outcasts. | harry styles au

one.

" i'll be home by seven!" lennon told her mom. she grabbed her maroon eastpak backpack and put it on so it was resting on her back. she glanced at the antique watch on her pale left wrist to see it was already five. so she had a hour to browse.

her scuffed up high top converse hit the paved pathway to the garage. she grabbed her army green beach cruiser that was leaned up against the new garage wall. she pulled out her bike on to the newly paved black top drive way. she swung her leg over and sat on the ripped leather brown seat and started to peddle down the road. the breeze made a couple of fly aways escape from lennon's braid as she peddled faster.

after twenty five minutes she pulled up into the thrift store parking lot that was bare. she got off her bike and pulled the bike into a bike rack. she grabbed the chain from her bag along with the black and white lock , to lock up her bike.

when her bike was secured lennon made her way inside the thrift store, a place she loved. cindy, the woman behind the old counter smiled at lennon, who was a frequent visitor. lennon smiled back and grabbed a old donated wire basket to put her stuff in.

she made her way to the book section which was shelves and shelves of books. lennon loved books. she loved how she can look through somebody else's eyes for awhile, go into their world their life. she took a seat on the floor criss cross apples sauce to get a look at the bottom shelf. the coolness of the floor made goosebumps rise on lennon's uncovered legs and partial thigh. she set the basket next to her and began looking for a book that looks interesting.

her small pale hands skimmed the spines of the mixture of books that were on the shelf waiting for a title to seem interesting enough to pull out and read the book. in ten minutes lennon found three books, one being the atlas of the united states, one on astronomy, and a worn copy of the great gatsby, a book she read in school and fell in love with.

lennon placed the books in the basket and stood to her feet wiping off any dirt off her high waited light washed shorts. she glanced at the clothing section and saw a curly haired boy where she usually browses. lennon became curious, she never seen this boy before. which was unusual since this was such a small town.

she as rude as it was couldn't take her eyes off him. he was tall and black skinny jeans on that looked really tight with fraying holes in the knees. he had on a plain black tee that looked well worn and brown boots on his feet with a little heel that looked like they have been used a lot.his hair was pulled back into a bun which surprised her that he would do something that bold as be a man and have a bun in this town.

she noticed he had a sharp jawline as he picked up a hanger that held a white tee shirt and looked like he was trying to decided whether or not to get it or not.

but she liked it . that he was different. well by the looks of it. she started walking over the the rack of clothes next to him that held the flannels. the wire basket bumped against her thigh as she made unsure slow steps to the rack that was near the undecided boy.

she let out a small breath when she made it to the rack and began browsing the flannels. lennon snuck a glance at the boy next to her to see that he was looking at her. lennons cheeks flushed a dark shade of pink, at being caught and looked down.

" hello. " she heard him say in a deep voice and it would be rude to ignore him so lennon lifted her head and looked at him. she noticed he had light sea foam eyes that looked kind and that he had nice pink plump lips. good characteristic.

" hello, how are you?" she smiled trying to make conversation. even though lennon wasn't the most out going person something about this boy made her want to know more about him.

his eyebrows furrowed and he held up the shirt that she saw him looking at from afar, she noticed the tattoos littering the arm that held it up.

" do you think i should get this?" he asked her which made her confused because it was just a plain white circle neck tee. lennon surprised him by taking the hanger holding the tee shirt out his large hand and held it up to him over his black tee shirt

she pretended to think about if it would look good or not because it would look good make a nice contrast with his black tattoos. she gave him a smile and nodded.

"yes i think everybody needs more plain white tees." she said to him truthfully, she had many of them at home but couldn't ever keep them white because she always stain them.

he smiled and nodded in agreement draping the shirt over his arm and began looking for more shirts. lennon spotted a white and blue flannel with white being the dominant color and it up. it looked good no stains and look about the right size maybe being only a little too big on her.

she draped it over her arm like the boy did with his and continued looking. lennon also saw a see through black rose print kimono jacket that looked like it was from the seventies. she glanced at the price tag which stated it was only $2.99. lennon placed the wire basket down on the floor setting the hanger with the flannel on top of it and shrugged off her eastpak maroon backpack setting it next to the wire basket on the floor.

she then took the kimono off the hanger and tried it on since she was just wearing a plain white stainless tank top. it fit nicely and lennon was very happy with the find.

"it looks very nice on you. " the familiar deep voice commented startling lennon. she turned around to the boy and smiled.

"thank you." lennon said thankfully. the boy's lips curled upward into a smile. she noticed that there were a couple new shirts were on his arm. which made her smile that someone, other than her, didn't mind getting clothes from the thrift store.

"i'm harry." harry introduced sticking out his hand for lennon to shake. lennon placed her hand in his and shook his hand.

"i'm lennon." lennon introduced herself making harry raise his eyebrows.

"what an interesting name, I like it." harry told her breaking the hand shake by retracting his hand. lennon could feel her cheeks heat up at the comment.

lennon then remembering that she was on a time crunch and glanced at her watch. she had to leave here in five minutes. and she still had to check out, pack it into her bag, and unlock her bike.

lennon hurriedly shrugged off the kimono not bothering to put it back on the hanger, swung her eastpak maroon backpack over her shoulder and picked up the wire basket.

" I got to go harry, nice meeting you. " lennon breathed, and before he could respond she quick walked over to the check out counter where cindy was reading a book. lennon placed the wire basket and the clothes on the counter making cindy put down her book and give lennon a sweet smile.

"hey honey, how are you?" cindy asked as she started to ring up the items with the outdated cash register. lennon swung her backpack so she could grab her wallet to pay.

"um good. " lennon answered opening up the wallet ready to pay. lennon glanced behind her to see if harry was still where they were, and he was still looking at the racks of shirts.

"that will be $7.59 lennon." cindy said. lennon whipped back around and pulled out eight ones. she unzipped the large compartment of the backpack and stuffed the books and clothes inside along with her wallet.

"keep the change." lennon told her swinging the backpack back on her back with the straps on.

"bye lennon. tell your mom i said hi!" cindy shouted to lennon as she rushed out the door. she didn't want to seem rude, but she knew if she wasn't home by seven, the time her father came home, she would be in a lot of trouble.

 she wasn't in the mood for his yelling tonight. after taking the chain off her bike and putting it in her backpack she started peddling home. she hoped she would remember to tell her mom that cindy said high since it would probably make her day.

cindy and lennon's mom were high school best friends, and then after high school they couldn't talk or see each other much anymore since lennon's mom married her father. and her father was strict on who they were allowed to talk to. lennon's mother wasn't allowed to talk to her  cindy anymore because her father said cindy was too poor to be associated with.

another glanced at her watch she had only had ten minutes to seven, and with that lennon peddled faster.

(please give this a chance, it gets better.)