Us Against the World.

“Come on, Mel, you can come out now!” Harry yelled from the other side of the door as I sat on the edge of the bathtub, shaking my head. He rapped on the door a couple times but I refused to acknowledge his existence. “Mel! We’re already late!” I heard he let out a heavy sigh. I stood up and stopped right in front of the mirror, grimacing at my own reflection.

As demanded by Andy, I was wearing a long bare-back turquoise dress and matching lacy high-heels. My hair that was usually pulled up in a messy bun or ponytail was let loose and curled slightly. And she even asked someone to put on make-up on my face! Oh, the horror! And right now, I was too mortified to get out of the bathroom. Especially since Harry was standing just right outside the door. He would definitely laugh at me when he saw me.

“Do I really have to go?” I asked finally and Harry let out another sigh.

“Come on, Mel. It can’t be that bad.”

“I don’t even look like me!” I exclaimed dramatically, wincing at my own reflection. Letting out a sigh of my own, I slowly walked towards the closed door, my steps slower than normal because of the heels. Did I mention how much I hated high heels? Yep, I hated them. I put one of my hands on the door handle and the other pressed flat on the wooden surface. “Don’t laugh at me, yeah?”

“I won’t,” Harry replied from the other side and I could hear exasperation from his tone. Well, here goes nothing, I thought as I twisted the handle and pulled the door open. I held my breath, waiting for Harry’s reaction as I revealed myself to him. For a moment, he just stood there, looking dumbfounded, his mouth hung open and his eyes blinking rapidly. If this was in a different situation, I probably would’ve laughed but not right now. His facial expression was so comical! “Woah!” he finally breathed out, smirking as his face had returned to its normal expression. “Never knew you have curves.”

I walked away from the door and swatted his head lightly, trying to balance myself. “Shut up!” He just snickered as he moved to the side to make way for me. He was wearing a white shirt that he let the top three buttons undone, showing a bit of his chest tattoos and a dark grey suit with matching pants. But of course, he’s still wearing his beat-up brown boots.

“Your mum’s going ballistic down there,” he informed, grimacing at the thoughts. Earlier this evening, Harry had finally met my mum when she arrived with my father and younger brother Ethan. As I’d predicted, she was being weird when she met him. She examined him from head to toe, front to back and interrogated him as if he were a prime suspect of a mass murder case. But of course, this was Harry we’re talking about. In just mere minutes, he’d managed to charm my mother, the hardest person to please in the whole universe with his smile and polite words. I was actually quite satisfied to see my mum was rendered speechless for once.

My mum had always been critical about the people I chose to be friends with. When I first started dating Michael, he was treated the same way. But he’s also a charming bastard like our Harry Styles here so my mum was swept off her feet in just a few minutes. That’s why when I broke up with him, my mum never let go of the subject. If only she knew the truth. “Come on, let’s go,” I said, sighing and made my way towards the door.

Harry snickered again and walked behind me as I pointedly ignored him. The mansion had a hall area and that’s where the rehearsal dinner was held. Upon arriving there, I realized that the place was already full of people, each table was labelled and I went to find my table with Harry. A sigh of relief escaped my lips when I saw that Harry and I were seated with my Uncle Rob and his family. Uncle Rob was probably the least weird member of my family. And he’s the one who actually got me into my career field right now. He’s an electrician and when I was little, I always followed him around when he was doing his job.

“Melanie!” he called when we reached our table and got up to give me firm hug. I smiled widely at him. “You look beautiful.”

“And you look dashing yourself, mister,” I replied cheekily, grinning from ear to ear. “Uncle Rob, meet my friend, Harry,” I said, remembering Harry who was standing awkwardly next to me. Harry flashed his dimpled smile and shook hands with the older man. Uncle Rob raised a suggestive eyebrow towards my direction but I just laughed dismissively at him as Harry frowned. We took our seats with me next to Uncle Rob’s wife, Aunt Julie and Harry next to me. Their two children, Theo and Amelie who were seventeen and ten years old respectively sat on the other two vacant chairs.

Theo was playing with his PSP meanwhile Amelie were acting really strange. She was grinning from ear to ear and kind of twitching in her seat. “You alright? Am?” I asked, frowning at my cousin. She nodded rapidly, her eyes moving from Harry to me.

“Okay! So is it true that you two are dating?” she burst out after a few seconds. Her face was so red. I suspected that she was holding her breath the whole time. Harry and I looked at each other for a few seconds, his face unreadable, and our eyes locking for a moment. There was something in those eyes of his but I didn’t know what it was. As it was, I wasn’t a mind reader so I didn’t bother trying. Instead, I turned towards Amelie with a shit-eating grin on my face and shook my head.

“Nah… we’re just friends,” I replied nonchalantly, shrugging. At my words, I could feel Harry’s body turned rigid beside me but I didn’t say anything about it as Amelie sighed in disappointment. “Why do you look so disappointed?” I asked, my voice laced with amusement.

“Ah… it’ll be cool to have a cousin who’s dating a One Direction,” she replied with a disappointed sigh, making me laugh at her. Harry just snickered as he picked up a rose from the flower bouquet that decorated the middle of the table and leaned over to hand the flower to Amelie. There was his usual cheeky grin adorning his face.

