Prince in the City [Harry Styles AU]

Chapter 9

So like.
Harry's album came out today. I listened to it the second it was released, which was around 11:30PM last night, and didn't stop listening until 5 in the morning--no joke. My dad had gotten up to get ready for work and I was crying over From The Dining Table when I realized that, fuck, I had to sleep.

But holy shit guys. Harry's album is mind-blowing, flawless, phenomenal, magical--I could fucking go on. I have no words that could properly depict how I felt when I was listening to it, the first time & then all the times after. He is so, so talented and I fell in love with him all over again. Unreal. He is such a LEGEND.

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Chapter 9

Prince's POV:

Since having lunch with Vera, I found myself sitting in the rather luxurious flat that I was renting, looking around and thinking that the dark haired girl was quite right about what she had said. How could I expect myself to revel in the normal life I so claimed to crave, when I was constantly surrounded by the lifestyle I had grown so accustomed to? I had the money to afford all of this, but that did not necessarily mean I had purge it all on the rent of this highly priced flat. If I was being honest, it was too lavish for my taste, anyways because, really, I've had enough of it at the Palace. Change would be good—more than it already has been so far.

But shifting living spaces won't go over well with Mum—especially since this agreement was what allowed her to let me leave. Although, you would expect a twenty-three year old man like myself to be able to live his own life on his own terms, yet that's clearly not the case for me. It really did put a damper on things, if I was being honest. If she came to know that I moved to a flat that wasn't even on the Upper East Side, she would probably send Scotland Yard—or a S.WA.T. team—to drag my arse back to England.

Vera's suggestion wasn't bad at all—in fact, I quite loved the idea. I kept claiming how I wanted to live a low-key life, and sure I have more money than I know what to do with, but it doesn't necessarily mean I have to do anything with it. I've spent the nights at both Louis and Niall's flats, and if I was being completely truthful, I felt more at home there than I ever did at Buckingham Palace. The Palace was vast and spacious with everything looking too delicate to touch—it had no sense of home in it, and I honestly yearned for that feeling whilst living in my own space. The best time to reach that space of mind would be now, here in New York.

Before I could over-think anything, I grabbed my laptop from the bedside table and placed it on my lap, opening it up and going right on to the Internet to conduct the search I needed. With slightly steepened brows, I went on Google to search available apartments in New York City, narrowing my search down to the Upper West Side area and some other regions I knew to be good living places. As expected, there were many listings that popped up, and I scrolled through the lot of them until a specific section popped up that caught my eye.

There were multiple listings for flats in one building, and as soon as I read the name, it clicked in my mind as to why it seemed to familiar. Morningside Heights in the Upper West Side, and if memory serves me correctly—which I'm sure it does—that's where Vera lives. A mischievous quirk lifted my brow as I looked at the various listings, a half-formed idea plotting itself in my mind as I clicked through the pictures of the flats that were available.

Mentally, I wondered if I just happened to land a flat in the same building complex as Vera, if that would seem as too forward—maybe even seem similar to stalker-like behavior. We really only had lunch together once, and although she had texted me after thanking me for it, it would still seem a bit strange to pop up in the same building as her and ambush Vera by living there as well.