Damaged » h. styles au

Chapter 23 - Harry

It wasn’t hard to understand why she was all laughs and smiles with the girl – she had that aura around her that cheered anyone up –, but I wasn’t sure about the reason why she was rude to people. It’s not like everyone is going to ruin her life for no reason.

Whatever the answer was, I just put it aside and focused on the two girls again, while Angel walked towards the window and leaned on it while staring at me.

“Hey, Haz! Mind coming here a bit?” She happily asked, that grin playing on her lips while she talked to me, and as I stood up I wondered what was going through that little mind. She was definitely something. I barely knew her and I already felt proud of Angel, so I can’t even imagine how Lana must feel everytime she looks at her daughter.

Once I was in front of Angel, I leaned in and kissed her forehead while she squeezed her eyes shut and made a funny face that caused me to giggle, and I couldn’t help but notice Kirsten’s disgusted reaction.

“I’m here, what do you want?” I asked, totally ignoring the moody girl inside the room.

“Come into my room, I gotta show you something.”

I smiled and nodded, and instead of walking towards the back door that leaded inside, I positioned my hands on the edge of the window and turned around, gathering momentum and jumping inside the room. Angel laughed and mumbled something like “cool” before turning around and walking to a corner where she bent down and motioned for me to follow her.

As I did it, Kirsten sighed and laid on bed, staring the ceiling just to avoid my gaze, that she knew was already glued on her. I tried my best to stop, and I only did that when I kneed next to Angel, watching as her little fingers played on the LP’s that she kept in a kind of small shelf. Oh, well, she was, indeed, obsessed. The last time I came here there was only one missing; now with the LP I’d given her, she had all of Phil Collins’ and I couldn’t help the smile from forming.

“That is impressive,” I noted in a whisper and she smiled proud of herself.

“I know, right? Thanks a lot for giving me that, Haz. Thanks to you I have them all now.”

I nodded, not able to utter a single word. Things like that might sound weird, but that’s exactly what makes me smile for no reason. Not to mention the fact that Angel’s smile was contagious, so it was impossible not to feel happy whenever she is happy.

“Hm, well, I’ll go to the bathroom now. Be back in a minute,” she stated and then her little bouncing body left through the door.

I kept staring at her collection, recognizing a few titles that I could play on the piano. I didn’t know much about the singer itself, to be honest, but his songs were great and some of them held a huge meaning to me. As the thought of his lyrics wandered through my mind, I felt someone’s gaze on me, and I smiled, knowing that this time she was the one staring. I could play her game.

“I’m no showcase for you to stare,” I said, surprising myself for still remembering her exact words from the day I took them both to the cupcake store. I should stop paying attention to her actions.

“I wasn’t-” she tried to deny, cutting herself off when I turned around and looked at her, just then noticing the rosy tone of her cheeks. I didn’t know a girl like her was able to do that. “Hey! That is my catchphrase. And by the way you didn’t use the right tone to say it,” I laughed at her words, knowing she was saying that just to disguise the fact that she was, indeed, staring. I was proud of myself.

“I might need some help with it then,” I said not really thinking on the real meaning of my words, but maybe she would understand that as an invitation to spend time teaching me?

She didn’t answer; instead, she stared back at the ceiling, the rosy color still in her face. Yeah, she did take that as an invitation to spend time with me. This time, though, she didn’t act rude. Was that an improvement? I thought so. Smiling to myself, I watched her for a while, trying to guess why she was so lost in her own thoughts. Not able to handle it anymore, I had to ask.

“What are you thinking about?” the words left my mouth in nothing but a whisper, and I couldn’t help the urge to get closer to her. Still on my knees, I walked towards the bed, leaning on the edge of it to take a better look at her face. As the expected, she didn’t reply. In a matter of seconds she stood up and crawled further back in the bed, resting her back on the wall.

“Angel is taking too long, we should take a look on her,” this time she completely stood up, walking barefoot out the door with such a hurry it made me think she would bump into something and lose her balance. What was the thing with avoiding me?

I stood up as well, following her just to find a slight desperate look on her face as soon as I spotted it. What had happened?

“She is not here,” Kirsten whispered, and I had to get closer to understand what she was talking about. As she pushed the bathroom door open a bit more, I felt a current of despair shoot through my veins. Angel couldn’t have gone really far, though. Could she? And it scared me that the answer might be yes, ‘cause that girl was far too smart.

Kirsten and I started yelling her name, but we got no response. We ran to every single room in the house, looking for her, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.

“This is not funny, Evangeline. Come out from wherever you are,” she said, her tone of voice only showing me how much she cared about Angel.

Finally, I decided to look outside, opening the door with too much strength and making a really loud and unnecessary sound. As soon as I stepped out, a sigh of relief left my mouth, and a simple smile replaced the fear as I watched her little body struggling to climb the window the way I’d done a few minutes earlier.

What was she doing there?

●•Author's Note•●

dedication goes to:  @ForeverAndAlways18 So glad you're liking this babe! And really, thanks a lot for believing me. Hopefully someday I'll become huge and I won't ever forget your lovely comments.

note: Awh my feels! Okay, so here you have really important hints of Harry's past, and why he's so damaged as well. Any other ideas about what might have happened now? *moment of suspense* Good luck trying to find out. Pluuuuussssss, you have little Angel already in action. You'll see what she was trying to do from her POV on chapter 4 of MTJA. Before that you'll see her thoughts on the day she hung out with Karry at the cupcake store. So, yeah. Be patient...

next update: Friday (July 5th)

 Whom am I gonna dedicate the next chapter to? I'm waiting for your comments. By the way, 140 votes for early update. I'm sure you can do it, you never fail to surprise me. Love you all, Dani xx