What Goes Around... || H.S. Harry Styles

4.

Tash has barely said two words all night, her heart is racing and her breathing shallow, she watches Harry lick lips as they curl into mouth, his tongue darting out to leave them glistening before it vanishes as quickly as it appeared. His eyes are fixed on his hands, his fingers nervously fidgeting with the heavy silver rings on his digits or pinching his bottom lip between in index finger and thumb. He does this often and each time she doesn't know what's more intriguing, what his cherub lips feel like or the brazen cross tattooed on his hand.

Every now and then he looks up and glances anxiously at her, as if he's making sure she is still sitting in front of him. Their eyes meet instantly and every time she can feel her stomach somersaulting at the unreadable emotion in his green irises.

She can hear Alice and Jamie basically talking to themselves, desperately trying to overcompensate for the lack of conversation and attempting to fill the large bouts of awkward silences.

"Do you live far?" Harry chokes out quietly after a while, getting enough of his thoughts together to structure a sentence while Jamie and Alice starting to gather their things to leave.

"A couple of blocks," she replies shaking her head, Jamie is looking sternly at Harry, he knows his usual game and he promised Alice he would let him fuck Tasha around.

Harry clears his throat, he needs to get his shit together if he has any chance of seeing her again.

"Can I walk you home?" he says hopefully, trying not to sound as desperate as he feels.

"Um, sure, yeah, that would be grovely," she blurts out, cringing at her self and covering half her face with her hand in embarrassment, something that she doesn't feel very often.

"Oh god, I meant great and lovely, they kinda got mixed together!" She rambles as she laughs at herself and can feel her cheeks heating up.

He smiles genuinely at her face which he thinks looks even prettier when she's unguarded and happy and the dimple that pops in his left check nearly stops her heart from beating all together.

-

Their steps are forcibly slow, their heels hitting the pavement before the soles of their boots roll lazily down to meet them. Harry's hands are shoved in his pockets as they edge towards her apartment in a sluggish stroll.

"Um, I love your bar, Harry, it's so warm and inviting, I've actually walked past so many times, you must be so proud of it." Tash nervously babbles.

Harry nods sheepishly, "Thanks, I'm glad you like it," he replies, internally facepalming at his awkward response.

"What do you do for work?" he scrambles, trying to recover as quickly as possible. He doesn't know how much further her apartment is but he needs to know more, needs to know everything.

"I'm a graphic designer, I worked for a bit with agencies but I just went out on my own, just doing small jobs here and there, that's why I moved here, more opportunities you know?" she swallows hard, knowing she has a tendency to speak too quickly when she's nervous and that's all he seems to make her feel.

"Mhmm," Harry responds, which makes her feel even worse.

"When did you move here?" She asks, trying to break the tension.

"Uh, straight after high school," he takes in a deep breath, trying to cleanse his thoughts of that time. "Worked lots of shitty bar jobs but realised I loved interacting with people. I opened Tribute a couple'a years ago with some money my grandma had left me for university, but I didn't go."

"So you named it that as a 'tribute' to her?" Tash asks innocently and looks at her feet moving beneath her when he chooses not to answer, instead biting the inside corner of his lips and pulling his shoulders up towards his ears.

Tash looks tiny next to Harry who towers at least a head above her small frame, her oversized knit dwarfing her body even more. He is casual and cool and she loves how they seem to have similar style. Both in black skinny jeans and boots, his body draped in a worn white t-shirt, a plaid shirt thrown over the top with the sleeves haphazardly rolled up to the elbows, the artwork on his arms on display.

His tattoos are a mix of beautiful classic designs like the twin diving swallows below each collar bone, the rose and anchor on his left arm, an eagle on the inside of his right forearm and horribly amateur scribbles that are scattered across the skin that is visible to her.

"How many tattoos do you have?" She finally asks, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Mmm, lost count." He shrugs again and watches her eyes fall to the ground, clearly a little disheartened by his lack of conversation.

"Do you have any?" he asks back and is actually surprised when she pushes up the sleeve her sweater to reveal a tiny cactus on the inside of her arm just above her elbow.

He raises a questioning eyebrow.

"To remind me to stay away from pricks," she blurts out confidently.

He's initially stunned by her overly forthright tone but her bright, amused smile brings him out of it quickly and he finds himself throwing his head back and laughing into the night sky.

His boyish cackle rings in her ears and she thinks it might be most beautiful sound on earth.

As uneasy as he feels, there is a strange familiarity between them that is comforting and refreshing, each step they take seems to add another crack in the mile high wall he has built around himself over the past seven years.

"I got it in Hong Kong," Tash breaks his train of thought, running her fingers over the ink on her skin. "I took a year off after high school and went backpacking around the world with my graduation money. Just needed to get out and see the world you know? Be by myself and out of my comfort zone," she trails off as she remember the time with bittersweet memories. She saw the most amazing things that year, travelled to places she'd never even heard of and met some incredible people, but personally and emotionally she was lost and confused and was trying to fill a void in her life with new experiences that never quite succeeded in making her feel whole again.

Harry looks at her face that has suddenly seemed to withdraw, memories of a painful time swimming around in her head and projecting through her eyes.

"I felt lost when I finished school too," he interjects trying to subtly comfort her. "Suppose I didn't know who I was, or what I was meant to be doing.  Made some of the worse decisions of my life, been trying to get my shit together ever since I guess," he confesses, subconsciously unloading years worth of regret into the air in front of them, chipping at that stone wall bit by bit.

Tash stops walking and Harry holds his breath as he anticipates the barrage of questions that he is expecting to come his way.

"This is my place," she whispers, as if the emotional baggage they were both clearly holding onto would explode all over the pavement if she spoke any louder.

He pulls his beanie off and runs a ring clad hand through his hair before quickly replacing it. A nervous habit he seems to have picked up over the years.

"Can I call you?" he almost begs, bracing himself for the negative response.

She looks into his emerald eyes, swimming with unreadable thoughts and against her better judgement, nods softly.

He smiles a closed mouth grin, relief taking over as looks at his feet momentarily before nodding back in acknowledgement and handing her his phone.

She goes to say something but chooses to keep the moment quiet as she quickly enters her number and hands back his iphone.

"See you soon, Harry," she decides to say as she walks up the stairs to her apartment building.

"See you, Tasha," he mumbles, perhaps not even loud enough for her to hear as he watches her disappear through the old doors.

A/N:
Surprise early update!
How are we all travelling??

Love reading all your comments and theories and don't forget to VOTE!

Can't wait for them to explore whatever this connection is!

Love Ruby

xx