Meet Me In The Hallway // H.S. ✓

Chapter 1

~Meet me in the hallway,

Meet me in the hallway,

I just left your bedroom~

Harry, from a young age, begged his grandad to let him sit in a go-kart. Brian Selley owned a go-kart track on the edge of Holmes Chapel, but it was a family decision that Harry was to not be allowed at the track until he was much older. He was the baby of the family after all, being four years younger than his sister, Gemma, and his mother's only son.

His mother, Anne, also knew that Harry had addictive tendencies. He sucked his thumb until he was nearly out of primary, ate the same peanut butter and jelly sandwich for that time as well, and he never broke routine. Harry was a creature of habit, and she knew that if he started up with the go-karts, he would never want to stop.

Which is exactly what happened. Anne wasn't wrong in the slightest. But she couldn't keep him from it for very long, especially when things got tense in the Styles household when Harry was seven years old.

A divorce was imminent between Anne and the children's father, Des. The kids went to stay with their maternal grandparents for a couple of weeks at some point, since Anne was close to having a mental breakdown.

Gemma was stoic throughout the time period, knowing more and seeing more than her baby brother. But Harry was a sobbing, sniffling, thumb-sucking mess. So he was finally taken out to the go-kart track, picked up, and placed in the smallest cart that there was.

"Mom said I couldn't do this until I was Gemma's age." A helmet was placed over his curls.

"Well, what your mom doesn't know won't hurt her." His grandad patted his head. "Don't tell your sister either - she's a tattletale."

"Sounds like a plan, my dude." Harry gave him two thumbs up and watched as his seatbelt was tightened up.

"That one is the gas pedal, and that one is the brake." Brian told him, pointing to each one individually.

The seven year old squirmed in place. "I know, I know! I just want to go fast!"

His guardian for the day left him, going over to the control box. It was Sunday; the track was closed. The sun was shining, but it looked like there would be rain later.

Once the buzzer buzzed, Harry was off.

He took to it quickly, learning how to go around the corners and to not brake or he would spin in circles and granddad would have to help him. Harry was a bright boy, and he felt like a million bucks after he was done with his fifteen laps.

"You want ice cream, kid?"

"Can I get two scoops?"

"Alright."

---

Anne eventually found out about the go-kart racing, especially after Harry started going out there every weekend over the course of the next several years. It was too late to stop him now.

Sometimes Gemma came with him, sometimes she didn't. And that was okay - Harry liked it better when it was just him and grandpa.

It took a year for everything to calm down at Harry's house. Des came to visit them every once in a while, but things were not like they were before. Not at all. Gemma had grown up rather quickly in the face of that situation, and now she was a teenager. Fifteen. Which made Harry eleven.

And now that Gemma was fifteen, she wanted to be able to drive. She pestered her mum for weeks and weeks on end, but Anne was too busy to take her daughter out driving in parking lots. So, her grandpa was taking her. And if he was taking her, then he had to take Harry too.

Harry couldn't wait to be fifteen and be able to drive - it was his dream. He loved go-karts, yes, but cars were bigger and seemed so much better to him. His mom would never let him even pretend to sit in the driver's seat of her car. Anne was very cautious with Harry - he was her baby, after all.

Today, he figured, that he would learn some more about driving if he went with grandad and Gemma out to the countryside where there were no other people.

The two of them left the house early in the morning - Harry was bouncing off the walls practically, his curls bouncing against his skull. Anne almost kept him home because he couldn't calm down. But eventually he was semi-calm, and now the two of them were in their grandpa's truck with him.

"I bet that Gemma is a bad driver." He stuck his tongue out at her.

"I bet that when you hit puberty, you're going to be even uglier!" Then Harry hit Gemma and she hit him back. Their grandpa said nothing in response and just kept driving.

When they got to a dirt road that was appropriate, he pulled off and switched spots with Gemma. He gave her a lesson on all of the buttons, Harry leaning over his shoulder and listening along too. Then Gemma started driving, very cautiously.

Gemma was never able to handle stress very well. She almost spontaneously combusted when she had to make a left-hand turn. And by the twenty minute mark, she was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. "Let's pull over, Gems." Brian told her. "Let's take a rest."

"Can I drive?" Harry jumped in as Gemma braked and immediately ran over to the other side of the car. He had an ear to ear grin on. "I'll show Gemma that's it's so easy that even I can do it!"

Brian rolled his eyes at Harry, but nodded at him. Gemma was in near shock as the scrawny pre-teen got into the driver's seat. No one was around. He sat on a case of water since he was short. But his legs reached the pedals, and that's all that he needed.

Just like with go-karts, driving came easily to him. This fact, instead of calming Gemma, made her more angry and she made up her mind to tell their mom as soon as she got home. But nothing could change the fact that Harry Styles was a good driver - from the age of eleven on.

But his skills only ever got him into trouble.