Note To Self (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Forty Seven.

 Despite declaring Spring Break a go, Harry spent the following hours preparing the house for the next few days. The refrigerator was stocked with the food he'd stolen from home, the small amount of dust that had accumulated on the mantle and tabletops over the short time the house had been left unoccupied was swept away, and he fidgeted with the thermostat to figure out the central air system in attempt to keep the inside cool. All while the remaining four gathered in the sun room around the table with a deck of cards, stress free.

Winnie, still damp from her swim, laid in the corner on a bed of towels guarding the tennis ball between her paws once Harry decided to settle down and join the rest. The smell of wet dog caused him to grimace as he shut the door behind him, "Winnie, you reek."

"Does she?" Liam asked as he placed a card face side up on the table. "Don't smell it."

He decided to pull a few of the windows open to air the room out, the sound of the dog's tail thumping against the floor as he opened the one nearest to her. Breeze brushing against his skin, the leaves rustled in the treetops as mid-day drew on into the evening. The sun wasn't quite as bright as it once was, and the temperature had begun to drop one degree at a time, but it was still beautiful. "It's so nice outside."

Aubry disrupted his ogling at the outside world by patting the tabletop next to her. "Come sit next to me and help, I'm bad at this game."

He perked up from leaning his hands against the windowsill, "What game?"

"Spite and malice," Louis answered while taking his turn.

Harry slid into the seat beside Aubry, leaning over to sneak a glance at the cards in her hands. "Never heard of it."

"Essentially you want to get rid of this pile," she pointed to the stack of cards on the table he had his elbow resting next to. She then pointed to the other four piles of cards in the center of the table, "And everyone uses those piles to count from one to twelve using their own cards. Whoever gets rid of their pile first, wins."

"Sooo," Harry held the syllable long. "It's Skip-Bo."

Liam nodded, "Yes, it's exactly that."

Aubry looked up at Harry as he took in what was laid out on the table, getting a feel for where they were at with the game. "What's Skip-Bo?"

"This," he gestured with his fingers to the cards spread across the table. "Same rules, but it has specialty cards like Uno. We have it in one of the drawers in the kitchen."

"Think I saw it when I grabbed these," Niall spoke up, and Harry nodded.

"I'm undefeated at this game."

"There's no such thing as being good at this game," Louis disagreed. "It's the luck of the draw."

"No way," Harry denied. "You just have to know how to finesse the cards."

Louis lifted his hand, holding it outward with his palm facing upward as he narrowed his eyes in Harry's direction. "Finessing the cards is cheating."

Harry's hand dropped to the table at the same time Louis' did. "Not if you finesse legally."

"Alright," Niall chimed in. "Remind me to never play a game with you, cheater."

"I don't cheat, I just know how to win."

As the words passed his lips, raindrops began to fall. Clouds had begun to roll in slowly, leaving abstract splotches on the glass windowpanes with a gentle pitter patter.

Niall, looking at the cards in his hand as he contemplated how he would take his turn, absentmindedly spoke as he gestured to the rain outside. "I'm going to ignore how ominous that was."