A/N: I have a zero tolerance for rudeness policy. No one is forcing you to read this, it is entirely your perogative and if you're one of those people who like to comment rude/annoying things, turn back now because I will not put up with it, there is no necessity for that kind of shit in this community and I will not tolerate people commenting things to make me feel bad about something I have created. That being said, I hope you like it and thanks for reading xxx
The day I met Gemma Styles, it was 2009, I was 16 turning 17 and it was my first day at university. Her dark hair fell just below her shoulders, accentuating her pale face and a sweaty side fringe covered her deep-set eyes. She was clearly exhausted from moving her belongings into our dorm room but smiled triumphantly as she unpacked the last of her boxes, a quirky dimple indented in her cheek as she did. She was only slightly frazzled in comparison to me, she was mostly excited, a little ditzy but she had an aura of cool that made her completely and utterly terrifying.
Having exceeded all academic requirements at an age younger than my peers due to my "particularly astounding intellect for a person of my age", I had been moved up a year during high school, meaning I graduated and completed my GSCE's a year earlier than I was meant to, and am one of the youngest first year at university. Gemma was 18 turning 19, and the two year age gap made her all the more intimidating.
She gracefully set up her side of the room and her confidently indivdual style was instantly evident through the pastel blue lanterns she hung across the wall, the posters of supermodels wearing Haute Couture that she sticky taped to the brick wall that her single bed was up against. Accompanied by her Mother and Stepdad, and her little brother Harry, she moved everything in, bit by bit, as I sat quietly on my bed and watched in silence.
Before they left, she politely introduced me to her family.
"Hi, I'm Gemma. I'm your roommate. This is my Mum Anne, stepdad Robin, and my little brother Harry." She tried to dismiss them as though she didn't need them anymore, the same way any girl this age moving out of home does- with a mock confidence, trying to convince herself more than anyone else that she was old enough and independent enough to do this. My eyes had dragged across the room, taking in her extremely normal familiy, she was the spitting image of her mother, though her mother's skin was slightly tanner and her skin was slightly aged with skinspots. She was beautiful nontheless. Gem's stepdad didn't make much of an impression on me, he was busy packing up the empty boxes to take with them as he left the door, her little brother trailing behind him after giving me a small wave hello and goodbye. He was so young, so innocent in his baggy grey pants and lighter grey cardigan. Much like Gemma's aura of cool, he had this sort of welcoming aura that made me smile warmly at him as they left the room, a cheeky smile had spread across his face as he mussed the curls around his face.
It was terrifying to go from being a big fish in a little pond at Peterborough High School, to being a very little fish in a massive pond at Sheffield University. My law degree was set to take 3 years and I intended to finish top of my class, I wasn't here to make friends, I was here to study and continue on the career path I set for myself from the age of 14. But the minute Gemma's family left, she was no longer terrifyingly intimidating, she was warm, buzzing and full of conversation. We were instantly friends, her sense of humour was like no one else I'd ever met, we shared so many common interests; fashion, ambition, everything.
Six months into our friendship, Gemma invited me to go home with her over semester break to meet her family properly, she came from a small town in Cheshire, called Holmes Chapel. During high school, I would've spent any break I had reading next semester's course work, memorising, studying and preparing, but I'd already done that for next semester, so I allowed myself a short break.
Looking back now, I am adament that this was the week, this short, insignificant week in little old Holmes Chapel, is the week that brought me to where I am today, with the best friend a girl could have, regardless of how famous and constantly distracted he may be.
Harry Styles was 15, had incredible school boy looks- messy brown curls that covered a large percentage of his face, green eyes, and a dimple identical to his beautiful sister's. His looks though, at this stage, did not matter one bit. He was fifteen years old, technically two years younger than me, but he was charming, and he was hilarious. I was seventeen, and in a semi-relationship with the first boy I met at university, Jasper. So for me and Harry, only friendship would amount from the time we stayed up all night talking, while Gemma slept in the next room.
We connected, partly because we were so similar but also because we were so different. A bond was made that is still as strong as ever today.
When we met, Harry was dating a girl named Abby, and I was very casually shagging Jasper. Jasper was hot, like football jock hot, and had a very dull personality, but it was great tension release when I needed a break from studying,
Through my years at university, Harry's life changed dramatically. I was always there for him, from afar, and our friendship survived despite all the changes. I would call him to wish him luck for his performances, he would call me to wish me luck for exams. We were in very different places, the two year age gap never helped things either, but he was my best friend, and I always made time to tell him everything.
