Little [Harry Styles]

[53]

13th December 2015

***

The day had started off delicately. They tell you to start as you mean to go on and from the moment we all got out of bed that morning it felt like the day was already destined to be delicate.

I'd spent twenty minutes cleaning up a smashed bowl and glass from the tiles of the kitchen floor after Isabella decided that they couldn't stay on the counter anymore, and had proceeded to throw them as far as she could onto the ground. I stood in shock for a few seconds, blinking whilst staring at the shards of broken pottery scattered around the white tiles until I looked up at her mirroring the same expression.

"What on...what's gone on here?" Harry stopped in his tracks as he entered the kitchen, sending a glance between the broken glass and us. "Alright, neither of you move...let me go and put some shoes on."

I waited with one hand making sure Isabella didn't try and get down from the counter and my eyes just staring at the floor in complete disbelief. He appeared moments later with a pair of shoes loose on his feet and a pair of my own shoes in his other hand.

"You...will you just...get Isabella, I'll clean this up." I breathed out with a sigh.

He nodded before taking Isabella from the counter and muttering words under his breath to her as he left the room, not before turning around and checking I was okay. I nodded whilst waving the two of them out of the room and bending down to pick up the sharp shards that were scattered across the pristine tiles.

At midday a car would arrive to take us to the X Factor studios where we'd spend the rest of the day until they would perform on the show later on. Tonight marked a full circle, finish where they started and each of them would begin a new circle of their own with the freedom they haven't tasted for the last five years.

"Are you alright?" Harry called from the next room, his footsteps coming first before he appeared again in the doorway while watching me with careful eyes. "Do you want me to-"

"No, it's fine...I've got it." I replied, gathering up the smashed pieces into one hand while crouched down and scanning for any I've missed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah...just...just keep Isabella out of here."

He lingered in the doorway as he watched me pick up the remaining pieces before letting out a sigh and leaving. It didn't take long to tidy up and within a few minutes it was as if it never happened, the only sign of it being one less bowl in the cupboard and one less glass on the shelf.

Things hadn't been too great after that either, Isabella had clearly not had a great nights sleep and it took both me and Harry almost an hour to get her dressed. You wouldn't have thought it would take two twenty-one year olds that long to get four items of clothing onto a toddler, but it did.

We'd put her down for a nap mid-morning, which gave us a chance to get ourselves ready and to pack our bags for going to the studio. The atmosphere in the house was tense, even if he wouldn't say anything I knew Harry was apprehensive about the performance. The way that they would be 'finishing' on the same stage it began felt like both a blessing and a curse; in some ways it was nice, but it also suggested they were done.

A circle has no start and no end, but if at some point you don't break out of that circle you just keep going around and around until you go crazy. They'd done their circle...maybe as time passes and old wounds heal they'll join it again, but for now they needed a fresh break.

"Have you got everything?" I asked as I lifted my handbag onto my shoulder. Harry stopped, narrowed his eyes and then patted his pockets before dropping the bright pink bag decorated with Princesses that we packed Isabella's stuff into to the floor. "Keys?"