This Thing Upon Me [Order The eBook] [Harry Styles]

Chapter 26

(DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. It's important to remember this is all totally fabricated, embellished, and exaggerated for entertainment purposes.)

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"Ooh I was meant to love you, and always keep you in my life.

Ooh I was meant to love you. I knew I loved you at first sight"

Cigarettes After Sex | Opera House

After messing around in the yard a while with a frightening crossbow I'd found in the foyer (which he said he used to alleviate stress), watching him obliterate a rubber dummy with lethal precision, we headed back inside. I was still too nervous to let him close enough to teach me how to shoot it. Maybe another time?

Two beers down each and we were laughing hysterically, dredging up memories and discussing the other boys. Niall was a safe topic for him. Liam too, seeing as how he'd chatted with him a bit after the March drama settled. They'd made plans to collab in the future.

"We'd sound alright together, I suppose. Similar tastes and whatnot. He's got some wicked riffs too. Always had."

"Right." I said. He took his lead finger and ran it along his opposite eyebrow, something he always did when he was unsure or nervous. (I wondered if he was becoming nervous because he felt the energy shifting and deepening between us. I certainly was.)

Apparently Louis was a sore subject for him, so we avoided him as a topic after he exclaimed how much of a dickhead he was on Twitter. I agreed. Nothing annoyed me more than the fights Louis had instigated with him shortly after he left. I understood his frustration of losing a close mate, but attacking him when he was his most vulnerable was less than ideal, and never sat well with me afterwards. None of the other guys had any place to say anything about him or his decisions anymore, especially not online in earshot of the fans. It was reckless. That was a point I brought up in a meeting following his departure—the fallout of said meeting contributing to my decision to push for the hiatus early on. Things would never be the same again, and I was done with it all after the Twitter Wars.

After we listened and both sang along to "Talkin' Blues," we got onto the subject of my whereabouts in 2015, since we had already detailed his. Eventually I told him about Jeff and Xander and a few others, and he told me he was glad I had linked up with the Azoffs for my solo work. He'd heard amazing things about them.

"So, uh...youh ever sleep with him?" he asked carefully. My stomach knotted that he would even think to ask something so intimate. It was such a direct drawback to the old us who spared no detail in describing our escapades with others.

"Who?"

"That one guy. Who's it? Xander or sumthin like that?" He was fighting a look of derision. I grinned, struggling to stifle a laugh. "What's soh funny?" he demanded, getting defensive.

"Nothing...nothing. What's wrong? Why're you even asking?" At that, he shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.

"F—k if I know. I was just wonderin'."

"But why?"

"Because I wanna f—king knowh? Isn't that enough?" His eyes had become slits. He was deeply annoyed and it was amusing. "Because youh were with him all the time last yearh, right? Sumthin must've been goin' on, yeah?" He couldn't meet my eyes anymore.