Hunger

July (part 3)

The journey home felt faster, maybe because Frankie really didn't want things to return to normal. She had a few vacation days left, but she would soon be back to work and the everyday hustle. Harry was going to America for a while to record, and even though he had offered to bring her along, she didn't feel right taking the time off work. They were already understaffed as it was. Until Harry left, they had a couple of days at home, and then a trip up to visit their families. Harry was taking her dad to the football match, and she knew her dad was completely in ecstasy that he would be going to see the match from the swanky seats, as he put it.

London was nice in July. Granted, there were showers of rain on and off, but in between the showers, the sun came out and bathed everything in light and warmth. It definitely wasn't as warm as the Maldives, but Frankie was okay with that. She found herself more suitable for the British temperatures.

They were barely back, before the photographers were everywhere, and the peaceful, secluded island was a distant memory. Harry would ask people kindly not to take photos of them, but if people wanted photos, they took photos. Frankie saw photos of herself walking hand in hand with Harry among a string of news stories, the headline reading: Harry praised for his diverse taste in women.

Frankie rolled her eyes at the headline and wondered, who wrote crap like that. In the commentary section below the article, there were lots of people voicing their opinions. Someone also linked to a YouTube clip from an American influencer and body positivity activist, Veronica Louis. Frankie clicked the link and saw the video where Veronica was at some sort of rally or demonstration, speaking loudly to the crowd.

"What I don't get, is why men are praised for being with a woman categorized as curvy or plus-size. Does it make a woman less of a woman, that her body is shaped differently? Isn't she still a woman? Isn't she still beautiful, vulnerable, smart or desirable? Take Harry Styles, for example; his girlfriend is what society would define as a curvy, plus-size woman. And everywhere she goes, she is propelled with hateful comments, while he is praised for being with someone like her. That is so wrong! He is lucky to have found a woman to love, who loves him back. Who the hell cares about her size, gender or ethnicity?"

Frankie couldn't help but smile to herself. She appreciated that someone was standing up for women like her. Harry hadn't settled for her, but that was how society perceived it, orchestrated by the media coverage. It was clear, that the angle on the two of them was, that Harry had settled for someone under his level to prove a point; size didn't matter. The frustrating part of that was, that she was seen as a publicity stunt. Frankie felt a sting of sadness at the thought that Harry's team would back up their relationship, because it was good publicity for him and his brand.

She clicked around Veronica Louis' social media for a while, and landed on her Instagram profile. She decided to follow her, because she wanted to keep an eye and ear out for what Veronica was saying. A couple of minutes later, Veronica followed her back. Frankie was excited to see that she immediately got a dm from Veronica.

'Good to see ya. Hope I haven't stepped on yours or Harry's toes.'

Frankie chuckled to herself and replied:

'Not at all. Thankful for your support.'

Veronica liked the message, and then it was quiet on the line.

Looking through Veronica's posts they were all messages of body positivity. She spoke up for normalising people of every size wearing whatever they wanted. She supported people wanting to love themselves for who they were. And in more than one post, she spoke of the way people treated people with unkindness; a very witty parallel to Harry's Treat People With Kindness.