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"You're early for once," I say as I kiss Scarlett on the cheek hello.
She gives me a warning glare as she reverses from my driveway.
"Remember who's driving, you little B," she says threateningly, and I hold up my hands in mock surrender as we laugh.
Scarlett's auntie is the owner of the clothing boutique we work at, and probably the only employer in the universe who would agree to let Scarlett and I work the same hours. We get the job done, however we're known to muck around in the process, and also tend to distract one another.
The drive to work is mostly wracking my brain on where to take Harry for our... meet up? I don't exactly know what to refer to it as, but it's actually doing my head in. Where can you even take one of the most recognisable faces in pop culture? The beach? I don't think so. For some ice cream? No chance. He's really making this quite difficult for me.
We get to the store, Hers, with 15 minutes to spare, and I do a quick spot clean of the store to get everything ready, whilst Scarlett visits the café next door to get our Sunday morning ritual -Vietnamese iced coffees. We've both worked here since our final year of High School, and this little ritual has been a tradition since we first started. It's nice to hang on to those kind of things. Hers is aimed predominantly for girls our own age, so with a 40% store discount, you can pretty much guess my bank balance just by looking at my wardrobe. Not great.
I quickly run my fingers over each individual hanger on the racks to ensure they're faced in the right direction when Scarlett enters the store bearing our beverages. She plops them on the counter, and changes the 'closed' sign to 'open,' and takes her position by the register.
I hum contentedly to myself as I change one of the mannequins into some new stock that we've received. In my head however, I'm going through the potential ways my day could turn out today. I'd love to be able to guess, but I have a feeling that anything goes with Harry. I kind of like that. Initially I was skeptical about why he was being so nice to me, and that it was probably out of politeness, but I don't really know anymore. It doesn't seem to add up that he would continue to message me when he didn't have to. Maybe this could be something more? Woah, don't get too ahead of yourself I have to remind myself.
"You're in your own little world today aren't you Ave?" Scarlett pipes up as she puts down the gossip magazine she was flicking through. "Is it a boy?"
Shit. I really need to stop being so bloody obvious. Everyone seems to be picking up on my change in attitude today.
"No, there's no boy." I guess I'm technically telling the truth. I keep eerily quiet for a moment before I curiously speak up again. "Why do you ask?"
"I don't know. You seemed to not be paying much attention in the car earlier when I was talking about Jackson. Oh, and you kept smiling down at your phone like a massive goof."
I was?
"Oh - that moment," I lie. "Just my dad. He's back from Sydney today and he sent a message because he left before I got a chance to see him this morning." This lying thing is becoming almost second nature ever since yesterday, and I'm slightly surprised when Scarlett accepts this as the truth. "But where were you last night when I tried to call though?"
The question, thankfully was interrupted by a new customer, and I scurried over to see if she needed any assistance.
Customers filter in and out of the store and we manage to sell completely out of the new dress that I had placed on the mannequin this morning. I change it once more into something else when I hear a scream from Scarlett causing me to drop the display.
"Scar? Everything okay in there?" I ask as she holds her phone in complete shock. She puts up her hand to stop me from talking. "Just wait a second. I really need to let this sink in before I say it aloud."
She dramatically lets about a minute go by without saying anything. Just say it already!
"Okay," she finally exhales, "Well. I was reading 'Celeb Newz Update' and one of their informants say that Niall Horan is boarding a flight to Melbourne within hours! Niall Horan. Here. Melbourne."
I think back to last night when Harry picked up the call and he mentioned Niall and someone else would be coming to stay for a little while. How do people get this information so quickly?
"He'd be visiting some family and friends here. He loves Melbourne. He openly says it's his favourite place - besides Ireland of course," she scoffs at the last part, as though this is general knowledge.
I roll my eyes. "I hear celebrities saying that all the time. Like saying, 'You're the best crowd,' and then saying it the next night to a different city."
"No, but you just don't get it. The Twitter-sphere almost went into melt down when he jokingly tweeted he wanted to move here because of his love for Melbourne. He just loves it here... maybe not so much the fans though..."
"What do you mean you're not sure how he feels about the fans?" I ask out of curiosity. I feel so out of the loop when it comes to these kind of things.
"Well it's kind of open knowledge that he doesn't really like taking photos with fans in Australia. He either won't do it at all, or look miserable in them. Then he gets back to England and is all smiles for girls who've been waiting at the airport for him. It's kind of a running joke within the fandom."
That's kind of brutal if there's truth behind that, but I can't imagine I'd want to take photos with fans who have probably been tweeting nasty things about me.
"Ava - Focus!" She demands as she throws a piece of scrunched up paper aimed at my head to grab my attention. She continues on blabbering about how we need to look our best at all times, when it hits me that I need to tell Scarlett about Harry, and I need to tell her now. If there's ever a time to tell her, this is it. Harry never mentioned anything about keeping his presence a secret or anything, but I kind of got the vibe. Scarlett is my best friend that I trust, and I never realised how into One Direction she actually is.
"Scarlett?" I find myself saying before I can stop myself. She looks over at me expectantly, waiting for me to go on. "Harry Styles is in Melbourne too." I blurt out.
"What? How do you know this?" She asks, her eyes wide with anticipation.
"I know this because I met him yesterday," I gulp. "And he made me an omelette for dinner."
Silence.
Should I maybe have left out the part about the omelette? Her look goes from complete and utter surprise, to a suspicious smirk.
"You almost had me there Ava," she says pointedly as she begins to walk into the storeroom. "Made you an omelette!" She cackles, and I realise how ridiculous it sounds, but how else can I convince her?
"No... Really!" I add on, and hear her laugh in response at my attempt to make her believe me. Well. That went well. At least I tried. Kind of. I might keep this to myself - just a little while longer. I'll wait and see how things pan out before I admit to anything that might not be anything at all.
I check the time for at least the fortieth time in the past hour, and finally my shift is over. Scarlett has a double shift today so I can thankfully avoid any awkward questions of why I don't need a lift home anymore. I text Harry the address and let him know I'm pretty much finished for the day.
Ten minutes go by with no response and worry starts to set in. I knew this was too good to be true. Another five go by and I am put out of my misery when my phone buzzes:
On my way
Relief washes over me that this is still going ahead and I scroll through his prior two text messages that both contained an 'x' and can't help but notice that this message so obviously doesn't contain one. I shake off any negative thoughts because it's going to drive me insane, and he obviously didn't mean anything more by his first messages. What is this boy doing to my once normal brain? I never used to worry about such trivial things.
"Still here? You sure you don't want me to quickly drop you off home?" Scarlett offers, interrupting my crazy thought process. "I can close up for ten if you want?"
"No, it's fine thanks. Brooklyn's coming by now. You know him... always late," I quickly add, biting my lip. Another lie to add to the growing list, though yes, my brother is consistently late.
"Give your brother a big kiss from me then!" She says, and I scowl at her as I grab my bag. I hold out my cheek for her to kiss in which she grabs my face and plants a sloppy wet kiss on the side of my face.
"You animal," I laugh, wiping the wetness off my face and head out the door to wait for Harry.
Question of the chapter: What do you think Scarlett's reaction will be when she finds out that Ava really did meet Harry? Should Ava have tried harder to tell her, or did she do the right thing in not pressing any further?
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