Note To Self (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Eighty Four.

Beyond grounded meant he remained locked away in his bedroom long after dad had returned downstairs to try to reason with his wife, and that left endless opportunities for Gemma to poke her head in to bother him. She'd been home for days, summer break had finally released her from her dorm room on the opposite end of the state, and that meant months of arguing with her had begun.

"Heard you been fuckin'."

He didn't bother to look up. Laid sprawled across the mattress, he stared at the wall to pass the time. "Leave me alone, Gemma."

He heard the sound of a duffle bag being dropped to the floor with a thud, and the door clicked shut. Her energy was still present to irritate his skin. Weight crashed down onto the bed behind him, causing his body to bounce. "Mom and dad are arguing about how to punish you."

"Great," he muttered, sarcasm thick in his tone. "Please leave me alone."

Instead, she pulled her legs to sit crisscrossed, planting herself in her spot. "If you cry, it makes dad feel bad. He can't handle tears. Mom's weakness is being extra sweet. Tell her how much you love her and clean the house and she'll give in."

"That only works for you," he grumbled. Gemma was leagues more manipulative than Harry was, he could never manage to weasel out of trouble the way she could. He twisted around to look up at her, and he was stunned when he did. "What the hell did you do to yourself?"

Her fingers twisted in the pastel pink dyed hair hanging in a ponytail. "Oh yeah, they'll be mad about this next. You're welcome."

He blinked, almost as if checking to see if his eyes were fooling him. "Why did you do that?"

"Because it's cute," she explained, and she pulled the band out of her hair to allow pink to fall over her shoulders.

He tried not to disagree. "Sure."

"Shut up, it's just hair." Her fingers combed through the pink locks. "So do I have to beat this bitch up or not?"

"Not."

"It's that redhead, right?" she prodded. "The one with great tits?"

Harry's cheeks flushed. He'd nearly forgotten the sneak peek she'd mistakenly gotten of Aubry's nudity, but he couldn't find it in himself to disagree. He also couldn't verbally agree. "Gemma."

"What's her name? Amber or whatever?"

"Aubry."

"Same thing." Her finger poked his shoulder, "Finally you aren't a goody-two-shoes little pussy."

He glared at her, forcing her touch away. "Excuse you, I was never a pussy."

Her head tilted to the side, disagreement clearly written all over her face. "You lived in this boring ass town and never once got in trouble. You're a pussy."

She had somewhat of a point. The vast majority of the towns youth had found themselves getting in some form of trouble at least once, no matter how much their families insisted their kids were the best. No matter how squeaky clean everyone had tried to maintain their image to be, there were secrets that weren't very well kept and everyone was bored. Underage drinking, sex, partying, drugs, vandalism, trespassing. There was always something going on in town, always something illegal or taboo, for no reason other than there was absolutely nothing else to do. All the trouble in the world was easy access. Anyone could get their hands on drugs, there was always alcohol readily available, and with the mixture of both meant it was easy to find someone willing to hook up. Yet, Harry had managed to elude from it all.

Still, he didn't consider anything he'd done to be particularly naughty. Then again, he'd also been drunk off his ass and high enough to stare his mother in the eye after lifting Aubry's school skirt up and taking her behind the cover of the trees with no remorse. Perhaps he wasn't better than anyone else. "Whatever."