Roses [h.s]

Chapter 9

The next two days consist of working and spending time with Chloe. That's all I've ever really done honestly, but now there's the added foreign element of waiting for Harry to come by again. I'm almost fidgeting at the idea of spending more time with him, despite how angered I was with him before. When we're together, I just feel whole. Everything seems a lot more bearable around him. I understand that maybe, even without the whole him getting famous thing, we might have just drifted apart. The world works in mysterious ways, and sometimes relationships just deteriorate for no reason other than time. People grow and change, and friendships that used to be perfect just don't work anymore, and that's okay. But now I have a chance to actually re-do a friendship and spend more time with someone I thought I would never see again.

When Harry comes over next the snow has stopped falling, but there's still a layer of it on the ground. When I open the door, he's standing there blowing hot air into his hands, wearing a thick sweater and dark black jeans. There's a scarf hanging loosely around his neck and his nose is pink. He's always had trouble dressing appropriately for the weather. I'm still in my pyjamas and usher him inside as the wind nips at my skin through the thin fabric.

"Another early morning visit?" I say, walking back into my room, assuming that Harry would follow.

"I'm a morning person." He says with a grin, making me roll my eyes at him. I turn around and sit on my bed, catching the sheepish grin on his face as he says this. I wrap the blanket around my bare feet as he sits next to me.

"So, I'm guessing we're going out today?" I say.

"Yep, got a big day planned. You should probably dress warmly, because I'm not lending you my things."

"Of course not." I roll my eyes, sighing as I get up from the bed and walk over to my wardrobe. I stare at the clothes for a moment, unsure of what to wear. "Can you at least tell me where we're going so I can dress appropriately?"

"Nope." Harry says. "It's gonna stay a surprise, just dress comfortable."

I sigh again, before rifling through the clothes, pulling out a pair of black jeans, a black sweater and a light brown shearling jacket. I go to the bathroom to get changed, and when I walk back into my room, Harry smiles up at me.

"Beautiful, as always." He says, as I sit next to him on the bed and start pulling on a pair of thick socks. I smile at the statement and shake my head at how cheesy he is. "Think I might have to steal that jacket soon." He says, pulling it at it softly.

"No way. You'll end up looking better in it then I do. Oh, that reminds me, please don't wear some flashy Gucci suit to the wedding, my cousin would kill me if you upstage her at her own wedding."

"Me? Never." Harry says, feigning shock and placing a hand over his heart. I roll my eyes again, something that becomes almost habitual the more I spend time with him.

"Are we going or what?" I ask, standing up once my shoes are on. Harry looks up at me and pouts softly, holding his arms out for me. I sigh and grab them, pulling him up. He smiles at me in thanks before leading me outside.

Yet again, there was no car outside, and Harry simply starts walking down the street, giving no indication of where we're going. In a few minutes, we're close to the centre of town, walking past storefronts and the few people who are out and about. At that point, it doesn't take long for me to realise where we're going and my suspicions are confirmed when Harry stops out the front of a simple old bakery, that still looks the same as it did when we were fifteen. Standing outside, the smell of freshly baked goods wafts out to us and my stomach growls loudly.

"Good thing that we just happened to stop in front of the best bakery around." Harry says with a smirk before opening the door for me.

"Good morning how can I help you today?" An old lady says as she waddles up to the counter at the sound of the door chime. When she looks up at us, she does a double take before smiling widely. "Harry, what are you doing here? A big popstar like you can't just pop in with no warning like this, I didn't have any time to roll out the red carpet." She chuckles as she comes around the counter, holding out her arms as Harry walks over to give her a hug. "And you're a movie star now too, almost forgot about that, even though your mother practically forced all of us to go watch it. You were very good, although I still can't believe you cut off all your hair for that." She finishes, pulling out of the hug and frowning at him as she picked at the curls on top of his head.

"Missed you too, Francis." Harry says with a cheeky smile, and she gives him a small smack on the shoulder. Finally, it seems her eyes wander from Harry and land on me and she smiles sweetly.

"Madeline it's lovely to see you again. How are you?"

"I'm good, Francis how about you? How are the grandkids?" I say, coming up beside Harry as she moves back behind the counter.

"Oh, you know the same as always, the girls can't wait until classes start again, it's all they seem to be talking about at the moment, so I suppose you'll have a handful with them soon. How can I help the two of you?"

I look down at the array of baked goods, savoury and sweet, trying to decide what would be best, when Harry buts in, ordering for the both of us, and I frown for a moment before realising that he ordered me a toasted ham and cheese croissant, which is what I always used to get. I smile at the memory of coming to the bakery whenever Harry was working and sitting on the counter with my legs swinging in the air as he toasted the croissant for me.

Francis nods and smiles as she prepares our order and then insists on giving it to us on the house, before ushering us out of the bakery and telling us to enjoy the day together. We wandered around the town, heading aimlessly towards the park nearby. We sit on the swings there, eating our food and swinging aimlessly. There's only silence between us, but it's nice. Every now and then one of us will kick out a leg to hit the other, and then giggle when they huff in annoyance.

"So," Harry begins after we've both finished our food, and are now walking through the city centre. There's a few more people around now but it's still a nice quiet day. There are a few people who do a double take when they realise that Harry Styles is walking down the main street, but as of yet nobody has come up to him to ask for a photo or anything. "My friend got back to me about the music video thing."

I nod slowly, indicating that he should continue.

"Well, you've got an audition." He says with a smile as he looks down at me. I beam back up at him, feeling giddy.

"Really? That's ... that's so good! Thank you so much." I say, jumping into his arms swiftly, obviously surprising him as he stumbles back a few steps. But then he holds me closely and rests his head next to my neck as he spins me around slightly. I feel butterflies in my stomach, and I chalk them up to me already getting nervous about the audition, I mean, what else could it be? He sets me down a moment later, and my smile mirrors his as I look up at him. "Do you have any other details like time and date? And who I'll be working with?"

"Hmm, I don't know, I think I might keep it as a surprise." He pretends to muse, rubbing his chin but unable to keep the smile from his face.

"Harry." I whine, punching him lightly on the shoulder, which I'm certain he barely feels, but he makes a show of rubbing his arm with a pained expression on his face.

"Okay fine." He says with a pout. "The video is for Ed Sheeran."