And You Let Her Go

“Harry Styles was seen yet again with our gorgeous blonde from Chicago—in England! The two were seen driving in his car together, look how cute they look!” the article wrote, referring to a picture attached of Harry and I in his car. I read the article out loud as Harry chuckled.

“Jeez, Styles. You are watched like a fucking hawk,” I told him.

He threw his head back in laughter, grinning at me, “You have no idea, Jenson.”

We spent the morning drinking tea and reading the rest of the ridiculous articles about us online. Even though I might have felt a connection between us at some point, our relationship turned purely platonic. Then again, there were times where I doubted that theory…

“So. Is today the day Charlie Jenson is ready to meet the rest of One Direction?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at me.

I took a deep breath, twirling my ring. I looked up at him and grinned, “Let’s do it. I think we’ve waited long enough!”

Harry clapped his hands together with excitement and ran upstairs. Wow, I hadn’t known he was so keen on me meeting them; I didn’t know it was that important to him. But it was practically his family, so it was understandable.

I heard him come in the kitchen again, “Alright, Louis said they can be here in 30 minutes. Is it alright that they’re coming here?” he asked, licking his lips.

I snorted at his question, “Harry, I don’t care where we meet. Don’t ask me what you can do with your house,” I shook my head.

He poked my side and stuck his tongue out at me. I did it right back at him and it was like 3rd grade all over again. I continued looking at him as he scrolled through a webpage on his laptop. I was surprised with how quickly I had learned to trust Harry in the short time we knew each other. I was trying to be more easygoing when it came to making new friends but it happened rather quickly with Harry and I was almost as comfortable with him as I was with Emily.

“Alright, I’m going to go change,” I said, climbing over the kitchen stairs and rushing up the stairs. Let’s hope Louis meant 30 minutes or longer and not 30 minutes or less. Nevertheless, I don’t think any girl would have enough time to meet the damn One Direction boys. But that was the fangirl in me talking; the actual me was quite excited that I finally got to meet Harry’s best friends.

After brushing my teeth I moved to my suitcase, which I decided not to unpack. If I was only staying here for a few days, then I found no point in stressing myself out about it. I took out a pair of skinny jeans and a white v-neck. Since it was chillier outside than usual, I completed the outfit with a navy blue chunky cardigan and my favorite black beanie. I looked at my reflection in the mirror, rather satisfied with my choice of clothing. I went back to my cosmetics bag and pulled out mascara and my eos lip balm. I heard the doorbell ring downstairs.

“Shit,” I muttered. I looked at the brown clock hanging on the wall; twenty minutes had passed. So they were those type of people, I noted to myself.

I slowly walked down the stairs and peeked from behind the railing. Harry was leaning against the door frame, staring right at me.

“Well don’t just stand there, come down here,” he chuckled. I rolled my eyes at him and walked oh so slowly down the last few steps. Harry groaned.

“Char, it’s going to be fine, trust me. If anything happens I’ll kick their arse, you know that.” I was taken aback at his nickname for me. Only my dad and Emily called me that; I guess Harry was contestant number three.

We took a deep breath at the same time and I nodded at him to open the door. As soon as Harry opened it the first one came barging in.

“Damn mate, what took you so long? You realize its fucking cold today?” the brown haired boy said, I assumed it was Louis, recognizing him from a poster. Harry cleared his throat and nodded towards me. Louis spun around on his heel, confused, his eyes widened as they found me.

“I apologize for that, love. Louis Tomlinson at your service,” he bowed in front of me, and I couldn’t help but stifle a laugh.

“Charlie Jenson,” I curtsied. The rest of the boys filed in through the door and embraced Harry with bro hugs. They turned to me and the blonde one held out his hand.

“I’m Niall,” he said with a grin.

“Charlie; it’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” I answered, shaking his hand, smiling.

“I’m Zayn,” another one held out his hand.

“Liam,” said the last one, winking at me.

I stifled another laugh and shook his hand.

“She’s prettier than you described her, Haz,” Liam turned to Harry, making him blush. Harry talked about me?

“Definitely,” Niall said, winking at me.

God, what was with these boys and winking? They knew exactly what to do to make the butterflies appear.

“Alright! Let’s get this party started!” sang Louis as he started walking towards the kitchen. Harry groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Lou, it’s ten in the morning, what do you expect us do this early?”

“Well, you and I haven’t had breakfast yet, Harry. Maybe we could all go down to the café and grab something to eat?” I raised my eyebrows at them.

I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders, and I turned towards the person only to discover I was an inch away from Niall’s face.

“We’ve only just met and the girl is already talking about food. Why didn’t you introduce us sooner, Harry?” I laughed along with the rest of the guys and we made our way out of the house.

With Niall and Louis on either side of me, they linked their arms through mine and they dragged me down the path towards the sidewalk. They were cracking jokes and made me laugh so hard that a couple tears escaped. I cursed myself for not meeting them sooner.

I turned around to see Harry and Liam behind us. Liam looked like he was in a deep conversation with him, using hand motions to describe something. But when I looked over to Harry, his eyes were locked with mine as he stuffed his hands in his coat pocket, quickly looking away.