California Sunshine

Ana, Jessica, and Ed had just arrived in West Hollywood. They all had had a few drinks back at Jessica and Ana’s, and once they felt that they had a sufficient pre-club buzz, they took a cab to the wonderful night scene. Ana was initially worried about the bouncer not letting her in, but seeing that she was with Jess and Ed, he seemed to just let it slide. Plus Ed may or may not have smooth-talked the bouncer a bit. It must’ve been the British accent… People love a good British accent.

After Ana was “smuggled” in, the three of them go up to the bar and take their seats looking to order a drink. Ana takes a minute to look around at her surroundings. It is the stereotypical night club, with booths lining the walls and strobe lights flashing about. Its filled to the brim all sorts of people, famous and not famous included. Ana for the most part knows how to keep her cool around the celebrities, however when she sees Aaron Paul in a booth in the corner with some of his friends, she has a bit of a fan-girl moment. Breaking Bad is the BOMB, obviously.

Ed immediately takes charge once they approach the bar and flags down the bartender, “Ana what would you like to drink? It’s on me.”

“Oh, Edward,” she says emphasizing his full name, “I knew I liked you dating my sister for a reason…You charming chap, you!” Ana jokes, “I’ll have a Gin and Tonic please!”

“Anything for you, Ana-belle, ” Ed replies with a smirk and an emphasis on the second half of her name. He then turns his attention to the bartender to begins to order the drinks for the three of them.

“Make that two G and T’s,” Another female voice interrupts. The three of them then look around to see Leighton standing there with a big smile on her face.

Instantly there is a TON of screaming, in that way that girls tend to greet one another out at a club, and that is followed by hugs all around.

“I haven’t seen you guys in AGES! Especially you Ana-girl!” Leighton exclaims excitedly, all three girls still amidst a group hug.

“Yeah I have definitely missed ya!” Ana says back to her.

Jessica chirps in then, “Where’s your beau at? I thought you said that he was coming too!”

“Oh he is just paying the cab driver. I just quickly hurried inside cuz I was so excited to see you all! He should be in shortly though.” Leighton says referring to her husband, Adam Brody.

At this point Ed has the drinks in his hand and turns his attention back to the group of ladies. He and Leighton greet each other with a friendly hug before he sits back down on his bar stool.

Sitting with the three of them, Ana can’t help but feel like she is in the “Upper East-Side” from Gossip Girl and almost expects Kristin Bell’s voice to start narrating their actions. She laughs to herself at the thought for a second, but pushes it from her head as she sees her drink float in front of her. She takes it graciously.

“Aww man, so now I am gonna be the fifth wheel tonight?” Ana whines at the group.

“Sure looks like it, kid!” Ed chirps in with a smirk on his face while Jess jabs him in the ribs for it.

“Thanks Edward, don’t beat around the bush or anything!” Ana replies with a mock hurt face then says, “Well I guess now is a good time to start drinking my feelings.” Ana says while taking a large gulp of her Gin and Tonic.

Jessica laughs at her sister’s humor, “Oh I guess we will just have to find a nice handsome chap around here for ya!”

At this, Ed lifts up his drink, “Cheers to nice chaps!” He announces, causing everyone to laugh and hold up their drinks merrily along with him. And so begin the night.

Ana begins to feel a happiness surge through her that she hasn’t felt in a long time. She immediately gets a good feeling about tonight. She NEEDS a fun night, and thats exactly what she is going to have.

----

A couple of hours have passed and it is apparent that Ana and her friends’ night seems to be coming to an end, even though there was still more than a decent amount of people in the club. Despite her joking around about being the fifth wheel, she actually had a blast with these four goofballs. The night had begun with only a few rounds of darts. But then it evolved into a night filled with photo bombing randoms' selfies, and lots and lots of stupid dancing.

