Smoking With Strangers

"Of course it's you," I said, rolling my eyes. My phone had begun to ring at seven. That I could ignore by simply turning it off. Then, half an hour later, my doorbell started up. Once I realized there was no getting out of answering the door, I pulled on a pair of shorts and stumbled through my apartment. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Seven forty-eight, love," Harry replied, coming in.

I rolled my eyes and shut the door. "I just saw you yesterday," I complained. "Why are you waking me up so early when I don't have work?"

Harry shrugged. "Woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. I wanted to hang out with someone but no one else answered their mobiles-"

"I didn't answer mine," I scowled.

Harry paused a moment. "I'll take you to breakfast to make up for it. You don't have anything going on today, do you?"

"No," I sighed. "Give me five minutes."

I left Harry on my couch and went to my bedroom. I found a pair of jeans, probably dirty, and also the white v-neck I still hadn't given back to Harry, also dirty.

Quickly I pulled on a black lace bralette, clean underwear, and the rest of my outfit. I brushed my teeth and decided my hair looked fine to leave down. I swiped on mascara, because knowing Harry breakfast actually meant he would come up with something for us to do the whole day. I pulled on my favorite black booties and gave myself a once over in the mirror.

"That was eight minutes actually."

"Eat a dick," I said, rolling my eyes. I grabbed my purse and phone, looking at Harry, who still hadn't gotten off the couch. "I know you aren't gonna sit there when you dragged me out of bed at least three hours before I was planning on getting up."

He grinned and jumped up. "Just noticing how nice you look, love. See you're making use of my shirt. You know anyone can see your bra, right?"

"I do. Come onnnn, I'm hungry and need coffee. Also, you're driving." I slipped my sunglasses over my eyes, then locked the door behind Harry.

"I don't remember you being this whiny last time I saw you first thing in the morning," Harry said.

"Where's your car?" I asked, looking around the parking lot behind my apartment building.

"I drove my motorcycle over. I brought an extra helmet, but I can drive your car if you'll be uncomfortable."

I bit my lip. I had never rode on a motorcycle and I wasn't scared, per se, but it did make me feel a lot of things inside. "Uhm, should I get a jacket? I've never done this before."

Harry beamed. "Take this, I'm fine."

I slipped Harry's leather jacket over my shoulders and slipped the helmet over my head.

"You want it to be snug," Harry said. His hands reached up to adjust the helmets straps. He moved the helmet around my head a couple of times and readjusted. "All set. I'll get on first, alright?"

I nodded. Harry climbed on and got settled. "Now?"

"Yeah, just grab hold of my shoulders."

I climbed on and got settled, gripping onto Harry's shoulders. "Is there anything I need to know?"

"When I lean just lean with me," Harry said. "Ready?"

I squealed, "Yes!"

The motorcycle roared to life and without any warning Harry was pulling out of the parking lot and onto the main road. It didn't take long to adjust to being on the motorcycle and I quickly found that I loved the feeling of the wind around me. I was able to see a lot that I wouldn't usually see in the car.

I relaxed my grip on Harry's shoulders and took in my surroundings. I was only nervous when he made a turn because I didn't want us to end up on the ground, but I knew I was also just being paranoid. We rode for twenty minutes before Harry pulled into a parking lot beside a small restaurant.

He parked and turned off the motorcycle. He pulled off his helmet and turned slightly. "Reverse this time. You'll get off first."

I cautiously got off the bike and took off my helmet. I smiled and waited for Harry to climb off.

"Wasn't so bad, yeah?"

"That was so great," I exclaimed.

Harry's already large smile grew. "Now, for an equally great breakfast."

"Hi, just t-two?" the hostess asked, stuttering once she looked up and saw us. Or Harry, at least.

"Yeah, thanks," Harry said.

She sat the menus down at a table, then scurried away to the kitchen, probably to tell everyone else who was in the restaurant.

"What should I get?" I asked, looking at the menu.

"Pancakes, a fried egg, and toast," Harry suggested. "We'll have lunch later so don't feel like this will be your only meal for the day."

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, you know I can feed myself, right? This wouldn't be my only meal today even if you were taking me home after breakfast."

"Totally not taking you home after breakfast," Harry grinned.

"Girl bye, I knew that."

"Can I grab you something to drink?" The waitress asked, appearing suddenly beside me. I jumped lightly and Harry snickered.

"Could I have a water and coffee, please?"

"Cream?"

"Yes, please."

"And for you?"

"I'll have the same, please."

"I'll be right back with that."

