Over Again

Chapter One

I say Harry Styles and what do you think? That really hot guy with the curly hair from One Direction right? Well, not for me. Not for us, the ones he left back in Holmes Chapel. To us, he was just Harry; the cheeky, flirtatious kid who worked at the local bakery. To me, he was the first boy I ever fell in love with and the first boy who broke my heart.

Three years before the fame.

Harry and I were only thirteen when we started ‘dating’, if you could even call it that. We’d known each other since we were little, growing up in the same street in a small town where everyone knew each other. We’ve been best friends for as long as I can remember and as soon as puberty hit and the hormones started flaring up, he asked me out. We broke up two months later but stayed best friends anyway; it was mutual. Mostly. I know Harry and he’s a natural ladies man, of course you can’t expect a thirteen-year-old testosterone filled boy to stay with you.

Harry’s house was like a second home to me, his mum allowing me to come over anytime I pleased. So I wandered up the stairs and into his bedroom, my teased blonde hair falling over my racoon eyes (It was the start of my emo/goth phase okay).

“OH MY GOD! HARRY! STOP.” I squealed as soon as I opened his bedroom door. That was the first time I saw Harry’s penis. About a minute later he came out and apologized for what I’d seen, “Oh god, I think I’m scarred for life.”

“I’m so sorry, Georgia! Please don’t tell mum or Gemma or anyone! That’s so embarrassing,” Harry pleaded.

“Wash your hands please. And throw away the sock.”

I waited outside his bathroom while he washed his hands and I made sure he used soap. He came back into the hallway and held out his pinkie finger to me. It was our thing, we had so many secrets we shared with each other and the ones we pinkie promised on were especially secret. I linked my pinkie with his, “Just…don’t let me catch you doing THAT again okay?”

“Okay.” He grinned, his dimples showing. “Now, Georgie, I think we need to talk about…this.” Harry gestured at my dark makeup and black clothing, it honestly looked like I was going to a funeral or a really bad punk concert. “You need to get rid of that face paint. Your eyes are too pretty to cover up!” Let’s just say that phase didn’t last very long.

That also wasn’t the day he asked me out. No, he asked me out about a week later when we’d almost forgotten about the whole incident. We were walking home together, just talking like we usually did, when he suddenly stopped in the middle of the footpath and grabbed me by my shoulders. I remember his exact words, “Georgia. I really like you. Like, I have the biggest crush on you. Will you be my girlfriend?” He had the most serious look on his face though he was shaking a bit. At first I thought he was playing some sort of prank because he was so straight up about it, I soon realized he wasn’t joking when I saw that look in his eyes that he had when he asked out his previous ‘girlfriends’ so I said yes.

Two years before x-factor.

I always knew Harry could sing, but I didn’t know how well until his voice dropped an octave and he’d formed a band with some of our mates, him being the lead singer. White Eskimo performed for local events and they were even hired to perform at some weddings. They even won a battle of the bands competition.

Harry was dating Felicity then, she was probably his longest relationship at the time. Meanwhile, I hadn’t had a boyfriend since Harry. God, Fliss was a bitch. Harry wanted to impress her and he didn’t know how so he came to me for advice like we usually did. I’d told him to set up a candle-lit date for them at the park near his house, “Over that little bridge, she’ll love it,” I said. Harry had put so much effort into everything and the bitch Felicity didn’t even bother showing up because it was, “Too dark out.” Who knew he would be mentioning this in future interviews with his future band members.

After he entered x-factor.

My parents split up a few months before Harry auditioned and I’d moved with my dad to London for a few months. Harry and I barely spoke during that time, I guess we just drifted apart. I moved back to Cheshire with my mum a few months after One Direction had come third and they’d finished their tour with X-Factor and they’d gotten signed by Simon Cowell. Anne was ecstatic when I showed up at her door and she said she would call Harry when she got the chance. I never really knew if she got around to mentioning me because Harry never tried contacting me. To be honest, I was disappointed. I made myself believe for a while that he’d just lost my number or was just really busy, but the truth was that he’d moved on. Not just from me, but from his life in sleepy little Holmes Chapel. He was this big pop sensation who was slowly becoming huge internationally. He’d made new friends and a new life, I had to accept that. It’s just hard when there are constant reminders of him everywhere I looked. Literally. I’d turn around and there would be a One Direction poster there or a magazine with their faces on it.

Two years later.

I sat behind the counter of W Mandeville bakery, the same bakery Harry and I worked at every Saturday for two years before he became famous. It was a weekend and usually the bakery would be filled with teenagers, mainly girls, coming in to kiss the floor of the place Harry heart-throb Styles worked at, but not today. It was eerily quiet to be honest. I was getting bored so I decided to make myself useful and clean the big window out the front. I was wiping away at the glass when I heard it. Screams of only god knows how many girls. It became louder and louder until I saw them running wildly down the street chasing something. And then I saw it; a black range rover that looked way too expensive to be owned by any normal person in Cheshire. I felt my heart thumping against my ribcage. I power walked to the back room only to find my boss Steve standing against the doorframe. Turns out he saw the crowd of girls too.

“Um, I’m not feeling very well…could I get the rest of the day off?” I asked him even though my shift ended in an hour.

Steve stared at me for a moment. God, I was so transparent. Luckily Steve loves me. “You want to go see him don’t you?” I nodded. “Fine.” 

I walked the seven and a half minutes it took to get to my house, taking the route I knew would cause me to have to walk past the Styles household. I really didn’t know what I would say to him if we saw each other, I just knew I needed to see him, even if it was just a glimpse. Wow, I could almost be a deranged fan girl. Everyone in the street knew where Harry Styles lived, if it wasn’t the screaming girls that gave it away, it was the fancy car that was parked in the driveway. I hurried through the mass of teenagers clumped at the end of his driveway, putting the hood of my Jack Wills hoodie over my head. It was one of Harry’s old jumpers that I’d stolen from him when we were younger. I took a quick glimpse at the house where I’d spent a good portion of my childhood in, and just as I did, my eyes found his. I fleetingly looked away but I could feel his green eyes burning into my back as I walked down the street. He clearly wasn’t hiding the fact that he was watching me since the girls outside his house began questioning who I was. I could hear them talk to each other, “Who’s she?” and “What’s her name?” and “Why is Harry staring at her?” I didn’t look back until I reached my house twelve houses away from his. But to answer their questions, I’m Georgia Young and I once caught Harry Styles wanking when we were thirteen years old.