Floss // A Harry Styles AU

twenty-four

"Ugh," Geri huffed at the name lighting up her phone screen, promptly shoving it back into her pocket, "he's never going to give up."

I shared a look with Zara, who sat on one of our many picnic blankets wearing the biggest sun hat I've ever seen and eyed me over the top of her sunglasses. I forgot how classy Zara could be when she tried - it suited her. It was completely beneath me, I quite liked constantly looking like a tired potato. Especially when Harry didn't seem to mind it.

"Maybe you should just drop him a text and tell him to give you a wide berth for a bit." Zara suggested with an ambivalent shrug of her shoulders. That was a farce. "I can even do it for you - you know how much I enjoy getting under his skin."

"Don't do that." Geri lurched forward when Zara began to tap away on her phone. "It's bad enough as it is without you shoving your oar in. He can suffer in silence for a bit longer - he deserves it."

Geri and Owen's divorce was finalised yesterday, after many, many agonising months, most of which were news to Zara and I until our girl's night a few weeks ago. I imagine it would be a bitter pill for Owen to swallow when he refuses to be around his ex-wife but it was pre-determined that she could have the kids that weekend. Now he hated the idea and wouldn't stop blowing up her phone, begging her to let him have them. She kept arguing that a deal was a deal - this was their solution and that was that. Owen would have to wait until next weekend to do something with them.

"Has Milly said anything about it?" I asked, out of mere curiosity. Bongo was curled up next to me, having exhausted himself with Ruby earlier. I stroked his ear over and over again, his fur soft in my hand.

Their youngest, Oliver, was only two-years-old and wouldn't understand anything about it until he was much older. Milly, on the other hand - a rather perceptive and intuitive child, much like Ruby, could easily spot something if she put her mind to it.

"No... I don't know how long we're going to get away with it." Geri muttered.

"When my parents divorced I was just taken between the two houses on routine until I understood what was going on. I even said one day, like "Is this how we live now?" to my mum and she just nodded." Zara said, oddly sombre.

"I don't know if Milly's a bit too old for that. Owen doesn't want to tell her and hope she'll figure it out for herself. I-,"

"That's because it'd be easier for him to shape her into hating you." Zara snipped.

I smacked her arm. "Don't say that."

"It's true!" Zara insisted. "Mate, you should tell her. Honesty is important for a child that age. She has a right to know - you can't leave her in the dark. Owen will have the upper hand if you don't tell her, 'cause when she does figure it out and asks him about it, it'll be really easy for him to paint you as a villain."

"Owen isn't like that." I said, mildly irritated. "You know he's not, don't be a cow."

"He's been horrible to her!"

"I mean," Geri stretched her mouth, "I did cheat on him."

Zara rolled her eyes. "Are you gonna beat yourself up over that forever?"

"I'm sure the village will do that for me." She muttered.

"I'd like to see them try." Zara's tone dropped. "Listen, I don't give a flying fuck what Owen says - if I was in your position I'd be the same. Learning you're gay in your mid-twenties must have been such a weird, brain-bending thing to go through and I fucking hate that you're being made to feel bad about it. It's gross. If he loved you he'd have sat back and fucking thought about it, put himself in your shoes, instead of stomping around the village mouthing off about you. Like, he's not the only one affected. He's making you look like shit, and he's implicating August as well. That's not fucking fair."