Note To Self (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Eighty Two.

Finals week was spent entirely with test taking and "studying" with Aubry after school was released. Two tests per day, each two hours long, school was let out by noon and that left more than enough time to sneak around with Aubry for a few hours before real life resumed. They never returned back to her bed after Monday afternoon when Aubry's father unexpectedly turned up at home mid-coitus and had her sneaking him out of the house to avoid being seen. He didn't keep his hands to himself when they snuck behind the privacy of the tree line days later, and the pages in Aubry's journal were left blank that day. Instead, she walked home with grass stains on her knees.

No shifts at the record shop for the week, because mom insisted he use his free time for study and rest, and that left no obligations for anything other than morning testing, afternoon stress relief, and late night texts. The headaches from too much thinking always vanished before one o'clock, after he and Aubry would bust through the doors outside the gymnasium the moment testing was completed and they'd head off in the direction of home together. The sun was always bright and warm, his smile seemed unstoppable, and his bed was never more comfortable at the end of the night when exhaustion would take him captive before the clock struck eleven.

Thursday was the day of the test Harry dreaded the most, and that was the day he spent the entirety of the testing period glancing at the clock and sweating under pressure with each passing minute. English. That was the day he was ten questions away from the end with only two minutes left until the bell rang, and that was the day he filled in random bubbles to the remaining questions just to say he finished. That was also the day he was almost positive he could've failed, no matter how hard he studied. The level of defeat he felt passing his test booklet in could only be matched by every other year he'd ever completed an English final, but, thank God, he completed his very last one.

He came face to face with Aubry in the hall when she exited the art room directly across the way, and the frown on his face lessened slightly. "How'd it go?"

"Would rather not know," he mumbled. "How was yours?"

"Good," she grinned, but her shoulder was bumped and it was then they realized they were standing in the dead center of the hall in everyone's way. They began moving with the crowd, dodging students as they rushed to their next test, down the staircase, and off into the less full corridors where voices ricocheted off the walls. The next testing period was for Harry's regular lunch time, which meant he didn't have a second test that day, and neither did Aubry. "Wanna get food?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed, feet pattering across the linoleum flooring, straight past the lunch room where they were supposed to be gathering to sit through until school was released. That obligation was utterly ignored. "What do you want?"

"Mexican... or Subway."

"Subway is gross."

Her nose crinkled up when she glanced over at him, "It's a sandwich place, how can it be gross?"

He chose to reword himself. "Alright, it's not totally gross. It's subpar to all the other options for food."

"Fine, Mexican it is."

Aubry lead the way through the halls, to the back of the school where hardly any bodies lingered. The gym was secluded, far off from other classrooms, which meant no one ever stuck around unless they had a reason to. That made it the perfect spot to sneak out. Footsteps echoed through the atrium just outside the gymnasium doors, the sun shined brightly through the windows, and they headed straight for their escape through the doors.

"Hey!"

Harry startled, and the door Aubry had started to push open fell shut once again. Mr. Davis stood in the doorway to the gym, and Harry's cheeks flushed a shade of red when he stepped closer. His thumb pointed toward the staircase, "Back to class, no ditching."