1996 [harry au]

X. Ben

alexis;

I straightened my white shirt and my shorts and tied my sneakers just before Harry came by to get me. Painting and doing work for a positive cause shouldn't be so bad, considering the boys will be there and so was Myra. It's community service, that should be enough.

The church was a short walk away, and since Harry's dad once again had the truck, we were forced to go on feet. Hand in hand, we arrived at the scene where Louis had mistakenly stepped into a can of white paint, and could not for the love of God take his foot out.

"My leg's cramping up," Louis whined, "Fuck, it hurts."

"Stop being a baby," Niall groaned, trying to pull the can off his foot. "This is what you get for being an idiot."

Zayn, Liam, and Myra watched the scene before them as they continued to paint one side of the church. There seemed to be older adults and younger kids helping as well. The adults were put on more dangerous maintenance activities than us, of course. Imagine having Louis repair windows or ceiling height objects.

Reasonable indeed. And the air was sickeningly hot, but I'm glad I wore my hair up into a bun. One that is big enough already, considering the frizz my curls decided to acquire this very day. Some curly baby hairs stuck out in the back and one on the side of my face. One or two always manages to leave the up do, so I hardly bother.

Louis spotted Harry and I, smiling and nonchalantly greeting us as if there wasn't a can imprisoning his foot.

"Oh, hey guys," he breathed, struggling.

Harry, clearly used to this, shook his head and pulled me away as I laughed and waved to Louis. At a table was a woman who was checking off names. She saw us and recognized Harry, eyes glancing at our entwined fingers.

"Hey, Harry. Here to volunteer I suppose?" She smiled politely, blue eyes eager and blonde hair tied up.

"Of course, Mrs. Horan. And this is my girlfriend, Alexis," he introduced me. He addressed me as his girlfriend, and I couldn't have been happier. This was absolutely perfect.

The woman, who I assumed was Niall's mother, smiled at me with excitement. "Aw, it's so nice to meet you. I'm Niall's mommy," she gushed, and she peered around me to see what Niall was up to.

Of course, he was pulling off a can of paint from Louis's foot, still. But as the three of us looked, he had pulled it so hard he hit himself in the face when it finally slipped off. He shouted in pain and held his now bruising nose. Bent over, and cursing at Louis. 

Mrs. Horan sighed. "Yeah, that's my kid over there," she joked, shaking her head. "Niall, sweetie, are you alright!?" She called. Next to me, Harry laughed to himself.

Niall looked up and waved to her, thumbs up even though his face was red with embarrassment and anger. I softly giggled and said, "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Horan."

"The pleasure is all mine. Now I just need you guys to sign your names on this paper and grab a brush, some paint, and avoiding doing what my son just did, please."

Harry chuckled. "Sure thing."

Soon after, all of us were peacefully painting as Niall had a bandage placed across his nose from the injury. Louis apologized, but was unable to stop laughing, which made Niall peeved off further. Eventually it wasn't funny anymore, and Louis truly felt guilty.

I dipped my brush in the white paint, removing the excess amounts. Then I started painting the wall as Harry did it beside me, talking to Zayn about the next race on Saturday. I stroked the brush against the exterior walls of the church until they redirected their conversation towards me.