The Element of Happiness ~ A Harry Styles Fanfic

The element of happiness

I lay in bed, staring at the inky black sky. No stars. Ever since I can remember, I've never seen stars in the sky. I carried on staring, fiddling with a bit of loose thread on my feather pillow. I heard laughter from downstairs, and instantly a feeling of fear and anger twisted my stomach into knots.
"BREE!!!" I heard my boyfriend Sam shout. My mum taught her daughters that a woman should never let a man orchestrate her life, take control of her and make her a shadow of her former self, but that's exactly what I'd done. Sam was all kinds of crazy and abusive; and little did I know that for that ONE second I let him think it was okay to hit me, I'd gotten myself a one-way ticket to a path of complete and irretrievable destruction.

I rolled my eyes and slipped out of bed, fixing my hair before stopping on the stairs.
"Go to the shop for us. We need more beer." Sam slurred. My lip curled in disdain.

"Go and get it yourself!" I replied, clearly not impressed. All his friends stopped talking and turned to me, the TV blaring in the background. Sam frowned.

"I said go to the fucking shop, you little bitch!" he spat. I looked at him.

Sam was sprawled out on the sofa and surrounded by beer cans, which made the air smell thick and stale. The smell of weed and something else chemically sweet was strong, and his friends leered at me as they blew smoke in my direction, their bloodshot eyes scanning my entire body. Disgusting.
In a spur of the moment, I totally exploded. I wasn't gonna take this anymore.
"You know what? FUCK you! You can rot in hell,  I'm done with this." I spat back, coming down the stairs. They watched and cackled as I laced up my dirty high-tops, clearly too drunk and high to give me further abuse, and slammed out of the house.

My phone banged against my bare thigh in Sam's hoodie pocket as I stormed down the streets of north london, not quite sure where I was going or what I was doing. I thought about how empowered I had felt standing up to Sam. I smiled to myself. It was liberating!
But THEN I thought about what I'd receive when I got home. I slowed to a stop, folding my arms and beginning to bite my lip.

"This is stupid..." I said to myself, the adrenaline fading. I spotted a starbucks and felt around in the pocket of my shorts. I had just enough money for a frappe. At least this was somewhere quiet for me to think, right?
I walked in and made my order, telling my best friend Tara everything via text. I was surprised he let me even a HAVE friends at this point. In his messed up mind, I was cheating on him with EVERYONE.
I walked out of the shop, making my way to the nearest park.

"This is SO stupid! Why do I always do that?" I muttered angrily to myself. The road I was walking down was quiet, and the light summers breeze slightly tousled my hair. It was true; the little uprising against Sam was not wise, as it would only prove to be leverage for him to throw me about the house some more later. "Why can't I really stick up for myself? I mean, if I report him maybe he would- UHH!" I was cut off mid sentence as I crashed into someone, dropping everything and clattering over my own clumsy feet as I was winded by this unnoticed stranger.

"Oh my god, are you alright?!" I heard this guy apologise. He had a funny accent: London but, kind of like the people in Coronation Street. "I'm sorry! I'll buy you another one! I'll buy you a new phone! Is it broken?" I rubbed my scathed knee, before looking up to scowl fiercely at my assailant. The guy had short-ish cut on his dark brown hair, with the top still long enough to have loose curls flipped lazily to the left. His eyes were a greyish green framed by long dark lashes to match his hair, and he had the deepest dimples I'd ever seen in my entire life.
Wait a second, I thought, feeling myself squint skeptically. Isn't he?...

"As good as anyone who's just been winded and had their drink spilled all over the floor!" I replied sourly, and he half smiles, biting his bottom lip as I picked up my phone and stood up with him. A look of curiosity flickered across his face.