“Alright you two, family meeting.” Claire announces as she walks into our living room and plops herself down on the couch opposite Harry and I. We were cuddled together in a mess of blankets and it had been days since either one of us moved.
“You two are adorable, and I know you’re currently on break and about to go back on tour,” She motions to Harry and I hang my head a little. We hadn’t really discussed what we were going to do while he was away and I was starting to worry about it. “And that you can do a lot of your work at home and away from the office, and I truly love seeing you two kissing all the time. It’s great you two are so in love. But I can’t be in this situation anymore, it is so bloody depressing watching you two being all coupley and having the constant reminder that I’m so very alone.”
“Do you want me to set you up with one of the lads or something?” Harry asks confused.
I pipe in to add to the conversation. “Oh my god her and Liam would be too adorable.”
“Liam’s got a girlfriend now, what about one of the 5SOS boys?” He explains.
I shake my head. “No they’re too young for her.”
“They aren’t that young!”
“Luke’s still 17!”
“Yeah but Mikey and Ashton are older?”
“Ashton’s dating your sister.”
“True, what about Niall?”
Claire interrupts our bickering, “I don’t want a boyfrie- wait, Niall?” A smile spreads across her face at the thought of Niall and her together.
“Wouldn’t they be adorable?” I say and she blushes.
She shakes her head at us trying to get back to her point. “Can both of you two just shut it, for like two seconds and then you can set me up with Niall?”
We stay quiet waiting for her to finish what she had started. We both desperately try to suppress our laughter as she gets more serious.
“As I was saying, I can’t be around you two lovebirds all the time. So I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to move out.”
“Noooo, you can’t move out we’re a family!” I yell.
“I’m going to try and get one like across the hall or something, we can still have family meals together.” She tries to exclaim to me.
“We should just get a bigger apartment for all of us!” Harry insists.
“I don’t want you to move out, Claire.” I whine.
“You guys need space though, I don’t want to hear you guys having sex while I’m in the next room!”
“Come on, you like it a little bit.” Even though I’m blushing an insane amount, I can’t help but laugh at the whole situation, and Harry’s comment just adds to the fire.
“You are sick, Styles. I’m going to move out, not tomorrow or anything but I’ll talk to the landlord soon. You’re still stuck with me for a little bit.”
“Good. And since I know you’re both free tonight, you two are coming to a concert.” Harry says.
“Who’s playing?” I ask.
“Me, dipshit.”
-
We arrived at the venue a few hours later. Claire dressed up in an attempt to impressed Niall, who she was meeting for the first time that night. I wore an oversized white to blue tie dye shirt with black leggings and combat boots. A black beanie to try and conceal myself from fans was on my head, the rest of my ombre wavy hair cascading down my back. We didn’t want to pull too much attention to ourselves as we walked into the building, Harry’s hand placed firmly in mine as fans screamed hateful profanities at me.
“Why are you laughing?” Harry asks me when we get inside.
“Your fans are hilarious, seriously, they’re hating on me because you’re with someone you love? Makes a lot of sense.”
“Don’t let it get to you, please.”
“It’s not getting to me, I feel bad for you.” He stares at me for a minute, and gives me a sad smile.
“Come on, let’s find the lads.”
I follow him down the hallway, and notice that Claire must’ve disappeared ahead of us, probably to find Niall: her new love. I Iet out a soft laugh, Niall had no idea what was coming.
We enter the room where all the boys are running around. Once Louis sees me he runs over to me, lifting me up and spinning me around in a circle. I unfortunately let go of Harry’s hand as he walks away to go find Lou so that she can try and tame his curls. Claire has already found Niall and her flirting is in full swing as she tries to draw him in. She was inexplicably beautiful and Niall was already so engulfed in her that I knew that they would end up being more than friends. The 5SOS boys all sit around on their phones, giving me a quick wave and focusing their attention back on their screens. Zayn is no where to be seen, and Liam walks back into the room giving me a quick “Hey” and passing by. I notice someone new sitting beside Ashton, incredibly close to him. Her lilac hair looked familiar as I try to place her face. I swear I’ve seen her before.
“Who’s beside Ashton?” I whisper quietly in Louis’ ear, who is still hugging me for some reason.
He moves to get a better view, “Harry’s sister, Gemma.”
“I knew it, thought she looked familiar.”
“Have you ever met her?” He asks.
“No, do you think she knows who I am?” I ask quietly as I make eye contact with her. I smile quickly trying to mask my fear, and she returns a smile of the same sorts.
“Emma! It’s so nice to finally meet you!” She says, getting up and tearing me from Louis’ arms and into a hug of her own.
“Gemma! Good to meet you too.” Don’t need to work about awkward firsts.
“Harry literally talks about you non-stop, I kept pestering him to let me meet you but he always insisted you were busy.” She insists.
“Well, I’m here now!”
“This your first show?”
“Yeah it is. Didn’t even know these boys were a band when I first met them.” I admit.
“It’s amazing, you’ll love it. We can watch together!”
“Sound great, Claire’s coming with us though.”
“Who?”
I go to point at my best friend who was sitting with Niall moments ago, but it seems she’s disappeared with him.
“She’s around here somewhere…”
“I’m sure we will find her later!”
“Gem, we gotta go get ready now, see you after at that bar?” Ashton asks.
