Smalltown {h.s.}

{6}

"Good afternoon, Love."

That accent. That thick, british accent. He pulls his sunglasses off and stares into me with those piercing green eyes. I hadn't noticed his eyes the first time we met. I could get lost in those eyes...

My mind quickly snaps back to reality. I remind myself that I am not going to drool over a member of some famous boyband. But I will admit, he is quite attractive. But he probably already knows that. Don't all famous people think that?

"Good afternoon, Harry"

"How have you been?" he asks.

"Well, not too great considering what's going on currently, " I say with a slight attitude.

"Yeah, I guess that was a dumb question. So are you really getting death threats? Because of me?" he asks with guilt in his voice. I can tell he really feels bad about what's going on. And maybe he should. If he would have just left me alone that day; if he would have just let me walk away, none of this would be happening right now.

"Yeah, I guess it was. And yes, I am." I say matter-of-factly.

"Soph, I am so sorry. I didn't mean--"

"It's Sophia. And you should be sorry. None of this would be happening if you would have just let me walk away!" I yell cutting him off. I don't want him thinking that just because he's THE Harry Styles that he can just apologize and everything will be okay.

"I know! I get that you're mad. I really do. But please just hear me out, " he pleas.

"No, I'm not going to sit here and listen to your apologies just to make you feel better and to make you feel like you've done your part when I'm still going to get harassed whether you're sorry or not. I'm getting actual threats. People are finding out where I live. I could be in actual danger and you're just 'sorry'. Well, that's not good enough!" I undo my seatbelt and hop out of the car. I begin to walk away when I hear his car door slam shut. He's following me.

"Sophia, please wait!" he calls after me.

"No, Harry" I yell back.

"Someone is going to see us! This isn't safe for you, you said it yourself!" he yells.

"I don't care, Harry!" I speed up a little bit.

He continues to call after me and I continue to walk away from him and that's when I see it. One flash. Then another and another. And then there are men with cameras calling my name and they're getting closer to me. Then they're in my face. I start to panic. I've never been in this situation before. Before I know it, I can't see from all of the flashes and they're grabbing at my sleeves trying to get my attention.

Then, all of a sudden my feet are off the ground.  I'm placed over someone's shoulder. Harry's. I can see the ground moving beneath me. Then I'm placed back in the passenger seat.

"Seatbelt." Is all he says. I do as I am told and buckle my seatbelt. He gets into the driver seat and starts the engine. We drive in silence for a while until he finally speaks.

"That was incredibly dangerous, Sophia." he scolds.

"I was just trying to make a point." I shoot back.

"Yeah, well your stubbornness could've gotten you hurt. Plus, they probably got a hundred pictures. They will be everywhere by the end of the day." he reminds me.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"Oh so I'm just supposed to accept your apology but you won't accept mine? Please tell me, how does that work?" He begins to raise his voice, clearly getting frustrated with me.

"You just think you're hot shit don't you? You're the one who started this whole mess. Excuse me for trying to get away from you... again!!" I yell back.

"No, as a matter of fact, I do not think I'm hot shit! Why are you so stuck on the fact that just because I'm 'famous' I must be full of myself? It seems to me that maybe you're a little full of yourself! And if you wouldn't have been so stubborn the first time we met then we wouldn't be in this situation, you can not blame this whole thing on me!" He yells as we pull up to a big building. He gets out and starts to walk inside not saying another word to me.

"Hey, wait!" I jump out of the car, "You can't just yell at me and then walk away. And this is your fault so I actually can blame this whole thing on you! You're the reason our picture was taken in the first place!" I yell at him as we walk through the front doors.

"Harry! What are you doing? What if someone sees you?" Someone calls from the other side of the lobby.

"It's too late for that, Liam. This one already caused a scene in the street. There will be pictures of us everywhere by the end of the day." Harry tells him.

"What are we going to do with you?" Liam asks.

"We need to figure something out, that's for sure," I cut in.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hi, I'm Liam. You must me Sophia." He politely says as he reaches out to shake my hand.

"Yes I am. Now what are we going to do about this?" I ask, not wanting to waste any time.

"Whoa, she's a little feisty," he says turning to Harry.

"Yeah, a little." He replies.

"Well, everyone is waiting for us in here" Liam states and leads us into a small conference room. Once we enter the room Niall and Louis greet me with hugs. Liam sits in between Zayn and a very professional looking woman on one side of the table. Niall and Louis sit on her other side. I sit across from the woman and Harry sits next to me.

"Good afternoon, my name is Rachel. I'm a publicist working with the band. You're Sophia?" She asks.

"Yes ma'am"

"Well Sophia, we are here to come up with a plan to clear everything up. I am familiar with the situation the two of you are in. We have a few options. First, we could keep the two of you apart and wait for everything to blow over. It will take a while and there is no guarantee that people won't drag it out or come up with other conspiracies but we could try it. But I mean no contact whatsoever. Sec—"

"Sounds like a winner to me," I interrupt her standing up to leave. I don't need to hear any more. No contact is the best contact in this situation.

"We kind of already tried that, haven't we? It seemed to only get worse," Harry states.

"Well, lets hear the other options before we make any decisions." Rachel continues, "Secondly, we could make you, Sophia, out to be a crazed fan who made everything up and make you our fall girl."

"Absolutely not. They'll tear me apart!" I say.

"Okay, now we have our third and final option. You could hang out with the guys more, be photographed more, and just look like a good friend of the boys. Maybe even a possible rising star, since your videos went viral," She states her final option and my stomach drops. Hang out with the guys? Be photographed? Be in the public eye for more hate to come my way?

"Oh no. Absolutely not. I'm already getting enough hate as it is. Why put myself out there more? That's crazy! We can just wait until this all blows over. It was just a picture in a cafe. How bad could it get?"

"But it's not just a picture in a cafe anymore. There are pictures of Harry carrying you to his car. Pictures of you two walking in here. People know something is up. Why not play on that, possibly get a career out of it?" She tries to convince me.

"I only have a career with Briana. We made those videos together. And I am definitely not going to use these guys to get that career. I can do it on my own if I want it. So thanks but no thanks. Now can someone please take me home?" I ask.

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AUTHORS NOTES

Hey y'all! I hope you are enjoying the story so far. I appreciate all of the reads I've gotten so far. I feel like the story has started to flow a lot better and I'm having so much fun writing it! If you have any suggestions or tips please comment those and don't forget to vote! Thank you for reading!! ✌🏼