Ana has stopped drinking a while ago though, so she is actually feeling quite coherent. Her sister and friends, on the other hand, are definitely at a far more inebriated state. Ana actually felt the need to wander away from them for a bit because they are starting to be all end of the night "couply” and whatnot. So Ana decides to make her way up to the bar and asks for a glass of water.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Ana hears a low British voice from right beside her. At first she thinks its Ed, but when she snaps her head to the sound, she is met with a pair of (now) familiar green eyes. Harry Styles plops down on the bar stool next to her with a slight grin on his face. Ana instantly feels an ever so slight pang of guilt with the moment of recognition. Just several hours previously she had been quite rude to him. And she isn't typically a rude person. “Glad to see you are not on the ground this time,” he says with a smirk.

She lets out a small laugh, “Glad to see you didn’t bring your entourage this time!” Her wit coming back to her, “I’m sorry if I was a bit rude earlier, I was a little stressed in the situation.” she replies, trying to sound kinder than her previous self with him.

“Not hard to be in those crowds,” he replies with a slight shake of his head, “Besides, I think it should be me apologizing to you. I may have stepped on your hair a bit by accident.” He says while scrunching his face guiltily.

Ana lets out a gasp at his words, “That was you?! I think you ripped out like 20 of my hairs from that!”

“Like I said, apologizing,” Harry laughs.

“It is still tender!” Ana jokingly whines.

At this, Harry pauses for a moment and looks at her thoughtfully, “I’m Harry by the way, I don’t know if we have properly met,” he says and sticks out his hand.

Ana looks at the hand for a moment before reaching her own out and placing it in his, “Ana,” she replies while their hands grasped, “Oh and by the way I know that you are the Harry Styles, the guy in One Direction now. My sister filled me in.”

“Well I happen to know that you are the Anabelle Szohr, sister of Jessica Szohr from Gossip Girl now… by the way,” Harry mocks with a sly grin, “I saw you with her at the airport.”

Ana pauses at that and raises her eyebrows at him. They hold eye contact for a brief second before she does what she thinks is a nonchalant shrug, and responds with “Touché, sir”

Neither speak for a moment or two. Harry eventually breaks the silence though while Ana was takes a rather large gulp of water.

“So Ana, I have to say I am intrigued by your accent. Are you not from around here?” Upon hearing this statement coming from a British dude in America, Ana accidentally lets out a laugh and the water that was occupying her mouth launches itself outward--- right onto Harry’s face. It looks like a scene right out of the BBC1 Radio’s game of Innuendo Bingo, except Ana was the only one playing.

There is a moment of stunned silence between the two as Ana can not believe she just spit water into the face of an international pop star…After a second of letting that thought sink in though, she starts to lose control of the gigantic smile that is creeps onto her face. She cant help but break out into a fit of laughter, to the point of which she is having trouble breathing.

“I’m so—I’m so sor--,” she says in her attempt to apologize, but every time she gets close to getting it all out, another gasp of laughter makes its way through instead. Eventually Harry’s resolve breaks with her as the smile that iss creeping on to his face proceeds to turn into a laugh as well; dimples indenting with full force. The two of them laugh for minutes upon minutes while Harry attempts to wipe his face off with a towel that the bartender gave him.

It is one of those moments with someone where you both laugh so hard that it hurts. REAL. GENUINE. LAUGHTER.

“So I’m assuming that meant a no,” Harry says still with a shadow of a laugh etched on to his face.

“No, no ---you’re right,” Ana breathes out, “I am not originally from California. But I am more from here, as in the United States, than you are, Mr. British.”

“Well which state are you from then, Miss All-American?” Harry fires back at her, keeping the mood light and happy.

“Well I am not sure if you know where it is, but I was born and raised in Wisconsin,” Ana says with an ounce of pride towards her state, even though this guy is foreign and probably doesn’t know a single thing about it. Harry, however, has an amused look on his face at her words.

“Can I tell you something, Ana?”

“Go for it.”

“I happen to be a MASSIVE fan of the Green Bay Packers.” Harry says simply, not knowing that he has actually struck a pulse-point with her. Ana just stares at him incredulously.

“Come off it! You guys all like soccer over there, not American Football.”

“I swear I am telling the truth! In fact, I can prove it to you…Hold on,” he insists and begin to roll up the sleeve on his left arm. Ana is only momentarily distracted by Harry’s defined bicep muscle that is now visible, but its long enough that she has to stop her mouth from it hanging open dumbly.

