Fat // Harry Styles

chapter sixteen

(unedited, but it's a long chapter. pardon the mistakes & enjoy <3) 

chapter sixteen

JOYFUL SHOUTS AND laughs erupted from the children as they ran around chasing each other, engrossing themselves in an innocent lifetime of tag or hide-and-seek. The sudden urge to join them just for the rush of being young again was maddening. A large smile ached my cheeks and my eyes didn't have the chance to focus on one game too long. There was so much happiness and excitement, it was practically contagious.

There was a bouncy house to the right of the yard, and to the left was the back porch where fathers stood over a grill, hooting and hollering over a football game from the television they'd rigged up outside. A middle-aged woman with princess-themed face paint was giving children their own fantasy face, most of whom were Spiderman or butterflies, depending on gender. Except for one little girl who'd gotten her face paint to resemble a pink Batman mask.

With sparkles and glitters, of course.

Desiree was in a fit of giggles when I spotted her. She'd just gotten her face paint done, but she was helping the woman with the next person.

That was when Harry saw me, letting out a playful groan as Des covered his face with paint and the woman handed her the glitter.

"Oh my," I breathed out with a laugh.

Having just turned six, Des' full-face butterfly didn't exactly look like a butterfly. At a glance, it just seemed like purple on pink with black lines in random places. However, if you tilted your head a little and really stared at it, a makeshift butterfly was there--barely, but there. With an abundant amount of blue and gold glitter, obviously.

Desiree saw me and grinned, waving her little hand frantically. I smiled and held up the box I wrapped her present in. Her eyes went wide and she gasped, totally forgetting about Harry as she took it from my hands.

"Oh, wow! I'm going to put it with my other ones. You're great, Ms. Delilah!" She ran off before I could even reply.

Harry sat up and squinted, then went to rub his eye. I smacked his hand away, though, and gaped at him. "Are you kidding me? You'll ruin her masterpiece."

He gave me a look. "Yeah, well her masterpiece got in my eye. I feel like an entire tube of glitter is stuck in there."

I lifted his chin to angle his head back while he opened his eyes as wide as he could. Seeing stray glitter at the base of his bottom lashes, I gently used my thumb to flick them away. As I did this, I said, "I hope just walking back here wasn't rude. I heard all the commotion, so I didn't think knocking on the door would be much use."

"Everyone has come through the gate, no worries. Honestly, I think some random neighborhood kids are here because there's no way Desiree likes this many people," he answered with a chuckle.

"You might want to rinse your eye with some water in case I didn't get it all."

"Later. Like you said, I can't ruin the masterpiece."

"And what a piece it is," I remarked, stifling another laugh.

"That bad?"

"A unicorn might as well have thrown up on your face."

"At least it's a unicorn, eh?"

I let my laugh out, not being able to help it. He was so laid back when it came to kids, or when it came to anything at all, really. It was amazing, actually. Being so easygoing wasn't a free quality people just had. Or if they did, I lucked out in the gene pool. Nonetheless, though, it made Harry the genuine person he was. He wouldn't be Harry if he weren't so... chill.