The (Ex) Step Brother ➸ 1.d au

Party

When they got to Harry's house, it was Louis who opened the door.

“Hey - wow, you guys look amazing.”

He was addressing all five girls, but his eyes were on Hazel, his jaw hanging slack.
Hazel reflexively blushed. 

“Thanks.” she said softly, drowned out by the amused giggles of her company. Louis stared at her for a few seconds more, then realized he had to ask them in.

“Er, right, come on in!”

Harry's house was the exact opposite of what Hazel had imagined. It was positively beautiful. The decor was vintage, something that appealed to the more artistic side of her. Wood seemed to dominate everything; wooden doors, wooden flooring, wooden cupboards, wooden banister...

“Hazel, what are you waiting for? The party’s in here!” 

Eleanor pulled on her arm, and Hazel stopped looking around and followed her into the next room.

Pulsating was one way to describe Harry’s over-crowded living room.  Sweltering bodies crowded the enclosed space, their hips gyrating in emphasis with the deafening music which was reverberating around the open air. Vibrant laser lights beamed across the wooden ‘dance’ floor; which was being trampled upon by tipsy adolescents. Couples pressed their bodies against each other, in an interlocking moment of serenity. 

Harry’s sofas had been pushed to one side and were piled with pillows; seating four hazy figures – Harry, Niall, Zayn (two of Harry’s friends whom she’d met during her third week of school) and a girl Hazel didn’t recognize. 

“Yo, Winchester! Over here!” 

A muffled, seemingly-male called out over the ear-splitting EDM that was playing. 

Hazel’s head whipped around, trying to locate the owner of the voice who’d called her name. Abby nudged her side, and pointed towards the sofas Hazel had just been scrutinizing. 

Louis, she mouthed. Sure enough, the blue-eyed Adonis was beckoning to her. 

“Come with me!” Hazel yelled, clasping Abby’s arm. The redhead shook her head, and pushed her towards the Year 13 boy. This seemed to be some kind of rite of passage, judging by the proud looks on her friends’ faces.

“Hey. Your piercing’s back,” grinned Louis, nudging Niall to make space for Hazel on the biggest sofa. 

Hazel reached up and gently felt the little stud below her lower lip with her fingers. It had been the result of a childish whim which she’d grown to love, for it had earned her the tag ‘badass’, whether she was one or not. (She hoped she was)

“Yeah,” she answered, wondering why she always sounded so stupid in front of him. 

“It looks good.” 

“Thanks.” 

She smiled, making him smile back.

He opened his mouth to say something more when somebody cleared their throat and interrupted him. Louis looked behind Hazel, and she thought she saw anger on his face. Then in a second it was gone, replaced by an easy smile.

I probably imagined it, she thought, shaking her head.

“Hey, Harry.” 

Every time she used to look at him, Hazel saw not the ever-desired Harry Styles the other girls fell over, but the bad-tempered, bi-polar brat he’d been when they had been lawful siblings. Now, however, he seemed to have changed for the better and Hazel could get used to his new politeness.

“Louis, Hazel,” he answered, acknowledging both of them with a nod of his head and a quirk in his lips. He retracted his arm from around the blonde girl’s waist – she still didn’t know who she was – and slid gracefully off his sofa. He towered over both of them, only making him more intimidating. 

“Hazel, this is my girlfriend Marquessa. I believe you’ve never met?”

“Yeah...It’s nice to meet you, Marquessa. I’m Hazel.”

The girl looked at her from under her eyelashes (they were so thick and long that they HAD to be fake) and smiled.

“Oh, I’ve heard plenty about you, honey. I feel like I already know you.”

Her blue-grey eyes seemed to pierce through Hazel’s very soul, and it surprised her because she’d never known someone who seemed to able to read her thoughts and make her uncomfortable just by making eye contact.

“Call me Marque. All my friends do.”

With a catty smile, Harry’s beautiful girlfriend turned her face and resumed her conversation with a bored-looking Zayn.

She seems...nice.