All Too Well

Chapter 11

" I was pretty surprised you agreed to coming tonight to be totally honest with you."

The vulnerability in his voice was something I had not experienced yet, it almost felt unrecognizable.

"I was pretty surprised I came too," I mocked, causing Harry to now remove his eyes from the floor and set them straight on me, the accustomed grin had now found itself across his face and I could tell he was surprised by my response.

"Well I mean, I knew something was up when you didn't ask me for a photo the first time we met, so I had to have my doubts, you know?" His response contaminated with sarcasm, I swatted Harry across the arm and walked over to the far wall in his opulent home.

The wall was covered from top to toe in plaques and framed achievments, mostly One Direction related, Number 1 Platinum album, 30 million Albums sold worldwide, Number 1 singles, there was not a patch of plaster that had not been covered, to say this band was successful would be an understatement and I felt quite overwhelmed standing amongst 1/5 of the contributor.

"So you guys must be alright hey?" I stated, while pacing up and down the carpet reading the small gold labels on each of the framed boards. Harry laughed and walked over to the far end, pulling off one of the frames from the wall.

"It's pretty hard to go past this one", Harry indicated, holding up the large poster towards me.

Cheshires Got Talent - First Place: Harry Styles

The label read. The frame was made up of small newspaper clippings from the competition, Harry appearing in all, it looked like the poster inside was home made, compiled together by one really proud Mum.

"First place, wow Harry, thats amazing, you look so young in these photos", holding the frame now in my hands trying to examine the clippings a little closer.

"Yeah I think I had just turned 15, mum made me try out, kinda happy she did actually." He sounded reminiscent, almost as if he could somehow go back to that place. I gathered that "Cheshires Got Talent" was were his confidence began and that somehow stemmed into what it is today.

"Anyways, you hungry?" Harry asked while placing the frame back in it's original spot.

"Yeah a little, what are you cooking?" The look on Harry's face confirmed my question and I couldn't help but laugh.

"There's a really good Italian joint not far up the road if you wanna get take out from there?" My mind insantly flashed back to Harper making a very similar comment about a local Italian restaurant and I couldn't help but make the connection between the two. 

"What about Chinese?" I willingly protested, I've heard really good things about a couple of the Chinese restaurants around here, reckon we should give that a go.

Harry agreed and made the call.

"45 minutes they said." 

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My domestic intuition kicked in and I collected our plates and the remaining Chinese and started packing things away, Harry insisted that I sat down and left it but I knew that if I didn't do it the food would sit out on the kitchen counter for a week before he decided to touch it. Definitley a boy thing. I opened up the fridge and place the food on the top shelf.

"Squealing pig, you know your wines my friend," the large bottle of alcohol sat perfectly chilled on the top shelf and I couldn't help but wonder whether Harry placed that in the fridge with the soul intention of tonight, regardless I set two large wine glasses out on the counter and poured the bubbly liquid into each. 

I joined Harry on the large black leather lounge and took a small sip from the glass, his legs were sprawled out, gangling over the edge, he had removed his shoes and his coat and his level of simplicity was tantalizing. 

"So tell me about yourself Luca, whats your story?" Harry had now shifted his body to face me and I couldn't have felt more unprotected. 

"Um, i'm 20 and I work as the head of publishing at Confes.." 

"Not that shit, I mean your actual story, what makes you, you, why you are the way you are, I know theres more to you then some job." Harry's outburst had caught me off guard and usually would have slightly annoyed me, however the buzz I was experiencing from the wine and his strong dimeena had me in a strange mind frame and I was more than happy to tell him of my upbringing.

"Well both my parents left basically before I was born, so I never knew them and I lived with my grandparents in Sydney until I was about fourteen but then they died so I spent the rest of my teenage years between forster homes and different youth facilities, then at about sixteen, like most teenagers I got involved in the wrong group of people and did a stack of stuff I regreted, then at seventeen I decided I was sick of living like that, living with people who didn't really care about me so one day I pretty much got up, got dressed and waltzed into Confession and practically begged for an internship and now we're here." The words came out like vomit, hard and fast, I didn't realise quite how toxic my upbringing had been until I layed it all out on the table. 

The apologetic look in Harry's face was the exact reason why I never liked to get close enough to people to tell them these stories, nothing makes me angrier then people who feel sorry for you and I could tell he was doing just that.

"Luca, I, I don't even know what to say, i'm so sorry."

"Please Harry don't say sorry, don't feel like I should pity myself for what i've been through, if anything i'm so fucking thankful I did experience it, I've learnt how to be independent, i've learnt strength and resilience, i've learnt that the only person you can rely on is yourself and i'm okay with that, really. As deep and dark as it sounds it's made me who I am today and I think i've done pretty alright." I smiled.

"I'll drink to that!" Harry agreed, holding his glass up in the air before taking a large swig of the amber liquid. 

Two bottles of wine and five hours later Harry and I found ourselves engulfed in one another stories. Like a leach to blood we were both feeding off one another, overly drunk and incredibly unaware of our surroundings we couldn't stop. I checked my phone to only begin to register the time, three twenty six. My eye lids were beginning to fall heavy and the previous exuberant high experienced from the alcohol was beginning to shut down. 

"You tired?" Harry questioned.

"A little, I'll just call a cab and get them to come and pick me up," I insisted, considering neither of us were in any state to drive.

"Don't be silly just sleep here, you can stay in my room and i'll sleep in the spare bed," the idea of crawling into bed right now and my immediate urge to sleep clouded my judgement and Harry walked me to his room before tossing one of his black t shirts from the wardrobe for me to sleep in. 

"I had a really nice night Luca," his breath hot in my ear as he leant down to kiss me on the cheek.

I watched as Harry exited the room before closing my eyes.

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I awoke to the unfamiliar surroundings of blank white walls and a very unwelcoming headache. Water I need water, I mentally cursed myself for drinking too much the night before. I reached out to check the time on my phone only to realise it was no longer there. I sat up and waited for my eyes to re-adjust to the bright morning light and I realised I was no longer in the room I fell asleep in.

Harry, I was now laying next to Harry.

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