Never Give Up: Harry Styles/One Direction Fan Fiction

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Soft rays of sunlight shone through the open window over the bed. I awoke to the sounds of birdcall, my eyes fluttering open. I inhaled deeply as I rubbed my hands against the plush white comforter on the large bed. I was lying on my stomach, and I had fallen asleep facing the large white door that led into the master bathroom of the home that I’d bought with Harry only a few months ago. I reached for where Harry’s warm body should’ve been, but there was nothing. Pushing myself up so that I was propped up on my elbows, I looked around. I was all alone in this huge bed. The sheets where Harry’d slept were ruffled and strewn messily around. I smiled as I imagined him rubbing sleep from his eyes as he stumbled into the bathroom, part of a sheet still clinging to his half naked body for dear life, as he shut the door before he flicked on the light. I sat up slowly, surprised to find a big tray sitting haphazardly toward the end of the bed. I pulled the sheets up around my body as a shiver made its way down my spine.

Bringing the tray closer to myself, I examined the contents more closely. There was a small vase containing two purple lilies, and two partially full cups of food, one with granola and the other with orange juice. I looked at the food closely, as if they were from an alien planet that I’d never seen before. I struggled to wake up fully, and I sat dazed for a moment longer. When I looked back down at the tray, I noticed a note, messily scrawled in Harry’s handwriting, for the first time. Sniffing the delicate flowers, I picked up the note, trying to decipher its message.

“I loved you yesterday, I love you still,” it began, somehow bringing sweet tears to my eyes, “You opened my heart, and you made me feel. Love is nerve wracking, and love is blind, but for a love with you, I sure don’t mind.” I grinned widely at the sweet poem. As I sat in bed surrounded by the sheets, I absentmindedly picked at the granola while I grasped onto the little fragments of my dying dream. I wanted to hold on to each and every piece that I had, reliving every moment. But in the end, it really wasn’t a dream at all. It was a memory. A beautiful fairytale that I never thought I’d get to live. This was the life I had dreamed about when I’d been just a girl. Now that I was nearly twenty-three, it all seemed like it was so long ago. I felt as if I hardly knew the little girl who sat in her room every night, staring at posters for hours upon hours, daydreaming. I hardly recognized her at all. I smiled at all those memories, glad that I’d never given up on my dream, no matter how silly it had seemed all those years ago.

I smiled as I remembered that first kiss in the alley behind the trash can, those days in the hospital, the beautiful night we spent together on the beach. I held the poem close to my chest as I remembered the night Harry had finally popped the question to me. We’d been on a camping trip, trying to escape the world during one hot September after the tour had finally gotten over. We’d just gone to see his parents in Britain, and we were finally going back to California for my mother’s birthday before our holiday. I couldn’t recall most of it now, but I remembered sitting on the edge of the dock that jutted out far into the lake one evening, swinging my legs over the edge as I sat next to Harry, my toes just barely grazing the water’s surface. The sun had begun to set, the sky overhead turning brilliant shades of pink and purple with the dying light. Our legs were brushing ever so slightly, and I could tell he was nervous about something from the way he kept running his fingers through his hair. A soft breeze blew, and I sighed with the relief from the heat. A few light yellow leaves fluttered into the water, and Harry just watched them for a moment before he moved.

“Rae,” he spoke softly, and his words were almost swept away on the breeze. He gazed at me with his huge green eyes, focusing, concentrating on me intently. I’d never seen anyone look at a girl the way that he looked at me that day, and I haven’t since. There was a change in the atmosphere, and it felt like it was electric. Every motion set off sparks; every quiver of air, like a breath above the earth, sending fireworks through my head. It was almost impossible to believe the way that Harry took my breath away with his stunning, simple perfection.