Song For This Chapter:
Please Don't Go- Mike Posner
"Baby please don't go
If I wake up tomorrow will you still be here?"
——
Darlene's POV
You remember how I said before how I hate that I'm a good person sometimes? This is one of those times. It's almost 11pm on a Tuesday night, picking up a drunk Harry was not how I was expecting my night to go. But here I am driving to the bar to go pick him up.
I'm minutes away and I honestly have no idea what I'm walking into. I've never been around drunk Harry so this is going to be a new experience.
I think part of me feels inclined to pick him up right now because I have a feeling I may have caused him to drink himself into oblivion. Despite our differences, I would still feel guilty for causing him this much stress.
Pulling into the parking lot, I park as close to the entrance as possible because I don't know if I'm going to have to help Harry walk to the car. By the short conversation we had on the phone, I'd say that it's a big possibility.
I don't even know how Harry got my number, but that's not the biggest issue at hand right now. I turn my car off and take a deep breath preparing myself for what I'm about to get myself into.
I walk into the bar that is surprisingly busy for it being a Tuesday night, but it is summer so I kind of get it. I scan my eyes around the bar and spot Harry in the same spot we were in just a few nights ago. His back is too me, but even from here I can see multiple empty glasses on the table. Sighing I make my way over to him.
"Harry, come on let's go" I say standing in front of the table. Harry lifts his head up facing me taking in my presence.
"Darlene May, you came" He says smiling while his finger traces the edge of his cup. I temporarily mesmerized by his ring clad fingers but snap myself out of it.
"Harry Styles, I did, now let's go" I say beckoning him with my arm.
"Alright alright" He says beginning to stand up. I watch closely trying to judge how uncoordinated he is. The amount he drank would cause me to be black out drunk but I have a feeling he holds his liquor a lot better.
I grab his wrist and begin to guide him back out of the bar. I take occasional glances behind me to make sure Harry isn't about to topple over. He seems to stumble a little bit, but I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't searching directly for it.
Once outside I hear Harry speak behind me,
"-Em sorry" He says in a quiet voice. Once in front of my car I stop and face him and see him hanging his head and avoiding my eyes,
"For what?" I question, I'm confused on what the hell he's sorry for. I should be the one apologizing for confusing the hell out of him.
"For making you feel like you had to come and get me, I should have never called-" Harry begins rambling, shaking he head in stress. Fuck, I really hope he didn't drink because of me. I'm around 80% sure he did, but this is making me feel even more guilty than I already do.
"Shhh, Harry it's not a big deal I promise okay?" I say softly, placing my hand on his shoulder comfortingly to try and get him to look up at me.
His green eyes eventually meet mine and I'm hoping he can see the honesty written on my face. My heart almost shatters when I see the ashamed look on his. For once, I wish I knew what he was thinking. For once, he's not saying every thought that comes to his head in front of me, and it's driving me a bit insane.
He just nods his head at me and I give him a soft smile. I walk around him to open the passenger side door and wait for him to get in.
Once he's in, I shut the door and make my way over to the driver side and get in. I put my keys into the ignition and start it up, but I turn my head when I feel Harry's eyes burning into me.
He's smirking at me and it seems that whatever mood he was in 10 seconds ago was completely gone, "I like your hair like that, it's pretty" he says as his eyes trace over my clipped up hair.
I raise my eyebrow at him, "You're drunk" I chuckle.
"Whatever, I still like it" He says still smiling softly at me. I shake my head with a smile on my face and begin to back out of the parking spot.
Without even thinking I begin driving back to my apartment, I didn't even think about asking where Harry lived. I still felt responsible for making sure he didn't have alcohol poisoning or some shit. God forbid I dropped him at his place and he ends up dead the next morning, I'd never forgive myself.
Suddenly music begins to fill the car and I turn to see Harry messing with the radio. He continues flipping through the channels, squinting his eyes as if he's trying to concentrate really hard to read the station numbers. He finally sits back in his seat and settled on a station playing "Mr Brightside". I smile at his song choice and turn my head towards him to find he was already looking at me.
"Nice choice Styles" I say nodding my head in approval as the song continued to play softly in the background.
"You know, usual the cliche storyline is the guy picking the drunk girl up from the bar, not the other way around" He says with a teasing tone in his voice.
"So your saying I wear the pants in this relationship?"
"Absolutely not" Harry says quickly and unamused.
I smirk and glance over at him, "I beg to differ" I say shrugging causing him to roll his eyes.
"You haven't even seen what I'm capable of, Darling" Harry says with a taunting voice. My stomach drops at the use of the nickname, but this time it didn't make me angry. In fact I enjoyed the familiarity of it, it reminds of a time before everything was so damn complicated.
