Hot (Harry Styles Fanfiction)

8

            “$5.59 please.” I handed the cashier a ten and waited patiently for my change.

            I tucked my hair behind my ear and tapped my foot as I put the coins, bills, and receipt away. I was picking up a nice big tub of ice cream since we didn’t have any more cold treats at home.

            It had been a few days since my second date with Harry. We texted a few times, nothing big, but he was pretty busy with practice to hang out again.

            “Aria!” I heard someone call from behind me. I turned and saw Austin.

            “Hey,” I cautiously replied. I think Austin saw my hesitation and he dropped his hand and smiled warmly. He jogged over to me. I didn’t realize how tall he was until we stood side by side.

            “How are you?” he asked.

            “Good. And you?” I swallowed nervously. I wasn’t sure what to think of him. Although our interactions weren’t too bad, and he did defend me, he was with Lisa. And honestly Lisa seemed a little foul.

            “I’m good.” He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth nervously.

            “I’m sorry about bouncing in on your outing with Styles,” he apologized. I raised my eyebrows at his slang.

            “It’s fine. You guys friends?”

            “Not quite. We played soccer against each other. Rival high schools. But now we’re both playing for UCLA. I’m not sure what that means though,” he chuckled nervously and ran his hand through his short blond hair. I noted that it wasn’t as nice as when Harry did that with his hair. I shook my head to focus on the conversation.

            “That’s nice.” That was lame. I tried smiling at him to diffuse some of the awkwardness I was exuding.

            “I was umm,” he cleared his throat, “wondering if you wanted to go out sometime.” It was kind of adorable how unsure he was. My face started heating up. Obviously he didn’t know about my parents.

            It was a bit of a shock that it seemed like two guys were interested in me in such a small span of time. Then again, Austin probably just meant hanging out as friends. I wouldn’t mind that, since I did think that Harry meant more considering we did call our “outings” as dates. I realized that I never corrected Austin on his blunder earlier. I guess I still did have some reservations on my ties with Harry.

            “I-I’m not sure, r-really,” I stammered out. He seemed to look pretty dejected.

            “But I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to hang out,” I finished. Austin’s face lit up and he pulled his phone out.

            “Great! Let me take your number.” I grimaced a little, but he didn’t seem to notice and I rattled my number off to him. Austin seemed like a friendly enough guy. Surely hanging out wouldn’t be too bad.

            “I’ll call you sometime.” I wondered if he would actually call or just text me, as was the norm now.

            “It was nice seeing you Aria,” he said, leaning in towards me.

            “You too Austin.” I leant away in confusion but Austin wrapped his arms around me in an awkward hug since mine hung limply by my sides. I could feel his big muscles as they lightly squeezed before letting me go. I felt a bit like a rag doll compared to him.