Hunger

February (part 1)

Abi's birthday was on the first of february. Frankie planned a dinner at their flat and then they would go out for drinks at their favourite pub afterwards. She invited six good friends to come and celebrate Abi with her. She was turning 30, and Frankie wanted to surprise her with a party. Abi was at work until around 6.15 PM, and Frankie would have everything ready, including the guests at 6 PM, so when Abi entered the flat, they would all call out "Surprise!" and Frankie already imagined the surprised and happy look on her friend's face. 

By 5.45 PM their friends had started arriving, everyone bringing neatly wrapped presents and looking sharp. Frankie had spent a lot of time on her outfit and doing her hair and makeup. She was wearing a black dress in lacy fabric. She felt good about herself. Her affirmation for the day was: "I am worthy, wise and wonderful," and she was sticking to that. Her hair was extra shiny, after she had started using some nice products, Abi had suggested to her, and she felt good about how her long waves of dark hair fell down her back. She was generally feeling on top of the world, until she remembered, that she had forgotten to buy a bottle of bubbly, for when Abi came in the door. She felt a chill run through her, and she hurried downstairs to the off-licence, hoping they had something she could use. 

The bell in the door dinged when she entered the shop. They came by every now and again to buy alcohol, but mostly they popped down and bought ice cubes for the cheaper alcohol, they had bought in Tesco. 

Frankie greeted the older man, who ran the off-licence. He nodded and greeted her, taking an extra look. She hoped it was a double take because she looked pretty. But when all came to all, it didn't matter why he looked at her, she needed to stop thinking about what everyone else thought about her. She walked down one of the aisles and found the shelf with bubbly wine. She didn't want to spend a fortune on a bottle, but she wanted it to be tasty and sweet. On the other side of the aisle she heard a couple of men talking. 

"How about this one?" A man asked with a slight frustration traceable in his voice. They had probably looked at a lot of bottles. 

"I really prefer Italian wine, to be honest James." The other man answered, his voice deep and slow and very familiar.

Frankie didn't mean to eavesdrop, but she was having a hard time focusing on anything, stressed out that she needed to pick a bottle, and get back up to the flat, before Abi came home. 

"Harry, it's your birthday, you can pick whichever bloody bottle you want," the other guy, whose name must be James, tried to convince his friend. 

Frankie did a quick eenie meenie minie moe to herself and picked a bottle. It didn't matter where it was made, but she preferred that it didn't cost a lot. She nodded to herself and started to walk towards the end of the aisle, not looking where she was going. She looked up a little too late, as she crashed into a person, who came towards her. She dropped the bottle she had picked on the floor, and the clear, bubbly liquid sprayed up on the person's trousers. She slipped on the wine and landed on her knee. 

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed looking at the pool of wine on the floor. 

"It was my fault, I didn't see where I was going," he said and Frankie looked up and met his very kind, green eyes. He held out his hand to help her up and she took it, not able to take her eyes off him. She recognised him straight away. Harry Styles. Like most other 2010 teenage girls, she had followed him and his bandmates, when they competed on the X-factor. Her friends and she would gather in front of the TV on friday nights, swooning over the five, cute boys, their phones in hand voting for them to move on to the next week. She had gone to several One Direction concerts with her friends, and they had danced, screamed and cried, like thousands of other teenagers. It had fizzled out as she got a little older and her taste in music changed. Her interest had come back when he went solo though, since his music was more her style.