Carolina~H.S.

01

"She's got a family in Carolina."

"Are you positive I don't look dumb?"

"You look hot as hell Caroline. There's nothing to worry about."

"Thank you Vic, but I'm still not sure."

I stare at my reflection in my full length mirror before looking down at my breasts that are squeezed very tightly into my little black dress. The dress has a foil print that hugged my body snuggly. It was much shorter than I'd prefer, but my best friend, Victoria, insisted that I wear it. 

She picked it out for me along with a pair of black heels. My auburn hair is freely resting on my shoulders. I have light smokey eye shadow and some lip gloss on as far as makeup goes.

Victoria and her boyfriend, Josh, have set me up on a blind date with Josh's friend Harry. I'm extremely worried because this is the first date I've been on since I came to Los Angeles. 

"Ok," Victoria says, pulling my attention away from the mirror, "I know you're excited, but I just want you to remember that Harry is the type of guy who doesn't keep girlfriends very long. It's usually one and done with him."

"I know, but I really feel like this is something that I need to do," I reply.

"Then let's get this party started!" Victoria shouts.

We both grab our bags and head out the door. All of us decided that Victoria and Josh will sit with Harry and I at the bar but not interact with us much. 

At the bottom of my apartment stairs Josh is waiting patiently for Victoria and I. Josh is a handsome mixed Indian man with dark hair and brown eyes. He has been dating Victoria for a little over two years now. He's mentioned Harry a few times. Apparently the three of them went to clubs together every weekend before I moved to California.

"Hey ladies," he smiles at us, "Ready to get going?"

"Ready,"  Victoria and I both agree.

I hop into the back seat of Josh's car, Victoria rides shotgun and Josh drives. It's only about a ten minute drive to the bar. As we near closer my hands start to shake and I'm starting to feel slightly nauseous. Even Josh keeps trying to reassure me that it will be ok, nothing can truly calm my nerves.

I see the glowing sign at the front of the bar and people inside through the windows. This is a local bar so it's not packed, but it's definitely not empty either. We all step out of the car and Victoria tries to calm me down one more time before we walk inside.

"I promise you'll be just fine,"  she smiles.

"Harry says he's running a little late,"  Josh informs us, "He told us to go ahead and grab some seats. He'll be here in a few minutes."

We step inside of the busy building and make our way to the bar. There are a few tables scattered here and there but the bar itself takes up most of the room. Music is playing through the speakers and people and chatting and laughing among themselves. 

I follow Josh and Victoria to the bar stools. We all sit down leaving a stool between us empty for Harry. 

"Ok Caroline," Victoria starts, "Don't freak out but he's here."

I whip my head around and see a tall man walking into the bar. Even from far away I can see that one of his arms is heavily tattooed. He starts walking towards us so I turn back to Victoria and try to act as natural as I can.

"I'm so scared," I admit.

"For the millionth time Caroline you'll be fine."

"Ok. How close is he?"

"Very close. You should probably get up and introduce yourself."

"Alright. I can do this."

I take a deep breath before standing up and turning around to face him. He's much more intimidating up close. His green eyes feel like they're staring into my soul. He sticks his tattooed hand out for me to shake. 

"Hi. I'm Harry Styles,"  he introduces himself with a deep, British accent that nearly makes me melt.

"I- um- I'm Caroline Townes."

Damn it. I can't even speak one sentence without freaking out.

Our hands part and Harry sits down in the empty stool next to me. I start to take notice of his outfit. He's wearing a black button up shirt and grey dress pants. The outfit is so simple yet he looks like a model in it. A tattoo peaks out of his shirt where it's not buttoned. 

He turns his head to meet my eyes once more. We both seem to just admire each other for a moment. I can't seem to form any type of sentence much less start a whole conversation. Luckily Harry does it for me.

"So Caroline,"  he smiles, "You just moved here am I correct?"

"Yeah I just moved here from North Carolina."

"So you're Caroline from Carolina?"

"I guess so," I giggle.

"Why'd you move?"

Damn, this dude is really great at making conversation. Good thing too because if it weren't for him we'd be sitting in awkward silence.

"Well I never really saw myself living on the west coast, but my grandma suggested it to me. She told me to do it because it had always been my dream to live in L.A."

"That's the same reason I moved here from England. Well my grandma didn't tell me too, but I had always wanted to live here."

"I also heard it was a great place for art and design jobs," I add.

"Are you into art?"

"I am. It's more of a hobby, but I don't really have any other career interests. What do you do for a living?"

His shoulders tense up at my question and he stutters his response, "I uh-uhm..."

The bartender comes up and offers to take a drink order from us, cutting off Harry's response.

I can't help but wonder why he got so uncomfortable at such a simple question.

YAY FIRST CHAPTER

hopefully the gifs look ok because i was having an extremely hard time getting them in here.

i hope you all liked the first chapter!!

also the song at the top is just to set the mood and adding songs is inspired by mysterymixtapes