Smoking With Strangers

"Do I look alright?"

"Fine, breathe."

"I am breathing," I snarled.

"Do you always get this wound up?" Harry asked with a smirk. I sent him a death glare. We woke up late. I told Harry I shouldn't have stayed at his house last night, but I did and because of that I had to haphazardly do my makeup in the car while Harry sped towards Ryan Secrest's radio show.

"Dick," I snarled.

"We're ready Maxine," a lady said, opening up the door. Harry and I walked in and he sat in the corner while I got headphones and a mic.

"With us now we have Maxine Green, thanks for being here!"

"My pleasure! How are you?"

"Great. Now, can you tell us about any upcoming projects?"

"You know, everyone is asking me that. I do have an audition later on today in New York, but there's nothing set in stone."

"What a lot of people dont realize is that they can actually get their Max Green fix through a few indie films."

"Yes," I exclaimed, throwing my hand up to high-five Ryan. "I love that you bring that up because I think for most people I kind of came out of nowhere but I've been doing indie stuff way before Pitch Perfect or Irrational Man. Dark Places is based off the book by Gillian Flynn, the author of Gone Girl. Obviously that movie was a huge success, but I'm doing promotion for Dark Places and it just hasn't gotten the same notoriety."

"Is that frustrating for you?"

"I mean, yes and no. Like I want everything I do to be successful, but how many people know about it is by no means te only way to measure success. What's frustrating to me is the people that think I'm just doing nothing while I don't have anything lined up, while in reality I've got a whole life going on, just like anyone else."

"Speaking of," Ryan began, and it was obvious from the slight apologetic look on his face that I wouldn't like what was coming. "You've been in the tabloids a lot recently..."

"I wouldn't know," I shrugged. "I don't read them. Occasionally my friends will send me things they thought were funny, but I don't really keep up with those things."

"You've been linked to a certain British pop star."

I looked over to Harry and wondered if Ryan was going to bring him on air. It would boost his ratings and fuel the rumors, but if he was a smart businessman he would be more worried about us never coming on the show again.

"Harry is my friend. That's it. No exciting love life for me."

Ryan asked a few more questions, there was a commercial break, then I signed off, and Harry was driving me to the airport.

"Are you sure I can't come in with you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, dude. It would be a shit-storm. Chillax, I'll see you in two days."

"You know Maxine, sometimes I feel like you don't even care about out best friend status."

I grinned and threw my arms around Harry's neck tightly. "We're not best friends-"

"Till we have best friend necklaces. I know. Go on before you miss your flight or I keep you here."

"Bye buttercup," I said and jumped out of the car. As I walked in the airport alone I realized that a tiny, tiny part of me wished Harry was coming to New York with me.



"You look hot," Annie said, looking me up and down.

"I do. This is great," I said, admiring the outfit in the mirror. Annie had made a fitted black polka dot skirt with a slit in the thigh that came down just above mid calf. There was a matching polka dot crop top that was cut like an old fashioned swim suit. "It's nice, but playful, which I feel is totally what this show is."

"My only concern is that it isn't dressy enough."

I shrugged. "I mean, this is something I would wear regularly, so I dunno. Oh, I'll ask Harry." I grabbed my phone and sent a picture of the outfit to Harry.

"Try on this, too."

I quickly slipped on the outfit. This skirt was long, black, and had a deep slit up my thigh. With this, Annie made a sparkly, gold crop top.

"I hate that you look good in whatever you wear."

I scoffed, sending another picture to Harry. "Just everything you design."

'You look fit in both outfits. If you wear the first one I'll wear a polka dot shirt and we can match.'

'I don't know if that will make you not wear that outfit or not...'

"Harry says the first one. So polka dots it is."

"Great. So, I heard from Sandy..."

"What?" I shouted, throwing my phone down. "How have you been letting me ramble about my audition and life when you have such important news?!"

"I have five pieces in the show," Annie said sheepishly. I closed the distance between us and threw my arms around her.

"That's so fucking cool! God, you're so cool! Let's go for a celebratory dinner and get shitty drunk."

"Yes, please," Annie agreed. "Are we inviting Matt?"

I groaned. "Only if he promises not to ruin our fun."

"I think if I twist his arm enough he'll agree."

"How much longer until you're free?"

"I need to get a few more projects done and I have a meeting in an hour. Yu have a key though, if you want to go to my place and hang out feel free. Sorry I couldn't get out of here earlier," Annie said, picking up her sketch book.

"It's cool. I'll probably grab some lunch then go take a nap, so if someone's in your bed when you come home it's me."

"I won't kill you, then."

"Byeee!"

I stepped onto the busy New York streets and took the long way to Annie's apartment. It was nice to just walk around and blend in. When I got to the apartment I took off my boots and threw my bag on the floor and myself in the bed.

I had three texts. I opened Harry's first.

