Lennon.
I don’t know what annoyed Harry more. The fact I dropped my suitcase on his poorly placed foot or that fact that I burst out laughing when the running man spoke with a panicked voice. I bit my tongue to stop any more laughter erupting from my lungs as Harry grunted, pulling his foot out from under my bag. The other man in question turned to look at me and scowled like I was a piece of dirt scraped on the bottom of his shoe. Harry turned to look at me too as he replied.
“Okay, I’ll be there in a second.” He dismissed the man before grabbing my forearms and almost pushing his face directly up against mine. “What on Earth are you laughing at?” He spat although he sounded pretty confused too.
“We’ve taken an East Sider captive,” I mocked in a deep voice trying to portray the man from earlier without laughing. Harry frowned and creased his brow. “You guys make it sounds like you’re fighting in some sort of war.”
“It may as well be a war. This isn’t child’s play.” He grunted.
“Hey, I never said it was.” I counteracted, “You sound so serious about it though, as if this is the be all and end all of things.”
“You really don’t understand what goes on around here.”
“And I don’t wish to know. In fact I don’t actually want to be here.”
“You can walk straight back out that front door then.” His eyes flickered back towards the grand front door we just walked through. I rolled my eyes at his unimpressed attitude.
“What exactly is capturing an East sider going to do? It’s not like he’s just going to spill his life story to you, let alone what ever the fuck happens in that side of the city.”
“We’re not going to ask him nicely.” He stated in a low, affirmative voice.
“Are you going to hold a gun to his head or something?” I waited for an answer, raising my eyebrows as I did so. The enveloping silence answered my question for me. “Seriously? There are ways to do things without violence.”
“And what do you suggest? Make him a cuppa, offer him some biscuits and have a gossip session whilst we watch the reruns of EastEnders.”
“Now who’s trying to be a comedian?” I quipped back equally as fast as he did.
“Go put your stuff upstairs and paint your nails or something else you girls do.”
“What a gentleman.” I tutted, picking up my bags, making sure to hit him with my bags as I went. “Are you sure you don’t want your nails done too? I have a lovely shade of pink that will go lovely with your eyes.” His face turned completely sour before he stormed off towards Paul’s office, leaving me to haul my heavy bags up the stairs, all by myself.
I assumed I’d be staying in the same room as last night, therefore I followed the hallway all the way to the end until I reached the very last door. I swung it open and unsurprisingly it looked exactly the same as it did a few hours ago.
I threw my suitcases onto the bed, deciding it would probably be a good idea to unpack the essentials. Before I opened my bags I took the time to scope out the room properly. I plugged my phone into the charger next to the nightstand, that side of the bed was now definitely mine.
The wardrobe was pretty big, in fact you could probably fit half of my bedroom back in my house inside of it. I moved onto the drawers opposite the bed and pulled each one out, checking to see which ones were empty. Almost all of them were except the second one, which is odd. I always assumed if you were going to pick a drawer, most people would have chosen the first one. Apparently not Harry though, I only assumed it was Harry’s clothes, it could have been anyone’s. The only things in there were socks, underwear and a large amount of black t-shirts. I was starting to think black was the gangs colour.
I strolled back over to the bed and opened my suitcase properly. I pulled out my bathroom necessities. I wondered how freaked out Harry would be if I left tampons lying around on the counter. As much as I would have liked to see his reaction, I decided it would be a little too weird. I threw my other monthly essentials in a draw near the sink in the bathroom. I left my toothbrush, toothpaste and mouthwash on the side of the sink. I put my make-up in a draw too before I wandered back into the bedroom.
“Can I borrow this?”
I couldn’t decide whether I was going into cardiac rest or if my heart actually stopped beating when I walked back into my room to be greeted by Perrie who was sat on the bed, rifling her way through my suitcase. I clutched my chest trying to remember how to breathe properly again. She held up flannel shirt with studs on the shoulders.
“Yeah,” I managed to breathe out without sounding like I was still trying to recover from being scared half to death. “Sure.”
“Thanks, I can never seem to find a nice red one. I have one in every other colour but red.”
“I got it from Camden market, they sell pretty much everything. And it doesn’t cost half of your soul either.”
“Oh nice. I don’t think I’ve ever been. Where is it?” She beamed and I tried my best not to say something really sarcastic back. It’s not that I didn’t like Perrie, I did, she very welcoming and friendly, and I appreciated that but she seemed a little gone with the wind.
“It’s um, in Camden.” I replied, trying to make it sounds as if I didn’t think she was stupid. “Just get off the tube at Camden Town and it’s literally right there. Although it is only on Sundays.”
“Isn’t Camden in the North of London?”
“Yeah, I guess. Why?”
“It probably wouldn’t be safe going there right now.”
I sighed, rubbing my temples with my fingers, adjusting to this new life was definitely something to try and get my head around. “So what are the rules in this whole lifestyle? They don’t dog tag us or anything do they?”
“No, no!” She laughed over enthusiastically, which raised suspicions. “Has Harry told you anything at all?”
“Not exactly.”
“Not surprising, Harry is hardly the one to talk about anything with anyone.”
“Really?” I asked but I had already presumed Harry was a closed off person, it wasn’t hard to tell.
“Mm,” she hummed. “He doesn’t tell much to anyone unless it’s Paul or Louis. I mean he does speak to the other guys but I guess he trusts them more. I barely know anything about him but he’s never rude or anything to me. I guess he either has trust issues or personal issues. Either one I’m not going to get involved in. He seems like a very complicated person.”
“Hm,” I half agreed. “So there’s more to him than fucking girls and killing people?” I questioned whilst I moved around her, pulling more stuff out of my suitcase to unpack.
