Anxious [H.S]

Chapter 7: Just Friends, For Now

*Song: Blackbird by The Beatles*

Author's Note: Warning if you haven't watched The Notebook because there are spoilers.

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Harry's POV:

    I haven't stopped watching her this whole movie. I like to see her reactions while she's watching it. I swear I watched her more than the movie. The movie is now over and she is sitting next to me on the couch, sobbing.

    "Harry, you're a horrible person for making me watch that," she chokes out.

    "You have to admit, it's a beautiful movie," I say, laughing.

    "Yeah, up until the part where you figure out the old people at the nursing home are really Noah and Allie. And she can't remember anything and then they die together. Real beautiful," she explains, still sobbing.

I look around her apartment for a box of tissues and I find a box in her room, next to a picture of what I am assuming are her and her parents. I walk back into the living room with the box of tissues and the picture sitting down next to her. She takes a tissue out of the box and blows her nose then takes another one and wipes her green eyes that are now bloodshot from crying. She eyes the picture that I have in my hand and furrows her eyebrows in confusion.

"What do you have there Harry Styles?" she asks as she sniffs.

"Well I think this is a picture of you and your parents, and I was hoping you could tell me about them," I explain, making eye contact with her. I notice that when I make eye contact she starts to get nervous, that she doesn't like it. I like eye contact because it allows you to really know what a person is feeling and if they are lying to me.

"Well you are correct, those are my parents," she says, starting to look really nervous. Just like the night I met her. She hasn't seemed nervous all day but the second I ask about her parents she loses all the color in her face.

"Can you tell me about them?" I question.

"I would rather not talk about them. Why don't we talk about you. I feel like we've only talked about me," she says, changing the subject. I can see how uneasy she is and I decide that I'm not going to push her any further. I hope one day she'll tell me about them and maybe even why she chooses not to talk about them.

"Well what would you like to know?" I ask, now smiling at her.

"Oh you know, where you grew up, the usual," she says, now becoming less nervous.

"Well I grew up in Holmes Chapel in England, obviously if you couldn't tell by my accent. I worked in a bakery before I went on the X Factor. And I was a pretty damn good baker may I add. My parents got divorced when I was younger and I have fabulous relationships with both of them. I have a sister, Gemma, she's basically my best friend. My mother, Anne, got remarried in 2013 to my stepdad, Robin, but unfortunately he passed away a year ago because of cancer," I explain, now out of breath. She looks like she's finally comfortable again.

"I'm so sorry about your step dad," she says as she looks at me with sad eyes.

"Oh don't worry about it, it's not your fault," I say, nudging her shoulder, trying to lighten up the mood.

"So I know you don't want to talk about your parents, which is completely fine, but can you at least tell me where you grew up. Were you always here, in New York?" I ask, hoping she'll give me some information.

"Well I grew up in Boston and didn't really have any friends, like at all actually. I would wake up, go to school, come home, and lock myself in my room. I would listen to music and draw the whole day when I had school off. I met Kenna in my freshman year of high school and we have been close ever since. She was literally my only friend. I mean not that I tried to talk to people but no one tried to talk to me either. I've only had one boyfriend in my whole life, in my senior year, and it was Kenna that set it up. It lasted six months. He broke up with me because he said I was too shy and I was keeping secrets and it drove him crazy. I wasn't keeping secrets from him, it's just really hard for me to express my problems and how I feel but he didn't understand that. Not that he really tried. It honestly hurt when he broke up with me because I didn't try to keep secrets, I really liked him too. Then after I graduated I decided to move to New York to go to college to get away from everything, explore even. Kenna decided she would come with me. Then we met Olive in our Sophomore year and we all graduated together.  Now here I am sitting on my couch talking to you," she explains.