Early Morning Glory | Harry Styles AU

/18/ remedy

I held the invitation between my fingers before dropping it on the counter. Ev and Abby had somehow managed to get engagement party invitations out less than a week after they had gotten engaged. It was in about a month with the RSVP date being sometime next week. I knew Everrett said that him and Abby had been talking about getting married for a while and that Abby kind of knew how she wanted everything done already, but I didn't think she would be that prepared.

I refilled my mug with coffee as I stared at it. I should've texted him right then telling him that I was coming, but we still weren't talking and I couldn't swallow my pride. Our fight had only been going on for two days, but it felt like two years; we never really fought, especially now that we were older. The one sore spot for us had always been our mom, which was why we often just avoided the topic altogether, but that didn't seem to be an option anymore.

I had spent the past day and a half with Harry, using him as a sounding board to figure out what I should do. He seemed firm in the idea that I should take a few days before talking to him about anything because I was still upset and he didn't want me to say anything I could potentially regret—and I agreed. Ev hadn't reached out to me either, which was slightly annoying since I was pretty sure I wasn't the one who did anything wrong in the situation.

I sighed and flicked it away from me before turning to go and sit on my couch. I grabbed my phone and turned up the music that was playing from the speaker on my bookshelf and then tapped on Harry's contact. When I got his voicemail, I tossed my phone away from me on the couch, not bothering to try Lucy since she was working her morning shift at the bakery.

Not wanting to do anything productive, I pulled up Harry and I's messages from the night before and started scrolling through them. They were mostly dirty and teasing, a picture scattered here and there. A smirk tugged at my lips when I came across a particularly long one from him and I felt the familiar warmth blossom between my thighs, which was stronger than usual since I didn't actually take care of myself during the conversation we had.

My eyebrows shot up when my phone began to ring and my brother's face filled my screen. Part of me wanted to decline it, but I knew that would only make everything worse.

I placed the phone to my ear, "Ev, hi."

"You're being childish, you know that?"

I was completely taken aback. I had thought that the purpose of this call might've been to make up, but I could tell by the tone of his voice that wasn't his intention at all. "No, I don't know that, actually. Explain."

He scoffed, "See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. You can't even have an adult conversation. Mom's been asking about you; she's wondering why you treat her like this, why you act like she's such a villain and I don't know what to tell her, Auden, because I don't know. I'm tired of being in the middle of this shit. I'm tired of waiting for you to grow up. You think you're so mature—but you fail to realize that part of growing up is forgiving people and not holding grudges, getting over shit that happened ages ago. I mean seriously, I get you were always closer with dad, but he fucking left us, Auden. Mom didn't. It's time you get over it and treat her a little bit better."

I swallowed the huge lump in my throat and wiped the tears that were already sliding down my cheeks, "No one asked you to be in the middle. I never talk to you about her, so if you feel that way, it's because of mom, not me. I'm tired of you pretending that she wasn't awful to me, Ev. I'm tired of you acting like you didn't leave me to deal with all her shit alone. I was the one picking up bottles and making sure she didn't choke on her own vomit and she repaid me by missing every school event—including my graduation—and calling me a whore." I took a shaky breath, "I have grown up. I had to. You want to talk about forgiveness? I forgave you. You just left and I never held it against you because you were young and I would've done the same thing if I could have. All I fucking want is an apology. I want her to acknowledge the shit she put me through. I didn't realize that wanting our grown mother to be an adult, to be mature, and to own up to things she's done was considered childish. You're talking about maturity to the wrong person," I spit.