His statement almost sounded like a dare, one that if he wasn't drunk I probably would've found myself wanting to participate in.
Before you say it, I know, I'm weak but I'm trying here okay? You're telling me you would be able to resist someone like Harry after you finally experienced it? The answer is no, okay? So get off my back.
"I'm taking you back to my place" I change the subject before Harry says anything he might regret. I know if I was in situation I'd be grateful he changed the subject the next morning.
Harry nods his head and hums in acknowledgment, as he rests his head on the window. The alcohol is probably making him tired so I doubt he'd even care were he slept at this point.
After a few more minutes we finally pull into the parking lot of my apartment building. Once the car is put in park Harry peeks his eye open and once he realizes we're, here he picks his head up from the window, rubbing his eyes.
"Come on, you look exhausted" I chuckle.
Harry laughs back tiredly and he goes to open his door and I do the same. I grab his wrist again in order to guide him, his tiredness making him stumble even more than when we were at the bar.
I have to admit though, he's being kinda cute right now. With his tired eyes and messy hair from resting it on the window. I've been finding Harry kind of adorable lately which is becoming and issue for me, clearly. He's adorable until he says something sexual, I hate to admit it but when he does that he's hot. The more I find him adorable the less I want to strangle him, which maybe is a good thing.
Once in the elevator Harry leans back against the wall with his eyes closed and his arms crossed. He peeks his eye open to find me looking at him
"You're being nice to me again" He states
"I know" I say back, I don't feel the need to give him a smartass comment. Plus he's drunk as hell and I don't know how much he'll remember. Luckily I think I caught the tail end of his intoxication, I don't know how energetic he was at his peak tonight but he just seems tired right now.
"Why?" Harry asks confused.
"Why not?" I shrug, the elevator dings and I go to grab his wrist and guide him down the hall to my apartment. I know he's probably capable of following me without me having to guide him but I do it anyways.
Opening my door to my apartment I let out a sigh, feeling a sense of relief for completing my task. I guide Harry over to my couch and he sits down.
"Stay here"
"Yes ma'am" Harry says weakly saluting me which causes me to chuckle.
I walk into my bedroom and then into my bathroom and go to my medicine cabinet. I grab the ibuprofen knowing Harry will probably want it in the morning. I then grab him a spare blanket from my closet and a spare pillow off my bed. I make my way back out into my living room to see Harry squinting down at his phone.
I walk in front of him and present him with the pillow and blanket which he takes from me with a small smile on his face,
"Thanks" He says softly.
I place the ibuprofen down on the coffee table in front of the couch and go to fill up a glass of water for Harry while he makes himself comfortable.
When I return Harry has laid the blanket across the couch and he was placing the pillow down.
I go to place his water down next to where I placed the pain meds and he turns around to look at me.
"The next time you want to get hammered, let me know and I'll get hammered with you" I say teasing him.
"I'll definitely take you up on that offer, and you're not allowed to back out when I do" Harry says smirking at me, his tiredness making him slur his words a bit.
"That is if you even remember I offered it" I say raising an eyebrow at him.
Harry looks at me for a second before a devious look appears on his face, he pulls out his phone and begins doing god know what on it.
Finally he turns the screen to me and his reminder app is open with message that says 'Darlene promised she'd get hammered with you' listed in his reminders.
"Now I won't forget" He smirks, wiggling his eyebrows at me teasingly.
I just roll my eyes, "Goodnight Harry" I say making my way back into my bedroom to get ready for bed.
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Harry's POV
I wake up with my head pounding and an extreme need to chug some water. I open my eyes and take in my surrounding and my stomach drops when I remember I'm in Darlene's apartment.
I'm in Darlene's. fucking. apartment.
God I'm such an idiot, why the hell would I call her? I remember most of what happened last night, it's a little hazy though. Did I tell her that her hair was pretty? I groan to myself.
My eyes land on the glass of water and pain meds that Darlene set out for me last night. Maybe this gesture is a way of saying she doesn't absolutely hate my guts now? Please just say yes to make me feel better.
I grab a couple pain meds from the bottom and swallow them, I don't need water to do that shit, I'm not a pussy. But then I realize how thirsty I actually am and grab the glass of water and drain the contents quickly.
I sit up and look around, and my eyes land on her kitchen which I walk over to in order to get more water.
I filled up the glass probably at least 3 goddamn times before I felt I had enough. I was already feeling alot better, still had a mild headache but the pain meds were slowly working to take that away.
My attention shifts when I hear her door open and I see her exit her room wearing a oversized t-shirt and sleep shorts that didn't leave much up for the imagination.
"Good your awake, I left a spare toothbrush in the bathroom down the hall" She says padding over to the kitchen and opening the fridge.
