THANK YOU FOR #209 IN FAN FICTION!! KEEP IT UP, YOU AMAZING PEOPLE.
// happy [not really] last day of otra & HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃🎈
Norah
September 18, 2015
Hello, 2 week break.
The only homework I had was to preview the next chapter we were covering for English, and then start on my photography portfolio. I was honestly so excited for the portfolio. Last year in my photography class, all we did was learn techniques and analyze famous photographers' pictures.
Now, Winter and I are at the grocery store. She had given me a ride to our last class and dragged me over here afterwards because she needed to restock her pantry. She couldn't make a decision on any snack to buy.
"Poptarts?"
"Ugh, no," Winter mutters, shuttering in disgust.
"How are you even human?"
"How do you not like Cheez-its?" She fires back.
"It's fake cheese!"
"We live in America, Norah. Cheez-its aren't the only fake food. Get over yourself."
I laugh, and scroll through Twitter as I trail behind her through the aisles. Everyone on my personal timeline were complaining about visiting their families during the break. Others were freaking out about their quarter grades.
I retweeted the tweets about quarter grades.
I switched over to my fan account while Whiner - uh, I mean Winter - complained about how cold it was in the frozen foods section.
Everyone was getting hyped about the boys playing at the iTunes Festival on the 22nd. I was, too. I was excited anytime I was going to get high quality videos of the boys.
My phone began ringing and I pressed the green button without giving much attention to the name.
"Hello?"
"Hi, it's me," I recognize Cece's voice. (a/n: I had to, I love adele's new song agdhakaka...ok continue)
"Cece! What's up? Do you need anything?" I ask.
I was silently praying that she wouldn't call me into work. I was exhausted from school and wasn't up for cleaning tables and fixing broken froyo machines.
"Yeah, hun. I'm really sorry. You'll get overtime for this, but I was wondering if you could come in for just a few hours. I have a doctor's appointment in an hour, and Johnny was supposed to replace me, but he got sick."
I really can't say no now.
"Yeah, yeah, sure, I'll come. I'm at the store with Winter right now, but I can be there in a half an hour?" I offer.
"That'd be perfect. Thank you so much, Norah."
"No problem, Cece. I'll see you soon."
I hang up and roll my eyes at Winter, who just laughs at me.
"Notice how she doesn't call me because she knows that you'd say yes," Win chides.
I huffed. "She's done the same for me..."
"I need to grab some shaving cream, then I can drop you."
"Thanks, Win."
Fifteen minutes later, we were in her car, on our way to Yogurt Island. It would've been ten minutes later, but some guy was chatting it up with her at the register. I think she said the words "my boyfriend, Jared" about ten times to clue in that she was already taken, while he tried to get to know her.
I, on the other hand, was standing off to the side, third wheeling two people who weren't even dating. Was that even possible?
"I'm like, yeah, she's fine. Wonder when she'll be mine. She walk past, I press rewind!" Winter shouts along to the third song that's come on the radio as she turns into a parking space in front of Yogurt Island.
I've become completely immune to her tone deafness, and it doesn't even faze me when she screams along to every song on the radio.
"Should I pick you up after?" Winter asks, reaching over to turn down the radio as I get out of the car.
I shake my head. "No, that's okay. I might just have Sam pick me up or something. Thanks though."
"Gotcha. Bye, Norah."
She waves, then pulls out of the space while I walk into the building.
"Norah! Thank God. You're a blessing. I have to leave right now, so can you man the register?" Cece asks, coming from the backroom.
I nod and give her a warm smile.
She takes her curly, slightly grey, brown hair out of its bun and slips off her apron. She hangs it in the storage room, then comes over to me while I'm putting on my own apron. She kisses my cheek, then hurriedly leaves out the entrance.
I've never actually worked here alone. It'll definitely be very weird.
I keep myself busy cleaning tables, sweeping the floors, and working the register. About an hour into the shift, the three girls that are always here walked in.
Damn, their parents must spend like $60 a week here.
I ring them up politely and watch as they take their seats at their usual table. I clean around the toppings area and walk back into the backroom to throw the towel away.
Just as I'm about to sneak a peek at my phone that's been buzzing off the hook since I'd walked in, I hear a lot of commotion coming from the tables.
Scared that there is some dumbass robber breaking in, in broad daylight, I hurriedly walk out of the backroom and towards the register.