“From what I can tell, unquestionably.”
“How long have you lived here?” I asked, changing the subject. It dawned on me that I didn’t actually know much about anyone here other than the fact they were all part of the same gang.
“Only a couple of months. Zayn and I do have a house but with Zayn always being needed here it was just easier to move.”
“And El?”
“Louis and El have always live here, they were originally the only ones here with Paul but with everything that happened recently in the past six months or so, most people moved in for safety reasons.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, there aren’t really any rules. There more like guidelines put in place for safety. Of course you don’t have to listen to them, although for your own good it’s probably best you did.”
“I’m listening…”
“It’s pretty self explanatory. Don’t go asking for trouble. Don’t talk to strangers who ask weird questions. Don’t venture into the North, East or West of London without one of the guys.”
“Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of. Basically don’t go asking for trouble. It always ends bloody.”
“Good to know. Anyway, I’m going to get a drink. You want one?”
“No thanks, I’m good. I’m gonna go for a quick lie down. I’ll see you in a bit?”
“Yeah, sure.”
I smiled at Perrie as she left the room leaving me to gather my thoughts briefly. I took a deep breath, ran my hands over my make-up free face and attempted to wipe away all the stress and tiredness. Needless to say, it didn’t actually work. I sighed heavily as I walked back into the hallway and headed towards the stairs.
Stood in the kitchen, making myself a cup of tea I tried to strain my ears to see if I could hear anything happening in the office. Of course the office was most likely sound proof and the rooms weren’t even connected so fair to say it was more than a long shot. I stirred the milk into my tea before throwing the tea bag away and washing the spoon.
I didn’t really know what to do with myself. I didn’t want to go and sit upstairs with nothing to do, but there was hardly anything to do downstairs other than watch TV. I wasn’t a massive TV fanatic in the first place and daytime TV really wasn’t my forte. I contemplated for several minutes as I sipped on my tea in the kitchen, as to what to do. I could go for a wander but the house was mainly open plan so that would last all of five minutes. I could go swimming, but that meant getting changed and that took far too much effort than I was willing to give.
For some reason, and by some reason I mean because I’m pretty inquisitive, I found myself checking to see if anyone was around before I pressed my ear to the door of the office, which was shut firmly. I could barely hear, even with my whole head pressed against the door. The voices were muffled, I couldn’t even determine who was speaking let alone what they were discussing. I could tell it wasn’t a pleasant conversation though. The voices all seemed angry and short tempted.
I was seconds away from walking back to where I came from and putting my cup back in the kitchen, but I was two seconds too late. The door flew open with such a force I almost toppled into Harry letting out a small yelp as I tried to balance myself. He stared at me, a hardened look adorned on his face. I smiled sheepishly and help the cup out to him.
“I, um, made you tea.”
“It’s empty.”
“I got thirsty?”
“Get a good listen?” He chuckled, surprising me. I wasn’t aware we were in a humorous situation. I expected him to be full on raging at me, another reason why Harry Styles was more complicated than I first thought.
“No, what is the door made out of? Ten inch thick metal?”
“Yeah, to stop nosey little girls like you eavesdropping.”
“If you call me a little girl one more time I’ll-“
“You’ll what?”
“Use your head as a toilet brush or something.” He laughed even more at my lame comeback. I even admitted to myself it was awful and embarrassing but I wasn’t prone to violence, I can’t win an arm wrestling match against a five year old, let alone do any damage to a grown man with muscles as hard as rocks.
“She’s a keeper.” Louis joked as he brushed past us, followed by several more people. From what I could remember, they were; Niall, Zayn, Liam and a few others.
The door shut with Paul and the East sider still on the inside. Harry was still stood opposite me, watching my every move. I licked my lips slowly, eyeing him back too. We stood glaring at each other for a minute or two until I broke the silence.
“So, did you big bad boys found out what he was doing?”
“Big bad boys?” He snorted. “Don’t call us that.”
“I won’t call you that if you promise not to refer to me as little girl anymore.”
“Fine, whatever.” He shrugged half-heartedly.
“So, find anything out?”
“No,” he sighed, running his fingers through his head, looking as if he was pulling at his roots painfully.
“So holding a gun against someone’s head isn’t a very effective method?” I deemed him unimpressed at my rhetorical question as he rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. I smirked at my acquisition.
He was leant against the wall with one shoulder, staring down at me. I let the silence swallow us again, our stare down returning. Harry licked his lips, something that I find enticing and heart flutter worthy. He did it slowly and teasingly. I narrowed my eyes back at him, waiting and debating his next move.
He pushed himself off of the wall and closed the small gap between us with a short stride. He looked around the corridor before titling my head up with one of his hands; the other one wound its way around my waist. He bent his head down until his forehead pressed against mine. Replays of what happened in the club soon circled through my brain. This was neither the time nor the place for a repeat; I didn’t understand what he was doing. All I could comprehend was that my heart was beating so fast I could hear the blood rushing through my ears. I barely blinked as I awaited his further moves.
His hot breath hit my face, mainly my lips as he spoke slowly, huskily and lowly directly into my face. “And what do you suggest doing little miss Lennon?”
I took my time contemplating a reply as he arched his eyebrows at me. It was clear his actions were supposed to get me flustered, unable to think coherently, it wasn’t because he wanted to kiss me. But right then, I was in no position to want to kiss him either.
“Threatening someone isn’t always be the answer.”
“Prove it.”
Before I could stop him, he swung the office door open again revealing a very surprised Paul. Harry ignored Paul’s reaction and pushed me straight in with no chance of escaping. The stranger in the chair opposite the desk turned their head to face me, curious of the commotion. But my heart dropped into my stomach when I saw them.