subside. // haylor au

one

"That's basically what I was asking you practically since the time you got here." I say, turning my back to the door, inside I was actually hoping to see more of his penthouse, but just by standing there, you could see the view of so many things, the windows were wide and the landscape of New York City shone through, making most of his source of light.

"I thought there were only one penthouse per floor?" He disses, turning his head to Mariel.

"Our penthouses are a single floor, sir, producing more space that is enough for two." She answers, not noticing the fact that it was clearly a rhetorical question.

"You're really sarcastic." I comment, nodding my head. If it's anything about sarcasm, I understand. It's inevitable.

"Yes indeed." He agrees and I turn the door knob, heading back to my own apartment, which was only two footsteps away.

"I'll see you around." I attempt to be friendly.

"I'd rather not."

.

For a while I thought about Harry Styles and every thought of him led to another question, making me even more curious about his presence. I wanted to know more. A lot more and I think just talking to him for an hour wouldn't satisfy my curiosity, but I had to cut that idea out, since he wasn't the type of guy that would expose information easily. I could tell. His personality reflects on everything.

I flipped and turned my body on my large bed, covering and uncovering the duvet on myself every time. Pillows fell off the bed because of the harsh movement that I made but I didn't care, my mind rushed like crazy and I couldn't stop thinking.

Finally, curiosity got the best in me and before I knew it, I was on the front door of his apartment.

I carefully knocked on the door and jumped at the abrupt sound it made that echoed through the empty halls. I wrapped the robe around me tighter making me feel secure, I shouldn't even be feeling unsafe, I was wearing a shirt and sweatpants underneath although that didn't even stop me from shivering. I was.. nervous, I guess. I've never been this curious. Ever.

I jump again but this time to the sound of the door opening. Curls peeked out behind the door and the guy popped his head only his head out, regarding his bare shoulders, I assume that he's shirtless.

"What do you want?" He greets rudely.

"Is that how you normally greet strangers?" I reply in a confused but frustrated manner.

"I wanted an answer, not a follow-up question," He rolls his green eyes.

"Can I come in?" I ask, getting straight to the point and changing my tone ever so slightly.

But instead of getting a nod or a polite 'no', I get a straight-up 'no' and a slam from the door.

"It's two in the bloody morning, I'm surely the only one asleep." He throws sarcasm at me.

"Oh excuse me, I thought you were the only one." I play along and that's when he slammed the door right in my face.

I go back to my room, this time it's not curiosity that filled my mind, but anger replaces it and it's the type that drives your mind crazy, bringing you to no other option but sleep.

.

The smell of fresh cooked pancakes and live boiled eggs slides through my smelling senses as I walked to the little restaurant serving breakfast inside the apartment. Just by the time I get inside and fill my plate with bacon, eggs and bread, I spot Harry Styles, the guy that is now my neighbour. He had his hair up and despite the smell of the fresh food that steamed up from my plate, I could smell his cologne from a good two feet away.

Without hesitation, I sat on the same table as him, not bothering to even look at him, I set my plate down and settle myself down on the chair, opposite of him.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asks, and I'm not surprised by his, again, rude greeting.

"Good morning to you too." I say, grabbing the bread and scraping the jam on the surface of it.

He doesn't reply and instead, he exposes a confused, disgusted look, which tempts me to look up. 

After a minute of silence and him just plainly staring at me, or more like observing every inch of my face, it feels like. I couldn't resist and stare back.

"What?" I ask and his expression changes. He knits his eyebrows together, but his expression wasn't a frown, it didn't resemble anger at all. It resembled confusion, that's what it is.

"You're odd." He finally answers my question and I arch my eyebrow. Odd? How was I odd? I was just a normal person who wanted to know more about my next door neighbour that may or may not strangely dislike me in some sort of way.

"I'm odd?" I rhetorically questioned, almost spitting out my bread that was inside my mouth.

He nods.

"How?" 

"Well, let me put it this way, you know me for a day - no, not even a day, and you've been wanting to get in my apartment at two in the morning and you've just randomly sat down with me to have breakfast a second ago. That's not odd at all." He answers with his common sarcastic statements, that I'm almost used to by now.

"Not my fault I wanted to be friends with my next door neighbour that I had no clue was moving in last night." 

"Trust me, it's not that easy to be my friend." He chuckles and with that he picks up the napkin and dabs it on his mouth, after that, he stands up and I look at him with disappointment.

"See you soon, Taylor." He waves at me with the first ever genuine smile I've ever seen on his face and it left me paralyzed. I've never had a thought that a person with his type of attitude would be able to even plaster a smile on his face, but he did. And this, unfortunately, triggered more curiosity in me. And I'm not sure if that sparked up a good common sense for me because I've always, always, reminded myself that curiosity killed the cat.