Best Friends Means...

"YES, mother! I'll call you when I'm almost there. It should take a little over two hours. I gotta go, I can't carry my bag and lock the door while you're still on the phone. I'll drive safe. Love you, bye!" I sighed, gathering my two bags at the front door, standing there for a minute to think about if I was forgetting anything for my weekend trip.

"Phone charger?" Kaitlin walked out of my room with my white charger in her hand. She handed it off to me as she enveloped me in a hug. "You have no color to your face. You're petrified aren't you?"

I nodded, and shoved the charger into my purse. "Petrified doesn't begin to describe it. What if he's completely different? Like an asshole..."

"It's not like you have lost complete contact with him, babe. He's been talking to you for three years, and he seems the same, doesn't he?"

"Yeah..." I drifted off, my thoughts still lost in the world of "what-if."

"Then he's probably still the same boy from Holmes Chapel you grew up with. It's only a weekend, so if its completely terrible you can just hole up at your house saying you want to spend time with your mom, alone."

I sighed, "Yeah I guess you're right."

"I'm always right." My bright blue eyed, dark brown haired best friend stood staring at me. "It'll be fine." She gave me another hug, squeezing me so hard I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. "I'll take care of everything here, this will be a slow weekend at the store, so don't worry about it. Leave. Go! Drive safe." She pushed me out the door and on my way to Holmes Chapel, the little town I grew up in.

After I drove in silence for an hour, I decided to turn the radio on and let it play quietly in the background. I didn't want the radio to distract me from my thoughts for the first time ever. I was so nervous about seeing Harry again. Well, I had seen pictures, interviews, performances... When I could catch them on TV. I wouldn't call myself a fan of their music, Harry and I had similar music tastes in the way that we both liked classic rock and indie rock. But I would hand it to the five boys that they were all talented. I always knew Harry would become famous one day, and he deserves every bit of fame and fortune that's coming to him. I just hoped he hadn't let it get to his head. We had a constant texting relationship going. I knew I could text him at any minute of the day and he'd either reply right then or I'd get a reply after a performance, or interview. He always made it a priority to keep talking to me, and I loved that. I missed him in person, though. The way his laugh could lighten up the mood of a whole room with one cackle; the way when I was telling him about my problems, he looked at me like I was the only person in the entire world; and the way he always hugged me goodbye like it was the last time he was going to see me.

I felt my phone vibrate and I smiled at the name lighting up the screen. "Haz!" I yelled into the phone, not even trying to hold back my grin.

"Elle! How much longer till you're here?" I could practically hear his dimpled smile through the phone.

"Um, about 25 more minutes?" Wow, my daydreaming had really carried me far as I passed landmarks that told me where I was.

"Want me to meet you at your mum's place or what?"

"Yeah, that'll be fine."

"Alright, I'll see you in a few minutes. Don't go in, I'll help you with your bags!"

"Harry, it's two bags. I think I can handle it."

"I know you can, just wait for me to get there if you're there before me." I sighed at his suspicious antics but I let it slide.

"Okay, fine. I'll see you in a minute." I said, hanging the phone up. My stomach was becoming more full of butterflies as I turned the familiar roads to get to my mum's house.

I could see Harry's Range Rover parked on the street in front of my destination. I took one last deep breath and tried not to pull up grinning like a complete fool, but I don't think I did a very good job. I pulled up behind my mom's car, and heard a car door slam shut. Harry appeared at my driver's side door and flew open my door and practically pulled me into his arms.

"You're here!" He shrieked as he squeezed me hard, picking me up into a hug.

"And you're suffocating me!" I hugged him back as best as I could. Harry's body felt completely different than when he left. He felt stronger, harder, he didn't have any of his baby fat. He smelled better too. His voice was a lot deeper, even deeper than what it sounded like on the phone and in interviews. He let me down from the hug and just stood in front of me with his hands on my upper arms, looking me up and down. I took him in too, he was dressed in a pair of tight black skinny jeans, some old ratty boots, a button up denim top, and an unzipped olive green hoodie that made his eyes seem greener than I remember. "You look really, really good, love."

"I can say the same about you, Haz. Lost all your pudgy baby fat." I smirked at him, and shut my door and grabbed my bags out of the backseat. Before I could close that door, Harry was already reaching for my bags and we walked in the house together.

"I'm home!" I yelled, not knowing the whereabouts of my mother in our house.

"Me too!" Harry yelled after me.

"Who's me too?" As my mom appeared from around the corner of the kitchen, she dropped her kitchen towel and gave Harry a hug. "Oh, Harry! I haven't seen you in years. You've become so handsome! How are you? Would you like any tea?"

"Sure, I'd love some." I stood, tapping my foot with my arms crossed.

