Diana

“Nope! No, you didn’t!” Sadie responds way too cheerfully, as she walks back to Niall’s arms.

Diana turns her attention back to Jace and briefly kisses him on the cheek. “See you later, okay?” she says with a genuine smile.

She then joins the crowd in the living room after she lets Jace go out the door. “So, what did I miss?”

“Uhh, I was just telling Sadie the story when I pranked these lads on Nickelodeon,” answers Louis a little too fast.

“Really?” Diana smirks, “I haven’t heard about that, Lou.”

Before Louis can speak, Niall quickly covers his whole face with his hand. “I don’t think that story needs to be retold, especially not to these guys,” he says with an embarassed smile.

“Oh come on dude, I’m missing out here!” Diana insists.

“Louis, shh! I’ll tell you myself later, okay babe?” he offers with a wink.

Diana pouts exaggeratedly, knowing that it will take some time to talk Niall into spilling the story. She kicks her slippers off and makes herself comfortable sitting on the chair exactly opposite to Harry. “Fine!” she says as she reaches for the remote on the coffee table.

The TV is turned on and currently showing Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams’ flirty carnival scene in The Notebook. Diana is only one click away to change the channel when suddenly someone stops her from it, “Don’t!”

Everyone turns their heads to the right. Harry actually spoke. His mouth actually made a sound. He actually said something. It was barely a sentence, but still.

Diana pinches her eyebrows, more in puzzlement than annoyance, “What?”

Niall repeats her question, “Yeah Harry, what?” That’s not exactly what I meant by ‘talking to her,’ mate, he thinks as he tries to send the message to Harry through eye contact.

Harry returns Niall’s stare but turns to look at Diana again to make sure that she knows whom he is talking to. “Don’t change it. I love that movie,” his volume lowers down as he speaks. He realizes that his body tensed up, so he quickly relaxes it.

The room is once again silent, with the exception of Ryan Gosling talking in the background, because everyone is anxiously waiting for Diana’s response to Harry’s unexpected proclamation.

Diana takes a good look at him in the eyes for what it seems to be an eternity to Harry. They have kept their gaze for quite a while by now, and none of them have said a word. She squints at him, and then raises her eyebrows, before she finally roars with laughter and has everyone taken aback by it.

“You seriously don’t want me to change the channel?” asks Diana once again in between her laughs.

Harry is rather surprised to see Diana crack up because of something he said. This is literally the first time it happens since the two months they’ve known each other. In all seriousness, he says, “No, I love The Notebook!”

Diana bursts into laughter again, and now joined by the other mates. Harry’s expression is now less ashamed but more defensive. “Hey, what the hell is so wrong about it?!” Harry says with a dramatized hurt face.

“I haven’t even seen the full movie, not even once, and I’m a girl. I’ve always come across some bits of it on TV but never stayed for the whole movie! That’s what’s wrong!” she says, trying to hold her laughter. Diana still has not picked up the idea that this is the first legit conversation that she has with Harry after a while.

“Well then, you haven’t lived!” Harry declares whilst fiercely flick his head away.

Louis looks at him in disbelief, “Mate, it’s a chickflick.”

Harry groans, “It’s Ryan fucking Gosling and Rachel the goddess McAdams, and it’s a sentimental story about a long-lasting old couple, what’s not to love?” The others have their mouths wide open, not quite sure if they are shocked or amused by Harry’s defense. “Now sshh! We’re talking too much, you’re missing out!” he adds as he leans to grab the remote from Diana’s hands and turns the volume up.

Diana blinks her eyes once or twice. She throws her arms up in the air and mockingly says, “Alright, whatever you say, miss.”

He glares at her and she just playfully sticks her tongue out.

That is when Diana realizes that, all this time, there has been some sort of tension standing between Harry and her, which she has never noticed before. Yes, Diana has been ignoring him from time to time, and she is perfectly aware of the fact that she made little to no interaction with him. However, she didn’t plan to generate any tension, or any drama for that matter; she only wanted to create some space.

All she knows right now is, whatever strain existed before is starting to come off, and somehow she doesn’t feel the urge to avoid him anymore. It just feels like she just let out a massive, freeing breath of air.

---

Sadie and the other lads already have their eyes set on the TV, so Diana might as well try to enjoy the movie too. However, no matter how hard she tries, Diana really can’t concentrate on it; tear jerking, unrealistic fairytale movies like The Notebook aren’t really her thing. She doesn’t think anyone in real life would seriously be in love to that extreme.

So instead of paying attention to the TV, Diana observes the people around her. Halfway through the movie, Sadie is already seen sobbing into Niall’s chest, while Niall is trying to multitask between calming her down and keeping his eyes on the screen. She’s pretty sure that Sadie spends most of her time burying her face in Niall’s embrace rather than actually watching the movie itself.

When her eyes shift to Harry and Louis, she has to hold her chuckles because never in her life has she ever seen two straight, manly blokes deeply concentrate on a chickflick movie before. Louis is seen with his hand covering his mouth, while he listens carefully to what Allie’s fiancee is saying.

A moment later, Diana finds her sight settling on Harry.

For fuck’s sake, this idiot is really something else. One day he rocked that How Deep Is Your Love on guitar and the next he is mouthing Noah’s line in The Notebook, Diana thinks to herself.

Her eyes are set on him the longest, and at one point he can sense it. He looks to see who has been watching him, and they share an awkward glance for a splitsecond. After that, Harry continues to watch the movie in silence.

Diana is just about to fall asleep when Louis’ shout wakes her up, “Holy shit! That was—“

“I know right?!” Harry cuts him whilst shaking his body.

Louis jumps on the couch and starts singing, “A whole new woooorld~ A new fantastic point of view~ I’m so renting that movie to watch it again with El, though she probably has seen it.”

“Jesus Christ, Lou, sit your ass down,” Diana complains with a frown, “I was just about to fall asleep!”

That statement turns Harry’s head, “You were about to fall asleep?!”

“Yes, the story was sooo slow,” answers Diana confidently. “At least I’m not the one who has Noah’s every line memorized in the back of my mind,” she says while shooting a look at Harry.

When he realizes that all eyes are set on him, Harry innocently asks in his charming British accent, “What?”

“You were totally mouthing his lines as he spoke.”

Harry laughs, “I did no such thing!”

“Yes, you did!” Diana insists.

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!” Now, they just look like kindergarten kids fighting over a piece of lolly.

“Whatever you say, Styles, I know what I saw; I paid my attention,” she responds with a smirk.

“Oh so you were paying attention to me? I thought we were supposed to be watching the movie, Di,” Harry surprisingly turns the table with a teasing remark, forgetting that there are other people in the room.

Out of comebacks, Diana scoffs and rolls her eyes. She then stands on her feet, preparing to leave the room while shaking her head. She tries to hide it, but Harry can still see the curve that is shaping on her lips. Harry grins from ear to ear in pride.

Once Diana has left the room, Louis proudly looks at Harry, “There you go.”

With his hand still stroking Sadie’s hair, Niall comments with a wink, “Nice.”