The Boy Wore Black || Harry Styles

The Boy Wore Black - Chapter 39

"Who is that?"

"You don't want to know."  I glanced in the direction of the fan and sighed, pushing a strand of blonde hair behind my ear as I looked from her to my brother. 

"So I'm just supposed to ignore the phone pointed in our direction?" he asked in return.  I rolled my eyes and grabbed the suitcase, pushing it toward him with a sweet smile as he mumbled, "Okay then."

One long flight to Grand Rapids was more than enough time for me to become acquainted with Brittany and her obsession with the curly haired boy who had come into my life and just as quickly exited it.

She knew his background, every speck of it from his family and their names to the school he had attended.  She knew his favorite color, his favorite drink, what the tattoos on his arms and chest stood for, where the band would be the next few months, and even showed me a picture of the tickets she had bought to see them perform at a venue the following year.

She was a Directioner, as she put it, and I came out of the flight knowing a great deal more about Harry than I had previously.  To the point that I wasn't quite sure whether or not she should have been the one dating him instead of me.

But I wasn't dating him.

I never had been, really.

I pulled the car door closed and gave her a small wave, eliciting a cry of protest as she ran after the car with her hand still clutched to the phone.  Jake gave me a strange expression and I just held up my hand solemnly.

"What happened in New York stays in New York."

"Eventful then?"

"That's an understatement."

He lifted an eyebrow in my direction but I just shook my head.  My brother was the last person who needed to be fed the grisly details of mine and Harry's New York adventure.  Even if he did need to know, now was not the time.  I wanted to clear my head of the chaos and get back to my roots -- roots which included a quick trip to my mother's house and what I hoped to be a home cooked meal.

"How's mom?" I asked, shifting the conversation in a neutral direction.

And that was all it took to start my little brother venting about her incessant prodding at his choice of college.

The venting lasted the entire drive back to Allendale, but I would be lying to say that my attention was on Jake and his problems.  Call me a bad sister, whatever, but my eyes were glued to the text message I received from Jules at the notification of me having landed in Michigan.

<Jules>:  WTF?!

One of the grainy pictures was attached, and she followed the text up with a series of Emojis that would have been humorous had the pretense of the situation been different.

<Claire>:  With my brother...will call you later.

<Jules>:  You were snogging at the work function?

<Jules>:  No wonder you two were gone for so long.

Clearly she didn't understand the idea of talking around company of a more discreet variety.

<Jules>:  What else happened?

Nope, not going there.

<Claire>:  Will call you later.

I shoved the phone in my pocket as Jake pulled the car to a stop in front of the red-bricked home on the corner.  It went off immediately but I ignored it and took in a breath, readying myself for my mother and everything that came with her.