'just had lunch with Zayn. It was nice. How's Annie? How's your brother?'

'Soooooooo bored.'

'I'm glad lunch went well. Annie is great, Matt is at work. I'm about to nap.'

Once I sent Harry's text I opened John's.

'I'll be in L.A. in a week with the guys. Wanna get together?'

'Duhhhh. Call me when you have more deetz.'

I opened my Tumblr app, but Harry's face prevented me from looking at even the first thing on my dash.

"Hiiiii," I said smiling.

"Isn't it mad that we can do this?"

"Facetime?"

"Yeah."

I smiled again. "Yeah it's pretty mad."

"How was the audition?"

"Good I think. They asked lots of questions and said I would hear back in two weeks one way or the other."

"That's good, love. At least you'll know."

I nodded. "Annie will have some pieces at Fashion Week."

"That's brilliant. We'll have to see the show."

"We?"

"You know, one day I may think you don't like spending time with me and I'll stop trying to do things with you."

"Then you'll be looking for a friend at six in the morning and when none of your other friends will get up and hang out with you, you'll come running back to me."

Harry laughed. "I said we because I'll be there anyway."

"What? Why?"

"I am a very stylish person," Harry said, offended.

"Of course you are. What are you doing with the rest of your day?"

"Going out with Zayn later on," Harry shrugged.

"I'm going out with Annie and maybe my brother later. Expect lots of drunk texts."

"I'll be on entertainment stand by."

"Psh, I'll be entertaining you."

"Listen, I've got to go. Bye Maxie."

"Bye buttercup," I said and hung up the call. I plugged in my phone and set an alarm, allowing myself to get in a good nap before the evening really began.



"I love you sooooo much."

"God, I love you, too" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around Annie. We were the level of drunk that came before trashed but was still drunk enough that we were basically groping each other, and people were beginning to stare.

"You two need a room," Matt said, pulling us apart.

"Don't spoil all the fun," Annie chastised. "You promised."

"Yeah, Matt, don't spoil the fun," Jason said, punching Matt's shoulder. Jason was one of Matt's co-workers and Matt had recruited him to help deal with Annie and me drunk in public.

"I need another drink," I announced.

"We'll grab the next round," Jason said, standimg up with Matt. Annie went to the bathroom and I held our table. I opened up my text thread with Harry and read trough the texts I had sent him, all still unanswered.

'When we go to fashion week I found a great restaurant we should eat at.'

'Just did my first shot. All down hill from here.'

'Numba threeee.'

'Why are you ignoring meeeeee?'

'Harrrrryyyyyyy'

'And you call yourself my best friend'

I typed out the text and added all the mad or sad faced emojis and hit send.

"Are you having a good time?" Jason asked, sitting a whiskey and coke in front of me.

I looked up and ran my hands through Jason's thick blond hair. "Do you wanna dance?"

"I hate dancing," Jason admitted. "Haven't had quite as much as you, Hun."

I laughed. "You're right. Uhm, what did you ask?"

Now Jason laughed. "If you're having a good time?"

I took a long sip from my drink. "Yeah. I am. Sometimes I forget how much I like this side of the country."

"Moveeee, I want to sit beside my bff," Annie said, pulling Jason's shoulder when she and Matt came back to the table. Jason didn't argue, moving across the table. This allowed he and Matt to talk while Annie and I ignored them in favor of each other.

"Let's dance," Annie slurred.

"Wait," I exclaimed, pulling Annie's arm. I downed both of our drinks, then we went to the dance floor. A fast paced song played and we quickly found the rhythm and began dancing. Annie and I were probably making fools of ourselves, but neither of us cared. It had been too long since we had such a good time together and we weren't going to let anyone ruin it.



I rolled over, groping for my phone. It was two in the afternoon and I felt like I was dying. I unlocked the phone and was met with a receipt confirming the change in my flight back to L.A.

Instead of leaving tomorrow I would fly back today.

"Morning sunshine," Matt sang.

"Fuck you. Did you know I changed my flight?"

"Yes. Do you remember why you changed your flight? And we don't need to leave for another three hours."

"Thank god," I mumbled. "Do you have anything for my head?"

Matt got me a glass of orange juice and some ibuprofen. "What's going on with you and Styles?"

"He's just a friend. He wormed his way into my life, honestly and now I can't get rid of him."

"Wouldn't want to is more like it," Matt teased.

"Also true. Why? How much of an ass did I make of myself?"

"Well, do you mean in regards to Jason, John, Harry, or the world?"

"Zayn was with Harry so you might as well add him to that list." I paused. "In regards to all, I suppose. Why aren't you or Annie on the list, by the way?"

"We're family, we don't count."

"John's practically family."

"That isn't true, you don't sleep with your family members," Annie said, joining us.

"Guess that's true," I agreed.

"You and John are fucking?"

"Yeah."