"Holy shit!"
"No, stay calm, stay calm!"
"Oh my god. Is he coming to see that one girl?"
None of them checked to see if I'd walked into the room. I could tell that by "that one girl", they meant me. That also meant that in less than one second, Harry Styles was probably going to walk into this building.
I turn my head to the windows and see a tall, lean figure strolling towards the door. His head is down, looking at his phone. His hair is in a bun and he's wearing a white t-shirt and black skinnies.
He looks up and meets my gaze just as he's about to open the door. I watch as the corner of his mouth curves upwards in a smile at the sight of me.
How did I, Norah Gates, make such an incredible human being like him, smile like that?
I try to silently warn him with my eyes and a slight shake of my head, to not greet me with open arms - or even say my name. These three girls will definitely know I was lying about not knowing Harry personally.
He opens the door, still keeping eye contact with me. He (adorably) cocks his head to the side in confusion at my weak warnings.
"O-oh my god. Can we get a picture?" One of the girls approaches him.
Harry practically jumps in shock at the girl, breaking our locked gazes.
"Yeah, of course," he says in his deep accent.
He swipes his tongue slowly across his bottom lip as he positions himself next to the first girl for the picture. They stand diagonal to where I was standing and Harry turns his head to look at me, sending me a quick wink.
Huh?
Did...did he just...?
I literally look down to make sure that I was still standing on my two feet, and hadn't collapsed to the ground.
"Um...Norah? Can you take a group picture for us?"
I snap my head up and see one of the girls awaiting my response. She's holding her iPhone out towards me.
I give a closed-mouth smile. "Sure."
I walk out from behind the counter and take the phone from her. All three girls stand around Harry and I hold up the phone, counting down until I took the picture.
Harry has a small smirk on his face. It's familiar to the ones I have seen on numerous occasions while scrolling through Twitter and seeing fan pictures.
I hand the same girl back her phone, all the while I'd moved closer to Harry. So close that his hand scraped against my back.
"I'll take a pic for you!" A girl offers to me.
You'd think as many times as they've come here, I'd actually learn their names.
Before I uttered a single word from my mouth, Harry's arm secured around my waist, ready to take the picture.
"U-um. I don't have my phone. Let me go get it," I murmur awkwardly. Harry's hand springs off me and I scoot past the girls and into the backroom. I take my phone from my locker and see six texts from Harry. I delete them off my home screen and walk back to the tables.
I hand the girl my phone and stand beside Harry again. I put my arm behind his back, while his hand goes around my waist. My waist. And he was actually leaning into me.
"Got it!" The girl chimed. "Holy crap. That was so cute. Morgan, wasn't that cute!"
Harry's hand slid off me as I take a couple steps forward to retrieve my phone.
"Thank you," I tell her, though I strangely felt the urge laugh. She went over to her friends and looked over the pictures they'd gotten.
I turn to head back behind the counter. At the same time, I sneak a peek at me and Harry's picture. My heart skips a beat when I feel someone peering over my shoulder.
"Cute," I feel Harry's breath on my bare neck as he speaks.
I crane my neck around to see him smirking slightly as he walks over to the froyo machines.
Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.
I walk on shaking legs into the backroom. I take a better look at the picture.
Harry was smiling hard in the picture, easily contrasting from the pictures he took with the girls. Although it shouldn't have, I felt...glad because of that. Special, even.
I had my body turned slightly towards him as I smiling softly. It wasn't that bad of a picture compared to any other picture I'd taken in my life. Mostly due to the fact that my hat created a shadow, covering my eyes. But I definitely wished I wasn't wearing my uniform.
Before I lock my phone back into my locker, I check the texts I'd gotten.
H🏓
Hey, Nor. Are you at work right now?
At Yogurt Island?
Maybe you're working...beware, I'm coming there now (:
Is it busy?
I'm leaving my car now ahahah. I hope you're in there 😬
I'm here
I smile to myself and stick my phone back into the locker. I walk out of the room and behind the counter, where Harry was putting toppings on his yogurt.
He looks up when I walk in. I go and lean my hands on the countertop across from him.
"I was trying to warn you about them," I whisper under my breath.
"They're fans," he chuckles lightly.
No...really?
"No...I'll just tell you later," I say, dismissing it.
