Endlessly (Harry Styles Fan Fiction)

Chapter 8

Harry looked on as Casey played with the frays on the ends of her shorts.  From the way she looked down anxiously at her tattered shoes, he knew she didn’t want to engage in casual conversation.   There was a barrier up with Casey, sort of like the same wall that Harry had built around himself.  The two of them were alike in that sense; they found themselves rejecting any chance they got to let someone else in.  It wasn’t in their faults; the past had just damaged them beyond comprehension.

                “I mean, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,” Harry tried, swallowing the knot in his throat and taking a chance.

                Her eyes flickered up towards his causing his heart to race.  There was something about Casey that set her apart from any girl Harry had ever seen before.   He didn’t know much about her, and likewise with him.  He questioned whether or not it would be in his best interest to let her in or not; let her breach the walls he had placed to keep the violators out.  He didn’t know why, but it seemed like she was worth the try.

                “Fine,” Casey agreed.  She nudged passed him and walked toward a secluded table in the back.  Harry looked down and smirked before willingly following her.

                The dim light from the rising sun outside shone faintly through half raised screen of the window.  She peered at the outside world before her, both hands clasped around the base of her cup.  Harry looked down, circling his thumbs around each other and struggling to find words to say.  He wanted to ask why she was so cold and frigid, why the thought of another person caring for her sent her very thoughts into whirlwinds. 

                “So, you’re new around here,” he began.  Her head whipped back towards him and she pushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear.  She rolled her eyes as she brought the cup to her lips.

                “Obviously,” she said, the steam curling around her face.

                Harry chuckled softly, seeing right through the tough girl front she had been putting on.  He knew from the moment he met her that it was fake; something, or someone rather, caused her to behave like this.

                He removed the flannel that hung loosely upon his broad figure and draped it around the chair, not noticing it slip off and pool around him.  The black button up scooped low, revealing two silver chains and inked swallows the swooped below his collarbones.  The brand on his chest caught Casey’s eye, an unfamiliar feeling swirling about in the pit of her stomach.  She peered at them lustfully, wanting to draw closer to him and tug at his shirt so she could get a better look, but she refrained.  Maybe he wasn’t as annoying and soft as she made him out to be.

                “We move around a lot,” Casey finally said.  Her eyes shut tight as the words fell effortlessly from her lips; she couldn’t stop them even if she tried. 

                “Why?”  He asked, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips pursed as he leaned forward.  The cotton number concealing his chiseled figure drooped lower and she could now see both of the birds in their entirety.  She felt her cheeks redden and instantly put a stop to it; there was no way she would allow herself to feel this way.

                She shrugged her shoulders and traced circles over and over again on the table with her index finger.  Should I even go on?  She thought to herself.  Casey talked about her past close to never.  The past was the past for a reason; she couldn’t unveil that much detail about herself to other people.

                But she did it anyways.

                “Because of,” she paused, then reassuring herself it was okay to continue.  She felt safe with Harry, and she didn’t want it to.  The only person she would ever allow herself to feel completely secure in was her.  So why was it so natural to trust Harry?  She barely knew him.  But she wanted to know him, and that was the problem.