Stronger

Chapter 1

A lot of things could happen to a person who was hit with a football to the head.

In the busy city of London, though, that was a rarity undoubtedly placed to be not in your favor. Whether by God or whatever else you believe in, it was a pain.

I rubbed my head, tiny sparks flying to block my vision, though they were quickly dissipating. There was a bump forming, I could feel it.

My ass was in the grass, and I was almost positive my new business attire was ruined. How would my new boss react to a guy with grass stains on his ass?

He'd probably find it a turn-on, the horny bastard.

There was a laugh not far from where I had fallen. Despite my anger at whoever was laughing at my unfortunate hit, it was still a beautiful sound.

"Sorry mate, my bad." A hand reached out for me, the arm displaying a bird tattoo.

"I'm fine," I muttered, standing up without assistance and grabbing my briefcase, which had taken almost as much damage as my suit.

The boy laughed again at my dismay, picking up his football.

"Gee, I'm glad you get a kick out of making my first day at work miserable," I snapped, brushing myself off.

"Wasn't me. My friend Niall seems to have terrible aim," he explained, pointing to a blonde, undoubtedly embarrassed as he waved shyly, hiding his face behind his jersey.

"Whatever."

"I offered to help you up, at least," he pointed out, cracking a smile. "C'mon, I can't be a complete dick if I tried to help."

"I'm still going to be late," I said with a roll of my eyes. Checking my watch, I now realized I had ten minutes to get halfway across the city. Sighing, I turned to go my way, only to get stopped once more.

"Hey, wait!"

The man sprinted ahead of me, impeding on my movement forward. He held out a hand, free of the football of course.

"You can't leave without a proper introduction. Give me that, at least, for trying to help."

"Harry," I said bluntly, trying to push past him, though my efforts were for naught.

"Louis," he told me, holding his hand out again. I took it reluctantly, shaking it.

His bird tattoo once more got my attention, it's reason on his body unclear. "Louis Tomlinson."

"Styles."

"What?"

"My name is Harry Styles."

Louis smiled, his blue eyes resting on my own as he let go of my hand.

"Well, Harry Styles. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of each other."

*

As much as I tried not to be late, it was nearly impossible. I was only five minutes past when I was supposed to be there, but on my first day, every second counted.

"You're late." I heard those words before I had even taken one step into the office. Smiling sheepishly, I noticed my boss.

He was an older man, maybe in his mid forties, tall, and built big. Whether that was muscle or fat, I couldn't tell, and didn't dare ask. My mum, who had gotten me the job, said his name was Mr. Clive.

"I got a bit sidetracked," I explained, thinking of Louis and his friend, Niall. Louis' words still had me flabbergasted, partly in disgust.

He was an odd boy. I couldn't help but think about him.

"No excuses. And what on earth is on your suit?" Mr. Clive asked, pure distaste evident in his accusatory words.

"I fell, sir," I said, not bothering to explain. He didn't need to know about Louis.

"No matter. Follow me to your quarters," he instructed, turning abruptly on one heel, leaving me to follow.

I was led to a small office, cherry brown, glistening furniture covering it. There was a desk, already stacked with paper for me to file.

"You'll be doing all the paperwork for me, since I'm far to busy to do it myself," Mr. Clive explained, placing yet another few files atop my desk. "Have fun."

"Yes, sir," I said, glad to be left alone to work.

Before he left, Mr. Clive stopped in the doorway, leaning into the office.

"Oh, and Mr. Styles?"

"Yes?"

He looked at me, scanning my body over with hungry eyes.

"Never mind." He said before licking his lips and turning to leave.

His actions left me in a very uncomfortable position; mainly because I wasn't sure if he was checking me out or trying to decide if he was going to eat me later.  Either way I planned to stay as far away from him as possible. 

The man gave me the creeps.

I sat my things down towards the right side of my desk before resting in the oversized office chair and letting out a deep breath I didn't know I was holding.

Today has been one of the most stressful days this month and I didn't exactly know why. 

It wasn't necessarily the fact that I had been nervous about impressing my boss on the first day, which, ironically enough, seemed to be a waste of time, but moreover the impending doom I was soon to face.

More precisely, it was the utter reality of the situation I have allowed myself to become a part of.

This job, I thought, could be the start of something new.  A clean break from the despicable tragedies I've faced in my not so luxurious past.

But upon arriving here, I knew this would just be a temporary fix to a not so temporary problem.

I've always had trouble keeping a steady job, which could be attributed to my short fuse and vengeful nature, but also due to the fact that I didn't seem to be what anyone wanted.

They wanted fast workers who did everything according to standard and never broke away from the social norms they were constricted to.

And I was none of those things.

I acted on impulse, like most humans, and figured it to be easier to work at my own pace rather than fit my skills into a set time frame which I never seemed to understand.

I get my work done, yes, but they wanted it completed a certain way.  Even if it was done correctly, they wanted it done by their standards and I wasn't down for that.

And I wasn't about to start now.

I looked over to my left and noticed a small note on a cabinet that faced the window on the opposite side of the room.

I'm not exactly sure whether it was meant for me or not, but considering it was my office I figured it was.

I tore the note from the cabinet and read it.

Lunch is at 12.  Meet me in the lounge by the table with the red chairs.

That's strange.

I hadn't met anyone else here, besides Mr. Clive, so maybe the note wasn't meant for me?

I quickly reattached the note and sat back down into my chair and began to work on the mountain of papers that had to be filed.

It couldn't have been more than 2 hours when a heavyset woman appeared in the doorway to my office.

She lightly grazed her knuckles across the wooden door and I looked up.

"Lunch is in 5 minutes my dearest."  She said with a wary smile before stalking off into the hallway.

I'm guessing that's one of my many lovely coworkers I was soon to be introduced to.

Oh joy.