Harry Who?

As tradition, Scott and I played hockey with a few of our childhood friends the day after Christmas. Most of us picked on Scott for playing in the NHL, even though we were all jealous of him. He had a game the next day, so he left that afternoon, but not before accidentally bringing up my new boyfriend to my parents.

“Is this why you suddenly moved to England without an explanation?” My mom asked and eyed me. I glared at Scott before turning back to my mom.

“Yes, actually, it is.” I nodded. I was not prepared for this, despite having thought about it on the plane ride here. I still could not figure out how to explain Harry to my parents.

“That’s lovely, I’m glad to see you’ve found someone. I was worried, after,” she paused, and decided not to finish her sentence. “Well, I’m sure he’s a nice boy. What’s his name?”

“Uh, it’s Harry.” I didn’t need to say his last name. She’s probably never even heard of him, right?

“It’s not Prince Harry, is it?” My mom teased, and I blushed again.

“No,” I laughed. ‘Not exactly’ I thought and again glared at Scott. Why had I told him about Harry? Oh, right, because he’s my brother and I trusted him.

“What does he do for work?” My dad asked, and Scott stifled a laugh.

“He is a musician.” I swallowed hard and tried to change the subject.

“Oh? Anyone we’ve heard of?” My mom asked.

“Probably not.” I was so embarrassed by now I thought I would be sick. “Scott, we have that hockey thing?”

“That’s not for a few more hours?” He protested, but I got up and grabbed his arm.

“We have to get there early to set up.” I said through clenched teeth, and he got the hint.

“Right. We’ll see you guys at the game, I guess,” he said to our parents before I ran out the door.

Scott insisted on driving, and when he turned on his car, One Direction started blasting from his radio.

“Oh hey, it’s your boyfriend,” he teased and I reached over to turn it off. “No, I like this song.”

“Really Scott?” I asked as we fought for control of the radio.

“No, but some of their songs aren’t bad.”

“Scott, I don’t even listen to their music, why would you want to do that? What if the Pittsburgh Penguins found out you liked 1D?” I teased.

“You don’t listen to 1D and you’re dating them?” He asked.

“I’m not dating them, I’m dating Harry.” I corrected him and changed the radio to something else.

“You don’t even like your own boyfriend’s music?” He laughed and I rolled my eyes.

“It’s not bad, it’s just not my type. Besides, that’s not why I like him,” I added.

“Really?” Scott asked. “Then why do you?”

“Why do I like him?” I stared at him. “You sound like mom.”

“I just want to make sure you know what you’re doing. Especially after things with Glen ended so terribly.”

“No, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m sure about him. He’s nothing like Glen, don’t worry. He wouldn’t abandon me while I was critically injured, like Glend did,” I scoffed. Scott had been friends with Glen, and even though they drifted apart after we broke up, he always defended him whenever I scorned Glen’s behavior.

“Well, he didn’t exactly abandon you. You chose to stay when he had to leave.” His tone was awkward, mostly because we had never directly talked about this before. “And then you, you know…”

“What?” I turned to look at him, and thought he was joking. Glen’s words from New York flashed through my head like lightning and set my heart racing.

“He seemed to think you guys were going to try to work it out long distance until you got better and could move to live with him. But, then you…” He trailed off again and kept his eyes on the road ahead of us.

“Oh God, he thought I cheated on him.” I held my hands up to my mouth as this sunk in. “That’s what he meant when I saw him after the game!”

“It was also only a few weeks after he’d left,” Scott added and glanced over at me.

“Ugh, why do I suck at talking to boys about things that really matter.’’ I hid my face in my hands and slid down in my seat as we pulled into the ice arena. I tried to recall that final conversation I’d had with Glen before we ‘broke up’ but it was foggy with all the pain medication I’d been on, and time seems to change memories in your favor. Had he really not broken up with me? I could have sworn he had just left me there, crying, in my hospital bed, thinking he was leaving me because I wouldn’t follow him to the States while he played hockey.

“That’s not how it happened,” I finally said. “He left me, so I found someone new. We just hooked up a few times, really, it wasn’t serious, I don’t even remember his name.” Okay, I do remember his name, it was Ryan, but that’s not important.

“It’s okay, I wasn’t there, this is just what Scott told me. But yeah, that’s probably why he was so mad to see you with your new boyfriend in New York, at his game, even a year and a half after you guys broke up.”

“You know what makes this even worse? It’s ironic, really, but I kind of just did the same thing to Harry. After I saw him in New York in October, he said he wasn’t sure if we could date, since he’s, you know, him. And I figured it was over because it seemed so unrealistic and illogical that someone like me could just date Harry Styles, you know?” I looked at Scott, and he nodded. “So my roommate set me up on a blind date. Just one date, and I hated it, but someone got a picture of us. I don’t know how, or why, but it turned up recently when that picture of Harry and I together got out. Harry was all broody and wouldn’t talk to me for a week until I finally got him to tell me what was bothering him.”

“You just have bad luck when it comes to communication with guys.” Scott added after a moment.