He looks up again and smiles before walking over to the register to pay. I, of course, follow him.
"When do you get off?" He whispers. With the combination of the music echoing through the place and the girls still chatting away, no one could be able to hear us.
"I have another hour or so. I'm just covering for someone."
"Can you meet me here, again, tonight?"
I stop my typing into the register and make eye contact with him. He's peering down at me, waiting for an answer.
"Ten o'clock?" I ask.
His eyes narrow and he tilts his head to the side. "Mm...eleven."
I nod. "Okay, then." I hand him his change and he puts the whole six dollars and some change into the tip jar.
He grins and returns to using a normal voice, though his eyes give away any secret conversation we were having. "Have a nice day, love."
•••
"Just fuck him already."
"Winter!" I gasp at her vulgar language, as if I wasn't already used to it.
She just laughs at me.
"I gotta go. I'm here. I'll see you later, Win."
I'll spare all of the innocent ears by not telling what she said next.
I get out of my car and lock it. The nighttime air was surprisingly a little chilled. I tug my cardigan tighter around my body as I walk up to the building. I begin to unlock the door of Yogurt Island, but lock it back up instead. I get back into my car, deciding to just wait for Harry there.
It was too cold for froyo.
I turn the radio up along with the heater. About five minutes later, I see headlights blare through the back windshield of my little vehicle. I turn my head towards the passenger side and watch a black Range Rover pull into the space beside me.
I stay in my car and watch how confused he looks as he gets out of his. He changed clothes, now wearing a hoodie and jeans. His hair is still in a bun.
He knocks on the passenger window and I roll it down.
"Whatcha doing, Nor?"
"We're taking my car this time," I smirk. "And it's a little cold for frozen stuff."
His eyes shine as he chuckles and opens the door slipping into my car. I pull out of the parking space.
"So, what were you going to tell me?" He asks.
"About today?"
He nods. "Yeah. Why you gave me a 'get the hell out of here' look when I walked in."
I take a right turn, passing a residential street.
"Because a week or two ago, they asked about you and I at the Santa Clara show. Then they asked if I knew you personally. Then, they said they heard that I was at the Milwaukee show. So, I was simply trying to warn you of not going all 'hey, Norah' as soon as you walked in...but now that I'm saying all of this, it's just hit me that you probably already knew not to do that because you've been doing this for a while," I ramble on mindlessly.
I felt my face heating up. Way to be a freaking idiot, Norah, great job.
I dare to sneak a look at him. He was smiling still, looking ahead at the road.
"What I have to say actually has something to with that," He starts.
Oh, Lord help me.
"I've been talking with my manager and publicists about this, and they all think it's a terrible idea...but I don't," he says, pausing afterwards.
"I suggested to them that you could possibly go on tour with us? If you want to....I know you said that you're taking a photography class, and my friend, Cal Aurand - he's our photographer - he offered to help you. Like if you have any questions about the field, or if you want to go with him to a shoot, or even take pictures during the show..."
I was absolutely shocked.
I was completely shocked.
"Why?" I blurt.
Harry tried to find his words. "Because I like seeing you...and talking with you. So, I'd like to have some excuse to do that in public." He laughs softly after he says that like he just told a joke, but I know he's serious.
"So, your management is okay with us hanging out in public?" I clarify.
"No, but I'm working on it. You have a boyfriend, so I'm using that as my main argument."
Boyfriend.
"But would you want to go on tour? With me. Us," Harry asks. I glance over at him. He had his elbow propped against the window as he looked at me.
Though I'd only known him the lesser of two months, I'd be plain stupid if I didn't notice some foreign feeling growing between us. It wasn't an innocent friendship, and I wouldn't call it sexual tension either.
But it was something that was enough to make me feel guilty for feeling the way I did while I was with Sam.
I smile to him. "Yes, I would love to."
__________
Let me take one moment to apologize for this being later than usual. I feel like I'm running around like a crazy woman. I have had so much homework/projects (that I haven't finished) and sports have been crazy as well.
Despite all of that, I hope you loved this chapter! Thank you so much for getting this story to #209 in FANFICTION!!! Keep it up by commenting & voting a bunch ! (':
HAVE A SAFE & VERY HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!! 🎃
Twitter: @wtvrharold
Instagram: @harry.reckless
xx