Siren

Chapter Six

I WAKE UP THE NEXT MORNING IN A DAZE. I'm afraid to fact check my night. It feels too much like a dream to be my new reality. My mother listens as I relive my night over brunch. She laughs with my and shakes her head at the stories. Her mouth drops at times and she swears she new about this scandal or that. However, she's most interested in Harry. She wants to know everything, down to the smallest detail like the placement of his dimples.

I don't really believe everything I am saying...until I get a text message.

*noah! Thanks for last night, let's grab lunch soon? -Nadine*

I read the message twice before saving her number to my phone. So it really did all happen. I challenged Lizzie Reed, made friends with Nadine Leopold and was hit on by Harry Styles.

"He's so young, Noah." I turn to see my mum now on her computer at the desk behind our sofa. There is a picture of Harry on the screen, dimpled smile and all. The picture on screen must be Harry from a few years ago; it screams childhood innocence, very different from the man that radiated sex last night. His hair is shorter and his clothes are very, very different.

"That's at least two years old mum," I roll my eyes and join her at the computer. Reaching over her shoulders, I type his name into google images and search through the pictures. Some are old, some are definitely more recent. But in each one he is staring with that green gaze of his and my body starts heating up.

I find one that looks more like the Harry Styles from last night and blow it up on the screen.

"Oh, you have your mum's taste." My mum says, adjusting her reading glasses on her nose. She smiles and looks over at me but I can't return the smile she's giving me. I'm too busy staring at his smile; it's sweet but there is something dark, dangerous and panty-dropping about it.

"Well, your mums taste twenty two years ago, anyway." She laughs and closes the browser. I am snapped out of my Styles induced daze and stand up straight to shake it all off. We talked for twenty minutes last night and I can't stop thinking about him; how did he manage to get under my skin?

"So when is your next event?" Mum asks as she collects our plates off of the coffee table. She heads to the kitchen and I follow, taking a seat at the table while she begins washing the dishes.

"I'm not sure," I shrug. "I guess I will find out soon enough. I should probably start writing about last night while it is still fresh."

"Are you changing your name on the blog?"

"I'm not sure, we didn't really talk about that yet. Tammy wants the first post to drop on Monday. That one is just about my character so I guess we have to talk about changing my name."

"Maybe you could be Nancy." Ew. Definitely not. She laughs when she sees my reaction. "Or not. What about Natalie?"

"Natalie isn't bad. I don't know. Maybe I'll make my name something really out there." Mum and I share a laugh and then I head to my room. When I open my laptop I am greeted with three new emails from Tammy and an email from Steph.

I open the one from Steph first and am greeted with photos taken from last night. There is a picture of me dancing and laughing with Nadine. And then there is a sneaky photo taken from a distance of Harry and I talking at the bar.

I zoom in on the one of Harry and I and I stare at it. I look different. The Noah in this picture is definitely the Noah of my blog. She looks amazing and the picture tells a much different story than what I experienced last night. In the picture, it looks as if Harry is hanging onto my every word when-in reality- it was the opposite.

After the pictures there is a single sentence message from Steph:

I want DETAILS on Monday!

xoxo, Steph

I shake my head and move onto the messages from Tammy.

The first one is about my first draft for the blog:

Excellent. I like this Noah, I hope you have some of her in you so that you can pull this off! Also, let's try and come up with a new name for your character so that no one connects you to the blog.

Tammy Davis
Editor in Chief
Siren Magazine

The next message is a list of meetings she wants me attending with her next week. I add each one to my calendar and smile when I see how many are important business dinners.

The final email is about last night and makes me blush:

We will be talking about H.S tomorrow morning. You, darling, are a goddess.

-T

I close my email and shake my head. They are going to want to know everything. But there really isn't much to tell. He was hitting on me and yes it was a new kind of flirting that I experienced but I don't know how to explain that. It was a twenty minute conversation, maybe not even that much. They are going to expect something exciting and really, it wasn't. But then again, I can still feel his fingers brushing against my cheek as he pushed my hair out of my face. So maybe it was exciting.