𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐑! | harry styles

𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈

CONNIE and Rebecca were sitting together in the quad, their heads close together as they were deep in conversation. They looked up when they heard Jocelyn approaching them. She held a brown paper bag in each hand.

"Hungry much?" Rebecca asked as she pointed at the bags.

"They're not both for me," Jocelyn rolled her eyes. "One's for Harry."

"Harry?" Connie frowned. "You're making his lunch now?"

"No, I'm just doing something nice for him." Jocelyn made a motion for Connie to move down so that she could take a seat. "He's had a rough go of it this week. Did you guys know he might not graduate?"

"Surprise, surprise." Rebecca said sarcastically. "I think you actually have to come to school to get credit for being here."

Jocelyn laughed. "Well, actually, he has been here a lot more lately."

"It might have something to do with his new extra-curricular activity." Connie rolled her eyes. "I swear, guys wouldn't even get out of the bed in the morning if there were no women in the world."

"Totally." Rebecca agreed.

Jocelyn looked between her two friends. "What are you guys talking about? What extra-curricular activity?"

"You know," Connie nodded. "Bree."

"No, he can't stand her," Jocelyn insisted. "He's totally pissed at her."

"Since when?" Rebecca asked. She prided herself on being up on all the gossip and this was something that had eluded her.

"On Monday Harry and I hung out," Jocelyn paused, reveling in the sound of what she'd just said, "and he couldn't even stand to say her name."

"Oh, well then on Tuesday they made up, because I saw them all hot and heavy against her locker yesterday after school." Rebecca reported, sure of herself once again.

Jocelyn looked as if someone had just punched her in the stomach. She looked at Connie to clarify the information.

"I thought you knew Harry liked her," Connie whispered.

"Harry Styles doesn't like anyone. He just uses people and he's using her. Bree is an easy target because she doesn't know his reputation." Rebecca rushed in. "Jocelyn, you aren't an easy target. He knows he has to be real with you. That's the only reason he hasn't come around yet. You intimidate him."

"But I don't want to intimidate him." Jocelyn said softly. "Seriously, what can he see in Bree? She's gross!"

"She's not that bad," Connie countered. However when she saw the evil glare Jocelyn was giving her, she quickly amended her words. "But I've never really seen her close up."

"Well consider yourself lucky. I've seen sea urchins with better features." Jocelyn huffed.

Connie sat quietly listening as Rebecca and Jocelyn engaged in their own conversation. Rebecca was assuring Jocelyn that Harry and Bree would be over before they began. Jocelyn appeared desperate for every word, drinking it up like an oasis in the desert.

Connie couldn't make a judgment about Harry's relationship with Bree because she didn't really know her. But Connie knew Harry and, more importantly, she knew Jocelyn. And in her mind, the two were no love match.

* * *

Harry would never let on how thankful he was that Tom had chosen to pick him up for school that morning. He hadn't given much weight to being grounded when Desmond had first told him of it, but the solitary confinement, once his parents added no television and no video games, was starting to become maddening. It got to the point that he couldn't wait to go to school, which was why he was riding to school, on time, with Tom, at the moment, instead of skipping through his free period. And this was only his second day of restriction.