Harry and I made idle chatter about how we should spend the day. I gave him shit for not already having a plan when he dragged me from bed.

"Here you go. Are you two ready to order or do you need a few minutes?" She asked, pushing her black hair from her face.

"I'll have a pancake, a fried egg, and toast, please."

"And for you sir?"

"All the same, thanks."

The waitress walked away and I noticed a few of the other patrons looking at our table, some of them with their phones out. Most of the people in here were much older and either didn't know us or knew and didn't care.

"How long do you think it will be before someone approaches you?" I asked.

"Me? I'm not the only famous face at this table," Harry laughed.

"I don't get approached that often. Like, actually, I think it's happened seven times at most since Pitch Perfect."

"Ah, about Pitch Perfect," Harry said, his green eyes locked into mine.

"What about it, Styles?"

"I'm assuming you can sing?"

"I mean, everyone can sing."

"Sing well," Harry clarified.

I shrugged. "I guess? I mean, good enough to be in the movie. Why don't you just Google it or something? I'm sure you could find some clips on YouTube."

"Because I want to know you," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I think if you Google me you'll know a pretty good overview."

"I don't want that," Harry shook his head. "That's just what other people wrote about you and not everything on the internet is true. I want to get to know you the normal way."

"The normal way still involves quite a bit of internet stalking," I said. I wasn't able to hold a straight face once Harry's screwed up in frustration. I laughed loudly.

"You're rather cheeky," Harry grumbled, a grin quickly overtaking his scowl.

I realized how easy it was to be around Harry as we talked and ate our food. He was funny, nice, and interesting. He teased hard, but didn't get upset when I gave it back to him. I liked when he talked about all the places he'd traveled. II had barely done any traveling, for work or just because I wanted to, but it's something I wanted to do.

"Ready?" Harry asked.

I nodded and took one final sip of my water. Harry threw two hundreds on the table and led me out of the restaurant. It had gotten quite buisier since we walked in. He was moving quickly, and it was obvious that he wanted us out of there before the waitress came back and saw the generous tip he had left.

An hour passed before Harry got off on an exit and pulled into a gas station.

"Just gonna fill up," he said climbing off after me.

"Let me give you some money," I said, pulling my wallet from my back pocket. I pulled out a few twenty dollar bills and looked up to see Harry looking at me blankly.

"I don't need or want your money."

"I just don't want you to spend too much on a day outing."

Harry grinned, sticking his credit card in the gas machine. "I'm not exactly worried about money, Maxine. I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable, either. Just don't worry about it, yeah? Next Hax day you can make it up to me."

"Hax day?"

"Yeah, Harry and Maxine day. Hax."

"I like that you only come close to calling me what I like to be called when you make a name for us."

"I like the name Maxine," Harry shrugged.

"So what's the plan, Styles? So far we're just getting further and further from L.A."

"You let me worry about that, love. You just worry about holding on."



"That's so bloody cute," Harry said, snapping several photos.

I cooed at the baby goat in my arms, bringing the bottle back to its eager lips. We had ended up at a moderately sized vineyard, intending only to do a wine tasting. But when I saw there were farm animals, and especially goats, I knew I had to see them. The owners daughter was a huge fan of Harry's, which made it fairly easy to get into the goat pen.

"Oh," I laughed as the baby jumped out of my arms, frolicking towards the others. Another goat came up, then another and I found myself surrounded by them. "I love goats so much. This is the best day ever."

"They're adorable," Harry agreed, leaning down to pet one of them. We spent another thirty minutes with the goats before washing up and walking back towards the shop for a wine tasting.

"So, I was thinking once we're done here we could head back to town and go to the beach."

"I don't have a suit with me," I replied, putting a cracker with cheese into my mouth.

"We can stop. I don't have one either."

"O.K.," I shrugged. "I'm liking this day much more than I expected to when I got out of bed so early."

"We had to start early so we could fit it all in!"

"Bullshit," I exclaimed, laughing. "We have been winging this entire day. You did not have all this planned out."

Harry threw his hands up in surrender. "All the Hax days I plan will be starting early, just so you know."

"Mine will start later but last late into the night," I replied with a grin.

"What makes you think this day won't last late into the night?" Harry poured the rest of the bottle we bought into my glass.

"You're not gonna have any more?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't risk things on the bike."

I nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem, love."

"So, my manager called me about going to an audition for this movie based off a mystery novel."

"Yeah? Are you going to audition?"

