My First | Harry Styles

Chapter Forty

Harry POV

I was fuming by the time I was upstairs in my room. She has to be joking. A thousand thoughts were surfacing in my head, all of which irritated me more and more. I felt my pulse quicken as I clenched my fists, not sure how to release my anger.

A strange buzz was felt through the pocket of my jeans. I hesitated to retrieve the object calling my attention, but let my curiosity get the best of me.

My chest lifted unwillingly at the familiar name appearing on the screen.

From: Tess
I'm going to bed now. Exhausted. But I wanted to thank you again for today. It meant so much, I mean you mean so much to me. Good night, Harry.

The sweet message served to relax some of my tense muscles. Part of me wanted to text her back to meet up in our tree house, but it was late and she was exhausted and I didn't want to fuel my anger onto her. So I texted her a simple goodnight, only after sending did I realise I might have come off harsher than intended.

Before I could add anything else, my door was pushed open.

For a second I assumed it was my mum coming in to tell me this was all a joke and say "ha ha you should have seen your face". But of course, it wasn't quite like that. Instead, Gemma peeked her head through the door frame, for the first time in her life unsure whether to barge in or not.

"Are you decent?" She laughed.

Her humour would have lifted my heavy mood, but right now it only made me more annoyed.

She took my silence as permission to come inside, so she did.

"I would ask you if you're alright, but I know damn well that's a stupid question." She said, leaning against my dresser after quietly tiptoeing around my bed. "So instead I'll ask you this: what's going to happen?"

I felt like someone had ignited a flame inside my chest and every word people spoke aided the intensity.

"What do you mean?" I looked up at her, brows knitted. "Everything's planned already. There's nothing left to do."

Gemma let out a gasp and a laugh.

"Nothing left to do?" She repeated in a lame imitation of my voice. "Who are you and what have you done with my brother?"

I understood what she was talking about. Usually, I would never let anybody make these type of huge decisions for me. This was my life, which meant I was the one to make the decisions and how things would play out. But right now I was confused. All my thoughts were jumbled. Nothing made sense.

"Harry." She sighed, walking over to the edge of my bed and sitting. She gave me a compassionate look before smiling, which was weird. "Try to think. Maybe you can get Tess to help you convince mum to let us stay."

The mere mention of Tess' name made my heart do a gymnastics routine.

"What makes you think Tess would help?" I asked, becoming a bit protective to her name.

Gemma's eyes crinkled as she spread her lips into a small curve. Something about the way she smirked sent a nervous wave down my spine.

"Well she's your best friend, isn't she?" Gemma asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. I opened my mouth to reply, but apparently her questioning wasn't over. "Only your best friend?"

"What the hell is this? Thirty questions?" I fell back on my assortment of pillows.

When I sat up I knew by the look in her eye that she wasn't as dense as she let on. Gemma knew about Tess and I and I had no idea how.