STAY MINE // Harry Styles

The Little Prince and His Flower

This is a very long chapter (10k words). Enjoy and please let me know what you think! :)

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Isaac closed his umbrella, almost too caught up in what had happened to realise it'd stopped raining since Gemma had left. His mouth opened to answer Emilia's question, but his brain was stuttering, unable to keep up.

He'd kissed Gemma.

No, she had kissed him. He didn't know why she'd done it, but did it matter? He'd kissed her back and he'd liked it. He'd kissed his best friend's sister, who had a boyfriend, a shitty one, still, it didn't justify what he'd done.

If Harry knew about this—

His stomach twisted into knots as his palms started to sweat. Harry couldn't know about this. They were finally on good terms again. Isaac couldn't fuck this up. Had Emilia seen the kiss? Would she tell Harry if she had?

Isaac took a deep breath to ease his mind. To Emilia, he said, "I came to see you. You didn't show up for the shoot, Emi."

"I lost my phone and I thought the shoot was next week." She gave an apologetic grin. "I'm very sorry."

Her apology didn't sound sincere, but now he had bigger problems to worry about. With an impersonal tone, he said, "If you're not interested anymore, you should've let me know so I could find someone else."

"No, no, I still want to model for you!" She wrapped her fingers around his wrist before he even thought about ending the conversation. His alarmed expression got her blushing as she hid her hands behind her back, staring at her feet. "I'd been...um...I'd been busy preparing for my audition this morning. That was why I took two days off in a row, and then my boss called me here today because the shop got overcrowded."

"An audition? For a movie?"

He hoped his startlement didn't offend her. There was nothing wrong with her auditioning for a movie; she used to go to film school after all. But not so long ago she'd told him she'd already given up on her dream of becoming an actress, so he was curious to know how that passion had sparked again.

"Yes, a real movie!" she exclaimed, her green eyes twinkling like Harry's whenever he talked about his job, or Thea.

As if Emilia could read Isaac's mind, she added, "Harry encouraged me to attend casting calls. I've done some commercials and modelling before, so a movie would be a nice challenge. He also gave me the contacts of some directors—" His dubious look stopped her midsentence, and her voice went flat, "I didn't get them from his assistant. He actually gave them to me."

"No, I didn't mean—"

"It's okay. Please don't explain." With a frustrated exhalation, she peered around him. "Was that Gemma who just left?"

The hair stood up at the nape of his nape when he met her questioning gaze. Convinced that she'd seen the kiss, he had to admit, "Yeah, it was Gemma."

Her eyes went round as she considered him in a sceptical manner. "Are you two dating?"

"No. She has a boyfriend."

Gemma was so private that not many people knew she had a boyfriend. For all he knew, he could've lied to Emilia and gotten away with it even if she'd witnessed the kiss. He couldn't bring himself to do it, though. He had a strict rule against lying. No matter how trivial you thought your lie was, you'd have to cover it up with more lies, and before you knew it, the lie had become too big, like a snowball rolling down a hill. The damage it would cause was inevitable.

Nodding slowly, Emilia ahhhhed in silence and concluded with, "Too bad. I'd love to talk to her."

He waited for her to continue, but then she told him she had to get back to work and would text him with her new number. Just like that, she disappeared into the shop, leaving him in bafflement.