The Space Between (vir) Us

Chapter 1

Alyssa Abernathy is a 21 year old college student from New York. Her older sister named Kylie works as one of Harry Styles' media managers. Her whole life got flipped upside down when one day she got a call from her sister saying that they needed a fake girlfriend for Harry and she had volunteered Alyssa for the job.

Alyssa's P.O.V.

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. I rolled over and groaned, it was my sister. "What do you want?" I said in an annoyed tone. "Well, I have a job for you." She said in a cheery voice. "Well hurry and spit it out. I've only got an hour more to sleep before I have to wake up for class." I responded. "Okay jeez, sorry, well we had a meeting this morning and we think it would be good for Harry to have a relationship to bring some more media attention to him before and during his tour so we can get more seats sold in the arenas." Jessica started. "Okay what does that have to do with me?" I ask in a rude tone. "Well I figured that since you're single and you don't have any other summer plans that maybe you would be interested in traveling the world with us and pretending to date Harry Styles. And you would be getting paid for it. It shouldn't be awkward since you guys have met a few times before when we've been in the states." I stopped listening to her speak because I was so irritated. Every time I've met Harry he doesn't seem interested in talking to me, so why would I want to spend my time pretending to date him? "I don't want to do that. Thanks for the offer though." I responded to her. "Well that's the thing.. you don't have an option. I already told everyone you would do it. Harry and I are coming to visit you at school this weekend and we're going out on the town." She said still sounding cheerful. "Fuck you Kylie." I said as I hung up my phone. I slammed my head back into my pillow to get another hour of sleep before my alarm goes off.

A short 60 minutes later I was awoken once again by the sound of my alarm. I laid in bed for a few minutes trying to process the conversation I had with my sister a bit ago. After a couple minutes I climbed out of bed to see if anyone else in the sorority was awake. "Hey good morning" one of the girls named Bella said as I walked into the kitchen. "Hey, do you know if Vanessa is awake?" I asked as I poured myself a cup of coffee. "Yeah she got up a little while ago. I think she said she was gonna take a shower." she responded. "okay sweet. I'll come back for this in a minute." I pointed to my cup on the counter and ran to the bathroom to speak to Vanessa.

"Kylie is going to ruin my life." I shouted as I slammed open the bathroom door. "What did she do this time?" She asked poking her head out of the shower curtain. Vanessa has been my best friend since we started college 3 years ago so she's seen Kylie do a lot of things that I've deemed life ruining. "She's gonna make me be in a fake relationship for publicity and she didn't even give me an option. She said I have to because she already told all the rest of her team I would. She insists that it wont be awkward because I've already hung out with him a bunch of times, but it will be awkward. Any time I've hung out with him he always is standoffish and acts like he thinks he's better than me. And I don't want to spend my whole summer touring with him." I stopped to take a breath and ran my hands through my hair. "Alyssa calm down. Who and what are you even talking about?" Vanessa responded confused. "Harry Styles. Ya know, the person my sister has been working for since before he even released his self titled album? This isn't news Nessa." I said sitting down on the floor by the shower. "Well then I'm not seeing the problem. You're gonna get to spend your whole summer getting paid to travel the country and have a relationship with the Harry Styles. Anyone else would kill to be in your position Alyssa." she turned off the shower. "Yeah I guess." I shrugged. "Just have fun for once and stop worrying about all that wont be fun." she said stepping out of the shower. "They're coming here this weekend." I groaned. "Just have fun!" she repeated herself. "I'll try." I said walking out of the bathroom.

I went back to my room and started getting ready for my class. It's 9 now and class starts at 10:30. I started looking through my closet in hopes to find something good to wear. I ended up just throwing on a sweatshirt and leggings. Today is Friday and I don't know if Kylie meant her and Harry are coming today or tomorrow, but hopefully it wont be until tomorrow so I have time to clean my room a bit and talk to the rest of the girls. I pulled out my phone to text my sister. "Class is over at noon and you need to call me then." I said plainly and sat my phone face down on my vanity. I started putting on some makeup and straightened my long brown hair. By the time I was done getting ready it was 10 and I remembered I never went back to the kitchen to get my coffee.

I headed back to the kitchen and saw my cup in the sink. I didn't feel like making anymore so I decided to go to starbucks on my way to class. I couldn't stop thinking about the situation Kylie has gotten me into. I'm really mad at her for this. I just want to spend my summer having fun with my girls, not working for her stupid team. As I walked down the street I wondered what it was gonna be like. I have a fear that I'm gonna get attacked a lot online for a relationship I'm not even actually in. I hope Harry is nice to me at least. I remember the first time I met Harry. He flew out to New York for a meeting with my sister and a couple other people from his team. After their meeting my sister invited me to go to dinner with them. It was a really fun night, but everytime I've hung out with him since then, it's been awkward. It's like he suddenly became really shy and I still have no idea why.

By the time class ended I had almost completely forgotten about the events of this morning, until I saw my sister was trying to call me again. "Hey" I saw as I answered the phone. "Hey what's up?" She responded. "So are you guys coming tonight or tomorrow?" I crossed my fingers in hope she would say tomorrow. "Did I not tell you this morning?" We should be there around 9 tonight." She said. Great. "Okay um, well I gotta get home to clean up then. I'll see you later." I quickly hung up the phone and started walking home a little faster. This was not gonna be a good day.