I freeze for a second, I was kind of expecting her to be a little bit more pissed off. But she's acting way to calm about this. Maybe I was right, she doesn't hate my guts.
"Thanks, do you mind if I use your shower?" I say awkwardly scratching the back of my neck.
"No go ahead, there should be some shampoo and stuff in there, if not let me know" She answers and she begins pulling things out of the fridge.
I nod my head, though I'm not even sure if she saw me as she seemed pretty occupied by whatever she was taking out of the fridge.
I take a quick shower, and can't tell if I love or hate the fact that the shampoo smells just like her. Okay, who am I kidding I kind of love it.
I dry myself with one of the spare towels that was hanging from the rack and get redressed in my clothes. Making my way back out into the living room I'm immediately and hit with the smell of bacon and the sound of music softly playing.
I make my way over to the kitchen counter and sit myself at one of the stools, and watch as Darlene cooks. I smirk and I watch her subtly sway her hips to the beat of the song, and she turns around to grab something off the counter and practically jumps when she sees me.
"Jesus Harry" She says holding a hand over her heart.
I chuckle, "I didn't want to interrupt your dance party"
"So you just were gonna sit there in silence" She says slightly annoyed that I caught her.
"Yeah pretty much" I chuckle and she rolls her eyes and grabs the salt off the counter directly in front of me.
"You're already making me regret making you breakfast" She huffs under her breath and I'm not sure she exactly meant for me to hear it.
"What was that?" I egg her on.
She doesn't answer, instead she turns around with two plates in her hand filled with scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon and makes her way over to me, placing one of the plates in front of me.
"I may have poisoned it, I may have not, eat it at your own risk" She glares at me shrugging her shoulders before making her way around the counter to sit on the stool next to me.
I smirk at her comment and go to pick up a piece of toast eating it without hesitation which earned an annoyed huff from her.
I turn to look at her taking in her morning appearance, and I have to admit she looked kind of cute right now, even with that damn attitude of hers. Her eyes were still a bit puffy from just waking up which was cute and seeing her in pajamas felt almost domestic. This whole situation felt domestic, down to her wanting to make me breakfast.
As I was taking in her appearance I studied the worn out t-shirt she was wearing and discovered that it was a college t-shirt from Penn State. I chuckle lightly too myself, she'd probably throw that shirt away if she knew that I went there.
"Did one of your parents go to Penn State or something" I ask before I take another bite of my toast.
"Yeah this was my Dad's shirt, but I go there too" She laughs
I nearly choke,
"You go to Penn State" I said widening my eyes, my surprised response must have shocked her cause she snaps her head back over to me with a confused expression.
"Yeah...I did just say that, why?" She says chuckling awkwardly. My shock is immediately replaced by excitement. I'm not too sure why, but I think it's the thought of being able to see Darlene even after this summer is over.
"I go to Penn State" I state smirking at her, waiting to see her reaction.
She's the one that chokes on her food this time, snapping her head to me, "What?!" She says coughing, once she stops struggling for air she continues, "You're lying" She says shaking her head.
"I'm not lying" I say laughing.
"You're telling me we've gone to the same school for 3 years and we're just now finding out" She says still looking just as shocked.
"It's a big school, and you just started working at the pool this summer so it's not like we would've known" I say shrugging.
"Damn" She says shaking her head in disbelief.
It's quiet for a second as we continue to eat but Darlene breaks the silence,
"Are you in a Frat?" She asks in a curious voice.
"Maybe" I respond, not too sure if she's about to roast my ass for being in one. Darlene doesn't seem like the type to be into greek life.
"Good, you're getting me into parties when school starts" She says with a devious look on her face as she turns back to eating her breakfast.
Once we both finished Darlene took our plates no matter how much I tried to convince her to let me wash them for her. We sit in comfortable silence as she cleans up the kitchen, neither of us feeling the need to say anything in that moment.
She opens the fridge and pours two glasses of orange juice and came back to sit on the stool next to me.
"Alright" She sighs turning to me with her eyebrows furrowed, "I know you're want to drill me with questions so go for it"
My mind reels with a thousand questions and for some reason the first one that slips out of my mouth is,
"Why did you kiss me?"
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A/N: Harry is really just getting right into it huh? I'm excited to write the college chapters for Harry and Darlene, but that will come MUCH much later. I didn't reveal what college they went to for awhile because I honestly had no idea where I wanted them to go. I knew somewhere on the east coast(since I'm from there).
Anyways, unfortunately Niall and Maya do not go to Penn State. I haven't revealed where they go yet, but they each go to different colleges in the area. But they would still all live close together despite that (they all got their own apartments, Niall and Maya aren't going anywhere so don't worry!)