Anna

The AM

We were still sitting on the balcony. Harry had made a fire in the little fire pit a few hours ago when the sun had set.

It was now past midnight, we had all just been sitting out there talking. Sharing jokes, stories, just getting to know each other better. I learned a lot about the other girls. Grace, Eleanor and I were quickly becoming best friends. Cheryl had to leave to get Bear to bed, and Liam went with her, leaving Louis, Eleanor, Niall, Grace, Harry and I.

Harry had turned on some music from a small Bluetooth speaker and it was playing softly in the background.

We were all laughing at something Louis said when I heard a familiar song start playing.

"Hey, I love this song," I remarked, swaying to it. "Fits our situation too." I chuckled.

Niall smiled, before his eyes brightened, almost like a literal light bulb going off above his head. "Wait, I have an idea. Harry pause it." 

Harry obeyed as Niall ran inside the house, returning a few minutes later with a guitar. "Why listen to it, when we can play it?" He started to pluck the tune.

"Won't you stay till the AM, all my favorite conversations always made in the AM, yeah." Harry started, making us girls all smile.

"Feels like this could be forever tonight, Break these clouds, forget about time." Niall sang, making Grace smile, resting her head on his shoulder. making him blush and get all smiley while he sang.

"There could be a world war three going on outside." I joined in.

"You and me were raised in the same part of town. Got these scars on the same ground. Remember how we used to kick around just wasting time?" Niall continued.

We all sang the song together, taking turns and harmonizing with one another. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever heard.

"Won't you stay till the AM? All my favorite conversations always made in the AM. Cause we don't know what we're saying." 

"You know I'm always coming back to this place, oh, you know. I say, you know I'm always gonna look for your face." Harry sang this line while the rest of us were singing the chorus towards the end, just like in the original song. I couldn't help but notice him looking at me as he sang.

I tried not to take notice of it, but it was difficult. Although I knew it meant nothing, it got me thinking about things I hadn't really thought about in seven years.

******

"Bye!" I hugged Grace goodbye. Everyone was finally heading out (it was nearly three in the morning).

"Goodbye Annalise! I'm so glad I got to meet you, happy birthday."

"Thank you, Grace. Be sure to text me! We will have to plan something soon. That goes for you too, Eleanor." She laughed as I hugged her too.

"Will do." She gave me a wink before side hugging Grace.

"Byeeeeee Annnnnnn." Louis and Niall squealed, squishing me in a Nouis sandwich. 

I couldn't help but laugh. "Goodbye you dorks, drive safe."

They walked outside, jumping around, surprisingly having a lot of energy considering the time, forcing the girls to roll their eyes. I turned to say goodbye to Harry, but before I could get a word out he stopped me. "Wait, Anna...I have a birthday present for you."

I smiled, crossing my arms. "Harry, asking me to tour with you was the perfect present, you didn't need to get me any more."

He smiled nervously fidgeting with the many rings on his fingers. "I've actually had this for years. I got it years ago and I was going to give it to you for your seventeenth birthday...but then we lost touch."

"You still have it?" I asked, my voice incredibly small. I was shocked he would keep something for that long. 

He nodded. "Here, come with me."

He quickly spun on his heel and made his way back into the kitchen, I quickly followed him. He pulled open one of the drawers, revealing the inside to be full of a lot of random things, but among those was a small blue gift bag, which he picked up and handed to me.

I gave him a curious look before pulling out the small box in the bag. My eyebrows knitted together, the little box furthering my confusion. It looked like a box used for necklaces and rings. I set the bag on the counter beside me and opened the box, gasping when I saw the contents. "You remembered," I breathed, my voice barely above a whisper.

Inside the box was a beautiful silver necklace with a small moon pendant. "This was just like the one I had...I didn't think you remembered that day, I was such a baby about it."

"You were heartbroken over that necklace, of course I remembered.  I still remember that day after Louis and you pulled that horrible prank on me and Niall. You came back to make sure Niall was okay since Louis scared him half to death. Niall noticed the necklace you always wore was gone and you had a major panic attack, and then that same day you got sent home. The boys and I all searched everywhere for it and never found it. I felt terrible that you had to go through all of that in the same day, so I searched several different stores until I found one almost identical to it. But I realized too late I had no way to get in contact with you, so I just held on to it, in hopes I could give it to you someday."

"Losing that necklace set me so off that day, it was probably the reason I got sent home. I was so distraught over losing it I let it affect my performance." I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. "Did I ever tell you why that necklace was so important to me?" I sniffed.

He shook his head.

"It was my moms," I laughed. "My dad gave it to me when I was young, he told me she would have wanted me to have it. That was obviously before he...you know." I leaned against the counter.

The look on his face was enough to tell me he was not expecting that at all. "I had no idea..."

I let out a small laugh, wiping at the tears starting to spill from my eyes. "It's okay, I didn't expect you to know that."

He took a step towards me, placing a hand on the side of my face. "Hey, Anna, don't cry. I didn't want to make you cry." He proceeded to wrap his arms around me, pulling my head to his chest as I let out a small sob. I felt stupid. Harry just gave me the nicest, most thoughtful gift, and here I was thanking him by covering his shirt in my tears and sadness. I was terrible at saying "thank you".

"I'm sorry," I said after calming down. I removed myself from his arms. I let out a forced laugh, trying to lighten the mood as I wiped all the tears from my face. "I shouldn't be crying after you gave me such a nice gift. Thank you, so much, Harry. You'll never know how much this means to me." I told him as I placed the necklace on.  

"Of course. I'm glad I could finally give it to you." He gave me a sad smile, there seemed to be a lot more than sadness from this built up in that smile, but I was too tired to even ask him about it.

"I should probably be heading home." I stated awkwardly.

"Yeah...let me walk you out." He seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in, walking past me and back into the hallway. I followed behind him and stopped as he opened the door.

I walked through the open door and into the cool air, turning to face him. "Goodnight, Harry."

"Goodnight, Anna." He gave me a warm smile as I turned to walk to my car. I heard the door close and I unlocked my car, climbing in and driving home, ready to get a lot of sleep.

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okay lol im pathetic i legit got so emotional writing this scene between harry and anna omg. like ok emotions this is supposed to be emotional for the characters not for me!!1!1!1!1!11!!1!! sigh. oh well

also YES the picture for this chapter is what the necklace is supposed to look like.