The Kindness Of A Sunflower (h.s)

eight

paige

I put my key into the slot on the door handle of my dorm room, looking down at my phone typing out a message to "H", a smile still lingering on my face. I turn the key and open the door, throwing the flannel that I had taken off in the elevator on my desk, head still in my phone.

"Where have you been?!"

I jumped out of shock at the loud high pitched squeal that came from Maddison. Both Maddison and Anna were sitting on my bed.

"Ummm. Hi guys. I'm so sorry I didn't come home last night. Something came up," I say, my heart rate still trying to return to its normal speed.

"Paige. Where were you last night," Anna says.

"I'm sorry I was at the loft and I ended up falling asleep," I say scratching the back of my neck.

I want to tell them what happened last night, but at the same time I don't know if I should. Harry and I didn't really discuss the whole "what to say to others''. I want to tell them because they are my best friends but also I want to keep that to myself. A little secret. Also there's no way in hell they would believe me even if I di-

"Holy shit Paige!!" Anna basically screams, her eyes wide.

I jump once again at the sudden loud noise.

"What?!"

"Who the hell were you with last night."

"What? No one," I lie.

"Bullshit."

"I wasn't with anyone last night. I went to the loft last night after the concert because I had some new ideas for some music stuff and wanted to get it done before I forgot. I fell asleep and my phone died."

"Oh okay. So you were working on 'music stuff'," she puts little air quotes around "music", "Did you also suck on your own neck while you were working on said music."

Shit.

My hand flies up to my neck and my cheeks burn.

I whip around to look in the full length mirror on the back of my door and examine my neck. There they were.

Two deep red marks on my skin. One where my neck met my collar bone and one up by my ear. I hadn't even thought to check before I left and Harry didn't mention anything probably because the flannel had covered them so I didn't even think twice about it.

"I- um," I stutter while turning back to them.

"Oh my god!!!" Maddison says. "And is that a new flannel you picked up on the way home." I look down at the flannel.

I huff and walk over to join them on the bed.

"Okay fine. I was with someone last night."

"You ditched us for a guy," Maddison says.

"Look I'm really sorry. We got to talking and I ended up taking him to the loft and we fell asleep. That's it."

"Well let's hear about this guy. Honestly he better be like some kind of Greek God if you ditched us for him."

Oh they had no idea.

"Um okay. Well, I met him at the concert. He's tall, like taller than me. He has brown hair, green eyes, tattoos, and he's uh. He's a singer. And he's British. Um yea. And he's really nice and easy to talk to," I get softer as I continue, playing with the ring on my finger, looking down at my hands.

"Wait a minute," Anna says. "So you either met a Harry Styles doppelgänger or you hooked up with the real Harry Styles."

I blush and twist my ring even more.