Us Against the World.

I was working on a computer when Sam entered the shop, folding his umbrella and placed it on the umbrella holder. He was smiling wide, which was weird because he wasn’t really a smiley type of person. He was holding a magazine and made his way towards my work station, the grin never leaving his face.

“Win a lottery?” I asked teasingly, smirking at him as I brushed my hair out of my face. I planned on getting my hair cut one of these days, probably a boy-cut. But my mother would definitely turned ballistic. The only reason I kept my hair long was because to keep her off my back for wanting me to be more ‘lady-like’. All the heels in my car and some rare dresses in my closet were all because I bought them just to shut her mouth.

Sam came over, pulling me out of my thoughts and sat at the edge of my desk, handing over the magazine in his hand to me. My eyebrows shot up as I gave him a quizzical look. “You’re famous now, eh?” he said, wriggling his eyebrows, pointing towards the magazine. I looked at the front page and my mouth hung open to see my face on the front page. What? The picture was the one where Harry and I were locked lips in that little restaurant a couple of days ago. Who took this picture? I flipped the magazine to the page where the full article was written.

Harry Styles Caught Snogging a Mystery Girl

The headline read. There were more pictures of us. There was a picture of us talking and laughing, and Harry sitting really close to me. We did look pretty intimate.

Last weekend, the teenage heartthrob, Harry Styles was seen getting all nice and cosy with a mystery girl. The pair was seen having lunch and they were conversing quite intimately with each other before they were caught locking lips later.

I stopped reading and slammed the magazine onto the table, my face turned sour. No wonder I got weird look from that teenage girl when I was on my way to work this morning. Luckily, according to the article, my identity was still unknown. “This is ridiculous,” I muttered, rolling my eyes and shoved at Sam’s shoulder. He still had that teasing smirk on his face. Where’s my serious colleague and what did this stupid-looking lad doing in his body? “And get rid of that grin. You look weird. Go forth and do your work looking all serious like usual.” He laughed at that and shook his head, getting up.

“Aww… you’re blushing,” he cooed but the smile on his face had waned down a bit, his eyes still teasing. I flipped him off, not realizing that my face had turned hot. He laughed one last time before sitting down on his own desk and starting his own work. After one last glance towards the magazine, I resumed working on the computer I had abandoned earlier, my mind wandering towards Harry.

Ever since that incident at the restaurant, once again I decided to avoid him. He tried to call and text but I ignored all of them, telling myself that I was just busy. Truth to be told, I was just embarrassed with myself. What was I thinking, kissing him in public like that? I wasn’t even sure if I could face him after this. Without I realized, a smile formed on my lips at the memory. “What makes you so happy?” Once again, I was pulled out of my thoughts, this time by a familiar voice that had been plaguing my mind lately since I didn’t even realize when. Slowly, I lifted up my head and for a second time in the span of five minutes, my mouth hung open to see Harry standing in front of my desk with his usual cheeky smile.

“What are you doing here?” I asked after a few seconds, looking around and sighed in relief to see that no one was following him into the store. There was only a man probably in his mid-twenties browsing through the selection of earphones at the nearest isle. The last thing I needed was having people flocking into my work place and cause a scene. He sat on the edge of my desk, just like Sam did earlier and I wondered briefly what made people think that my desk was a suitable substitution for a chair.

Harry picked up a graphic card that I was about to install into the laptop I was currently upgrading and put it under the light, his eyes squinting as he examined the chips on the green board. I smiled fondly at him and pointedly disregard the look Sam was giving me. “I wanted to see you. You never answered my calls of texts,” Harry explained, putting down the component back on the desk carefully and turned his attention towards me. “Why?” I fidgeted slightly at that.

I pretended to work as I let his question just lingered in the air for a few seconds. “I’m busy,” I replied, not looking up.

“Too busy to even text back?”

“Well… yeah…”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well, don’t believe me then, I don’t care.” I shrugged. Harry reached out and put his hand onto mine, stopping me from whatever I was doing to the poor customer’s laptop. I hoped I didn’t break anything more than it already was. “Mel, I thought we’re past this already. Why are you shutting me out again?” he asked, the tone in his voice made my heart drop and I hated feeling like this.

“I’m not…” I began but stopped when my phone rang, One Direction song, Little Things (only Harry’s solo part that I’d cut using an mp3 cutter software) played loudly in the mostly empty store. I didn’t even remember when I’d changed the ringtone and I blushed to see Harry staring at me with raised eyebrows, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. I quickly fished my phone out of my pocket and rolled my eyes to see my mother’s name appeared on the screen. I motioned for Harry to wait as I slid my thumb over the screen.

“Hello, mum,” I answered the phone.

“Melanie, have you found a date yet for Andy’s wedding?” I sighed at that and pinched the bridge of my nose. She still wouldn’t drop this subject. Harry shot me a concerned look, probably sensing my distress but I just lifted up my palm and shook my head at him.

“Mum, I’d told you I’m not gonna be bringing a date.”

“Why? I already told everyone that you’ll be coming with a plus one. Besides, I saw the pictures of you in the magazine with that boy from Louis’ band.”

“What?”

“You’re dating him, right? You’ll take him to the wedding? Oh, the relatives will be surprised to see that you finally have met someone. A famous one at that. At least you’re doing something worthwhile in London.”

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist tightly that my knuckles turned white. Harry got up from the desk and stood closer next to me, putting an arm around my shoulders silently and squeezed lightly. “I am doing something worthwhile, mum. I’ve been working and I’m trying to chase my dream. It may seem like nothing to you but my job is important too,” I responded with a strained voice. Honestly, I was tired of her ridiculing my job and my life. Without waiting for her reply, I hung up and threw the phone onto the desk, not caring that it slipped and skidded onto the floor, and broke into pieces, the battery falling under the desk.

“Mel, you alright?” Harry asked worriedly, crouching down and picking up the dismantled pieces of my cell phone. Damn! I would have to buy a new one, I thought as I looked at the poor state of the electronic device. After he’d picked up everything, he put the pieces onto the table and watched me carefully. “Come on, tell me.” I looked up at him and sighed, glancing over at Sam who shot me a questioning look as well. I shook my head. “Mel…”

“It’s nothing, really. Just having a usual fight with my mum,” I replied quietly so that only Harry could hear. He nodded, urging me to continue. “She kept pressing on me to find a boyfriend and now she’d gone and told everyone that I’m bringing a famous person as a date to my cousin’s wedding.” I rolled my eyes at that. My mom was ridiculous.

“Famous person?” Harry asked, eyebrows rising quizzically. I nodded, pointing towards the magazine on the desk. He picked up the magazine and browsed through it, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. After a while, his lips curled up into a smile, showing off his dimples. “Oh…”

“Oh? Is that all you can say? Oh?” I snapped, crossing my arms in front of my chest. The smile turned into a smirk as he put the magazine down and leaned closer.

“Well, why don’t you just prove her right and let me go to the wedding with you?” he asked cheekily and winked. I blinked rapidly as I stared at him, not really believing what I was hearing.

“What?” I croaked out.

“Take me to that wedding. I love weddings.”

“Sure you do,” I muttered, rolling my eyes and was distinctly aware that by now, there were several teenage girls standing in front of the big mirror overlooking the interior of the store and they were staring at Harry and me. How did my life turn into this?