I try to stay quiet, thinking for a moment.
"I — I--"
This is the only time in the world when they'd ask something and I have no idea what to answer. I know the safe answer and I know the wrong answer, it's just a simple yes or no but there's something in me that's still debating which word.
"Taylor, do you?" Madz asks, staring down at me with barely a hint of hate. It's more of concern if ever I answered the wrong one.
Why is it so hard to answer that?
I can't even look them in the eye.
"N-No, I don't."
The safe answer.
"Alright, we've got to get inside. No one talk about this, and yes, we're just going to have to forget whatever it is. Is Harry's house already near?"
"Couple blocks, yeah," I answer faintly.
"Good, get inside."
We all get back inside the car, me on the shotgun seat while Isabelli is at the back. Harry is already asleep on the floor.
The silence is killing me, Madz doesn't even bother turning the radio on. It's allowing me to hear my unsettled heartbeat.
"We're not judging you, Tay," Madz says after a few moments of silence. When I look over to her, she continues, "I don't know why you did it or why you let it happen but. . . once, we're going to keep it between us. I hope you don't make the same mistake twice."
"That's what's wrong with me right now," I reply in a very quiet voice. "I know it's wrong, I know I shouldn't have done that but I don't see it as a mistake. I just —"
It's so wrong.
"Doesn't change my mind," she says. "We all have that point in life, and I get it, alright? We're not going to stop you, do whatever you want but please, watch out. Be careful, Tay, you're not the only one who is going to be affected."
"I know."
"Besides Tay, it's once," Isabelli speaks up. "Do it twice, then that's too far."
"Okay," I reply. "But for the love of God, please don't tell Micha."
"Bloody hell not!" Madz almost yells. "She won't ever know this, ever!"
"Don't worry, we're liars too, so. . ." Isabelli smiles. "Micha is not going to know."
"And Runner?" In my mind it says, you really should have thought of that before you kissed back.
"He can't know," Madz says. "Unless you want to tell him and when you do, we'll be there alongside the consequences."
"Thank you."
Then Isabelli slightly stands up, leaning over to the front seats, smiling, easily lightening up my mood. "But now I get why Micha likes this kind of stuff."
Madz cocks an eyebrow, "Why?"
"It's exciting," Isabelli continues. "You know, it's like a movie thingy." Then she looks at me, "Don't focus on it, Tay. That's not the rest of your life. Smile."
"As much as I don't want to agree, being the bitter one, I agree with Belli. Smile."
"Come on, you're gonna smile." Isabelli smiles and it's a little too infectious that I don't have to fake a smile.
One thing I'm sure, I do not regret my time with them.
Isabelli is quietly observing Harry, as what I see from the rearview mirror. "Louis was right," She says.
"Hmm?"
"Louis said earlier that he must've kissed someone, because of how red his lips are but I didn't think he was actually right," she continues.
I groan, I almost forgot about Louis. He's good at this kind of thing!
"God! Seriously? Out of all the people!"
"Technically, it's your fault, you didn't resist," Madz mutters in a lighthearted way. "Although I get you, I mean, Harry really is attractive."
"Thank you, Madelaine," Harry slurs, sitting up and smiling.
"Don't worry, if I know how many drinks he's had, in which case, I do, he's not going to remember anything tomorrow." She smiles confidently.
Still. . . he was sober during the kiss. He'll remember it.
"Word of advice, Swift," Isabelli says. "Try to forget about it. Don't stay away from Harry because if you do, it'll be obvious. You know Louis, that guy's mind can be two steps ahead if he wants to be."
"I agree," Madz adds. "You have to maintain a normal friendship line with him. But if, in fact, you can't stay friends, you have to make it clear for us. Yeah?"
I nod, "What if I do it again?" I ask.
"Are you planning to?"
"No. But what if that instance comes and —"
"Then break up with Runner, that's it, Tay," Madz answers straightforwardly, my jaw dropped. "Once, we can let pass, twice, not anymore. Taylor, if you do it twice, I'll even get Runner to break up with you if he doesn't. I know he trusts you and you two are almost perfect because he's nice but that's a choice. You can't let Harry walking through your walls if you still have Runner."
Break up with Runner?! No, I can't do that! I won't do it. I shouldn't.
