Allure // Harry Styles AU

Un

Marie Cosette

I remember the birds.

Birds, birds, plenty of them flying high up in the sky. Their wings could be heard rustling from yards away, the beautiful sound of strong muscle being met by delicate feather echoing through the clear sky. My eyes had caught onto them soaring up into the powder blue atmosphere, higher and higher.

I wondered. Are there birds afraid of such heights? Like people are? Or are they more afraid of the ground, of tangible earth under their feet, of the possibility of being stepped on or crushed or shot or some other terrible twist of fate. How backward that would be, birds afraid of the ground. Then again, people are afraid of heights because they're afraid of falling, I don't suppose birds would be scared of some similar repercussion on the ground. I suppose tripping would harm them, but it was only a slight fall of tiny centimeters, much more preferable to sky diving thousands of fee-

Snap! Snap-snap!

I was brought out of my pondering by the flash of memories saved, digitally copied forever into camera film my mother would no doubt have in a frame before evening supper. My eyes blinked the light from them, still seeing circles etched into my retinas while I relaxed my cheeks from all of the smiling I had been forced to do.

I was never one to be quite interested in pictures, but my mother had insisted with her lovely faint French accent my father could never resist.

"Marie, move to the side a bit-just like that!" She had tried to play photographer earlier, commanding my father and I to march round the front lawn and pose and smile and "Marie, at least look a little happy".

I tried, I really did, but it was hard to when your cheeks ached terribly and the hot Florida sun was beating down on your navy graduation cap and gown, turning it into a mobile sauna you just ached to get out of.

My mother was so excited, you would have thought she was the one graduating high school, not me.

"Mom, enough pictures, we'll be late!" I tried to hurry the process along, my mother's eyes widening as she looked at the time on her golden wristwatch.

"Oh goodness! Marie is right, we have to get going." She exclaimed before placing the camera in her purse, hurrying to get my father and I in the car so we wouldn't be late. If there was one thing my mother hated, it was being tardy.

'There's no excuse for it.' She would always tell me, which would explain why I was always dropped off anywhere fifteen minutes early. Even at a friend's house. Even when said friend hadn't even gotten home yet.

I was lucky my best friend Grace was the most understanding person ever, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have no friends. I mean, I was friendly to people and they were friendly back, but I was one to believe I was loved more deeply than widely. Grace was really the only good friend I kept all through high school.

And the only one who death-hugged me after the excruciatingly long graduation ceremony.

I wriggled and gasped for breath as she hugged me tight, squealing happily in my ear. "We did it Marie! We actually did it!"

After Grace's happy hugging, the realization hit her that she will probably never see any of our classmates again, and then proceeded to walk over to all the people she loathed and wasted no time in informing them about her hatred that had been building up over the years. I always did admire Grace's forwardness and confidence.

After the graduation, all of my relatives and family friends went to Grace's and my dual graduation party. My mother absolutely loved having get-togethers, and Grace's mother was an excellent cook, so naturally the two decided to have a huge graduation party. Most of the people there were Grace's family, considering most of the Daniels family lived out of state and Mom's family still lived in France.