Early Morning Glory | Harry Styles AU

/17/ the 'f' in 'fucked' is for 'family'

"Fry," I commanded as I kept my eyes trained on the word doc that I had opened on my laptop. Harry picked one from the container next to me and placed it in my open mouth. "Thanks," I said and he laughed.

I had decided to enter a short story into a small NYC based magazine contest and the deadline was in the morning. The plan was to spend most of my shift editing and reworking the story so it would be perfect and ready to be submitted.

"I'm sorry I'm being so boring tonight. I just really need to get this done and submitted." I glanced over at Harry quickly as I read over one of the paragraphs for the third time, trying to figure out how to fix the wording of a few sentences.

He threw a few fries into his mouth, "You're not boring. I like seeing you like this, you know, super into your writing."

"Well, I promise I just need, like, another forty-five minutes and then I'll be done and we can actually hangout."

He held another fry up to my mouth and I accepted it, "We are hanging out."

The bell on the top of the door rang out and I called out a "Welcome" to whoever had entered, not picking my head up to look.

"Auden?" I froze at the sound of the woman's voice. I raised my eyes and tried not to yell at her to leave when I saw who was standing there. "Hi, honey."

Harry leaned in close to me and whispered, "Who is that?"

"Mom, what are you doing here?"

"I was at Everett's. He invited me over for dinner to meet Abby and he told me you were working. I thought it would be nice to stop by and see you."

I made a mental note to question Everett about about having her over for dinner and his audacity to tell her where I worked before asking, "Why?"

"Because we haven't seen each other in so long. I miss you." She took a few more steps into the shop.

I crossed my arms and felt myself getting defensive. "You should've called me before showing up."

"I thought if I did, you wouldn't have answered."

"You're probably right." I watched as her face dropped. I could feel Harry's eyes moving between us.

"I just want to talk, honey. I'm doing a lot better and I want to fix whatever happened between us."

"You happened between us, mom."

"No," she shook her head, "it was your father who did this to us."

I stood up, "No, it was both of you. He left and then you decided you didn't want to be a mom anymore. You were awful to me. You're the reason we're like this. You're the reason I don't want to answer your calls or see you or talk to you. It wasn't some outside force, mom. It was you." Harry reached his hand up and placed it on my lower back and started to rub it in soft circles. I was thankful he didn't try to excuse himself and leave.

"That's not true," Her voice shook, but I couldn't tell if it was with anger or sadness, "Your brother—"

I cut her off, "Ev left when things started to get really bad mom. He never saw the way you talked to me, the way you looked at me—like it was my fault dad left. You never looked at Everett like that—your fucking golden boy. It was always on me. I don't care what he said to you, what he told you to make you feel better. I don't care." I shook my head and fought back the tears that I could feel burning my eyes. I was angry—at everyone. I wanted to scream in her face and then wrap my hands around my brother's neck. I leaned into Harry's hand, needing something to help keep me upright.