Before scavenging the entire house and having to dodge an endless amount of couples, Noel ran into Anne. "Have you seen Harry?" she urgently asked.
Anne hesitated for a moment until she finally felt a mental light bulb flash before her eyes. "Ah, I think he's in the second dining room." She smiled and patted Noel's shoulder before continuing on with what she was doing before getting interrupted.
And there Noel went, attempting to kindly push through the people while saying an endless amounts of "excuse me's" and "pardon me's". She scanned the miniature crowd of drunkards until her eyes finally landed on Harry's mop of short-but-curling hair. He was quietly sitting down, as if he was a child expectantly waiting for their guardian to retrieve them. She noticed that he started looking around, drifting into space every once in a while; and she let out a small giggle with a little bit of tears in her eyes.
Noel prepared to walk forward to him until she saw a woman hand him a cup that no doubtedly contained some form of alcohol in it. Noel stopped walking towards him, and instead, she decided to take a few steps back. She knew that she shouldn't have gotten jealous over someone that may have just a friend of his. But she couldn't help it.
Moments later, Noel decided to take the risk of intervening and speaking with Harry face-to-face in order to smooth out any of the rough patches she has created with him. But soon enough, that plan backfired as well. She spotted Harry being assisted by the mystery woman up the stairs and towards his bedroom.
Watching him walk away like that, even though he was most-likely not sober one bit, hurt every inch of her body.
Noel walked alone to a living room that wasn't filled with bustling noises and moving people, so she could quietly reminisce how she lost the guy that has had her heart ever since the first day she met him when she was only six years old.
_____
In Harry's (drunk) eyes:
Harry immediately made his way to one of the farther ends of the house in order to give Noel the space that she most likely wanted and needed. Even though it was right after their fight together, he felt like this situation has been dragging on for quite some time, causing a strain and small blisters to form between the two of them. And the only thing to save him from completely losing it--and potentially losing Noel--would be to drink a large amount of alcohol until he couldn't keep his eyes open.
On his fourth shot of Vodka, a girl whom he knew went by the name of Ashley approached him. When she took a seat next to him, he gave her a grim smile and downed another shot. And another. And one more after that until she interrupted him.
"Getting this drunk already? We haven't even opened gifts yet." She downed a shot of Vodka with him, which was complimentary of Harry as well.
Harry merely shrugged and gave an innocent hiccup noise. He was definitely a little too drunk at this point. "It's jus' problems, you know?" She felt complete sympathy for the emotionally delicate man in front of her and rubbed his shoulder. "I jus' had to fuck things up today. Of course. On my anniversary wi' her," he slurred out.
Ashley downed another shot before returning to the conversation. "Relationship problems too?" Harry nodded and pushed the empty bottle of Vodka away from him. Knowing himself, he would have gotten a second bottle. But he was just too exhausted, mentally and physically, to do so.
"Tell me about your's? Maybe it'll keep my mind off of my own." She nodded and completely faced him. "I ruined my friendship with Arielle by hitting on her... I was just caught in the moment, but I pushed it too far."
"What did you do?"
"I almost kissed her when Niall wasn't looking."
Harry let out a small chuckle. "God, Christmas is supposed to make us drunk with joy, not drunk with sadness." He hiccuped again and it was Ashley's turn to chuckle.
"C'mon," she told him, standing up and lifting out her hand towards him, "You'll pass out any minute. I'll take you up to your room."
And with that, the two heartbroken people left to bury themselves in their sorrows of ruined friendships and relationships. Indeed, this Christmas was definitely not the best for anybody.
• • •
Author's Note - December 24, 2016
I'm so close to being done omg I'm so happy
And merry christmas eve to those who celebrate christmas! <3
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