In my first year as a solicitor, 2013, I was working at a very high profile law firm in London, Smith & Stanton. Harry was at the height of his career, dating a French supermodel and living in London when he wasn't travelling the world.
Gemma and I are still friends, and catch up regularly now we both live in London, we catch up with all the girls from uni quite often.
Present- January 13, 2014.
Today, at age 21, I was made an Associate of Smith & Stanton, being the youngest female solicitor in England to accomplish something so incredible and damn it, I was exceptionally proud of myself and on cloud nine.
"Harrrry!!" I bellowed down the phone excitedly, waiting to hear the slow, deep voice of my best friend greet me. Instead, I'm greeted by a shrill, thick French accented voice.
"Sorry Lola, it is Fleur. Harry's a little busy at the moment!" She giggles. Insufferable girl.
"Well I have some really exciting news can you put him on?" My voice was less than welcoming in response to her, infact it possessed a lot of hostility.
"Okay he he he," that stupid giggle drove me insane, I sat and tapped my foot against the concrete outside the high rise headquarters of Smith & Stanton. I gazed up at the marvellous glassed building, my office is now on level 16, and has a view over looking the city. I stepped out to grab a coffee from the kiosk out the front, and decided to share the news with Haz, who I think is currently in LA.
"Hey Char, what's up?" He said, a subconscious grin spreading across my face. We hadn't spoken in over a week, and I missed my best friend tremendously. I see him less now than I did when he was at school and I was at uni.
"Hi, this is Charlotte Jones, Associate of Smith & Stanton Solicitors." I said proudly, awaiting his reaction.
"Associate?!?!?!? Holy crap Char, that's fucking brilliant!! I am so proud of you!! All those times you hung up on me because you had to go study have clearly paid off!! Well done, wow you are an actual genius! 21 and you've already done this. I am actually astounded. Wow." He gushes and my heart is overwhelmed with how grateful I am to have someone so supportive in my life. Everyone calls me Lola, but only Harry calls me Char.
"Thanks! I know, it's incredible. It's all because of that big case I just won, they said they've never seen someone with so little experience handle something as though they had the experience of a tenured law lecturer! I almost jumped out of my chair and shagged the old geezer I was so bloody excited!" I laugh and he laughs with me.
"Seriously girl, you're incredible!! I'm back in a few weeks, I'll see you then." He says and I frown, he has to go.
"Okay Haz, bye bye." I hang up. I better get back to setting up my new office and admiring the views before celebratory drinks and catch ups with the girls from uni.
As I unpacked my belongings onto my new glass desk, I admired the framed picture of Harry and I from my graduation day and thought about all the times we've rung each other with good news. Me when I found out I'd finished top of my class, with honours, and him when he'd...well everything these past few years. Our lives are so very, very different, but he's that one person that I will always need in my life. So despite never seeing him, and sometimes rarely hearing from him, I know he's there, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
...
"To Lola!" Linda called through the dark restaurant as we sit perched on stools around a round bar table. The five of us, Linda, Gab, Gemma and Olivia had met at Oh! A cocktail bar in the city, once a month since we all moved to London. Tonight's occasion, other than the usual catch up, was to toast me for my huge success at work, that I'm still struggling to accept. First Associate, next and last on my list of goals, is becoming Partner.
"Thank you, thank you!" I mocked a proper thank you speech, like Id actually won an award or something and bow in my seat, eliciting a giggle from each of the girls.
"But really guys, couldn't have done it with out you!" I was the youngest of the group, by two years, but I was loved nonetheless.
"Yeah you weren't exactly easy to live with when you were stressing over every little piece of assessment and re reading law textbooks over and over again for fun. But it's definitely been worth it! So proud of you chick." Gem clinks her glass with mine and I nod at her.
"So, Lola, now that you've been made associate is it time to have a bit of fun?" Gab winks at me, her blowing her blonde fringe out of her face. She was stunning, six feet tall and all legs.
"No, no, no. There's work to be done." I protest, but the look in her eye is mischevous and the others nod in agreement as she beckons the waiter over.