“Take a look,” Harry says victoriously while pointing to a small tattoo thats just above his elbow. Ana then stops looking at the flexed bicep, and instead focuses on what he was pointing at. Sure enough, there is the distinguishable “G” that represents the logo of the Green Bay Packers.

“You have a Packer tattoo,” Ana states more than asks, still in disbelief.

Harry looks triumphant, “Sure do!” And after that starts to roll back down his sleeve (much to Ana’s disappointment.) “Have you ever been to a game?”

Ana laughs again, thinking about her family's season tickets. “Yeah you could say that…" she pauses for a second, "I am impressed though, maybe you aren't just a pretentious British pop star like I originally thought.

“Pretentious?” Harry asks incredulously, “How was I pretentious?”

“You assumed I was a fan,” Ana replies with a shrug, “Not everyone in the world wants a picture with you, oh famous one.”

“Well aren’t you quick to judge!”

“I don’t think it anymore, silly. It was just my first impression of you.”

Harry then leans his body in closer to Ana and slowly articulates his next words, “Well what is your impression of me now?” He says keeping his eyes locked on hers.

The lighthearted mood between them shifts into something more intense by his sudden closeness in proximity. As they both look at each other, Ana is suddenly aware of his intentional alluring demeanor. She likes to think she knows charming. Adam is one of the biggest charmers she has ever met, and she was obviously attracted to him for it. The problem is, he just so happens to be charming with other girls as well. And for that reason, Ana isn’t so quick to trust the ‘smooth talkers’ that she is approached by any more.

Fortunately, Ana is saved from answering the question when Harry’s ringtone on his phone starts to blare out. He sighs and reluctantly breaks their eye contact to reach into his pocket to grab his phone. Ana shifts away from him slightly when he answered it to create more distance between them.

“Hey are you here?” Harry speaks into the receiver. After a pause, he says, “Alright I’ll be out in minute or two.” And hangs up.

He turns his attention back to Ana then, “My ride is here, so I’ll have to take a rain check on hearing your answer.” He says while getting off his bar-stool. “It was lovely chatting with you though, Miss Anabelle.”

“Likewise, Mr. Styles,” Ana says with a small grin.
Harry then pauses for a second, looking a tad nervous as he appears to be contemplating something. “Can I,” He pauses, “Can I take you out sometime?”

Ana blinks at him, “Like on a date?” she replies lamely.

“A date? That’s awfully forward of you, Ana. What was it you said to me? Oh yeah, how pretentious to assume.” Harry teases her. Ana only rolls her eyes with a small smile back at him.

There is another small pause between them before Harry speaks again, “But what if I told you that yes, that was my intention?” He slyly questions.

“Uhh,” Ana hesitates. She knows that it wasn't an everyday occurrence to have an extraordinarily good looking pop star ask you out on a date, and she also realizes that she probably should be screaming the words “yes I would love to go on a date with you” back to him because of that. However, once the words left Harry’s lips, only one person came to her mind… Adam. She just isn’t sure if she is ready for this whole dating thing.

Harry seems to sense her hesitation, “I’ll tell you what,” he says while taking out a piece of paper from his pocket, “I’ll give you my number and if you want to take up my offer, give me a call.” He says while writing his number on the paper and handing it to her.

“Yeah, uhh okay cool,” Ana finally says. Smooth, Ana, she thinks to herself. She seemed to have lost her level head.

“Well I have to head out, but it was a pleasure meeting you Ana. Thanks for a lovely conversation and water all over my face.”

Ana laughs at his comment and replies, “Have a nice night.”

At her words, Harry grabs her hand and presses a kiss to the top of it. And with that he grins, and turns to walk towards the doors. Ana watches him go and is left dumbfounded at what had just happened, and her apparent lack of ability to create words.

At this point she looks down at the piece of paper he had just given her, and decides to put it her pocket. She begins to think about if she should actually call him or not. She really doubts that she would… but he was being nice so she doesn't actually know.

All the excitement from the day finally hits Ana as a wave of tiredness crashes into her. She looks over at the pair of sleepy couples being all affectionate and decides its probably best if they all went home.

“What a day,” She says aloud to herself. She gets off the bar-stool and heads to the booth to collect the others.