"I need to call Marty," Matt said, running his hands down his face. "How many people are you sleeping with?"

"Whoa, rude. None of your business and don't slut shame me."

"Yeah, not cool," Annie agreed.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Well when we left the club it was because you and Jason got kicked out because you got caught fucking in the women's bathroom."

"Oh noooo," I groaned, covering my face.

"It ges worse. You're going to get swarmed at the airport. I think you should have a security team meet you."

"You guys are really stressing me out. What else happened?"

Annie threw her arm around my shoulder. "There are definitely pictures of you and Jason being escorted out of the bathroom by secuirty. Paparazzi was outside and there are pictures, and uhm, maybe some video of you calling John."

"So?" No one would know Jason and I had been having sex in the bathroom.

"You said, and I quote, 'John, I am so adventurous. I fucked another dude in a bathroom tonight.'"

"Well that's unfortunate," I sighed. So much for spinning any kind of story.

"I hope that if no one has any footage of this that you count this as the one lucky time you get away with acting stupid," Matt snapped.

"Don't be a dick" Annie snapped back. "Well, I'm going to my place. Need to shower, then how about we all go to lunch?"

"Yeah," Matt agreed. I nodded wearily. Annie left te apartment, throwing a small wave as she closed the door behind her.

"What's going on with you and Annie?"

Matt immidiately blushed. "I like her a lot..."

"Yeah? And?"

"I don't know. I've been thinking a lot about asking her on a date but I'm not sure. She's a really good friend and that's not something I'm willing to lose."

"I think you should do it."

Matt shrugged. "Do you want to shower first?"

I sighed. "Not really. But I guess I will."

"You're so dirty," Matt complained.

"Am not." I grabbed my phone and went to the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. I saw that I had five missed calls. One from John, two from Harry, one from my Mom, and one from my manager.

I went to my texts, three of those. Two simply said call me, and those were from John and Allison, my manager. Harry's said to call him before anyone else.

"Well, he wins for being different." I hit the call button and listened to the call go through.

"Maxine," Harry sighed in relief.

"Hiiii. Sorry for anything I said last night, I was trashed."

"That makes two of us," Harry chuckled. "Have you read anything this morning?"

"How bad is it?"

"I'm going to have Paul pick you up from the airport. Uh, I may have said some drunken things about you last night to any bloke that would listen and one of 'em recorded it."

"Oh geeze. I wasn't on my best behavior last night either."

"I- I know. I just... Don't watch the video until we can watch it together. O.K.?"

Harry's voice was anxious and sad, something I never heard from him. "Yeah alright. Is everything- wait do you know I cha ged my flight to today?"

"Oh? Great, brilliant. Less a chance of you seeing-" Harry mumbled the rest of his sentence. "Bye Maxie."

"Bye Haz."

I took a quick shower and pulled on the first items of clothing I found, the shirt happening to be one of Harry's. I walked into the living room, Annie and Matt watching a video I only caught enough of to hear Harry's name.

"What was that?" I asked.

They both jumped. "Nothing. Let's get going, don't want you to be late," Annie said, shutting her laptop.



The airport was awful. Airports are always awful, but today it was worse. I was going to just be dropped off, but when I was spotted bugging mat and Annie goodbye photographers surrounded me, shouting questions about Harry, Jason, and John. Whatever I did last night was way bigger of a deal than I think any of us had thought.

Matt and Annie got me inside and once I went through security it was significantly better, but it didn't stop random people from coming up to me.

Two girls approached me, one had her phone in her hand. They looked about fifteen.

"Hi, Max."

"Hi," I said awkwardly.

"Is that Harry's shirt?"

Inwardly I groaned, but put a smile on my face anyway. "Well it's on my body so it's mine for now," I joked.

"Are you guys dating?"

"Just good friends, probably like the two of you."

"Are you mad about what he said?"

"Yeah that video would have made me really angry."

"I don't actually know what you're talking about," I replied.

The one without her phone pulled it out now. She quickly was thrusting it into my hands and now I was watching an E! Report.

"Party in the U.S.A.?"

"A little too hard," the female co-anchor said. Last night actress Maxine Greene was seen partying in the Big Apple where she was reportedly thrown out of a club for uh, doing things in the bathroom that aren't what the bathroom is meant for."

"Not a public bathroom," the male joked.

Then footage of the four of us leaving the club started playing. Matt had his arm around me, Annie holding my hand as we fought through the crowd. They caught me clear as day admitting what I had done with Jason.

"Now, on this coast Harry Styles and Zayn Malick were also out partying, " the male picked up. "When leaving the club Harry was stopped by reporters and shown the footage of Maxine."

"And these two are always seen around together," the woman said.

"Right. So let's get that footage rolling."

Then that footage did roll and I watched as Harry and Zayn were shown the footage of me because it's 2015 and every-fuckimg-body can post anything on the internet in seconds.