"Yeah. I've been reading the book and I really enjoy it so far. I think it will probably be filmed in England though, that's where it takes place. Or maybe it's Ireland, I can't remember which."

"Niall woukd say there's quite a bit of difference."

"Like any good Irishman."

Harry laughed. "It's going to be strange when our schedules involve more working. I rather like being able to see you whenever I fancy it."

"We've hung out all of three times, Harry," I said, rolling my eyes. This was actually the third time. The second time we had a movie night with Gemma on her last night in town.

"You're so hurtful," Harry said. His hand covered his heart in a dramatic, wounded gesture.

I asked Harry what his schedule was normally like. He told me about touring and press, how exhilarating and exhausting it was all at once. Then I told him about filming, how I had done one indie film that was super low budget and we had finished in a day, while others had 5aken so much longer.

"Pitch Perfect was the most exhausting for me, honestly."

"Why is that, love?"

"It was a lot of work on my vocal chords. I haven't done any, like, really professional singing or anything so it was really taxing."

"If is rough sometimes," he agreed. "Ready love?"

I nodded, standing up and wobbling very slightly. "Don't let me fall off."

Harry wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "I would never."

We got back on the bike and drove back towards town. It seemed like it took longer than getting here had, but I guess that's how it always is. We stopped at a tacky, generic beach store and bought towels and swimsuits, putting them on under our clothes so we would be beach ready.

"You know, I guess we could have just stopped by our houses. This would probably be less of a hassle if we weren't on the bike," Harry said as we walked out of the store.

"We could always go to your place and grab a car," I suggested.

"I think it's for the best," Harry nodded.

And he was totally right, because the towels were a hassle for me dry, I could only imagine what it would be like if they were wet. It didn't take us long at all to get to his house and jump in the Range Rover.

"This car is so giant."

"You're just tiny," Harry replied, turning left at a light.

"I'm perfectly sized."

Harry laughed. "You are."

Ten minutes later Harry was pulling into a parking spot. The beach didn't have as many people as usual and I hoped it would stay that way. I pulled my jeans off and put them in the back, with my shirt. Harry was opening my door by the time I was ready.

"Thanks."

We walked onto the beach and found a place to lay down our towels close by the water. I pulled my hair into a top knot and sat down, running my hands through the warm sand.

"I love the beach."

"What do you love about it?" Harry asked.

I looked at him, he too was sifting through sand. "The sun, the sand, the ocean. It's all so nice. Like, a day at the beach, how awesome, ya know? My family and I took vacations to the beach growing up, but this is the first time I've ever lived near a beach and been able to go whenever the mood strikes."

Harry smiled at me and shook his head. "Race you to the ocean."

I scrambled up, pushing on Harry's shoulders as oi rushed forward. Before my feet could touch the water Harry swooped me up in his arms, making me shout and laugh.

"Harry!"

"Little minx!" Then he tossed me in the water.

I surfaced, splashing water at his face. A wave came, knocking us both down.

"Ugh, dude. I totally shouldn't have mascara on right now." I wiped at my eyes, the mixture of salt water and mascara in them making my eyes burn and water.

Harry took my hands. "Stop, you're making it worse. Let's walk up to one of those shops, we can get napkins and paper towels."

"Then we'll come back?"

"Of course, we only just got here," Harry replied.

We wrapped our towels around ourselves. Harry wrapped an arm around me and held onto my right arm so I wouldn't keep rubbing my watery, burning eyes. As we were walking I noticed the sound of a camera.

"For real? Like I've looked so good all day and this is the picture that's going to show up on the internet?"

Harry chuckled.

"What's got you upset Maxine? You and Harry having a fight?"

"She has mascara and salt water in her eyes," Harry replied. We made it to a shop and walked inside. Plenty of people noticed us there and their phones were quickly pointing at us.

"You're really supposed to have clothes on when you come in," a young girl in uniform said, though timidly and as if she wasn't going to actually kick Harry Styles out of her shop.

"I just need to wash the makeup off my eyes," I explained. "I've got them in a state."

"Of course," she squeaked, the bathroom is just over there."

I walked to where she pointed and tried to avoid meeting anyone's eyes. I quickly washed my hand, then used paper towels to get all the remaining mascara off my eyelashes. The salt water still irritated them, but only slightly.

"Perfect," I said, nodding at my reflection in the mirror.

I walked out and quickly met Harry's eyes. He was surrounded by girls wanting pictures and a minute of his time.

"Uhm, excuse me?"

"Hey, what's up?" I said turning around. A blonde and brunette stood in front of me, their phones out.

