Bring It Back

don't you forget about me

"It's certainly going to be a big day tomorrow for former One Direction frontman Harry Styles, as he starts his first day as a student at King's College London. It is unknown what he will be studying, or how long he will even be staying there. His band has been on an indefinite hiatus ever since January 2016, when Styles suffered from an infam–"

"Turn that shit off, Norah."

Norah jumps in her seat and quickly switches off her computer, feeling particularly guilty, although she has no idea why. She turns around with a familiar heavy feeling in her chest, but it slightly subsides when she realizes that it's just Lucas. He's staring at her with an almost blank expression on her face. He looks like he's trying to read her, and part of her wants to tell him to save himself the trouble, because she is not that big of an open book, but she stops herself and instead tells him, "You scared me."

He doesn't apologize, because the word 'sorry' is not something that's ever necessarily been a part of their friendship, and he doesn't seem like he wants to be starting that up now. Instead, he sits down in the chair next to her and says, "What's up with you and those videos? They're all you've been watching lately."

"That's not true," she tells him on instinct. He gives her another look, though, and so she sighs and starts up again. "I guess I just want to get to know him, almost. He's going to be a new student tomorrow, so..." Nothing she has just said makes any sort of sense, and they both know this, but she can't go back on her word now.

Lucas arches an eyebrow in a challenging manner, but it's not the mean kind. It's the exasperated, really?, Lucas kind. "And you think that you can get to know him through the tabloids?" he says knowingly. "Come on, Nor. Also, there are tons of new students every year. I don't see you trying to get to know them."

Norah rolls her eyes at him, but she knows that he's got her. He does too. "It's just....he's Harry Styles." She curses herself the minute that the words leave her mouth; not only because she knows Lucas will scoff for days at them, but mainly because she's not that type of person, and she fiercely believes that. It's not as if she's ever met a celebrity before, but she knows that if she does, she would never go ahead and treat them like they were something to be gazed at, with hands pressed upon the glass at a zoo. She isn't sure of much about herself these days, but she is sure that that is not her.

Just like she has expected him to, Lucas rolls his eyes and scoffs, "Okay, he's Harry Styles. And you're Norah Winters, and I'm Lucas Demsky. So what?"

Norah wants to tell him that he's kind of acting like a dick, but she bites her tongue. She would never be able to say anything like that to anyone, let alone Lucas, who is her friend–even though she forgets why sometimes.

"Nothing," she shakes her head at him a moment later. "It's just..." She doesn't finish her sentence, but she doesn't have to. She can tell that he already has a pretty good idea of what she was going to say.

He's rolling her eyes at her again, but somewhere beneath that, she can see the faintest traces of a smile. And even though he's being annoying again, Norah can't help but do the same. She's always thought that the smiles coming from people like Lucas are the ones that should be cherished the most, since they're so rare. And when he sees her grinning at him, Lucas forgets that he is supposed to be grumpy and exasperated, and gives her a half smile in return. It's slightly crooked, and his jaw hasn't unclenched yet, but it's still a smile, and that does enough to ease the heaviness in her chest.

"Don't tell me you were a fan, Nor," he says to her a moment later, after they have been sitting in silence long enough. "I'm not sure if I'd ever be able to look at you the same way again if you were."