"Is this your way of breaking up with me?" He joked. "Because if you are, you have a funny way of showing it considering just this morning you- mmph." Brie watched as Harry's girlfriend slapped her hand over his mouth. He raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for his girlfriend to remove her hand. When she eventually did, he kissed her temple, his lips lingering long enough that Brie felt a little awkward watching the exchange.
She could hear them bicker back and forth for a little while longer until they were too far away for her to hear. When she was finally alone again, Brie picked up her phone and typed "Harry Styles girlfriend" into Google. Immediately, Brie was met with thousands of hits, articles and images of the couple that was just in her store. Before she could take a closer look at anything, multiple voices entered the room and stole her attention away.
A group of girls dressed in soccer uniforms walked in, all of them buzzing with excitement as they browsed the store. Two of them broke away from their friends and stopped at the counter in front of Brie.
"Was that who I thought it was?" One of them asked. Her hair was dark and long like the woman who was just in here, but it was curly, and her eyes were a shade lighter too.
"Yeah," Brie said. "I didn't even know Harry Styles came to these things."
"No, I'm talking about Luz Price! Well, Harry too, but Luz was my idol at the Olympics."
"Huh?" Brie had no idea what this girl was talking about, but then again, she'd never paid much attention to sports.
"Luz Price? Youngest member to compete for the National Team at the Olympics in 2016? God, I wanted to be her," the girl said.
"Wanted to be her?" Her friend asked, pushing a strand of her short black hair out of the way. "I still want to be her. Her boyfriend is Harry Styles."
Amen to that, Brie thought wistfully.
"He should be so lucky," the first girl said. "I mean, did you see her when they both went to the Grammys? I haven't been the same since."
"Luz was Cami's bisexual awakening," Cami's friend stage whispered to Brie.
"Okay true," Cami admitted. "But can you blame me? An athlete, a doctor, a latina, and single handedly won the heart of Harry Styles." She sighed dreamily. "You're right, I do still want to be her."
Cami and her friend left Brie to rejoin their friends, the two of them still whispering excitedly to each other, leaving Brie to go back to her phone.
She combed through pictures of Harry and Luz on red carpets, at airports, sitting at a cafe table somewhere in LA. There was even a picture of Harry carrying Luz down some city street, her legs wrapped around his waist and holding onto him tight. Brie felt a little weird looking at all these pictures of them after having just met them, but she couldn't help herself as she clicked through picture after picture of the couple.
Taking a break to check out Cami and her friends, Brie set her phone back down, only to pick it right back up again when they left. She scrolled past different articles, each one more invasive than the last. Harry Styles a bad boyfriend? Popstar missing from girlfriend's graduation, 10 things you need to know about the girl next door who caught Harry Styles' eye, Trouble in paradise? Emotional reunion between Harry Styles and his girlfriend in Spain, Former Olympic athlete causes rift between Harry Styles and Niall Horan, Former One Direction star leaving his womanizing ways behind?, Harry Styles and his girlfriend rock the Grammys red carpet in matching black, click for more details.
Brie spent the rest of her shift and lunch break on her phone, consumed by stories she was sure were fabricated. Though one particular website had a timeline of Harry and Luz's relationship, and from the very first picture to the last, Harry had the same smile on his face that she had seen in the store today. At one point, Brie felt almost jealous of Luz, this girl from some small city in California who not only was dating arguably the hottest man alive, but was best friends with Niall Horan, arguably the second hottest, while Brie was here, trying to pay her way through college and watching her life pass her by with each swipe of someone else's debit card. But that jealousy only lasted a second. If Harry Styles had fallen in love with her, then she had to be special.
Strangers Part 1
Start from the beginning