"Come on Lola, tonight please. Let it be tonight." Gem coerces while Linda orders shots. What she's refrerring to, is my 'fun' night. Every three months, I let myself get absolutely trashed and have an excessive amount of fun. Because I was constantly obsessing over work or study, I never had time to be a normal twenty something girl and go out drinking every single weekend, so I had to allow some time every now and again to let off a little steam, especially now that I didn't have a fuck buddy. The girls, thought that tonight would be that night.
"No! Being made associate, means my workload just tripled...no, quadrupled, so I have a bunch of paperwork to do tomorrow." I put my now empty drink down, that's all I should have tonight.
"Pleaseeeeee. Tomorrow is Saturday." Gab begs and they all lean forward on the table, hands in prayer position, something they used to do when they were all going to a party in Uni and I wanted to stay in and study. They know I can't say no if they do this.
"Ahhhhh fine!" I give in, covering my eyes with my arm, preparing for the pain of tomorrow after I do the five tequila shots that have been lined up in front of me.
I down all five in a row, without lemon and only licking salt a few times. It burns. So so bad. But the tingle in my body as the alcohol hits my heart makes it all worth it. I came straight from work to meet the girls, but I've untied my messy bun and let my brown hair twirl over my shoulders, touched up my eye makeup, covered my lips in a dark lipstick and let my cleavage show by undoing the top three buttons of my blue ruffled blouse.
"Okay, she's got some alcohol in her, honesty time." Linda boasts loudly, handing me a green icy cocktail with a yellow umbrella sticking out of it, I take a sip, staring at her innocently through my big brown eyes. My friends liked to take the opportunity, once I've gotten a bit tipsy, to draw out all the secrets I've been keeping over the past few sober months. Unfortunately for them, I never have any.
"Boyfriend?" Gab asks and I shake my head, letting the icy cocktail cool the insides of my throat as I bite the end of my straw.
"Any love interest at all?" Linda pushes, sweeping her long black curls over her shoulder in frustration. They are so bored of my loveless life.
"Nope." Except for a bit of harmless flirting at work, but I wasn't going to tell them that.
"So you're telling me, that in the past what four years I've known you, the only boy you've been in a 'relationship' if you could even call it that, is Jasper? And after that, you've what, gone into a nunnery?" Gem eyes me suspiciously.
"First of all, it was a relationship with Jasper." I defend my fling. I know it wasn't a serious relationship but we were exclusive...sort of.
"No it wasn't. It was casual sex. He texted you when he was bored, you texted him when you were horny. That's not a relationship."
"And what you have with Ashton is a relationship?" I have changed from defense and gone to offence. That was too far.
Gemma stares at me with anger filled eyes and forcefully puts her glass down onto the table with a scowl and crosses her arms.
"I'm sorry...I didn't mean that. But no, to answer your question, I haven't joined a nunnery. There have been one offs..on my 'fun' nights. I just don't want anything serious. You know me, career career career." I give Gem an apologetic smile.
"Yes, we know you. Which means we know its time for you to find something a bit more serious. We know you want to." Gab pokes me, she is seated to my right, wearing a killer red dress and black heels. Stupid beautiful girl.
"I guess...I don't know. I hadn't thought about it really, I mean it would be nice. I'm buying my own place soon, I would like someone to come home too...I don't know. Its just, I never feel like I have enough time to add another person into my life." I am quite content with my own company, I know who I am, I'm independent, but sometimes I do think about what it would be like to have someone to come home to. I have my parents, my friends and Harry. I don't really have time for another person.
"Maybe thats because you pay some people too much attention and they don't appreciate it..." Linda sips her cocktail loudly after she speaks, trying to disguise what she said.
"What do you mean?" I know what...or rather, who she means.
She looks at Gemma nervously, then back to me. "Well I just feel like you spend a lot of your spare time with Harry. He's your number one priority, but you're not his."
"He's my best friend." I bite back, twirling the straw in the large round glass. The cocktail bar has filled with a variety of people since we've been here, ranging from corporate types to girls who are dressed like high class call girls.
"I'm staying out of this." Gemma puts both hands up in defeat.
"What do you think Liv?" I turn to Olivia, who has been rather quiet this whole time.
"I agree with Linda, I think if you focused half the energy you waste on Harry onto finding a boyfriend, you would be a lot better off." She purses her lips and then picks her phone up again to resume texting her latest love interest.
