Meet Me in the Hallway (HS AU)

eighty.

I had a twenty three hour plane trip and a full three hour car ride to sit and psych myself up to meet everyone and yet I still waited till the last minute to actually do so. The sign indicating we had entered the town's limits meant my time was up and instead of being days or hours away, we were now mere minutes out.

"Harry, I can't. You need to pull over and let me out. I'll find a hotel somewhere to stay at and I'll meet you at the airport. I can't do this, I'm literally so stressed right now I think my hair is starting to fall out. They're gonna hate me." My breathing was short and shallow as the panic began to set in.

Harry's hand tightened its grip on my own, trying to be reassuring, but listened to my request anyway and slowly pulled the car onto the side of the road. Just as my hand was about to grab the door handle, all the car doors locked and my head snapped towards Harry.

Before I could protest the entrapment, his hand flew to the back of my head and our lips were smashed together across the centre console. My eyes opened wide at his sudden force and it took me a few minutes to gather myself before I was able to react, finally matching his urgency and moving my lips.

Right as I was about to move my hands to tangle in his hair, which had grown substantially since Christmas, he pulled away from me and gripped my chin between his thumb and index finger.

"You keep talking shit about someone who I love very much and I don't appreciate it one bit. My family is absolutely going to love you and if they don't, it changes nothing. But I swear on Clem's life, they will not hate you. Hear me? They will not hate you because there's nothing about you to hate. Now we're going to drive to my parents house where Clem is waiting for you, you're going to meet them, we're going to have dinner and then I'm going to fulfil a fantasy of mine which includes a hot naked girl in my teenage bedroom."

*

Their house was exactly how I had pictured it in my head. From the immaculate front garden right down to the white picket fence, it seemed so perfectly Harry and therefore, so perfectly Styles. I had only just opened my car door when the front door flew open and a middle aged woman appeared in the doorway. Her eyes widened along with her smile and she began to run through the garden towards the car.

"There you are, angel. I just couldn't wait to see you!" She cried out in a thicker accent than Harry's, throwing her arms open as she got closer to us.

Harry stepped forward and extended his arms to catch his mothers hug but had his ego crushed when she swatted his arms out of the way and wrapped them around me instantly. I was in shock for a few seconds before I quickly reciprocated the tight hug. She smelt heavenly and she clung to me with such a comforting energy that made all my nerves disappear.

Harry's eyes met mine over May's shoulder and he mouthed the simple words, 'told you'. Her muffled sniffles in my shoulder let me know that she was feeling very emotional at the moment. Eventually she parts from me and almost sprints over to Harry. Harry's arms wrap around her and lift her slightly from the ground.

"Shh, mum. It's okay, we're here now. I know, I know. I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I'm sorry." He whispered loud enough for me to hear, stroking the back of her hair soothingly as she let tears fall.

My stomach fell at the sight of tears falling freely down Harry's cheeks. I had tried to convince him to ditch this reunion on the grounds of my own nerves and completely disregarded his own desire to return home. I didn't even know how long it had been since he came back last, I hadn't even asked. I felt so incredibly selfish at my lack of compassion and the fact I had only thought about myself.

Tears pooled in my waterline as I observed just how tight his grip on her was and vice versa. It had obviously been a long time. The front door opened once again and this time two bodies appeared from behind it. A man a touch shorter than Harry began to jog across the front lawn towards us. Robert followed May's route, immediately hugging me and telling me how excited he had been in the lead up to our arrival.