"I didn't know I had to go away for three years in order to get a greeting like that!" I fussed at my mom. She enveloped me into a hug, kissing both of my cheeks.

"El, I just saw you last weekend. Hush. It's wonderful to see you too." She said, turning around to go into the kitchen to fix us some tea. "Still like it the same way, Harry?"

"Of course!" He yelled back.

"Sorry she's being a little... Over welcoming?"

"No she isn't! She's always greeted me like that." Which really was true, my mother was the sweetest, most welcoming woman I've ever met. It just seemed a little over the top considering Harry's recent fame. I worried that Harry would think she's trying too hard to impress him or something. I never worried about what Harry thought of anything, though.

"You coming?" Harry's words knocked me out of my trance, yet again. I followed him into the dining room and sat down at the table with my mother. She had three tea cups set at the table that would fit four people. Harry avoided the seat at the head of the table, knowing that used to be my father's seat. He died two weeks before Harry left. Having Harry help me cope over the phone was one of the hardest trials of our relationships, but like everything else, he got me through it. He knew I was very sensitive about it still, as did my mom. She had tried dating but I wasn't ready for it just yet.

"How was your drive, Ellie?" I must've been staring off again, because both Harry and her were looking at me.

"Not bad, went a lot quicker than I was expecting. How was your flight?"

"I slept the whole time, so I have no idea." Harry chuckled and had a sip of tea. "How's school?" He asked me, to which I almost froze. My mother cleared her throat and removed herself from the table, walking back into the kitchen to go busy herself.

"I uh, quit." I said, focusing on the teacup placed in front of me. "A few months ago."

"You didn't tell me that, did you? I would've remembered something like that. I know you said it was hard, but-"

"Let's talk about something else, yeah? I really don't want to talk about school. I work full time now at Kaitlin's boutique, and we just got our own flat together in London."

Harry looked troubled that I wasn't telling him everything, I just wasn't ready for it yet. I didn't know if he was the same Harry that I knew. "How's that going?" He asked, silencing his ringing phone.

"If you need to answer that, you can." I politely told him.

"Nah, I told them I'm unreachable for the weekend. They should know better than to call me." He slid his phone back in his pocket after he turned it off and turned back to me. "Wanna go on the roof and talk?" He motioned up to the roof, which was where we always went when we had to have a serious talk and didn't want my mom to hear.

"Yeah, sure." I left our tea cups on the table and turned the corner to find my mom partially eavesdropping on us.

I grabbed my bags and walked up the stairs, with Harry following me up to my room. My room had a window that led to the top of the roof and was the perfect angle for sitting. He grabbed the blanket that was by my window for us to sit on.

"So you wanna tell me why you really left school?" Harry wrapped his arm around me after we sat in silence for a few minutes. "I'm the same old Harry that left you three years ago. I won't judge you or-"

"I know, Harry. I'm just... Scared to tell you. No one knows why I really quit. It kind of developed over the last few years while you were gone and I never told you because I knew you'd worry."

"Did you develop a learning disability? That's nothing to be ashamed of."

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "I wish it was that easy." Truth be told, I had developed a heavy drinking problem, but I told everyone I was leaving because my ex-boyfriend was stalking and threatening me. Which, he was badgering me but it wasn't in a bad way. He was just trying to help me sort out my issues. I wasn't ready to quit drinking, and I knew Harry would try to stop me, too. I sat in silence, contemplating whether to lie to Harry, or to tell him the truth. I didn't want him worrying about me, and I didn't want to have to talk to him about my problem this early on in his time home. He was home for three months, and I knew he'd come to London and stay in his home there so I'd be seeing more of him.

"And I want the truth, El. You can tell me, I promise."

"I just wasn't focused, you know? Jack was... overbearing. And when I tried to call it off with him-"

"Quit bullshitting me. Your left eye is twitching with every word you speak. Why do you feel like you need to lie to me about why you quit school? I don't care. I didn't go to Uni." Harry's words were harsh, but I didn't sense any anger.

I sighed, feeling emotions starting to come up. "Harry, I'm just not ready to talk about it with you, alright? I promise I'll tell you, just not this early in your trip home..."

He squeezed my side and placed a kiss on my temple, "When you're ready to talk about it, I'm here to listen, alright?"

I nodded as I leaned back on the blanket. Harry followed suit, and started telling me stories that he hadn't told me about in our conversations while he was on tour. Eventually I drifted off to sleep with my head on his chest, with his arm wrapped around me.

---

"Come on, Gemma's home and she wants to see you too! Just a few beer, I'll have you back before your bedtime, you old lady." Harry begged me in the kitchen while my mother cleaned up dinner.

"Go! You need to see her while she's home too." She was shooing us out of the kitchen.

