Fade {Harry Styles}

Chapter 1

Marcel pushed his glasses up the bride of his nose with a huff. It had taken him a reasonable amount of time to find the fakes that morning, for he had tossed them into oblivion the previous night.

Grocery shopping, he thought. Ugh. It was strange to him, really. The thought of going out to buy something for himself that was greatly needed in order to survive. He was often greatly supplied with an abundance of food of all the greatest chefs. That and there was always someone else to order the pizza.

But doing something for himself? The thought came up nothing short of disgusting to the boy. It had been a while since he had gone to a grocery store. Perhaps the last time was when he was a small boy at his mother’s side asking if they could get the specific kind of ice cream in a whining tone. 

As he wandered the unfamiliar isles, Marcel tried to keep his mood slightly happy with the thought of getting to be Harry again for the day after today. After an abundance of coaxing, management finally agreed that he could go out as Harry once in a while so it wouldn’t look as if Harry Styles had completely fallen off the face of the planet. It also meant he was able to ditch the glasses and sweater vests for a whole day. 

Nothing could have made him happier in that given moment. 

Picking up a twelve pack of ramen noodles, Marcel realized anything would make him happier at that given moment.

*     *     *

Walking up flights of stairs in his apartment building wasn’t as easy as it looked with 7 sacks of groceries. Marcel’s feet caught repeatedly on the edge of the wooden flights that creaked under any amount of weight. His apartment building wasn’t a shack, actually, to any person who wasn’t used to the luxury of plush, king size beds and voluminous space, the building was actually rather nice. 

A three story building with a reasonable amount of residents. 

Just beyond the door of his apartment resided his kitchen which joined with the fair sizedliving room caused by a large, arched doorway. Beyond the obviously largest room in the place was a short hallway with a bedroom and bathroom. All in quite decent shape.

He simply just didn’t realize how lucky he was.

"Oh, I’m sorry!" Said an unfamiliar voice, stopping Marcel on his last flight of steps to the 3rd level. Someone had bumped into him, causing his balance to nearly crumbled, but he was able to quickly recover without food and necessities littering the walkway.

"Would you like some help?" A feminine voice asked. Marcel looked up, catching the gaze of a girl no older than he. Her slightly frizzed, curly hair was messily pulled from her face in a bun, but golden ringlets still escaped the frame her slender face. She had one ear bud in, the other dangling from her fingers. Her nails were bitten down to stubs, and lacked any coat of nail polish. A few freckles dotted her small nose and Harry realized with a flutter of surprise that she wasn’t wearing any make-up. Did girls even do that? She had a yellow t-shirt on with sweats, and despite her lack of glamour, Harry found her pretty. 

Most girls that caught his attention were always in tight, short dresses that showed off way too much of their fake tanned skin. He had never even dreamed that someone so plainly dressed and casually styled would catch his eye.

Must be the fact he was deprived of women.

Meanwhile, her large gray eyes that held concern still searched his face, awaiting his answer. Marcel, stunned, nodded his head slowly before handing the girl 2 loaded bags, and scuttled down the hallway to his door. 

"You must have just moved in here?" The girl asked as Marcel fished his keys from his pocket with his recently freed hand. "Um, yeah." He cleared his throat. "Just moved in a week ago."

"Oh!" She declared. "Well I’m Kelsey, your neighbor, I guess. I live just down the hall." Marcel, with his back to Kelsey, closed his eyes in a silent prayer to the heavens. 

He wasn’t exactly sure why.

"Really? I haven’t had a chance to really meet any neighbors yet…" Marcel offered weakly to keep the conversation alive. The last thing he needed was a bad impression with his newly founded neighbor. 

Since when had he cared what other people thought of him?

"I bet! You’ve probably been doing loads, getting your stuff unpacked an everything."

Marcel, finally throwing the door open, shuffled inside, Kelsey politely following suit. “Yes. It doesn’t really help that I frequently get lost.” He chuckled, and found a comforting feeling stirring in his chest when Kelsey laughed as well.

"Lost? In Rochester?" She breathed in disbelief. Marcel nodded, his glasses slipping slightly down the bridge of his nose. If he looked like the dork, he was going to have to play the part of the dork as well. Not the stuck up popstar his personality had grown to be.

"Google maps can be pretty handy." She set the plastic bags on the wooden kitchen table just as Marcel had done, with a sweet smile on her face. 

Kindness, Marcel realized. Not many people had shown true, real kindness to Harry lately. At least not in a great while.Maybe, just maybe, they could show it to Marcel.

"I suppose they do." He blurted and mentally facepalmed himself for the lack of witty comment he was able to come up with. 

"Well," Kelsey noted. "I have to run. See you around?" Marcel nodded, and for once, returned a friendly smile without an icy glare to accompany it.

"It was nice meeting you, Kelsey." He pipped as she walked herself to the door. The name felt unfamiliar on his tongue, but in a way that it resembled trying a favorite food for the first time. She turned as her hand reached for the knob. "It was nice meeting you too —?" She stopped, realizing she hadn’t asked his name. "H—" Marcel also stopped himself. "Marcel." He corrected himself. His name, however, was like speaking foreign tongue. Awkward and questionable.

"Marcel." She repeated slowly, testing it out herself. He couldn’t tell by the expression on her face if she thought his name was dorky or fake or what. All she offered him was a neighborly grin.

"Nice to meet you, Marcel." And then she was gone. As quick as she had arrived. 

Marcel stared at the door for a good 10 seconds before forcing his gaze to return. He shrugged, smoothing out his sweater vest and proceeded to put his new items away as the warm feeling that had sparked in his chest was swallowed up by the cold, chilled feeling he was so very used to.