Roses [h.s]

Chapter 1

We enter the hall and stare, dumbstruck, at the decorations. The committee really went all out on this whole thing. The hall looks extremely elegant; the room is dark with black fabric draped around the columns, chandeliers hang from the ceiling, brightening the room and creating small rainbows on the floor. Opposite the entrance a small raised stage is set up with some microphones and speakers. People mill around, either sitting at the tables and chatting, or out on the dancefloor, dancing to the music coming from the stage.

"Wow." Chloe gasps, staring up at the chandeliers. "For a little dance this sure is decked out."

"Well, they need to impress the celebrity royalty that's coming, remember?" I say bitterly, walking over to an empty table.

Chloe snorts behind me. "He grew up here, why does he need to be impressed? He went to our school for god's sake."

"Yeah but now he's an international pop star and movie star, remember?" I remark sarcastically.

"Maddy, you sure you want to stay? I mean we don't have to be here, you don't have to see him now."

I sit down, taking a champagne flute from the waiter walking past. Looking around me I see a multitude of things that remind me of Harry. At first, these memories would have made me miserable or nostalgic, but now? I'm just annoyed. 2 years, probably the worst years of my life, and he couldn't be reached. I swallow a mouthful of champagne.

"I told you Chloe, I'll be fine. He on the other hand might have a broken nose. "

She sighs and sits down opposite me. "I know you don't mean that." I try to seem indifferent and stone faced, but it doesn't really work. Chloe knows me well enough to know that I can barely kill a spider, let alone lay a finger on someone. Even Harry. "I know that you're just going to try and avoid him, even though you're pissed at him."

I look up at her as she pauses. Chloe's right and she knows it. If I do see Harry, I'll probably burst out crying and then run away. But I hate him. I hate him so, so much.

"I know you hate him," She says, almost like she can hear my thoughts. "But you've also got to give him a chance. Maybe there was a reason he didn't ring."

I can't do this right now. Talk about my feelings. Tonight, is supposed to be about getting drunk, dancing with my friends and, if possible, telling Harry that he's the biggest sack of shit I've ever had the misfortune of trusting. It's supposed to be about forgetting about everything else that has been happening. I down the rest of my glass and stand up.

"Let's dance." I say, grabbing Chloe's hand and dragging her onto the dance floor.

Finally, out on the dance floor, with that small amount of alcohol running through my veins and the bass of the speaker vibrating through my whole body, I can feel myself forgetting about everything. The past few months had been hard, and I'd been looking forward to this day for weeks, to finally have an excuse to let loose and forget. To forget about Harry, even if I knew I would see him tonight, and to forget about mum

When I was young, it had just been me and her. My dad had left us when I was young, but it didn't faze me really, my mum was all I needed. I mean sure, there were a few moments after playground taunts or lonely Father's Day events, that I felt like I was missing out on something, but more often than not mum and I were our own happy little family. She was more than enough.

We got along great, but we were never really alone, we had the Styles'. Anne was mum's best friend, they had met when they were both pregnant, mum with me and Anne with Harry. Anne stayed by mum and mum stayed by Anne, through thick and thin. They were as close to each other as people could get so, naturally, Harry and I grew up practically inseparable. For years, everything was good. Harry went to X-factor and did his pop star thing, and I got a scholarship to a dance school in America. I went without hesitation, but things would've been different if I had known that my mum had been diagnosed with cancer.