"Let me go change at least?" I asked and Harry nodded, pushing me up the stairs. "What should I wear?" I stepped into my closet that was half full. My closet in London was a little small, so I'd always bring clothes home and exchange them out every few weeks or months.

"Whatever you want!" Harry said, lying back on my bed. "You've always had the comfiest bed. Sometimes on tour, I'd say to myself how I'd give just about anything to have a 10 minute nap on your bed." I was glad Harry couldn't see me, because I was blushing like mad. Just the thought of him thinking about me as much as I thought about him made me so happy.

"I'm glad you're my best friend." I said, randomly. "I've missed you. Having you here in person is so different than just texting you and calling you." Harry had gotten up from the bed and wrapped his arms around me, and placed his head on top of mine, our height difference being obvious.

"I've missed you too. All the boys pick on me because my best friend is a girl. Well, besides Louis. You're the only one of my friends that's remained in contact with me regularly."

"What about Shane? Jake?" Harry shook his head, "Well that's just... Sad. They talk to me often. They still live here, you know?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I bet they'd meet us tonight if you want them to."

"Won't that be weird?"

"Not anymore weird than the first few minutes of you being at my house today." I chuckled at him, finally deciding on an outfit. "Now go, let me change!"

I emerged out of my closet, in one of my favorite outfits. It was comfortable, but I felt really cute in it. I knew Gemma would love my shoes.

"Let me just throw my hair up and we can be on the way!" I waked into my bathroom and threw my hair up with some random bobby pins I had lying around my bathroom counter. "By the way, Shane and Jake said they'd come and bring a few other people if that's alright. Nothing that's going to get too out of control."

"That should be fine." Harry appeared in the doorway of my bathroom, leaning against it with his arms crossed. "Who are you trying to impress tonight? Not Gemma, I hope?"

I laughed. "No one? I work for a clothing boutique now, I feel like I can't leave the house without looking perfect."

"Well, you look perfect to me, so I'd say you achieved that." I wasn't used to Harry's compliments. He never complimented me when we were younger. Well, he did, but he wasn't as smooth as he was being right now. When I turned back to him, he was texting away on his phone.

"Kendall problems?" I asked, knowing the trouble the two had had lately.

"Yeah, but I won't bother you with them."

"You've never bothered me once in your life, Harry Styles. Ready to go?" I grabbed my clutch off the door handle and we made our way down the stairs. "I'll be back later!" I yelled as Harry closed the door behind us.

"I'll drive!" He said, unlocking his car as soon as we stepped outside. Harry beat me to open the passenger door for me and I thanked him as I climbed in. "So, management is really worried about me being seen out with you."

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"Well, because I'm 'with' Kendall." He used air quotes as he pulled out of the neighborhood. "We never really were dating, just hanging out. Kind of for publicity, as you know, she has some new clothing line coming out soon and both of our management thought it would be best if she were to be in a relationship with me. Then she'd get more business, blah blah blah. So they're worried about me being seen out with someone that isn't her, so I'm hoping while I'm home we can just kind of lay low. I still want to hang out with you as much as I can, but-"

"Going out in London will be absolutely impossible, Harry."

He sighed, "I know. Tonight won't be bad, no one really comes around here when I'm home, and I'm thankful for that. But I just wanted to warn you, you know, in case anything happened. I'll just defend you as my best friend. Because that's what you are." Harry spoke firmly, putting emphasis on best friend, as if he was reassuring himself that that's what I really was.

"Yep!" I said, popping the end of my word as I watched out of the tinted windows of his luxury vehicle. "This is the roomiest car ever. No wonder you wanted one for so long."

"It's amazing isn't it? I don't know that I can go back to driving anything smaller." He said, reaching up to turn the radio on to a low hum in the background. "Were you nervous today?"

"What?"

"Nervous, about coming to see me?"

"Yeah, I was. And I still am. Not seeing you for three years is... A really long time. I was just worried you had turned into this asshole popstar who wouldn't want anything to do with me, honestly. You didn't seem different when we had been talking but I didn't know if it was a facade that you were putting up through the phone, or what. I'm glad you're the same, Harry. So glad."

"Well since you're done with school I'll be able to fly you out to come on tour, then! And you'll have to meet the guys when we go back to London. They're all so excited to finally meet you. I really think for a while they didn't think you existed." He chuckled, pulling up to the parking lot of the local pub.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Kaitlin didn't believe me that we were best friends until you called me one night and I had to put you on speaker phone. I really think she thought I was living in my own world..."

"Come on, El." Harry tapped my head, "You're always living in your own world up in that beautiful head of yours." I got out of the car, making note at yet another compliment Harry was throwing at me.

Maybe he had changed into this guy that couldn't help but compliment women? Trying to woo all of the celebrities he had "relationships" with. Either way, something is different between the two of us and I can't quite put my finger on it.