I swallow hard, "God, I'm such an idiot!"
"Agree," Isabelli says. "But you know, just remember Runner's our friend too. If you want to keep going without casualties, you're going to have to draw lines between you and Harry and then make sure, you do not cross them."
"Agreed," I reply calmly.
"Hey cats," Harry calls, and I almost jump from my seat. He's really going to give me a heart attack. "What's the difference between a dirty bus stop and a lobster with breast implants?"
Madz groans, "Okay, what?"
"One's a crusty bus station and one's a busty crustacean!" He almost screams and laughs out loud.
"I almost did not get that," Isabelli mumbles.
"What happens when you put nutella on salmon?" He asks. "You get salmonella!"
"I want him to shut up," I mutter, rolling my eyes.
"If you — If you step on a person's foot, they open their mouths. . . like trashcans."
Madz snickers a little, "This lad is getting cornier by the second."
"Isabelli!"
"What?!" Isabelli almost whines.
"What do you call a hooker that you pay with pasta?" He asks, giggling a little and grinning very widely. "A pastatute!" Then he keeps laughing.
I shift on my seat uncomfortably and close my eyes. I'm getting a head ache again, and I'll probably die in annoyance.
"I can't believe I kissed the guy earlier," I grumbled.
"Wait, who did — you kiss?" Harry asks, facing me and his face is too close. He still has his drunken stare and smiles too charmingly. Again.
You.
I roll my eyes. "Take a seat, Harold."
"Come si desidera, sweetheart." He smiles and sits back.
"What did he say?" Madz asks, raising an eyebrow.
"As you wish," I mumble.
I was thankful for the moment of silence. Every time Harry speaks, my mind comes back in spades. My head keeps throbbing and I can barely keep it together as I'm already tired and drowsy. I just want to go through tonight and I'll worry about tomorrow later.
"Do you ever watch a movie?" Harry slurs after a moment. "Wherein you just want to yell at the characters?"
All the damn time because of their stupidity.
"And fucking tell them to kiss each other because it's fucking obvious that they have fucking feelings for each other!" Harry yells and I honestly want to cover my ears because it's too loud.
"Yeah, I know right?!" Isabelli groans. She's actually agreeing with him?!
"They just have to fucking think of the consequences, they love each other! Just fucking kiss!"
"God, Harry, shut up!" I groan. Seriously?! He's screaming about that right now?! He's actually yelling about characters kissing each other with profanities in each statement?! Needless to say, he's making my head ache much, much worse. He doesn't need to remind me, he doesn't need to yell those things.
We. . . kissed! Does he really need to remind me?!
Madz smiles as she looks over to me, "This is actually quite entertaining."
"Do you ever want to do that?" Harry asks Isabelli calmly.
"Yeah, I so get you," Isabelli answers and giggles.
I look outside the window, relieved that I'm already seeing Harry's house. "Pull up here, I'm just going to give a fair introduction."
"Fair enough."
Madz pulls up and I get out of the car the moment she turns the engine off. I walk towards the door. I knock casually and wait for someone to get it.
It takes a while so I press the doorbell instead. I almost get very impatient until I realized it's already quarter to two.
The windows show the turning on of lights from the first floor to the second. Yep, I've woken the Styles, lovely day! The door gets opened by one of the maids.
"Good evening, ma'am. May I ask what brings you here at this hour?" The plump, little maid asks me.
"Uh, I uh, Harry is my friend and —"
"Who is it Jane?" I know whose voice it comes from as someone is walking down the stairs. It's Richard's wife named Cassie.
I lick my lips, preparing myself for what I have to once she comes around. She smiles once she sees me, "I'll handle this, you go ahead and make us a cup of coffee. Thanks, Jane."
The maid walks away and Cassie looks at me, she's obviously woken up from her sleep as she is wearing her nightgown but damn, she's beautiful as hell.
"What brings you here, darling?" She asks.
"H-Harry he —"
Her eyebrows furrow, "What happened to Harry?"
I might have used an incorrect tone. "He's fine and he's in my friend's car right now, I just thought I wouldn't want to wake up the residence and allow him to greet you in his state."
Cassie heaves a sigh of relief and then later asks, "Is he drunk?"
"Way beyond comprehension, I'm afraid," I reply.