"He's never here, so when he is, I have to see him as much as possible. Same as Gem. You understand, right?" I look to Gemma for support but she just shrugs.
"Fine. I will try and find a boyfriend! But I feel like looking for it never works...it just kind of has to happen."
"You've been saying that for four years! Fate can only works its magic if you let it, you can't just close yourself off to opportunities and tell yourself you're waiting for the right person to come along." Gab shakes her head disapprovingly.
"Okay, okay, I agreed I would try. Now can we go back to celebrating how fabulous I am at my job?" My head is too full of alocohol to defend my relationship choices any longer. As soon as I finish one icy cocktail, another purple one is placed in front of me. It's going to be a long night.
"I'm just going outside for a breather!" I lie to Gem and the girls who are basically slut-dropping on the dance floor. I am covered in a layer of sweat from shaking my arse inappropriately for the last two hours. My head is still cloudy from the litres of alcohol I've consumed.
I grab my phone out of my clutch and call Harry. I miss him, we didn't talk for long enough today.
"Hello Harry's phone." Fleur's annoying shrill french voice answers and I sigh before hanging up straight away. I hope she didn't hear me sigh. CRAP. OH well. I'm not a fan. I don't like that she answers his phone. He needs a seperate phone for just me to call.
My phone is vibrating in my hand but I'm so spacey I hadn't even noticed. My finger is wet, by god knows what alcoholic substance, and my finger is slippery as it slides across the screen to answer the incoming call.
"Helllo...?"
"Did you just call me?" Harry is out of breath and slightly irritated.
"Yeeeeeeeeees." I giggle. Too many. Too many drinks.
"Is it that time again? When you get drunk and fuck some random?"
"Correction. Fuck some HOT random. And I don't do that EVERY time. Just occasionally. Why....do you disapprove?" He's a bloody hypocrite if he disapproves. Before Fleur, he shagged around heaps.
"Sure." He's being very short.
"I'm sorry, are you busy? Do you not have time for little old me?" I joke, but I'm not actually joking. In my drunken state, I'm annoyed and I don't know why.
"Yes. I always have time for you though." He laughs and I smile.
"Do you? Because apparently I dedicate too much of my time to you, and you don't do the same to me. And it never bothered me until someone pointed it out." The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them and I sigh, so tired of myself and this phone call.
"What? Who said that?" He's confused. He's always confused.
"My friends. It doesn't matter." I try to laugh it off.
"If it has upset you, it definitely matters. You are definitely a priority to me." He whispers the last part...who didn't he want to hear that?
"Good. You're a priority for me too. Bye Harry. I'm going to go drink until one of these suits looks attractive enough to take home." I grin to myself, my eyes dragging around the room, drinking in the men on offer.
Eeenie. Meeenie. Miineee. Moooh. You'll do fine. I approach a young man wearing a navy suit with a purple bow tie. Very cute. His cheek bones are prominent, he is clean shaven, and his black hair is swept off his face. He is very very hot. He has nailed the typical smoulder and gives me a look up and down as I sit down beside his stool, locking my feet around his.
"Hi." I grin, looking up at him through my long eyelashes.
"Hi." He grins back, his eyes diverting briefly to my cleavage and then back to my eye line. His eyes are absolutely gorgeous. "Spencer." He holds his hand out to greet me and I take it firmly.
"Charlotte. You can call me Lola."
"Nice firm handshake." He compliments, leaning in to whisper into my ear. "I like that." He says, closely to my ear before kissing my neck. In the middle of the bar. Fuck he's hot. His hand rests in the small of my back as his lips taunt the skin along my jawline. I arch my back, welcoming his touch with a pleasured grin. "Fuck Lola, you can call me anything you like." I groan. His touch is electric, sending shockwaves through my skin down to my lower regions. I smack my legs together, surpressing the urge to let him take me right here on the bar.
"Your place or mine?" I ask.
"Yours. My wifes at home." He says, cautiously.
"Mine it is." I bite his lip tentatively. Fuck his wife. This is my 'fun' night, I am drunk, I am so horny and so attracted to him.
I wave to my friends casually as he takes my hand and leads me out into the street, hailing a cab for us to go back to my house.
A/N: Lola is played by Leighton Meester, Gab is Amanda Seyfriend and LInda is Blake Lively.