The Essence of Time (Harry Styles Fanfic)

Flashbacks

-Harry-

"You are what?!" Sarah yelled at me in the corridor.

"Keep your voice down. You'll get us all in trouble." I told her looking around the hallway making sure no teachers were coming to investigate. "Yeah, old Bag-Face is making me work with her. It's not like I asked her to."

I let out a sigh. Sometimes Sarah was too much. She always wanted something more. She was never happy, it was quite exhausting.

She pushed her blond hair back from her face revealing her icy blue eyes. I shivered.

"Well, oh Harry." She said tracing her finger up and down my arm. Her entire attitude changed in a matter of seconds. It was eerie and very frightening. "Just stay away from her when you can. Okay?"

It wasn't much of a question as more of a demand. Despite her sweet tone of voice. I breathed a sigh of relief as the bell rang. I took her hand and we walked out the heavy double doors into the cold winter air. I gave Sarah a kiss goodbye and began to walk down the snowy steps.

From behind a tree I saw a flash of reddish hair and the sound of crunching leaves. I quickened my pace and arrived at the tall oak. Crouched on the ground was Sophie. She had her eyes closed tight, as if she were praying. I noticed her fingers were crossed. I cleared my throat and I swear she jumped thirty feet in the air. She looked up at me and fear crept into her soft features. They were so different from Sarah's. Where Sarah was hard and cold, Sophie's were soft and light, except when she saw me. Then she became rigid and unmoving. The fear of me paralyzed her.

"Hey I'm not going to hurt you. Chill." I said to her extending my hand. Reluctantly she took it and pulled herself up. Smoothing out her skirt she looked at me cautiously. Unsure of what was happening.

"When do you want to get started on this project?" I asked her. She seemed to shocked to speak but she finally mustered up the courage to say the words,

"Er, I didn't really have any plans in mind. When's good for you?" The entire time she was looking down at her feet and I could still see she was beaming red.

She was rolling a rock back and forth with her toe and looking up at me from under her hair.

"Yeah, how about today?" I asked her watching her hazel eyes grow wide.

"Yeah sure."

"You sure?"

"Positive." She finalized with a nod of her head.

She led the way down the off white sidewalk. She kept turning her head around making sure I was still following. Little did she know I still remember exactly how to get to her house; every crack in the pavement and every place that wasn't the most comfortable to walk on.

"We're here." She said walking up the wooden steps to the old Victorian home where I used to spend so much time.

I could barely keep a smile compressed as I remembered the constant games of hide and seek. We walked into the old home and I was greeted by the familiar scent that I had long forgotten. She laid her bag in an empty chair and turned to face me.

"Can I ask you a question?" She asked me with her hands placed on her hips.

"Go ahead." I told her. I tried to keep my emotions held in.

"Do you remember any of it?"

My insides went cold. Of course I did. I remembered every single moment of it: every laugh and secret, the promises made and the ones that were broken; the scraped knees and the hugs goodnight, the imaginary games. The late night games in the back yard. During the summer we could catch the lightning bugs and keep them in a jar. At the end of the night we would let them go and watch them as they faded into the smoky horizon. Then I remembered the day when her mother died. How pitiful and broken she looked. The light disappeared from Sophie's eyes. Slowly it returned. But it was nowhere near as close as it used to be. Her eyes were like their own power source. They could burn brighter than the sun illuminating the world around her.

"Remember what?"