"That doesn't happen that much. I'll call someone to help you, come in for a moment," she invites.
"I'd rather not," I reply. "Um, my friends are in the car as well and we're all sort of in a hurry, curfew." Lie. I just don't want to get in there.
"Okay, but you'll help me take him in, right, darling?"
I nod.
"Someone call Rich for me for the moment," she orders in a confidently raised voice as though she is a hundred percent sure that someone will do it.
A bit impatient, we both walk towards the car wherein Harry is sleeping. Both Maddie and Isabelli at already out of the car, leaning against it, obviously already sleepy.
"Cassie, this is um, Isabelli and Madelaine, they're Harry's friends as well," I say once we approach them. "Cats this um, Cassie, Harry's sister-in-law."
"Hello."
"Hey," Isabelli says with a smile.
"Good evening," Madz replies and takes a deep breath. "Harry's inside, making a fair hand of awful jokes and oddly profaned statements."
"We'll just wait for my husband. Would you three like to come inside for coffee or tea?"
I stand behind Cassie so I take my chance to make those hand gestures as I mouth the words, "No, say no!"
Madz opens her mouth to say something but upon seeing me, she replies, "Um, no, we'd rather not."
"Yeah, we're fine," Isabelli says and smiles.
"Are you sure?"
Isabelli looks at me first and then says, "Yep, we're sure." And Madz nods along innocently.
As soon as Richard, Harry's brother approaches us, he asks us for slight help in keeping him conversed and I have no idea why.
His brother put Harry's arm over his neck and practically assisted him. . . while he makes those random remarks.
"Hello to my beautiful sister-in-law."
Cassie laughs a bit, "Hello, Harry. Have you had a nice night?"
"Night? Si."
"Good God, Harold. Why are you wet? Put your jacket on!" Richard orders and Harry just smiles at him.
"Jack — Jacket — for the rose." Harry smiles.
One moment, he looks at me and smiles again. "Aspetta." He says probably making himself heavier because then, his brother has trouble dragging him.
"What the bloody hell do you mean, wait? You've caused enough inconvenience for your friends."
"It wasn't much of a convenience, it's alright," Madz says with a smile as Isabelli and Cassie chats around.
I stumble back once I felt something hit me harshly but I got my balance as I realize what it was. . . who it was.
Harry's arms are around me with his chin buried on my shoulder, leaving the rest of the people around in surprise. . . well, I was the most surprised.
Again, I can hear my heart beating too wildly and I can't tell whether his was doing it too.
Speechless again, I look around the people with the startled faces until Harry's face blocks them all. He smiles and wraps his jacket around me. "E' freddo stasera. Keep that on, amore."
"Uh —"
He says some things else that is probably French and Spanish again because I see Isabelli and Madz smiling at me.
Harry quietly walks inside, stumbling but managing as his brother helps him.
"He said it's cold tonight," Richard says before walking back inside. "Thank you, ladies. Taylor keep that for the moment."
The jacket?
"It isn't a problem," Madz says with a smile.
"Come around sometime," Cassie says and walks inside, closing the door.
I sigh, finally, this thing is over.
We all get back inside the car and the smug smiles on their faces. I get confused for the moment but then I remember, Harry said something French and something Spanish earlier.
"Why? What did he say?" I ask, I know it's about what Harry said.
Madz turns her attention back on the road, "Not that I'm supporting the whole thing, but it's actually sweet."
"The Spanish," Isabelli trails as she leans over to the seats. "He said he doesn't want boys looking at you so don't take it off."
I bite my lip, trying to suppress a smile because, well, they have a point, it was sweet.
"And the French, he says you're free to wear those kinds of clothes only if he can murder anyone on sight. So sweet."
"That's what he said in French?!" I ask because as I recall it was long, but it sounds a little too romantic to be translated like that. Then again, anything said in French sounds romantic.
Madz nods, "I'm not messing with you, that's what he said."
"Where'd you learn French anyways?" Isabelli asks.
"Louis and I take lessons, don't you know?" She replies. "Where did you learn Spanish?"
"Harry teaches me, remember?"
They drop me home and I feel more than relieved when I get back to my bed. I am tired, way too tired to think of the things that happened because that has to settle for tomorrow. Whatever goes.
