Stand Up (A Harry Styles Love Story)

I had never thought of how I would die. At least not like this! Not today, just working a regular shift at Forever 21. Not surrounded by One Direction.

Poppy POV:

"Can you help me find a cute dress for Homecoming?" a small and pretty brunette asked me. I put down the hangers that I had been sorting and looked up at the girl.

"Of course hun! Follow me this way." I replied and pulled the girl to a rack of formal dresses. We began to rummage through the selection and I asked the customer what she liked in a dress.

"Well I want a tight and short one. Also I want it black, but I don't care if it has sparkles or anything." I nodded and raked through the selection pulling out several possible choices.

"How about one of these?" I asked and she faced me. Her eyes lit up at a small lacy black cocktail dress. Then I pulled her over to a rack full of belts and selected a bedazzled purple one and paired it with black heel boots.

"So the lace dress with the purple belt, and a pair of ankle boots... You like?" I asked holding up the apparel.

"I LOVE!" the girl squealed jumping up and down. I smiled and handed the customer her order making her smile grow. I took the girl over to check out and when I finished ringing her up, she pulled me into a hug.

"You helped me SO much thank you!" she said, beaming. I smiled and said your welcome, before walking back behind the counter.

"Well someone needs a raise." a voice commented from behind me. I rolled my eyes, smiling, and turned around to face my best friend.

Katelyn Peters was standing behind me with a smirk. We had been best friends since kindergarten, and now that we had grown up, we shared an apartment together in St. Paul.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure." I said sarcastically earning an eye roll from Katelyn.

"That's only because our boss is an ass, and you know it." she said, looking up from her black iPhone. I snorted and shook my head.

"Your such a punk Katelyn." I said laughing. The blonde laughed and returned to her Twitter news feed.

Katelyn was truly a character. She was sarcastic, confident, and straight forward, but yet if you called her she would always be there. Sure she could be cocky, but she is also one of the biggest softies I know. Not to mention that Katelyn was gorgeous.

She had shortish blonde hair with deep side bangs. Her eyes were a sparkly green and she had a small dose of freckles across her nose.

"Excuse me!?" a brunette curly haired boy screeched who looked about my age.

"Yeah?" I asked surprise. The boy had four other friends looking around them with paranoia. I knit my eyebrows together in confusion.

"Can you just let us hide in this store from the fans? Please!?" he begged me with adorable eyes. I nodded and pointed towards the dressing rooms. He thanked me and pulled the other guys towards the stalls running.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Katelyn spat out with her eyes wide.

"What Kate?" I asked the girl who now looked frozen. I shook her shoulders and snapped in front of her eyes.

"Kaaaaaate-lynnnnnnn?" I called to her. She suddenly screamed and I lurched back in surprise.

"THAT WAS HARRY FREAKING STYLES, POPPY!!!!" Katelyn screamed and my eyes went wide. Oh my gosh that was Harry Styles!? He looked WAY hotter in person...

Katelyn was now fan girling like crazy, so I tried to calm her down as I spotted a huge wave of teenage girls entering our store. I fake zipped my mouth closed and Katelyn nodded. We had to hide One Direction.

"Excuse me, but have you seen five 19 year old boys around here lately?" a brave little directioner asked me with pleading eyes. I knew just how to handle this.

"Oh you mean One Direction?" I asked in a hushed voice, making the girl nod with her eyes eager.

"Okay don't tell anyone I said this but..." I trailed off for suspension, the girl promised not to tell and I continued.

"I saw them walk in to Wet Seal two minutes ago." I lied. The girl gasped and took off running to Wet Seal. She was abruptly followed by a huge crowd of other directioners, as the store cleared. Now only around ten customers lingered.

I felt a tap on my shoulder ad turned around rolling my eyes.

"One Direction went-" I was cut off by a smooth metal surface hitting my forehead.

A man with a ski mask and leather gloves was aiming a fancy looking gun at my forehead. I screamed and everyone looked up to see what was going on.

"Oh my god Poppy!" Katelyn screamed and ran back behind a rack of coats. I gulped and tried not to cry as the man started to talk.

"Open the cash register."

Harry POV:

The lads and I were hiding in the dressing rooms of Forever 21 when we heard a scream and shrieking voices. I opened up the door and found the rest of the lads quietly sneaking towards the front of the store.

Louis eventually caught up to me and we ducked behind a shoe rack together.

"Hey what's going on!?" I whisper shouted. I mean one minute we were just hiding from fans in a store, to tracking a scream the next.

"I have no idea, but someone's in trouble." Louis whispered back and I nodded. I saw Niall, Zayn, and Liam all gasp in horror, then duck behind the jewelry stand. I crawled over to them and tried to read their faces.

"GUYS! What's going on?" I demanded.

"Look at the check out counter." Zayn said in a whisper. I then carefully got up and saw a horrible sight.

The beautiful girl that helped us hide earlier was now held at gun point by a masked man! I gasped and sat back down.

"Oh my god it's a stand up!" I whisper shouted. The boys nodded and I crawled away from them. They whisper protested at me but I ignored them.

I was a man on a mission.

Poppy POV:

"I said, OPEN THE REGISTER." the man demanded and turned the gun side ways against my forehead making me scream in horror. Finally a huge wave of tears streamed down my face and I gave in.

I pushed the familiar code in the cash register slowly as tears streamed down my face, that now had gone pale. The register opened with a KA-CHING! and I whimpered.

"That's it. Now take out 1,000 dollars." the voice boomed, and I couldn't bring myself to look at him. I sobbed and pulled out the money slowly.

"Good, now- UH!" the man suddenly dropped to the floor with a thud, and left behind was Harry Styles holding a clothes rack like a baseball bat.

Harry stared down at the unconscious man on the Forever 21 floor and panted, slowly dropping the rack. He pulled out his phone and called 911 quickly but I didn't eat a word.

I took a shaky step backwards and my back hit the cold wall. What had just happened? I was THIS close from being shot. From letting a man rob the store! I slid down the wall slowly losing consciousness.

I could hear Katelyn and the boys gathering over me and trying to talk to me. I could also see the other customers calling on their phones and running out of the store. The boys and Katelyn still tried to talk to me and I could see their worried aces as I didn't respond.

By the time my head hit the ground, I was already knocked out cold.