Ignite.

My final year of high school had just barely hit halfway and I was already giving up. Call it “senioritis” or whatever, but I could not care about school at that point in time. So I let Bri drag me to about the fifth basement show in the month of December. Though I’m not really sure why I did go, to be honest. The basement shows she took me to were pretty fun, but they were mostly pop punk shows, which wasn’t necessarily my scene. But her boyfriend, Alex, played bass in one of them, so naturally she had to be there to support him. I guess I didn’t mind going too much, though. They were normally pretty cheap, if not free, and there were always plenty of guys to ogle during the show. Plus the energy at those things is ungodly.

So Bri and I were at this basement show in Philly on that Tuesday night, even though I should’ve been home studying for a Calc test the next day. This was one of the nicer shows we’d been to, and they even had a makeshift bar where I could get water. Praise the lord, right? It was absolutely sweltering in that stupid basement. I’d deeply regretted wearing a sweater about as soon as we walked through the door. The place was abnormally packed -- and likely to get busted -- and I was annoyingly parched. Hell, I wasn’t even moving and I was roasting. So I quickly excused myself from Bri, who sort of just waved me off, and practically ran to the table in the back of the room where all the drinks were. A boy with huge plugs who was manning the table raised his eyebrows and sort of nodded at me, asking what I wanted.

“Yeah, can I just get a water?” I called, trying to be heard over the lead singer who was literally just shouting into the mic. “Plugs” nodded again before grabbing me a water bottle from a cooler and then devoting his attention to the band again. I tried to pay some attention too, as this was Alex’s band. They weren’t too great, but they were happy, so. I quickly uncapped the bottle and took a huge slug, wishing for a cigarette. Sometimes these shows made me anxious. I mean, it wasn’t too difficult to see that I didn’t fit in. Christ, I had a fucking Chanel bag on my shoulder. Though I’ll explain that later. In the meantime, I had barely acknowledged the boy who’d sidled up to me until he spoke.

“Well don’t you look out of place?” I held in a groan as I registered the voice. He would be there, wouldn’t he?

“Thanks,” I muttered, trying not to look at him.

“Awh, c’mon, didn’t mean it like that, babe. Just surprised to see someone like you here.”

“I didn’t really have a choice.” And then I made mistake number one: I turned to look at him. His hair was perfectly tousled, as per usual, and he was wearing an all black ensemble, his tee shirt rolled up at the sleeves to expose a few of his tattoos. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, he was attractive. But that didn’t make up for his shit personality.

“You’ve always got a choice. So why are you here?” His eyebrows rose on his head, and a tiny smirk sat on his face as he studied me. I rolled my eyes before nodding toward Bri, whose eyes were glued to Alex.

“My friend dragged me.”

“She fucking one of the guys?” God, could he have any tact?

“A nicer term would be dating, but yeah. Sure. Can’t say I’m surprised to see you here.” The boy was known around town and he frequented shows like this.

“Yeah, well, I’ve got a few mates in one of the bands. So what’s your name, beautiful?” His hand came up to tuck some hair behind my ear, but I quickly slapped it away.

“Irrelevant,” I muttered darkly, turning back to the stage. I heard him let out a laugh before he stepped in front of me.

“You’re a challenge, aren’t you?” He grinned down at me, moving closer to me. “Don’t worry,” he murmured, his mouth grazing my ear now. “I like challenges.” I was quick to scoff and shove his body away, causing his eyes to darken considerably.

“Great. Leave me alone now?” I all but groaned, my hip cocking and my arms crossing over my chest.

“But I don’t want to leave you alone,” he replied with a sticky sweet smile. I shot him a look that clearly asked ‘why’, prompting him to continue. “I want to get to know you, love.” There was a look of determination in his eyes that quickly unsettled my stomach as I tried to move past him. But he was not having any of that, moving his feet to match me.

“Harry, seriously-”

“You know who I am?” Mistake number two: letting on that I knew him. Now that the cat was clearly out of the bag, I let out a sigh.

“Of course I do. Who doesn’t? You’re practically famous.” I gave him a sarcastic grin, only causing him to look more pissed off than before. I’m not sure why I was pushing him. People knew he had a reputation for having a short temper and being quite volatile. But he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his nostrils flaring as he calmed himself.

“Well this seems a bit unfair then, doesn’t it? You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“Pfft, I know plenty more than your name, Styles.”

“Yeah? Like what?” His voice was hard and it sort of scared me, meaning I shouldn’t have been so blunt and argumentative, but God, he was just so aggravating.

“You go to all these shows and parties, and you spend ninety percent of your time getting fucked up, not caring about anything. You’re extremely violent, you’ve no respect for women, and you’ll fuck anything breathing with a vagina. Need I go on?”

