1 in 7 Billion (Harry Styles)

Chapter 8

After a sleepless night, I roll out of bed and trudge to the bathroom. I stand in the shower under the hot water for what feel like forever.
When I step out, it's 8:30. I take my time blow drying my hair and I don't bother straightening my wildly wavy hair. I pull a fabric headband across my forehead and pair it with ripped skinny jeans and a loose flannel. It's way too early in the morning to even attempt a respectable outfit. I apply a little make-up and lay down on my bed. My eyelids are heavy. My body doesn't function this early in the day.
I must of drifted off because my eyes open at the sound of my elevator dinging. I turn my head and see a lurpy boy step out of it.
"Aww. Poor wittle Haywee." Harry says and strokes my hair. I moan and turn my head away from him. I'm too sleepy for this shit.
"C'mon now. Let's go!" He adds. I sit up and stretch my arms.
"I was just resting my eyes." I yawn.
Harry just laughs and grabs my purse off the couch for me.
"I knew I'd find you asleep when you didn't answer my calls." he smiles clearly amused.
"I'm not a morning person, ok?" I rub my eyes.
"You don't say?" he sarcastically remarks as I climb into an expensive looking car, and find Liam and Zayn already buckled up.
"I hope you don't mind me tagging along Hayley. Louis made an awful excuse for a breakfast this morning and I needed some real food." Zayn says to me.
"No big deal, I don't care." Zayn gives me a nod and looks out the window.
"Why do you boys all wake up so early?" I say. I'm honestly curious, why they aren't all sleeping until noon like normal people.
"You act like it's 3 am!" Harry shouts. Liam and Zayn laugh at his remark and I join them.
"I don't function until at least 10:30." I say with a smirk.
"Good to know. I'll take that into consideration next time I invite you somewhere." Harry smiles.
My heart flutters at the thought of 'next time.'
I love being able to joke around with him, it's comfortable and easy. We make small talk as we pull up to an expensive looking restaurant. Harry gets out first and holds his hand out to help me step down from the car. His hands are soft, but rough will calluses. They consume my tiny hands as his long fingers wrap around them. I glance at the little cross tattoo, but look away.
"Thank you." I cheerily say.
I follow the boys into the restaurant and the hostess clearly recognizes the boys, but tries to play it cool. She sits us down at a booth toward the back, and I'm relieved. Liam orders us all coffee and we start to look over the menu. Before we can even start a conversation a girl who looks around 11 or 12 rushes over to our booth.
"Y-y-you are from One direction!" she squeals and I laugh at her excitement.
The boys are polite and sign autographs and she takes pictures with them.
"Could you do us a favor?" Zayn say sweetly to the girl.
"Anything!"
"Could you not post those pictures anywhere yet? Can you wait a couple hours?"
"Of course!" the little girl runs over to her mom who doesn't seem too interested.
"Why did you tell her to wait to post those pictures?" I ask.
"Well unless you want to be swarmed by hundreds of girls in the next hour.." Harry says and takes a sip of his coffee. Oh. Sometimes I forget how famous they actually are.
When the waitress comes around Harry orders for me, and it's something I've never even heard of. I give him an offended look when he grabs the menu from my hands, and gives it to the waitress. She walks away and I'm still glaring at Harry with my mouth open. He puts his arm behind me and lays it on top of the booth.
"What?" he smiles his cheesy smile at me, and I feel the corners of my mouth turn up.
"You're ridiculous." I try and act mad, but he's too damn charming.
The other boys laugh and I find myself defeated by the cheeky British boy sitting next to me.
"So Hayley, why you livin' in New York?" Liam asks me.
"Well, I was living with my sister, and I felt like I just needed to live on my own for awhile and give her a break from me. Plus I got a job at the New York Times, so it just felt like the right decision to move her. Start fresh." I explain.
"To start fresh." Harry chimes in. "I like that." he smiles at me and I smile back.
Is this normal? I've never really had a guy friend, or a girl friend either but still. We're just being friendly.. because we're friends.
"Where and why were you living with your sister?" Liam asks trying to keep the conversation going, and ignoring mine and Harry's weird exchange.
"Oh my parents died a couple years ago.." I feel awkward telling them something so personal when I only met Liam and Zayn last night.
"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-". I cut him off my putting my hand in the air to stop him.
"No no, it's totally fine. You had no idea ."
I give him a reassuring smile. It honesty is fine. I sulked around for years and now I'm done feeling sorry for myself. The awkward moment ends when the waitress stops at our table with a tray full of food. I stare at my plate, then look at Harry.
