Effortless (h.s.)

Chapter THREE - returned

"No! I found the money under my door," I clarified to Dylan, a friend of mine from college. He looked at me in disbelief and took a long sip of his coffee.

"Well, you're going to keep it, right? I mean you kind of need it and if you don't know where the rich guy lives-"

I shook my head, "No... I need to take it back to him."

I decided to leave out the part where I told Dylan this was Harry Styles. I had a strange feeling that Harry was living in the apartment because no one would ever suspect him to. It wasn't a shitty complex, but... I was well aware he could do much better.

"Lennon, no. Now is not the time to pull this, you actually need that money. You even said it yourself! You're going to be out of money in four months from rent itself. That's not even considering food and water, your phone bill, laundry, going out," Dylan rolled his eyes exasperatedly at me.

I let out a sigh, "I'll find a job Dyl, it's going to be fine. It's not like I have anything else to do during the days," I murmured the last part, sipping from the overpriced coffee that Dylan forced me to let him pay for.

Dylan leaned back into his seat and glared at me, "Fine. But you still have to hang out with me sometimes, and if you ever need anywhere to stay-"

"I promise, I'll be okay. Don't worry about it," I rested my hand on top of his in a comforting manner, "the apartment is pretty nice for this area and the price, you need to come over soon to see it."

Dylan's brown eyes read sadness, he could see right through me. He knew better to point this out though, I had always been extremely independent and never let many people help me. My parents were the only exception to that rule, they always told me family helps family. That is until they kicked me to the curb out of the blue.

"Dick broke your lamp, 'least buy a fifteen dollar one from target."

I placed the new lamp on the same side table that the previous one was on, the new one was white, tall and skinny. I decided that slowly but surely I would buy new things for the apartment after I got my job and I would stick to mainly a blush pink and light blue theme with hints of white.

With the click of the switch, the light brought warmth into the room.

All the glass from the incident two nights ago was cleaned up, and while I was out I picked up some groceries from the story. With my own money.

Even though my place was basically empty, it did start to feel a little bit more like home.

I had been dreading taking the money back all day, I was nervous that Harry was going to find it weird or uncomfortable that I was returning the money. I mean... I was returning nine hundred and seventy five dollars.

Believe it or not, I've never had someone hand me a thousand dollars. So I am extremely nervous to have to go and deal with this.

I don't even know where he lives! Knowing my luck I would knock on the wrong door and get yelled at by some old stuck-up snob.

I tried to ignore my nerves and gathered the rest of the money before leaving my apartment, I blanked my mind and started looking for clue on which apartment was Harry's.

I thought about how long it took for drunk Harry to get to his apartment, remembering the sounds of his door shutting and opening. Taking a slight glance back at my door, I took a deep breath and thought it through.

One door had a welcome mat, one had absolutely nothing, and the last one had a purple mat.

I rubbed my eyes, where the hell is he?

I sucked it up and went to the first door, I knocked so hard that my knuckles began to hurt. I didn't want to come off as weak, maybe if I was assertive it-

"What're you doing?" I jumped when Harry's head peeped out of the next door over, at first he seemed confused but then gently smiled, "Knew it had to be someone new, no one lives there."

"I'm not new," I retorted, not moving from my spot in front of the door.

Harry lifted his eyebrows, "What're you doing?"

I cleared my throat and shifted my stance towards him, "I-I was looking for you, actually."

His face lit up with a big smirk and he stepped out into the hall, shutting the door behind him, "Oh I see..." he stepped a bit closer to me, "Let me guess, you want me to come check out the new lamp?"

"Uh no..." I started, his face morphed into a confused stare, "I mean, if you want you can come check it out yeah but, I came to give back the rest of the money."

I stuck my arm out and closed the empty space between us, the stack of money was within reaching distance of Harry. I watched his eyes go from mine, to the money, and then back to my eyes once more.

"You didn't spend any," he noted.

"I did, I spent twenty five dollars on a new lamp. You broke it and you bought me a new one, and it was very kind of you but this is too much, I can't take it from you."

Harry jetted out his hip and stuck his hands on them, "I gave it to you, love. That extra money was for the caregiving part of the night."

I shook my head, "I am not going take almost a thousand dollars from you just because I gave you a glass of water and woke you up."

Harry blinked a couple of times and let out a deep sigh, studying my face like this was some kind of game, "You forgot the part where you took the glass out of my cheek," his lips turned up into a smile once more.

I let out a laugh and nodded, "Can't believe you remember, I thought you blacked out for sure."

Harry shrugged and smiled gently at the ground, "What's your name?"

"Lennon," I whispered, knowing the next question he was going to ask.

Harry showed me a toothy grin, "Like John?"

"Like John."

He turned around and opened his door, reaching around to the wall inside and pulling out a key. After shutting his door once more, he put the key inside and twisted it.

"Well, Miss Lennon, will you do me the honor of showing me your new lamp?" Harry slowly put one foot in front of the other until he stood tall before me.

I shrugged, "I guess, all long as you promise not to break this one."