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
The boys all left the room, leaving Gemma and I in an awkward silence for awhile. I thought it was going to be weird between us, but we kicked things right off and got to know each other really well. It was strange that we hadn’t met before this, but she admits that she has been travelling a lot and didn’t have time to come see Harry. Whenever Harry was on the phone it was probably for Gemma. I envied their brother-sister relationship.
“So you like him a lot then, yeah?” She asks.
I smile to myself. “I love him, a lot.” I never got used to saying those words.
“That’s so cute, to be honest you’re the first girl that I actually approve of him dating. All the rest were bubblehead ditz that just wanted him because he was Harry Styles, you don’t seem like you’re like that.” She says, clearly impressed with me.
“Has he ever told you of the first time we met?”
“Don’t think so, go on.”
“He literally ran into me on my first day here, and I was having an awful day to begin with. And I didn’t have a damn clue who he was, he looked so confused when I didn’t start screaming his name. Which is funny because long afterwords he said he was actually running from the paps and fans when he hit me. I just started yelling at him for hitting me over and he looked so happy when I didn’t know who he was. I was so confused when he was just starring at me with this stupid grin on his face. I think he thought it was refreshing to know that not everyone knows who he is.” I start thinking back on all the times that we’ve shared together and how much of a “hard to get” act I put up to him without even knowing it. I can’t believe how hard he fought for me, even when I didn’t know that I needed him.
“Well you’re certainly my favourite girl friend of his. He dated Taylor Swift for awhile… jeez that girl was bat shit crazy man. And then Kendall just drove me insane. He kept insisting that he loved her and then one day ‘poof’ he just changed his perspective I guess.”
“It’s kind of intimidating, knowing that those girls have been with Harry though… I really don’t compare.” I say shyly, that was probably my biggest fear, that he would get bored with me and move on.
“Harry’s my little brother and I know him better than anyone, he doesn’t want someone like Kendall who is all looks. He wants the whole package, and you give him that. I’ve never seen him more happy and it looks like he’s still grounded so that’s a plus. You’re really good for him, and I hope one day we will even be sisters.” She adds on, sending me a wink.
We hear a big clank come from behind us, and whirl around to see where it came from. There stands Harry, a head band now in his hair to hold it away from his face, and his cheeks completely red with blush once he recovered from his fall over some chairs.
“Were you standing there the whole time?” I ask, still laughing at his fall.
“Maybe.”
“Come here, you idiot.”
“I’m just going to go to the loo,” Gemma says quickly, “Good luck little bro, don’t mess up!” She adds before exiting the room leaving us alone.
“So…” I say.
“So…” He responds, dragging the ‘o’ out longer. “You’re intimidated by my past exes?” He says bluntly.
“Well when they are models, and singers, and just plain perfect… it’s kind of hard not to be.”
“Emma, I only want to be with you. I can’t imagine being with anyone else since I met you. Hell, I don’t want to be with anyone else.” He says, placing his hands on my cheeks forcing me to look up at him. “You mean too much to me, I can’t let this go.”
“Okay.”
“We alright then?”
“One more thing… did you love Kendall?” I ask, holding my breathe for an answer.
He takes a long pause before exhaling deeply, “No. I was just in love with the thought of her. I thought she was what I wanted but she wasn’t what I needed.”
“What changed your mind?”
“You.”
“What do you mean… were you still with her when we met?” I ask, completely hurt.
“No, we weren’t together. We were apart for a long time, and I kept trying to get her back. But then I met you, and realized how much more you were. You are smart, and kind, and you keep me in my place. You are the most beautiful women I have ever seen, and you are pretty kinky in bed so that helps too.” He says, causing me to crack a smile.
“I love you, Harry.”
“I love you, Emma.”
“Go rock out onstage now, I’ll see you after the show?” I ask.
“Everyone’s going out, do you want to go? I’m perfectly good with just getting take away and going home, I’d probably prefer that.”
“We can decide after, I’ll be here okay?”
“Okay.” He responds, kissing me softly on the lips before he goes to sing to the world. I was so damn lucky to have such a thoughtful guy in my life.
A huge smile is displayed freely on my face, and I’m so lost in thought I almost miss the incoming call I’m getting on my phone. It says ‘unknown number’ but I answer it anyways.
“Hello?”
“Hi! Is this Emma?”
“The one and only.”
“Awesome, well I got your phone number from the shop, um, it’s Ava, I’m the girl who tattooed you.”
“Oh right, I remember you! Thanks for the awesome tattoos by the way, I love them.”
“Did your boyfriend like his?”
“Yeah he loved it.”
“Does he know about your secret one?”
“Aha, I’m pretty sure he knew the second he walked into the shop, he’s super observant around me.”
“Sounds like a keeper. I was wondering if you wanted to like grab lunch or something sometime this week? Your accent made you sound like you were new in town, so I figured another friend wouldn’t hurt.”
“Yeah that sounds great, want to go like Thursday or something? Round noon?”
“Sounds awesome! I’ll text you the address to this awesome restaurant.”
“Cool, see you then.”
I hang up the phone. Things were really looking up for me. Two new friends made in one day? That seemed like more than I have made since I got here. I walked out to the side of the stage to watch the boys perform. They looked like they were entering the second or third song, and Harry instantly noticed me standing behind the curtains. He flashed his legendary smile and a quirky wave and I replied the same. It was mesmerizing watching him sing, he looked so ecstatic, like he was on top of the world and nothing could bring him down. It seemed like the feeling I got when I was with him, and it was a feeling I could never get enough of.
a/n
amen for gemma actual loml