Pinky | Harry Styles

Start.

"Come on, Misery Guts! Where's your drink?" Mitch clapped me on the back as him and Sarah came back from dancing. "It's almost midnight!"

"Glenne! Tell Jeffrey, Harry needs a drink." Sarah yelled to Glenne, and she disappeared into the crowd to find her boyfriend.

"I don't want a drink." I huffed as my two friends wrapped their arms around each other and made googly eyes. What the hell was I doing here? New Year in a club with two of the most loved up couples I know? The truth was the alternative was worse, stuck at home by myself like a proper loser. My Mum was away for the weekend with her friends, Gem was off with her boyfriend and his family and most of my other friends were busy with their families. I was supposed to have plans too, should have been in Aruba, a gift to my ex because he always wanted to go but now he was there with a guy he met at work. So here I was spending New Year being tortured by true love. 

"Harry, you need a drink to toast the New Year or else you'll have bad luck!" Sarah gasped.

"Yeah! Come on H! Plus it's been a great year." Mitch's eyes drifted from Sarah's eyes to the ring which sparkled on her finger and again I sat here, feeling like a spare part. Normally, it wouldn't bother me but right now I was feeling jealous, here was yet another New Year spent without somebody special to share it with. It seemed to me that finding true love was not something I was good at, at least not for myself.

"Here you go, H." Jeffrey smiled as he and Glenne handed me a drink.

"Aww, what's wrong?" Glenne teased as they sat down on my other side.

"Nothing." I forced a smile and took a sip of my drink as I got sandwiched between them. I glanced around the room at the various faces here. Some familiar to me. Some not. And then I saw a flash of something rainbow coloured. My eyes darted from person to person to try to find the source. I was about to shrug it off as a trick of the lights when I spotted it again. Turns out it was somebody's hair, the underneath had been dyed in every colour of the rainbow but the top was what I assumed to be the person's natural hair colour. Blonde. The rainbow part was on display as their hair had been pulled up into a bun. I think it was a girl but as all I could see was the back of a head and neck, it could easily be a guy.

"Who's that with Anne-Marie?" I interrupted the conversation going on around me as I noticed the mystery person and I had a friend in common. Jeffrey craned his neck to try to see, but it was Glenne who answered my question, "that's Lily Banks."

"The Lily Banks?" I asked.

"Yeah. That's her. The one who walked out and left Richard Madden fuming in an LA restaurant when he proposed. I heard she totally ghosted him. Never called him again. Blocked all his calls. Apparently she didn't even pick up her things from his house." Glenne said, her eyes were now watching her as closely as mine were.

"I meant was she the Lily Banks who managed Christian Bale?" I rolled my eyes at Glenne's sudden interest in gossip.

"Yeah. That's the 'Bale Bitch'" Jeffrey placed air quotes around the nickname the industry had given her. I wondered how she felt about that? "Quite a force to be reckoned with, apparently."

"I'm impressed. He can be difficult and clearly he adores her, isn't she Godmother to his son?" I smiled as she laughed with Anne-Marie. A proper laugh, her head flung back unreservedly, one hand clutching her stomach as her other hand gripped her friend's arm. I wanted to be in on the joke.  

"Are you planning to replace me, Hersh?" My best friend quirked his head at me.

"Nah. I like you too much. Beside's no scandalous behaviour to report here?" I nudged his side. I couldn't stop my eyes from flicking back to look at her. As if she could sense my intrusion into her personal space, she suddenly glanced over her shoulder and her eyes locked with mine. Fuck, she was hot! I smiled and she just calmly looked away, her face giving away zero emotion. Literally nothing. Was she annoyed? Did she think I was a creep? Did she recognise me? I had no fucking idea, but I felt like a fish on the end of a hook and I wanted so desperately for her to reel me in.