Flicker 》Harry Styles x Kennedy Walsh {COMPLETED}

28: Took a Cory

The hardest part of all of this was keeping myself together. Despite the dating rumors, I had to act like Harry still was this unreachable person I've had a crush on forever. That included Instagram stories of dancing along to Golden, or just plain videos of singing to one of his songs. It was a struggle to not let the pain show on my face as I kept my facade whether it be filming mine or Brandon's videos.

My family knew better. Every minute of every day, it was either they came to see me or me driving up to see them. They understood that I needed the extra comfort of just being around chaotic crackheads to avoid wallowing in self-pity. God, I hated this.

Harry's tour is still on the move despite all the controversy. In fact, it might have been beneficial to him as more and more people stream his music and buy his album the noisier the tabloids get. He and I haven't discussed our spat in depth, but we had a spoken agreement of not talking about it until both of our heads were cool enough. We've only texted back and forth about trivial things like updates of where we were and who we're with. Admittedly, I still am not in the right headspace to not go off on him if we ever did delve into the topic, the sting of betrayal still fresh.

Thankfully, Claudia moving in to her apartment ten doors down from mine had been a good distraction. It felt good to help her pick out her stuff and arrange a few pieces of furniture too. We were now lounging in her place, each of our phones pinging simultaneously.

Mom was quick to call Brandon, and he, surprisingly was quick to answer too.

"You bought a house?" Mom asks him incredulously. Looking around, I notice we all had the same stunned faces, not actually believing that Brandon had made this huge decision without even telling us. "No—what do you mean it'll arrive in a minute?" The exasperated look on Mom's face was enough proof of this being another one of his videos. We visibly relax. She stays on the phone with him for a little longer before turning towards us. "He sent me the address."

"There's no way he bought an actual house," Claudia snickers.

Devorah, beside her, props herself up on her elbows. "Yeah, I agree," she pauses, suddenly deep in thought, "but what if he did though?"

"It's probably just a dog house," I answer, which earns a chuckle from everybody.

We all leave the building with each of our own sighs.

----

"Damn, Brandon!" Mom exclaims as she assesses the huge house on our left. Looking over at it, it really was quite impressive, looking like it at least has three bedrooms—what does Brandon need all those many rooms for?

"What do you guys think?"

"Where's your grass?" Mom straight up asks, noticing the empty, almost barren front yard. Claudia, Dev, and I stand by the jeep, already an inkling in our heads of what was to come.

Brandon's hands are on his hips, eyes squinted from the glare of the sun. Thank God I'd slathered sunblock on my skin before leaving Claudia's. "This isn't my yard. I'm just parking it here."

"Parking what?" Claudia and Dev asks simultaneously. Yup, here we go. Here's the gimmick, folks.

"The house," Brandon answers simply, this shit-eating grin on his face.

Devorah was a mix between amused and pissed off by his antics. "So what is this?" She asks, pointing towards the huge house.

"Oh, that's Cory's house."

As if on cue, Cory steps out of his main door, all confused. "What are you guys doing here?"

I can't fight the upward curve on my lips as Brandon tells him that he's just parking his house on Cory's yard. Cory advances towards us, his face the definition of genuinely puzzled. Was he not in on this? He joins us, nodding casually at me when our eyes meet.