"Could we get a picture?"

"We loved you in Pitch Perfect."

"And Irrational Man. We're so excited for something else to come out with in it."

"That's so nice," I said, immidiately freaking out. "Ahh no one ever mentions Irrational Man, I'm so proud of that film."

"How was it working with Jaquin Phoenix?"

"He was great," I nodded. "Very tallented, funny dude."

We stood talking for a few more minutes before Harry came over.

"Harry! This is Hannah and Kristen. Guys, this is Harry Styles."

Kristen's and Hannah both laughed. "Everyone knows who he is!"

"The wonderful thing about Maxine is that she's so humble as to not assume. She didn't even know who I was the first time we met," Harry grinned down at me. "We need to go, though, sorry ladies."

"Wait, I have to do pictures with them. You too, Styles."

Harry nodded and we did several shots of each of us with the girls, then one group shot where we were all making ridiculous faces.

Once finished, we said goodbye to the girls and Harry wrapped an arm around me. This time instead of it being to keep me from irritating my eyes it was to make sure we weren't separated. The shop had grown incredibly crowded.

"Wow."

"I know," Harry said, a slight frown on his face.

When we stepped outside it was only worse, because not only was there a swarm of fans, but a swarm of photographers as well.

"I think we're going to have to leave the beach. Sorry," Harry muttered.

"It's cool," I shrugged. "We can come another day."

It took five minutes for us to get from the crowd to his car. No one was giving us much room whatsoever. Harry opened my door and gently pushed forward. I got in the car and he shut my door, quickly moving to his side of the car and climbing in.

"What a fucking mess," Harry grumbled, starting the car. People were close to the back of the car, making it impossible for him to backup.

"If you start moving will they move?"

"Guess we'll find out," Harry sighed. He slowly backed up and people did move, albeit slowly. What should have taken a minute at most took five. Harry visibly relaxed once we were on the road.

"What's our plan now?"

Harry smiled. "I don't know. It's definitely not time for dinner."

"You should invite the guys to dinner," I suggested. "Also I want to go home and shower before dinner."

Harry nodded. "Alright. I'll drop you home then text you details. Maybe we could all go out for drinks after dinner?"

"Maybe," I agreed. "I'll see if I have anything going on tomorrow and if it's nothing too early I'm down."

"Ace."



"Sophia is going to love you," Liam said, after catching his breath from laughter.

"I think so, too. You two are pretty similar."

"I can't wait to meet her, she sounds lovely."

"Maxine may be filming in England, or Ireland, soon. She's not sure which," Harry said, a mischievous look in his eyes.

Niall guffawed across from me.

"Here we go," Louis muttered under his breath.

"There is a very distinct difference," Niall said seriously.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, fighting a smile. "What might those differences be?"

"Well an Irishman can hold his drink, for one. We're better at football, the country is prettier, the birds more fit. I could go on for days," Niall said.

"He could," Liam confirmed.

"Well, you'll just have to teach me the difference," I said, grinning.

My shoulder touched Harry's slightly as I leaned back in the booth. We had dinner at a casual restaurant in Santa Monica, then moved to a bar downtown. Dinner had gone well. It wasn't awkward, like I had worried it would be while getting ready. Harry's bandmates were nice, and I was able to talk to them quite a bit more than I was at Harry's party.

"I think I'm going to fly back this week," Niall said.

"Might as well spend some time home while there's time for it," Louis agreed.

We began sharing stories about what our homes were like growing up, the things we missed the most, and those that we didn't.

The next time I looked at my phone it was nearing eleven.

"I'm going home."

"Nooo," Harry whined. "We're hanging out. Hax dayyyy."

Liam raised his eyebrows. "Hax day?"

I was sure Harry was at least a little drunk at this point. "Harry and Maxine, Hax," he explained.

"I ship it," Niall said very seriously. There was a slight pause before we all began laughing.

Liam and Louis went to get more drinks while Niall went to the bathroom.

"Don't want you to go. Today has been so ace."

"That's good?"

Harry smiled."Very good. I'm not ready for it to end yet."

I rolled my eyes. "Are you one of those people that gets clingy the more they drink?"

A look flashed in his eyes as he looked at me.

"Haz is definitely one of those people," Louis said. "Are you leaving?"

"Yeah, I'm tired. Harry got be out of bed before eight."

"He's an early riser most of the time," Liam said.

When Niall came back I stood and hugged all the guys. I held onto Harry a moment longer before I left the bar and headed home, eager to get in bed and watch Netflix after such a long day.