500 Days of Styles (1D FanFic)

Day 409

Day 409

I looked around the store, instantly regretting this decision.

"Come on, Arden," Alex ushered me, grabbing my hand and pulling me further into the depths of the too bright consumer trap. "A girl's day is just what you need," she grinned, practically skipping to the first rack she spotted.

I sighed, shuffling after her. This was the last thing I needed. What I really needed was to be in bed, sleeping the day away.

Alex held up a green sweater against me, and my first thought about it was how well it would match Harry's eyes.

I instantly scolded myself for thinking about him, sinking into a deeper state of depression.

"Earth to Arden! What do you think of this one?" Alex asked, waving the sweater in my face.

I shook my head, quickly turning away from the green shirt and instead looking through a separate rack of clothing. My eyes scanned the clothes, but I wasn't actually searching. I never liked shopping to begin with, and I really didn't like it now.

"Oh! Wouldn't these shorts look great with that shirt I bought the other week?" Alex asked, holding up a pair of lacy, dark blue shorts.

I simply nodded, turning my attention back to the rack of clothes I was pawing through.

I heard a loud sigh from beside me.

"You could at least pretend to be having fun, you know," Alex said.

I looked up at her. "Alex, I love you, but do we really have to do this?"

She glared at me for a minute before finally giving in and stomping out of the store and over to a nearby restaurant- simply assuming I would follow.

As she reached the door to the restaurant, she spun around to face where I was hovering behind her. "Fine, we won't shop, but we're going to eat food and you're going to talk to me, got it?" she commanded.

I nodded, understanding that I didn't have much of a choice.

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"Alright, so are you going to talk to me, or am I going to have to drag it out of you?" Alex began bluntly after we had placed our orders.

I watched the waiter's retreating back, only turning my attention to Alex once he had disappeared around the corner and back towards the kitchen. "What do you want to talk about?"

"We haven't even talked about this, Ar. I feel like I barely know what happened. I want to be there for you, but it's hard to deal with depressed Arden when you won't even tell me why you're all mope-y."

I sighed. "I mean, didn't I tell you about the club thing?"

She shrugged, "Vaguely. You've been pretty introverted recently."

"Well we went out to the opening of a club together and in short, I danced with a guy and Harry got pissed and made us leave and we didn't talk about it, and then a few days later, you showed me the pictures. That's the whole story," I shrugged.

"Nuh uh," she shook her head. "You never told me what happened after you went to Harry's. You just came back to the apartment and stormed into your room and closed the door. I'm your best friend, you have to talk to someone."

I exhaled through my nose, taking a sip from the water in front of me. "Well you know I went to Harry's. And when I got there, the girl from the pictures opened the door."

Alex's eyes widened, but she remained quiet, wanting me to finish the story.

"Well, Harry claims they're just high school friends who went out to lunch together and then she was back at his place to pick up her coat, but I don't know. We got into a big fight and just sort of mutually broke up."

"Aw, sweetie," Alex cooed, a frown on her face. "I didn't know the whore had been at his apartment."

I shrugged. "It was just really weird."

I could see Alex eyeing me, and by now, I knew her well enough to know that she had something on her mind that she didn't want to say.

"What is it?" I asked, catching her slightly off guard.

"Oh, well, I guess I was just wondering if you thought this was the actual end of 'Harden'? Because you guys have gotten through other rough patches, so I mean, you never know, right?"

I frowned. Every time Harry and I broke up, it always felt like the final time at first, but so far, it had worked out each time. "I don't know, Alex. This time just feels different. I feel almost numb towards him."

"But you have to miss him, don't you?"

"Since when were you so concerned in my love life?" I asked accusingly. Usually Alex was very unbiased, but she was acting anything but at the moment.

"I just- you guys can be so great together sometimes."

I felt a few tugs on my heart- ones that I wanted to deny, but knew that I couldn't. No matter how much I wanted to hate Harry and just forget about him, I knew that I somewhere, deep down, I definitely missed him. Some part of my heart was still holding on and yearning for him- no matter how stupid that was. And maybe that's the way it always would be.

"I don't know, Alex. It's just all a bit messy."

(A/N)- Sorry the chapter's a bit slow and sorry it took so long- school's back in and you wouldn't believe how much homework I have every night. Like it's a miracle I even got this chapter written. Oh, but exciting announcement! Thanks to the help of @Stlinizer I have officially assigned actresses to play Arden and Alex! Arden is played by Leighton Meester and Alex is played by Barbara Palvin!