Different. - Harry Styles.

4.

Once I got down, I saw that everyone had took their place at the table. Except for Harry, obviously. I saw my mum and Anne both sat opposite eachother at the heads of the table. I sat down next to Gemma, refusing to give Harry the oppurtunity to come and sit down next to me when he finally came down. 

Anne shot me a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry for his behavious, dear. He isn't the same yet." I shrugged it off. "It's alright." But actually, it wasn't. It wasn't alright for him to act like this, like he didn't even know me. We had been the best of friends since I can remember. It wasn't alright for him to forget about me, after he promised me not to. And most of all, it wasn't alright for me to care. He most probably and quite clearly, moved on. As I, I did not. I obviously expected to much. Dumb.

In the meantime, dinner was getting cold and there was no sign of Harry. Anne looked over to us with an apologizing face. "I'll go and see what is taking him so long." 

After she had left the room, both my mother and Gemma turned to me. "So, how was he?" My mum asked carefully. I sighed. "Different. He was.. pierced, tattooed and cold. He was not in any way similar to the warm, sweet boy that has left this village two years ago."

I didn't really have the need to talk about it any more, and I think Gemma picked up on that, as she left me be. 

It took a while for Anne to return downstairs, a grumpy looking young man following her. My mother choked on her water when he came down, and he greeted her rather coolly. He was clearly not very keen on having us here. 

We were all silently finishing up our dinner. Well, my mother and Anne not so silent. As I took a sip from my water, my eyes were travelling to Harry. He was sitting across the table and I had a perfect vieuw on him. I took in how much he had changed. He used to be a bubbly teenager, always with a smile that would show his dimples. Now he was a grumpy young man. His eyebrows continually furrowed and his mouth in a straight line. 

Suddenly he snapped his head in my direction, and he furrowed his eyebrows even more. I looked straight into his eyes and I wanted to know what was behind them, where had my bubbly best friend gone.

For a moment his eyes softened, and he looked almost sad. He softly chewed on his lower lip, before turning away to answe my mother's question. "So Harry, what has brought you back to Cheshire?" "Well Ma'am, I finished college and I just want to take a few Uni-classes to get a better vieuw on what I want to do next." A tiny, microscopic smile crept from under his lips as he finished his sentence. I watched almost in awe, the bubbly teenager was still in there somewhere.