"Go on now, try it." he tells me with a smile.
"What is it?" I retaliate.
"Hayley, just try the damn food." He smiles at me softening his harsh words.
It looks like a fancy omelet, and I decide it couldn't be too bad. I cut into it a bring the piece up to mouth. It's steaming so I blow on it before sticking it in my mouth. It's some sort of egg cheese and mystery meat combination and it's delicious. I chew and swallow and look over at Harry.
"Well?" he says.
"Well what?"
"How is it?"
"Why do I feel you're more excited about my breakfast than I am?" I shoot back.
He smiles and shakes his head.
"Such a charmer." he says and takes a bite of his toast. I look at the other boys and Liam is shoveling food into his mouth and Zayn is texting someone. Probably his girlfriend.. does he have a girlfriend?
By the time we finish eating there is a huge crowd of girls outside screaming a banging in the windows.
"Looks like your little friend didn't keep her side of the deal." I say.
I have no idea how these fans will react to seeing me with the boys. Some nobody hanging out with One Direction.
As we're about to walk out of the doors, Harry brings his lips to my ear.
"Hold onto my arm, and don't let go until we get inside the car."
I do as he says and look at the ground. Security is holding back the fans and we speed walk to the car. They're shouting things at us but I can only make out the "I love you!"s and blood curdling screams. I also see cameras flashing at us, and I secretly hope I'm not on some cover of a tabloid.
"That wasn't too bad, right Hayley?" Liam asks with a smile.
"Oh yeah that was nothing." I wave it off in a joking kind of way, and the boys laugh a little.
I'm not mad or anything, they're celebrities so of course there will be paparazzi every where.
When they pull up to my building, I don't move.
"Thank you for breakfast. I had a nice time." I look around all of them.
"Uh do you uh want to hang out later or something?" Harry asks me, trying hard to keep his eye contact with me.
"You could just come up now if you'd like?" I offer without thinking. Of course, he doesn't want to. He just spent two hours with you at breakfast and all of last night.
My assumptions are wrong as he gives me a huge smile with his tongue between his teeth. He quickly wiped his grin away before Liam or Zayn can acknowledge it.
"Oh yeah, sure." He says casually, and says goodbye to Liam and Zayn, telling them he'll call them later.
He climbs out first and holds the door for me.
When we make it up to my studio, I plop down onto my couch, and stretch across it.
"So Harry," I begin.
"Yes." he sits on the ground leaning back on his elbows for support.
"I've been doing a bit of digging lately-"
"Oh have you now?" he smirks.
i shoot another smirk back at him, "Yes." I shift my body on the couch. "and according to my research, you are quite the womanizer."
He let's his head fall back and laughs a little before he responds.
"Oh Hayley, not you too!" he squeezes his eyes closed and rubs his face.
"What?" I say innocently.
"You should know by now, I'm not very good with women." he blushes.
"I beg to differ."
"Hayley, please. I'm beyond awkward."
How can he sit here and pretend he's bad with women, when he's one of the most charming people I've ever met.
"Harry, you've got to be kidding me! You're the Harry Styles. Don't try to deceive me into thinking you're something you're not." I wink at him, and he giggles his stupid and embarrassed way, that I can't help but smile at.
"I promise you, the media makes me seem that way. I'm awful at talking to girls." he defends himself.
"I'm a girl. You're talking to me just fine." I point out.
"Yeah right now I am." He laughs at his own expense. "But remember when we were stuck in here for the night? I kept asking you questions because I didn't want to talk and say something stupid."
This gives me stomach butterflies for some reason, but I wave them off like they're nothing.
"So you're saying you have problems asking out girls?"
Instead of answering he lays on his back with his eyes closed and moans. I can't help but laugh.
"We can always work on that." I say.
He opens one eye and peers over at me.
"Like practice?" he questions.
"Exactly."
"I don't think that's a good idea." he says.
"And why is that?"
"Asking a girl out isn't the problem here. It's the whole expressing your feelings shit that I suck at."
"Oh." I try hard not to laugh at his expense, but the look he's giving me is priceless and I can't help it.
"I'm leaving." he stands up, clearly embarrassed with our conversation.
I stop between him and the elevator and grab his arms. I'm still laughing but I'm trying so hard to stop.
"No no no. I'm sorry." I smile, and my cheeks are still red from laughing.
"Stop laughing." he tells me and it makes him laugh so he turns away from me. I grab his arm again so he'll face me.
"Pretend like I'm a girl that you think is cute and tell me." I say to him.
Harry's eyes go wide, but a smile is still lingering on his neutral face.