Letting Go (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter 36: The Prison Guard

Harry Styles

"Styles, you look at that one more time and I'm going to stick it up your arse."

"I'd like to see you try." I rolled my eyes, sticking my phone in my back pocket, and took a huge gulp of the lager in front of me. Damn, I've missed this place. It's been much too long since I've had a decent beer.

The blonde shook his head and waved down the bartender for another guinness. Almost as soon as it slid across the bar, the frothy liquid had all but disappeared down his throat. "Two more!" He bellowed, slamming the empty pint against the counter.

I shook my head. "Easy Horan, I've not yet finished this one."

He tilted his head, looking from me to my half-drunk beer and back to me. "Tell me that's not your first one."

I straightened, pulling my phone back out of my pocket. "So what if it is?"

The screen was still empty. No texts or calls from her. Or anyone. The town hall meeting was already over. Someone should have had the decency to tell me what the hell happened. Sure I was pissed at her, but this whole thing was my idea in the first place. A simple text couldn't be that hard.

Suddenly the phone was snatched out of my hands.

"Oi! What's your problem tonight?" He demanded, holding it across his body so I couldn't reach it.

"I don't have a problem Niall. Just give me my bloody phone."

His eyes narrowed the object, studying it for some sort of clue. After a few moments, he gave up and tossed it carelessly in my direction. I could've killed him for that, but I shoved back into my pocket and gripped the beer tightly in my hands. It had to have worked. There's no way the town would have voted against Ben and Nattie, I knew it. But, I couldn't fight the sinking feeling in my stomach that something was off somehow.

Niall sighed, running a hand over his face. He turned in his bar stool so that he was facing me dead on and grabbed the beer out of my hands. "Let's have it then Styles."

"What are you going on about?"

He leaned his elbow on the counter, his gaze never leaving mine as he took a sip from one of the pints. "First, I haven't heard from ya in over a year," he began. I opened my mouth to protest, but he held his hand up.

"I get it. You were busy hating school and pissing your dad off. And quite frankly, you were a shit communicator to begin with." He chuckled.

I grabbed for the beer, but he pulled it back. "I was not."

"You were a right tosser and you know it Harry." He smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Second, you nearly kidnap me in the middle of the night to go out and have some laughs - 'like old times' you said. But, this-" he frowned sticking the half-drunk beer in my face, "this is not like old times mate."

I tore it from his grasp. "Blimey Niall, I just got off an eight hour flight and I'm jet-lagged. Come off it, will you?"

He rolled his eyes. "I've seen you come back from the States, drunk off your arse, and outdrink everyone in London with three birds on each arm. If you were really buggered, you wouldn't have brought me here."

I turned back towards the bar. "I'm beginning to wonder why I did." I muttered under my breath.

He laughed, downing the rest of his pint before taking the next one in his hand. "Because you want to talk and you know I'll call you out on your shit." He shrugged, a small smirk playing at his lips.

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. Why the hell was I here at 3am?

"I've known you all me life Harry. If you were here to have a good time, you would have already had multiple beers and been talking up the girls. And you would have kept your phone away all night so that when 4 gave you her number, she would have to write it on your hand, giving you the perfect excuse not to call her back." He nodded over his right shoulder.