Even sleep these days is killing me. I keep remembering it. I keep remembering the kiss. I feel guilty even by licking my lips even though it's already my mannerism. . . or it's my secondhand mannerism because Harry does it a lot as well.
The next day, I find myself drinking lots and lots of milk, I have one glass almost every two hours. I don't think my headache is caused by the amount of drinks I've had, it's probably because of the fact that I keep dreaming about it. Is that even normal?
Mom tries to talk to me about it several times but I've had enough of explaining to do. I'm not going to continue with this.
Monday comes around and I still don't believe Saturday ever happened. I don't want to believe it, but my feeling of discomfort and guilt doesn't leave me. Madz and Isabelli forgave me for it but will Runner? Will he stand up with that kind of disloyalty?
The wrong thing is, he trusts me. He fully trusts me on things like that and I broke it.
Still, I try to do things normally and thank God, Micha doesn't sense a thing.
Both in recess and in lunch, I have milk boxes with me because I still have my headache.
"Gee, Swift, what's going on with you? Still hungover?" Micha asks, partly laughing.
"No, I just couldn't sleep," I reply, putting down the tray of food on our table. I start eating as soon as I'm seated.
Madz and Isabelli both have looks on their faces that say they understand why but they don't make it obvious.
The boys comes around.
"Micha, I am never going in any of your parties again," Runner says as he takes a seat next to me. "Literally threw up on my mom's couch, grounded."
"Yeah, Runner, it's nice to hear about that. I'm eating here," she replies to him.
"By the way, how did I get home?" Harry asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Madz drove you there," Micha says. "I think I remember Isabelli and Taylor coming with you."
Harry's eyebrow meet and late on his eyes fall wide with horror. "Please tell me I did not flirt with anyone."
The table looks mostly to Isabelli and Maddie because they're the ones who are seated together while I quietly eat, trying not to grab the attention to me as the two are right in front of me.
"No, you didn't," Madz answers with a smile. "No flirting involved, nothing."
"No, nothing even remotely close to that," Isabelli adds.
All three of us know it's a lie and I'm just relieved they're covering up for me.
Harry looks confused for a moment, blinking a few times as though he is trying to remember something but really, I am wishing against it. I hope he doesn't remember a thing.
He glances at me with a perplexed face, and he licks his lips.
I try not to look too much, especially at his lips because the memory just blocks my mind.
"Oh, good," Harry says with a sigh, looking away. "I thought I did. Th-That's good."
"You did throw out awful jokes, though," Madz says. "Gives me a bloody headache every time I think about it."
"I did not throw up in your car?" He asks.
"No, you didn't. You were actually — bubbly," she replies. "In fact, you keep muttering things in different tongues. For the moment, we thought you were being possessed."
I manage to laugh at that alongside with them.
"You two think you had a good night, I woke up with no memory," Louis mutters. "What the bloody hell happened?"
"I can assure you nothing else wild happened, disappointingly," Micha grumbles.
"It's actually relieving," Runner says.
"You were weak though," she replies to him.
"I don't drink. Being raised by a strict family, you've no idea," he says.
"Well at least you got to live your life, thanks to me." Micha smiles sweetly.
Normal schedules as followed, I don't avoid Harry at the same time I don't come talking to him about what happened. Thankfully, he doesn't bother me with it. In fact, he doesn't seem like he has recollection with the whole night, or he just doesn't like talking about it like I do.
Either way, I think I'd rather not talk to him about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's ♪:
Mehehehehehe this is my favorite part of the story. . . so I'm gonna have fun and I hope you cats will do too.
Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran, if you haven't heard that. . . you've got to listen to it! You cats will need it. It's sort of the same with Dive, also Ed Sheeran.
I can't have a Harry's POV so the songs are the closest things.
I just kind of listen to Dive when I reread the chaps. . . especially 28 but if I'm right, Tenerife Sea will be important for 38, (unsure of the chap number because I haven't written that yet but it'll be out on the next update, for sure)
With Haylor. . .
Yep, I know, I'm getting impatient with them too.
I'm not even sure if we're halfway of the story already. . . mehhh.
Anyways, stay awesome!!!! 😍😘😊😄
Love you cats for keeping up until now.
~DP22