I want to answer their questions looks with "I honestly don't know" or "it just happened, I didn't ask it to" but the whole thing was just a few quiet moments with a boy that seemed sad and hurting. There was nothing scandalous about it, just two strangers and a conversation. Selfishly, I don't want to reduce the interaction to what it was. Right now they think I'm interesting, a girl on "the boys" side of the fandom. I know what they want, a chance, a chance to get a piece of the boys for themselves, their own moment, and right now they think I might bring that to them. Right now I'm okay with them thinking I could give them that.
•
"We close in 10 minutes ladies, let me know if I can help anyone!" I announce to the small store still brimming with adolescent girls.
One brave girl steps forward, "Can I have a picture with you?" She asks.
"With me? Why?" I know the answer but I want to hear her say it.
"You're friends with Harry Styles aren't you? You were with him last night?"
Across the room Abby is staring back at me dumbfounded as I mutter "I don't know if I'd say we're friends. It just happened."
"Whatever you've met him and you're in the magazines can I have a picture or not?" She says with her hand on her hip.
I know I don't owe her anything. I'm not a product for public consumption. But I know the feeling of just wanting to feel like you're a part of it, the whole experience so I nod.
I smile for the picture hoping it's decent, I'm sure it'll be plastered all over the internet later.
Once the girl had a picture it's like a wall has been broken. Suddenly every girl in the place is waving their camera in my face begging for pictures and it takes me and Abby both to wrangle everyone out of the store by closing time.
As she locks the door she turns to me. Only now do I realize I'm breathing heavy. My breaths are labored and my head starts to spin. I lower myself to the ground and put my head between my knees.
"What.....what the heck was that Ellie?" She's not mad, just surprised. So am I. I've spent my whole life being great at blending in, being unimportant, being invisible. It was never on purpose, it was just who I was. Now I find myself very much seen and I haven't decided if that's good or bad.
"I ran in to Harry Styles last night. Not planned, very random. It was only for a moment, but a paparazzi caught it so now everyone thinks there's some hidden story."
"Well, we cant have the store like that everyday." She says coldly.
"They'll be on to something else by tomorrow" I promise.
•
As I leave the shop I have the chance to check my phone for the first time all day. My name is now attached to the photo from last night, along with the ones from the shop today. My social media's have been found by several die-hard fans. I'm sure anything embarrassing has already been screenshot but best to limit the damage. I go through the recent adds deleting them one by one until I see it and gasp.
It's a twitter notification and I honestly can't breathe when I see it.
"@harry_styles followed you"
I screen shot it and send it in a DM to Emma with no comment.
I get in my car and make the drive back home. I crank the radio as a one direction song blares through the speakers and try to let myself get lost in the music. The drive is surprisingly quick for the second time today and I park in the driveway before heading in to my empty house and up to my room.
I collapse on my bed and scroll through all the hoopla that has occurred whilst I've been at work. I see the girl from the boutique who told an update account that she thought she'd found the girl from the photo. There was debate over if I was the right girl before ultimately they decided I had to be since I was so close to the location of the photos.
There were various updates from the girls who had visited the shop. They all pretty much say the same thing. "She's just like working." There was speculation all day over whether Harry would show up, that's what they really wanted, which I had known all along.
They were surely going to be disappointed when they realized that I didn't really know him, I never had and and I would most likely never get to. They'd hold interest for a few days tops, then I'd go back to being invisible.
I glance down at my phone as it vibrates in my hand:
New message from Harry_Styles
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
Undercover | H.S.
फैनफिक्शनShe didn't mean for this to happen. She was perfectly fine being ordinary. She had no intentions of getting swept up into his pop star life. The life she'd only ever been witness to on the internet. But suddenly she is a part of the stories on the s...
