Once (Harry Styles)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

People put far too much leverage on kisses. I blame Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and the Princess and the Frog and any other fairy tale you can think of. One magic moment, and suddenly it all fixed. Yay! Everyone can go home.

We all forget that's not how it really works.

A lot of this has been all about Harry, as it should be. He's important, to the world, to me, to everything. But there's someone else here, too. Me. And part of a relationship with someone, whatever kind, romantic or otherwise, is learning who you are on your own. That was what I had to do. I had to live my life without him. I had to just be me. Not Ally and Harry. Not Niall's best friend, not Lizzie's roommate. Just Ally.

*****

I had to move out of Lizzie's flat.

It wasn't like she made me or anything, in fact it was quite the opposite. The first night that we were home we slept in the same bed because the space felt too quiet and too empty to be by ourselves. She basically begged me not to go, but it was time. I had far surpassed overstaying my welcome, and it was only because she loved me unconditionally that I had been allowed to stay this long, crashing on a sofa bed and robbing my best friend and her boyfriend of the privacy they deserved. 

Of course Niall wasn't back yet, it was only a few weeks since we had left them at the airport. But the time had come for me to given them back their space, and it was easier to do it now. Unlike Lizzie, I wasn't a whole a procrastinator and I wanted to do before Niall came back. They would thank me later.  

Okay, yeah, I know this is me sounding really mature and grown at all, but I'm nothing if not honest. To be frank, I was also just really tired of sleeping on a sofa bed.

I didn't really feel like going through the whole ordeal of finding a roommate that I probably wouldn't get along with anyways or living in a tiny shoebox so I could have a place to myself, so I moved in with my nan. She lived about a half hour from the city center, and happened to have a spare bedroom available. (Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually English on my father's side, which is why my aunt lives in Manchester and my nan in London. But rest assured, the Brits will never claim me). 

Anyways, I now paid my rent to her, and in turn she assured that I didn't starve. In fact, she was even teaching me some things about cooking for whenever I was ready to be on my own.

"How was school, love?" Nan called from the kitchen. The sweet aroma of her flat filled my nose, like potpourri and something baking.  

"Fine!" I replied, taking my shoes off as I walked in the door. I placed my jumper on the hook and followed the sound of her voice to find her.

"Do you want something to eat?" she asked as I walked into the kitchen. Nana was about the only person in the family whose height I could actually compare to, she was exactly the same size as me. Her hands were sunk deep in dishwater when I got there.

"No," I said, wrapping my arms around her waist and kissing her on the cheek before shooing her away and taking over her washing up. She placed her soapy hands on her hips firmly, just like I do. I ignored her and dunked a plate into the soapy water. "I'm heading over to Lizzie's in a few minutes, so I'll just eat there."

"Oh?" She moved over to the stove to dry her hands on a towel before placing a container of biscuits next to me. "Take these to her, won't you? Think of it as a late birthday present from me." Lizzie's birthday was last week, always the last one of the season. I took her out to the pub to celebrate, promptly ordering endless tequila shots until we were piss drunk.