Flicker 》Harry Styles x Kennedy Walsh {COMPLETED}

33: Not-So-Mystery Man

Remember how I can spot a red flag from miles away? Lonely days have passed and it turns out, my eyes have grown sharper to other things—one of them being purposeful distractions.

My family always kept me busy, hovering over me 24/7.

Every single day, they had me do something or asked me for help over things so trivial. One worth mentioning was Brandon's video idea of Claudia and Dev's wedding.

It wasn't necessary—seeing as he could've just bought a cake straight out of a bakeshop, but he roped me into a cake baking contest between him and I, knowing full well I would inevitably beat him.

Others would say it's for the content. You know, who wouldn't love to see him shoving the fondant he'd put on that monstrous Peppa Pig cake he made into my mouth? The memory of the bright yellow color reminds me of pee and causes me to gag—he put that in my mouth, my hair, and spread it all over my face like I was a fucking loaf of bread. Jesus.

But I know, for all of Brandon's scheming and clout-chasing tendencies (note the minute amount of sarcasm), he meant well, and had only wanted to distract me from my thoughts every once in a while.

That baking gig wasn't the end of it too. He'd had us play dress up for the 'actual wedding' ceremony and rented a limo—a fucking limo—to take us to and fro.

To this day, It still baffles me how he comes up with his video ideas, but we play along, secretly enjoying some of it. Partly being supportive of his channel, and the bigger part is us being tolerant of his antics.

In other news, I've reinstalled my social media apps. I figured it would be more suspicious if I'd suddenly fallen off the face of the earth, especially since I'd made it a habit to regularly post on Instagram stories. So, I continued doing that, never bothering to step into my Explore page.

On Twitter, I'd gone from following the topic "Harry Styles" to actually muting it, along with any other words that could be linked to him—HSLOT, Golden, Fine Line, his actual name (both first name and last name separated). You name it, and it's in my list of muted words.

Youtube was a bit trickier since there was no actual way of turning off Youtube recommended. From time to time, I had to pretend I didn't see headlines of him or compilation videos of his shows from one city.

Needless to say, the voice message left the masochist in me cowering for a while.

I'm brought back to the present when the puppy willingly cuddles up between my crossed legs, placing its chin above my thigh. A coo escapes me, my eyes watering. The boys laugh at my reaction.

"What should we name it?" Brandon asks, giving me déjà vu to that baking battle.

"Chester," Nick pipes up.

I look up at him, eyes squinted and fingers pinching the air. "Honestly, I feel sorry for your future kid if that obsession you have with Chester lasts years."

"Chester is an awesome name!"

"No, it's not! It sounds like Cheshire—like that creepy cat in Alice in Wonderland."

Cory butts in. "Are you denouncing your cat momma status?"

"What? No. I wasn't aware you knew I even had one."

We all laugh at that. Aly and I were currently on the floor, petting the sleepy pup while the boys order in something for us to eat.

It seemed like every day was filming day for Brandon's channel, and although they got this puppy for a video too, I'm glad we get to sit down with it and just cuddle for a night. I watch as its soft paws paddle, its snore vibrating against my skin.