“No, people just need to be more clear about whether or not we are dating,” I added with a hint of a smile. “The arena’s not even open yet, let’s go get a drink.”

We each got a pint while we waited the hour for the ice arena to open, and I decided to text Harry.

*Harry promise me we’ll both try to talk about stuff that’s bothering us before it becomes a problem, I don’t want to mess this up

I re-read my text and hit send before putting my phone away. A couple other friends met us at the bar before the game, so I tried to socialize, and soon forgot about texting Harry or what Scott had said about Glen.

After the game, our parents took Scott and I to the airport. Scott was off to Pittsburgh to play pro hockey, and I was off to London, back to Harry. As if my mom had read my mind, she had to ask me about him one last time before I left.

“I can’t wait to meet your new boyfriend some day,” she smiled and gave me a hug goodbye. “What did you say his last name was?”

‘Shit’ I thought and panicked for a moment, until I heard them announcing my flight over the intercom.

“It’s Styles. Harry Styles.” I watched my mom’s face to see if she recognized it, and there was a twitch of something as that name triggered some kind of reaction. “That’s my flight, I have to go, sorry. It was nice see you again!” I walked away quickly before she could realize who he was and practically ran to my gate. I texted Harry once I was settled into my seat and tried to forget I had just told my mom I was just dating a member of One Direction.

Harry had said he’d see me once I landed at Heathrow, but I didn’t realize he would actually be at the airport himself to pick me up. That seemed like a risky move, but he held up a sign with my name on it so I could find him. He pulled me into a hug and gave me a kiss, not caring that people could see us and were probably taking pictures.

“This is very cute,” I pointed out his sign.

“Thanks.” He helped me with my suitcase and led me to his car.

“I thought people only did that in movies,” I teased.

“Well, we just saw ‘Love Actually’ so I thought it would be cute,” he kissed my hair, and I heard a few camera shutters flick.

“Oh, like the scene at the end, in the airport,” I smiled. Harry clearly knew what he was doing coming out to the airport himself to pick me up, letting people take our picture. I wish he’d told me so I could have looked a little nicer, after taking a 7 hour flight across the ocean.

“So, what is this all about?” I asked once we were safely in his car. “I was expecting to be met by one of your bodyguards again, or literally anyone other than you.”

“You didn’t want to see me?” He joked. “Actually, it’s your fault. That text you sent me made me think. You never did explain that, you now.”

I laughed, “I know, it’s ironic, right? I text you to say we need to talk about stuff more, and then I don’t talk about it. I just meant that I wanted this to work, and we need to communicate better for that to happen, because I’ve discovered I’m a chronic miscommunicator.”

“Really?” He said sarcastically. “Though who am I to tease you about that,” he added quietly.

“So,” I tried to get the subject back on track. “There are going to be pictures of us, together, on the internet soon. Actually, there probably already are. I thought this was something we were trying to avoid?”

“You told your parents, right?” He asked.

“Yeah, kinda. I didn’t really explain it, but I guess they’ll find out now.” I thought about all my friends and everyone I’ve played hockey with and how they’d react. Maybe my name won’t be mentioned, although Harry was holding a sign that had my first name on it (maybe they’d think it was a different Ellie?).

“Don’t worry about it, they’ll just say I was seen with a ‘mystery girl’ at the airport. And trust me,” he looked over with a smirk as we were stopped at a light. “Girl, you are a mystery.”

We both giggled and I rolled my eyes at him.

When we got home he again helped me with my suitcase, even though it was light. As we walked up to my room he stopped and looked back at me. “You seem to have forgotten that I said I had something else for you,” he was smiling in a weird way, and I bit my lip.

“Right, another Christmas present.” I had forgotten, oops.

“Well, it’s in your room.” He led me into my room and turned the light on. Sitting next to my bed were two new suitcases, much more fashionable and attractive than mine.

“Thank you, Harry!” I hugged him and he laughed. He took my old suitcase, opened it, and dumped everything on the bed.

“You won’t be needing this any more,” he teased and put it in the hallway.

“They look much nicer than mine, thank you.” I reached down to touch the designer’s emblem on the pocket. “Matches yours.”

He nodded. “Yup, so people know we’re together,” he joked. “Open them.”

“There’s more?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“Oh yes, much more,” Harry grinned.

‘Great’ I thought as I unzipped the first bag and tried to imagine what Harry might have filled the suitcases with. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought. They were both full of clothes. I looked up at him, speechless.

“You wouldn’t let me buy you clothes, so I thought I’d give you some for Christmas,” he smiled and shrugged.

He looked so happy and proud of himself, that I couldn’t be mad. And it was true, I did need new clothes. I stood up and gave him a kiss. “Thank you, I know I can be stubborn, but this was really nice of you. If only I’d had all of these before I had my picture taken at the airport,” I teased.

“I didn’t plan that far ahead, sorry. But now you have nice clothes for the next time we go out together,” he kissed my cheek.

“Next time?” Yikes, this was going to take some getting used to.