STAY MINE // Harry Styles

Ink

If you don't remember who Blake is, read the second chapter and the last chapter of the first book again. He's also been mentioned many times in other chapters. 

Enjoy and let me know what you think :) 

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- Love, Allie

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"Thea! Love!"

Eighteen-year-old Thea rose from the dirty floor and rushed to the entrance. From the treehouse, she saw her boyfriend standing right by the fence with his hands in his pockets and a confused little grin on his face.

"Mind if I join you?" he asked, but she had already reached for the ladder.

"I'll-I'll come down."

Thea was flustered, but not because she was embarrassed her boyfriend had found her in her neighbour's treehouse. Blake didn't know about Harry. Well, not her Harry — her childhood best friend, her first kiss, her first love. He only knew about Harry, the famous actor who used to live on her street. Everyone in that town had heard of him though not everyone knew him for the same reasons she did.

Thea guessed that was why she kept coming back to his yard, to their place. Harry might be in London, but a part of him stayed in Holmes Chapel, in those leaves, in their house. Maybe she had somehow got over him in the last four years and didn't feel as hurt when her parents brought him up by accident. But every time her parents got into a fight, she would just run back to this place to seek comfort.

"What were you doing up there?" Blake asked as he helped her get back on the ground.

"I was just...looking for a place to be alone."

"So you snuck into your neighbour's treehouse?" The boy scoffed, he wasn't making fun of her, he was just trying to understand. And as much as she wanted to explain it to him, she honestly didn't know where to begin.

"I used to hang out with the kid next door so this place holds a lot of my childhood memories," she said after a quiet moment. "I'll be leaving it soon so I was...reminiscing I guess."

"Oh, you had a childhood best friend? You've never mentioned her."

Him, said the voice inside her head, but she only gave her boyfriend a smile.

"Well, the person moved away a long time ago," was all she could say, and Blake didn't ask any other questions about her mysterious neighbour.

She hoped she wasn't acting too weird, but then she realised there was also something not right about Blake that day. He seemed different. She'd known him for almost two years so she knew when his happiness was real and when it was not. Right now, he was trying too hard to look cheerful that it hurt.

"Sit down with me," he said, taking her hand and pulling her down on the grass. She saw in his eyes the same look she'd seen in Harry's on the night he left, and she felt a massive lump in her throat, knowing she wasn't prepared for what was about to happen.

"I-I just got my acceptance letter this morning."

That wasn't the answer she'd expected, but it was exactly what she'd wanted to hear. She felt as if an invisible weight was lifted off her chest, and she squealed with elation before hugging him tightly.

"Congratulations, baby, you're going to ULaw! Where are you gonna live next year? I'll rent a flat nearby so we can--"

"I'm not going to ULaw. I got accepted into Yale."