“Well, it’ll be a lot cooler if you’re the one dating a One Direction,” Harry said, winking as I smacked the back of his head. “Ow!” He scowled at me as I just stuck out my tongue at him. Amelie took the flower from Harry’s hand with a blush on her face.

“She’s ten, you idiot,” I retorted, rolling my eyes as I could already see Amelie eyeing Harry with sparkling eyes. The little girl sniffed the rose and grinned widely, blush tinted her cheeks. Harry grinned back and I didn’t know why I was feeling a little uncomfortable with this whole situation. It’s like that incident with the fan at the restaurant. Shaking my head, I turned my attention to Uncle Rob and tried to engage him into a conversation.

Through the corner of my eyes, I could see Amelie and Harry talking now, mostly about the band. I never knew that she’s a fan. But then I never really cared about the band before this. I nodded distractedly at whatever Uncle Rob was saying as I just watched Harry telling Amelie about his touring experience animatedly and the girl was hanging onto every single word he said. Catching my eyes, Harry threw me a grin which I reciprocated.

“There you are!” We turned towards the source of the voice and I rolled my eyes to see my perfect sister with her perfect boyfriend standing right in front of our table. She’d just arrived a while ago and still hadn’t met Harry. I was actually hoping that I wouldn’t have to see her at all this weekend. But I guess that’s impossible anyway since we’re staying in the same mansion and all. Harry shot me a questioning look and he frowned at the look of obvious annoyance on my face. “And this is?” She gave Harry a look. Harry got up from his seat with his usual smile and held out his hand.

“Hi. I’m Harry,” he introduced himself, shaking hands with both Marissa and her boyfriend Jake. Marissa smiled and hooked her arm with Jake’s.

“Another younger boy? Mel… I thought after Michael, you’d probably learn your lesson and start looking for someone more… your league,” she said with a cruel smirk on her face. At her words, I felt blood rushing to my head rather quickly as I got up from my seat and was about to pounce her when I felt a comforting arm snaking around my waist, stopping me. Marissa snickered towards my direction and gave me one last mocking look before walking away with her boyfriend.

“Why’d you stop me? I swear I was gonna kick that woman’s bum,” I grumbled, pulling away from his hold. Harry smiled fondly at me and took my hand into his.

“It’s not worth it. Besides, this is Andy’s event. Do you really want to ruin that by getting into a fight with your sister?” he asked. I lowered my head at that. Harry did have a point. Looking across the room, a smile formed on my face to see Andy chatting and laughing happily with her future in-laws. Yeah, he was right. I didn’t want to divert people’s attention to me. Andy didn’t deserve that.

Letting out a sigh, I nodded, squeezing Harry’s hand a little before pulling away. “You’re right.” Harry beamed back brightly and I felt a surge of affection towards the boy in front of me. “Thank you, Harry,” I said genuinely, staring straight into his green eyes. He raised his eyebrows questioningly at me. I lifted up my hand and brushed his hair out of his forehead but it bounced back down. I swore, that hair had a mind of its own. “For coming here with me. I don’t think I can survive this alone,” I explained with a pained smile.

“Come on, now. It’s not like you to be all touchy-feely,” he joked with a grin. Seeing his carefree smile and overall bright attitude, every single worry I had about spending the weekend with my family just vanished. As long as he’s here, I would be fine.

And the night went on just like that. For the most part, I avoided my parents and my sister. My brother Ethan was a lot cooler though and he and Harry bonded quite well. I guess it’s because they’re at the same age so they had a lot of things to talk about. I wasn’t usually a drinker because I knew a lot of people that acted stupid when they got drunk. But tonight, I just didn’t want to stop myself. I wasn’t sure how many glasses of champagne I’d chucked down my throat but by midnight, I was already a bit tipsy. Well, to say a bit was an understatement.

By now, Harry was trying to haul me back to our shared room. “God! You’re an awful drunk,” he commented, a bit breathless as he lay me down onto the bed. I giggled and made grabby hands at him when he was about to move away.

“No! No! Stay!” I said, pulling him but maybe he was caught by surprise as he lost his balance and kinda fell half-way on top of me. “Hey, there!” I greeted cheerfully as his face was just a few inches from mine. He grinned back, hoisting himself up with both palms pressed on both sides of my head, his arms holding him up. “You’re pretty up close,” I commented quietly, bringing up one of my hands and traced a line on his face; from his forehead to his nose and finally down to his lips.

I wasn’t even sure what exactly happened, but the next thing I knew, Harry and I were kissing. It was slow at first but as time passed, the seemingly innocent kiss turned a little rougher and more desperate. I let out a low moan out as Harry brought his weight down on me and the feel of his solid body against mine was making me feeling hot all over. “Harry,” I whispered softly when his lips moved from mine down to suck on a spot right below my ear. I helped him to get his suit off and threw it somewhere onto the floor. Then, I began to unbutton his shirt one by one impatiently. “Mel…” he breathed out against my skin and I swore the world seemed to stop moving around me and there was only Harry and I exist in our own little world.