New York [harry styles au]

17

17.
It was the week before the final seven days of December, nearing the holiday celebrations of Christmas and New Year. It felt strange to think about the ending of 1972 after so much had happened. Though this wasn't too different to my other years at different places as a traveller, one thing was remarkably different. I had fallen deeply in love, like never before, a beautiful feeling otherwise foreign to me. Harry was so different that it made us very similar people. In some ways, I felt like I was doing everything that he wanted to be doing but couldn't. Maybe that was why he favoured me, because he could live his desired experiences through me. As it was near Christmas, everybody was given the holidays absent from work to spend time with their family. I don't think any of us had family anymore, which was why we spent those days together in Harry's apartment.

It was a Friday, December 22nd, when the gang were sat huddled under blankets on each of Harry's sofas. Harry and I were leaning against each other, my head on his shoulder, whilst Beatrix and Angelina were in the same position on the other sofa-- Smith with his arm around the other side of Beatrix. A Hard Day's Night, a film from The Beatles which was created a decade before, was playing on one of the few channels of Harry's small television. The Beatles' I'm Happy Just to Dance with You was playing as Harry grabbed my coffee from the small table and handed it over to me. I took one sip and as soon as my mouth escaped the warm edge of the mug, the television screen became black in a snap. The lights, including the pretty Christmas lights, and sound of the heater shut off soon after, following suit.

"Oh shit." Harry muttered, moving the blanket and standing up. Only the daylight against the wooden floor being visible from the large windows in the room.

"What's happened?" Beatrix asks, her eyes opening to the sound of silence after being asleep for ten minutes.

"The power has gone off." Harry replied, standing before the switches near the front door. His eyebrow raised as he looked more and more puzzled while scrutinising the many buttons. "I don't know how to fix this."

"Call the apartment's engineer. Every apartment block has one, don't they?" Smith spoke up and Beatrix nodded.

Harry nodded too before moving to the telephone and inquiring with his landlord. Angelina stood from her spot next to Beatrix and fell beside me, putting Harry's original share of the blanket over herself. I grinned and wrapped my arm around her. The power going out also meant that the heating in the apartment was no longer running, something that anybody would dread in the middle of winter. I could already feel a shiver running down my spine.

Angelina, Beatrix, Smith and I began to quietly sing songs from A Hard Day's Night, building the fantasy that we had not actually missed the ending of the film after all. It was on the third song that Harry returned and perched onto the end of the couch, a frustrated expression laced through his features.

"So? What did they say?" Beatrix asked, and Harry huffed.

"My landlord is trying to get in contact with the engineer but he said it could take up to six hours." He replied with a defeated sigh.

"So what do we do?" Angelina questioned in the midst of the silence.

"I don't know, I can't figure that out too." Harry replied and I chuckle slightly at his words.

"I'll go look for something that we can do." I volunteer, standing up from my spot.

"Look in the closet." He instructs as I move towards the bedroom.

"Closet? What closet?" I question.

"It's hidden behind the clothes rail." He states before sitting in my spot, and I just nod before stepping inside the bedroom and closing the door behind me.