“Who told you all that?”

“I- no one, I mean- a lot of people are saying it.” His smirk grew as I got flustered, clearly not wanting to rat out my older brother to this lunatic.

“Awh, you care about whoever said all that? Looking out for your boyfriend?” I let out a scoff at his words.

“Please, I don’t have a boyfriend,” I muttered, and I literally could’ve slapped myself the second the words left my mouth. Mistake number three: I let him know I was single.

“Oh, you don’t? Are you looking for one?” His eyes were fiery and mischievous as he advanced on me, causing me to back into a wall. Fan-fucking-tastic. I felt like vomiting.

“No, thank you.”

“Listen, why don’t we get out of here?” he asked, his voice hushed and husky as he leaned into me again. I tried to ignore his breath on my face as I closed my eyes. But this only prompted him to place his hand on my waist, startling me into opening my eyes again.

“Why?”

“We’ll just...hang out or something.”

“You- you don’t even know me.” My hands were trembling at my side as his eyes held mine intensely.

“I don’t have to know you to fuck you.” And suddenly my hands were trembling not out of fear, but anger.

“Charming,” I spat, my hands coming up to roughly shove his body off of mine. His jaw locked as he glared at me, but I took this time to scurry past him and get back into the crowd where Bri was.

“Hey, you were gone forever! You alright?” Bri asked, her blue eyes wide as she looked up at me.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine! Just cooling down in the back.” She nodded happily at my answer before turning back to the stage for the final song.

Soon the show was over and people were all filing outside, most to have a smoke, and I was right there with them. Bri and I quickly got outside, and I pulled two cigarettes from my pack, handing one to her.

“Agh, that was such a great show, wasn’t it?” She cried as she exhaled the smoke from her lungs, a huge grin plastered to her lips.

“Yeah, it was awesome. They’re starting to grow on me, I think.” This only got her more excited since she knew this wasn’t my favorite genre. We continued to discuss the show for a few minutes before a relatively sweaty Alex came and wrapped his arms around Bri’s waist, pressing a sloppy kiss to her cheek. Then she let out a squeal and spun in his arms, placing a forceful kiss on his lips. And then I was alone for a few minutes while they ate each other.

“Hey, Jude!” Alex called, pulling me into a quick hug once they'd detached themselves from each other, which I returned eagerly. Alex was twenty and when the three of us were still in school together, we’d all become quite close friends. Luckily, since Alex and Bri were dating, we were able to remain close even after he graduated.

The three of us chatted as Alex pulled out a cigarette of his own and tried to convince Bri to spend the night at his place in Philly. But soon he was distracted as he spotted someone over my shoulder and a huge grin spread on his face.

“Harry!” Alex called, and I mentally face-palmed. Right, of course. I’d forgotten they were friends.

“Alex!” Harry shouted, brushing past me and giving Alex a giant hug.

“Where have you been, man? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages!”

“Yeah, I’ve just been, uh, taking care of some things in New York,” Harry answered nonchalantly, as if it were normal for people to just disappear for weeks on end.

“Everything alright, bro?” Alex asked, his eyebrows knitting together.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good. No worries.” Alex clapped a reassuring hand on Harry’s shoulder before the two boys turned to us. “You shouldn’t be smoking, babe. Nasty habit.” Harry’s eyes soon found mine and I had to fight to keep from rolling mine.

“You’re one to talk.” Bri’s eyes widened at my words. No one really talked back to Harry Styles. They were just asking for a black eye. Bri took that as a hint to get me away from him, so she quickly grabbed my arm and led me a few feet away, asking what the hell I was thinking. Though I was still sort of listening to her yap on about how dangerous Harry was, I couldn’t help but overhear the two boys talking.

“What can you tell me about her?” Harry asked, his eyes roving over my form.

“Don’t, dude. I can tell you to stay away from her, okay?” I’d briefly glanced over to see that Harry’s jaw had locked, his eyes hard and his hands balled into fists. No one said no to Harry.

“Cheers,” he practically growled before making his way over to me and Bri. “Let me take you out this weekend,” he demanded as he grabbed onto my forearm. My eyes quickly rose to meet his, an incredulous look on my face.

“Harry, stop-”

“Bri,” Harry barked, holding his hand up to silence her. His eyes were still locked on mine as he waited for an answer.

“No thanks.”

I literally thought his eyes were going to shoot lasers at me after that. But he took another deep breath, just like he’d done downstairs.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m not telling you, Harry! Now back off!” I roughly pulled my arm from his grasp, readjusting my bag before turning and pulling Bri away with me.

“I’ll find out anyway!” he called from behind us, but I didn’t dare turn back.

And that, my dear friends, is when my life turned to ruins.