I watched Harry's face fall and Zayn mutter something quietly in his ear.

"Still so crazy about her now, Harry?"

Harry scoffed. "She's my friend, never been sleeping with her, never would. I don't date the slag type."

Mouth agape, I handed the girl back her phone. "I'm sorry, did you want an autograph or a picture?" I asked, trying to regain control of this situation.

"No," the girl scoffed. I then noticed a third girl, filming this entire thing. "We don't want to be seen with the slag type."

Despite the fact that I shouldn't have been, not really, I was hurt. I began crying and jumped up, walking around people and looking for a little pod to crawl into.

So I did the best I could and found a corner, my face looking at the wall. I leaned against it and called Harry. But I hung up after the first ring because I didn't actually want to talk to him right now. He called back, three times before I turned my phone off and boarded my plane.



"Bye Paul," I mumbled. He took my bag from me and gave me a pat on the shoulder.

"It's going to be fine," he reassured. He walked me to Harry's door and knocked once. With as quick as Harry opened the door it was like he had been waiting for me to be delivered at the door.

"I am so happy to see you," Harry sighed, hugging me into his body. He pulled me the rest of the way inside and Paul said goodbye to us, then Harry shut the door.

"You've got a good guy in Paul, I told him to take me home but he said he was under strict instructions," I said with a frown.

"You promised you wouldn't watch it," Harry sighed. "Maxine-"

"Don't call me that," I snapped.

"Max-"

"Only my friends call me Max."

Harry scoffed, frustrated now. He ran a hand through his hair, making it even more disheveled. "What bloody name should I call you then?"

"How 'bout slag? I looked up what that means, you know."

Harry looked at me increadeously. "I know I'm not supposed to laugh at that."

I snorted, then we both laughed and the room was significantly less tense.

"I was drunk and I didn't mean it."

"It's fine. Honestly, I know that but it just hurt me and then those girls threw your words in my face. Like, they were thrilled to think that's how you actually felt.

"What girls?" Harry asked.

I took my phone and only had to change my search words once to find the video from earlier today. I hit play and handed my phone to Harry.

I went into the kitchen and got two wine glasses out of the cabinet and a bottle of wine.

"I'm sorry."

I shrugged. "It's whatever. It just was so overwhelming at the airport and I didn't have security or anything. It was much better at LAX."

"Have you talked to your manager?"

"Nah. I'm going to call her in the morning. She's probably furious. Are you in trouble?"

"I have a meeting tomorrow," Harry chuckled.

"So, we're kind of like hiding out from the rest of the world right now."

"Avoiding our problems like any good twenty-something."

I laughed and handed Harry his glass. "Cheers to that. Wanna build a pillow fort and watch a movie."

"Diane movie?"

"Alright," I agreed.

"Hell yes," Harry agreed.

We built the fort in twenty minutes, it would have taken five if Harry didn't think of himself as the expert fort builder. But once we were in the fort and watching Aladdin I couldn't say that he wasn't right about construction, because he totally was. We were able to comfortably fit us, a bowl of popcorn, and two bottles of wine.

"Hey, I forgot," Harry said, digging in his pocket. "It's official."

He handed me a gold chain with a small golden charm of a slice of pepperoni pizza attached. It took me a mo!ent before it dawned on me what it was.

"Where's your necklace?" I asked, slipping the long chain over my neck.

Harry pulled the chain from his shirt. "Right here, don't get your panties in a twist."

"The thing that made us question our friendship as a symbol of it. I love it! Best friend!"

I threw my arms around Harry's neck and kissed his cheek.

"Alright, watch the movie," Harry scolded. That night I learned how into Disney movies he was.



"I mean, I don't think we need to release a statement. That's so official," I said, frowning.

Allison out her head in her hands and took a deep breath. She looked up at me and said patiently, "Max, I understand that you're used to the small stuff, but you are big leagues now. Big things happen, we make statements."

"Why can't I just say something on Twitter?"

"Is that how you want to apologize? Through Twitter?"

"Whoa," I said. "I don't want to apologize at all. I'll admit I was drunk and stupid, but I'm young and it happens. So, yeah, that's what I would like to say and I would like to do it on Twitter."

"Fine," she sighed. "I'm not going to fight you on this. In other news, I already heard back from the audition. You got the part."

"Yes," I shouted. "Well, that's great news. I really wanted that part."

Allison smiled. "Alright, go on, I've got other clients to deal with today."

"Love ya, mean it!"

After leaving Allison's I went back home and crawled into bed. I thought for a long time about just what I would put on Twitter. I spent thirty minutes just thinking about everything before I typed out my message.

@maxieg: I'm an adult and I have sex and sometimes it's in places I shouldn't... Sorry not sorry.

I knew it probably wasn't the best thing to say, but it was true at least. If nothing else, I could feel good about that.