Even Angels Die (One Direction)

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Julia’s Point Of View

I fidgeted uncomfortably with my red cocktail dress, hoping that I was wearing the right kind of thing. The dress code on the invitation that I received from my old school simply said ‘smart’ and I didn’t want to turn up wearing something over the top. The past week had gone by much quicker than I had wanted it to. I was slightly nervous to see some of my old classmates and teachers again. I know that during four years people could change a lot, especially as many of them now had full time jobs.

I was just plucking up my courage to walk into the main school hall where the ‘reunion party’ was being held, when I heard a unwelcome familiar voice coming from the opposite direction.

“Liam, I don’t know why you’re asking me this because I have no experience with girls I want to date having boyfriends which turn gay.” Harry chuckled into his iPhone. I frowned in distaste at his annoying laugh as he walked towards me, his eyes trained to the ground and one of his hands fidgeting with his jacket pocket. As much as I hated to admit it, he did look pretty smart.

“It’s been what…three days since they broke up?” he spoke into his mobile again as he stopped right in front of the door so I couldn’t get in. I clucked my tongue in annoyance and took a couple of steps towards him so he could see me and hopefully move out of the way.

“Yeah, I’d leave it a few more days if I were you. Right, I’ve got to go. See you later, mate.” He finished his conversation as he saw me waiting. I rolled my eyes as he fumbled with his pocket, almost dropping his iPhone in the process.

“Hey Julia,” he grinned at me as he finally managed to put his phone in a safe place.

“Hi Harry,” I replied stiffly, reaching between us and opening the door so the two of us could get in. We both squinted as our eyes adjusted to the lack of light in the hall. “I thought you’d be too busy flying all over the world to come here today.”

Harry shrugged, obviously not hearing the cutting edge to my voice. “We have a while off as it’s summer. We’ve already recorded our new album.”

“Oh wonderful, I look forward to it.” I snapped, sarcasm dripping of every word.

Harry turned to me with a curious expression on his face and said three words that I was not expecting to hear from him. “Still hate me?”

I blinked, “I’ve never hated you. I just...thought you were annoying.”

“Same.” He replied, which again surprised me. As we walked further into the hall, together, I found it odd that instead of wanting to get as far away as possible from him I really did want to know what he had to say. I knew I didn’t have long before people would realise that famous Harry Styles was here and he was whisked away with all his old best friends.

“What? You hardly ever spoke to me.” I frowned. How could he have found me annoying? What have I ever done to him?

“You weren’t exactly trying to start many conversations with me either.” Harry retorted. “It was clear that you never liked me.  It frustrated me because I could never think of anything that I’d done to make you dislike me. Why didn’t you like me?”

“You were stuck-up, arrogant, and you messed around with girls all the time.” I told him bluntly.

Harry stared at me for a second, and I didn’t even care if I had upset him. It was true, and the more I thought about the school memories I had of him, the more I started to dislike him again –despite the fact he seemed pretty nice at the moment.

“Wow.” He finally replied. “I know I seemed a bit like a dick when I was younger…but you never gave me a chance. If you maybe got to know me…” he trailed off.

“Mmm, too late now though. You’re too busy with the band and I’ve moved down to London.” I commented.

“You moved to London? I live there too.” He replied absentmindedly.

“HARRY?! IS THAT YOU?” a male voice yelled across the room and both of us turned to face the guy who was pushing through the large group of people milling around. Harry turned towards me again.

“Listen, I have a while off work and as we both live in London I thought…” he trailed off.

I stared at him in confusion, I’d just expressed the reasons why I disliked him and now he wanted to meet up with me?  “Harry…”

“Let me finish, okay? I hated how things ended up between us. We hardly know each other, but I really want to try and sort things out. You don’t have to see me more than once but I just want to try and convince you that I’m really not like that.” Harry pleaded with me.

I was so surprised at his request that I just nodded mutely and before I had time to give a vocal response one of the old members of ‘White Eskimo’ had reached us and pretty much pushed me away from Harry. I rolled my eyes and stepped away from him to try and find some of my old friends. I had barely walked halfway across the room when my old form tutor came up to me and tried to engage me in a conversation about my future.

It took me a while to dodge past her, until I finally reached the side of the room where my two old friends were chatting together.

“Julia! You made it! We weren’t sure if you’d be coming or not as you live so far down south now.” Lisa greeted me. She and Chloe pulled me into a group hug. It had been a while since we had seen each other, due to the universities the two of them were attending and it felt great to be around them again. I had made plenty of new friends in London and at the three year course at the local university I was studying at, but these two girls I’d known since I was around 10.

It felt so good to be able to spend time with two of my oldest and closest friends, but my mind kept on being drawn back to the conversation I had with Harry. It had disturbed me the way that he wanted to prove himself to me, to try and convince me that he was a nice person. It surprised me that he even cared what I thought of him. Surely he must have thousands and thousands of people all around the world that dislike him or ‘One Direction’? Why did I matter so much? Hundreds of questions flashed through my mind, none of which I had the answer to.

“Can you all make your way towards the dining hall, please?” the loud voice of my old deputy-head called across the busy room.

Chloe, Lisa and I exchanged glances. As we walked into the secondary hall, it became clear there was going to be some kind of presentation. There were two hundred or so chairs laid out in rows in front of the projector and screen – enough for the whole of our year group.

“I hope they don’t show some old, embarrassing photos.” Chloe whispered to us, and we nodded fervently.

It turned out, that was exactly what they did.