse to conceal the fact that we were totally busted for spying on him.

“-Luna dropped a penny so my boyfriend William here, and I were trying to help her find it.” Mallory quickly finished my stuttering.

I could see Harry trying to stifle laughter which made me want to die right then and there. When William introduced himself to Harry and shook his hand, I discreetly punched Mallory in the shoulder and widened my eyes at her. She mouthed ‘what?’ and shrugged.

After an awkward silence between the four of us, Mallory cleared her throat.

“Well, William and I actually have somewhere to be right now.” She hooked her arm through his and yanked on him. William gave her a confused look but she chose to ignore it. “So we’ll be on our way. Cheerio!”


Harry happily waved at them while they backed away and walked across the street. Meanwhile, I glared in Mallory’s direction. She turned around and smirked, making me want to strangle her perfect little neck.

“So, since we are not sitting on your bench right now,” He turned back to me. “I’m allowed to ask a question. Do you like caramel dipped apples?”



On the way to Harry’s “favorite bakery in the whole world” which was called Tilly’s Treats, I grumpily walked next to him with my hands shoved in my pockets and a permanent displeased expression on my face. I wasn’t angry, per say, but I was uncomfortable. And awkward. After a lot of persuasion and bribing on Harry’s end, I found myself getting lunch with Harry.

Well, if you consider a caramel dipped apple on a stick lunch, that is.

For some reason, Harry was making me feel nervous. I blamed it on the fact that I just couldn’t understand why he was being so persistent about us hanging out. It didn’t make sense to me. I wasn’t a celebrity, I wasn’t blonde (which, according to gossip websites, were his type--yes I did my research, don’t look at me like that) and I certainly wasn’t in any way flirting with him to give him enough reason to assume I am into him - which I’m not, by the way. But here we were, walking through London town together, acting like this was some sort of...I don’t know, thing.

And as he happily went on about how good it felt living in London again and how great it was to be recording with “the lads” for their second album, I started thinking that maybe all of this was in my head. Maybe I was just over-thinking every little thing now because of how emotionally fucked up I felt after Derek’s affair.

And then I remembered how much I missed Derek and how happy we used to be when we were still together and how effortless it felt.

“You alright, Luna?” Harry had apparently stopped talking and was looking at me funny. “You look a little green.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m fine.” I swallowed, letting all Derek-related thoughts dissolve into the back of my mind. “I was just trying to remember when’s the last time I actually had a caramel covered apple.”

Lying to Harry was becoming a habit at this point and it didn’t help that I was absolute shit at lying as well.

Thankfully Harry didn’t question it because we arrived at Tilly’s Treats. He opened the door for me, which I noted was actually kind of nice, and we both entered the small, cosy bakery. I let Harry lead the way, who was already striking up conversation with the woman behind the till. Judging by the fluent casualness between both the woman and Harry, it was quite clear to me that Harry has been here more than once or twice.

While Harry conversed with the woman behind the counter, I took the time to look around my surroundings. The place was practically deserted and I couldn’t comprehend why. The bakery was beautiful. The floors were wooden, the ceiling were high and there was even a rustic golden chandelier hanging above us. Most of the seating was covered in a royal purple velvet and there was contemporary art hanging everywhere. What really won me over, however, was the sweet but subtle voice of Frank Sinatra, playing amongst the hidden speakers.

I was so bewitched by this new delightful discovery, that I didn’t realize Harry had already ordered and paid for our two apples.

“Hey!” I protest. “You didn’t have to-”

“But I did.” Harry cut me off, beaming.

I waved my new apple at him, in attempt to be menacing. “But you-”

“-wanted to.” He finished my sentence, even though that was totally not what I was going to say. He put his hand on the small of my back and guided me out of the store whilst saying goodbye to the woman who served us.

“You’re annoying.” I concluded out loud. I unwrapped the caramel apple and tried to bite into it. I had to prevent myself from visibly wincing; the thing was made of rock.

Harry chuckled, unwrapping his own apple. “Annoying? Why am I annoying!?”

“Because not only do you show up unannounced almost all the time, you pay for my stuff too!” I exclaimed.

He chewed on his apple, creating a loud crunching sound in his mouth. “Is that such a bad thing?”

“And the persistence! God, YOUR PERSISTENCE!” I continued, realizing how mad he made me. “You are worse than my spinning instructor back in LA who is a total psycho bitch. She actually wants hurt people if they stop cycling for a nanosecond.”

“Luna.” He laughed at my rant. “Why are you so shocked that I want to be your friend?”

I stopped walking and looked at him, mid-bite. “Friend?”

He stopped a few feet in front of me. “Well, yeah. I mean, you seem really cool. You play the piano brilliantly, you’re an amazing artist and you’re hilarious. Can you blame me for wanting to be your friend?”

My cheeks turned tomato red while a smile crept on my lips. Harry’s response had confirmed that I was over-analyzing everything. His intentions were good-natured and here I was putting up walls for no reason. And you know what? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad having a friend around. God knows I blacklisted all the friends I used to have here before. They were all slutty, annoying and too egotistical to stay in touch with anyways.

I started walking again, now looking at Harry in a whole new light. “How do you know I’m a good artist? Are you just presuming?”

“No.” He answered. “I’ve definitely peaked at your sketchbook a couple of times back at the bench.”

I hit my caramel apple against his, making a loud ‘clack’ noise. “So you’re a Peeping Tom now aye, Styles?”

“Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” We stopped right outside the Columbia Records building. Harry smirked. “You dropped your penny by the park? Really, Luna?”

I covered my mouth with my hand to suppress the giggles coming out. “Alright, fine! You win this round, Styles.”

He was absolutely chuffed.

When we said our goodbyes and I headed back inside the building, I couldn’t help but notice that I was in a pretty good mood. And it was all because of Harry.

In fact, the good mood lasted for the rest of the day. While Mallory and I helped Janet finalize all the decorations and RSVP’s for the 360 Sound Event, I couldn’t stop thinking about Harry. I felt foolish now, for being so hostile towards him. He was nothing but nice to me, even when he did tease me about certain things. But thats what friends do, right? They tease each other and they joke around. Maybe Harry wasn’t so bad after all.

Besides, it’s not everyday you get to call a famous boy band singer your pal.

When I got off work at six, I happily skipped out of the elevator and through the front doors to meet Roger by the car. Of course, my dad opted to stay later than usual, so I took advantage of this by asking Roger to take a quick detour to get sticky waffles. Thankfully, Roger obliged. I think he secretly enjoys getting sticky waffles with me mostly because it was our thing when I was younger.

I was seriously all sunshine and daisies when I got home. I had sticky waffles, I was drinking a large sweet tea, and you know what? I was even having a good hair day.

I was seriously in a good place.

Until I opened the front door of my dad’s apartment.

I kicked the front door shut with my foot while shrugging off the satchel bag from my shoulder and licking the access syrup off my fingers.

“Oh wait! She just got in the door!” Bimbo Beth was holding the home phone to her head and practically shot up from the leather couch the minute she heard me come in. Things between us were still a little off, mostly due to my stubbornness and my difficulty adjusting towards change. I raised my eyebrow at her in confusion when she ran over to me with the phone. “Hang on, I’ll put her on the phone now, yeh?”

She pulled the phone away from her ear and held it out for me. For a split second, I actually got butterflies because I thought maybe Harry was creepy and weird enough to find a way to get my phone number to hang out some more. Then I realized how weird I was getting about all this and that I even got butterflies because of it.

Before I could ask Beth who it was, she whispered loudly so the person on the phone couldn’t hear her. “It’s one of your friends from America! He said it was urgent.”

My heart dropped.

He.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

In a panic, I snatched the phone from Beth and held it tightly against my chest while dashing up the stairs and into my bedroom. I shut the door behind me and leaned against it, practically heaving with fear.

I looked down at the phone in my hands. There is only one ‘he’ I know from America who would go to the extent of calling me in the UK and it was my ex-boyfriend, Derek Sanders.

With great delay, slowly pulled it up to my ear. I was expecting the worst. “Hello?”

My voice sounded raspy and tired, something I didn’t expect. My own voice sounded foreign to me.

“Luna.” His voice made my knees buckle, making me slip down against my bedroom door in defeat. I hadn’t heard his voice in so long. I could feel my heart pounding rapidly against my chest. I closed my eyes shut, hoping it would stop. “I’m so glad I found you.”

“How did you get this number?” I know I never gave it to him. I would have remembered if I did.

“A magician never reveals his secrets!” He snickered at his own joke. His light-heartedness and his cheerful outlook on life was something I fell in love with when I met Derek. The thought made me feel sick. “I was worried about you, Loon. You disappeared one day and everyone panicked! We didn’t know where you went.”

I stayed silent. I couldn’t process the fact that I was on the phone with Derek right now. I worked so hard to prevent any contact with him since being back home but of course, Derek got his way and managed to find me.

He took my silence as a cue for him to continue. “How are you?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?” My voice quivered just like I knew it would. I didn’t want to do this right now. A part of me wanted to hang up the phone and move on but the other part of me wanted to hear what he had to say.

“No, I guess I don’t.” He laughed nervously. “I wanted to apologize, again, about how this all panned out. You know I’ll care about you no matter what. You were a big part of my life and I really don’t want you to resent me for the rest of your life.”

My mouth dropped open. I was speechless. He has the audacity to say all of this to me? I want to scream.

“I don’t want you out of my life forever, Luna.” He continued. “Can we work out a new friendship at least? I really miss you.”

The whole unrequited love scenario came tumbling down on me like a pile of bricks. No matter how much I wanted to hate him, to ignore him, to resent him for the rest of my life, there was still a tiny part of me that wanted him in my life still. The tiny piece of me that was still holding on to all the great memories we shared between us. The tiny piece of me that wanted to forgive him, to do anything to get us back to what we were before.

And I was so ashamed of that.

“Luna?” He spoke again. “Are you still there?”

I cleared my throat. “Yeah. Yes. I’m still here.”

“So what do you say? Friends?” He sounded hopeful.

“Sure.” I licked my bottom lip nervously and looked down at my knees, hoping I wouldn’t burst into tears. “We can be...friends.”

“Awesome!” He replied. “So glad this all worked out. Listen, I have to go. I have a Lacrosse meeting in an hour. I’ll tell everyone you say hi! Bye!”

I hung up and covered my eyes with the palms of my hands. It was clear to me that for the past two years, I was in love alone. My relationship with Derek was a one-sided affair. I had willingly loved Derek Sanders for the past two miserable years. I was in love with a man who could not and will not ever love me back.

And that just broke my fucking heart.