Harry Styles: Real Person [BOOK ONE]

Chapter Ten: The Struggle

Dedicated to @TheWayYouLookTonight for giving me the 20 questions idea from the last chapter of Fanboy and writing literally the best fanfic on wattpad kbye :)

The boys took Mary to a steak house restaurant a block away. The car they took was big enough for all of them and their body guards plus some. “It’s for when the fans attack us and we have to make a quick getaway” Louis explained when she commented on it.

“That happen often?” she asked. They all just laughed.

“You’ll get used to the fans” Liam assured her, “there are five of us, which means that for every one girl who likes Harry, there’s four more who like the rest of us. So you have a 1/5 chance of them hating you.”

Harry hit the back of his head and turned to Mary and whispered to her “don’t worry. No one will hate you. If they do, they’re just jealous.” She rolled her eyes at him but smiled.

When they got to the restaurant no one but the body guards made a move to get out. Mary was confused. “Are we eating here?”

“Yea, but the guards have to make sure they have a table open somewhere we won’t be out in the open first” Niall told her. She nodded. Even eating was a struggle for them. She didn’t know whether to laugh at this or feel bad for them.

The guards came back a minute later and ushered them out of the car. There was no one waiting and plenty of tables open, but the host brought them to the table all the way in the back corner by the kitchen. There were some girls in there that started practically squealing when they walked in, pulling out their phones and taking pictures and video, but none of them made a move to approach them.

The table was circular and fit eight, but the two body guards sat at the table on front of them, most likely to protect them from any crazy attacking hormonal girls. Mary sat facing the corner, which she thought was smart since the girls in there couldn’t see her face. She sat between Harry and an empty seat, where she put her purse. Across from her was Niall, with Liam on one side and Zayn on the other. Louis sat next to Harry on his other side and took the empty seat next to him to put his feet up on.

“Mate do you really haveta do that?” Zayn asked him “You’re feet smell like shit.”

“First of all, yes I do. And second of all, my feet don’t smell like shit, they smell like feet.” Louis sounded matter-of-fact. Mary giggled.

“Whatever they smell like, they smell bad” Zayn responded.

“Could we stop talking about feet? I need to decide what the best food decision is” Niall told them both.

“You’re not even going to decide! You’re just going to order one of everything anyway!” Louis yelled at him. He didn’t deny it.

Mary couldn’t help but feel good when she was with them all. They made her feel comfortable and they were fun. She needed more fun in her life, she decided. She hadn’t been this happy in a very long time.

Harry seemed to read her mind. He smiled at her and squeezed her hand under the table. She took his hand and locked their fingers together.

The waitress came over then. Instantly the body guard behind them tensed. She was a young girl and obviously a fan. She practically ran over to their table. “Hi! Can I get you something to drink!” Everything she said sounded like an exclamation. Her hands were visibly shaking as she wrote down what they wanted, Coke for Louis, Zayn and Liam, beer for Niall, tea for Harry and…

The waitress seemed to notice Mary for the first time. Her eyebrows rose and it looked like her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. Her gaze flickered from Mary’s face to her hand in Harry’s under the table. Mary could almost see the wheels turning in her head. She saw the pictures Mary realized.