Adopted By Harry Styles

17

I was sitting in the police station for a while until it was finally my turn. A cop waves me over and I get up slowly, trudging over to him. I already knew whatever happened wasn't going to go down well.

"I'm going to need you to breathe into this," he says. He seemed tired, and I don't blame him. It was the middle of the night after all.

"What is that?" I ask.

"A breathalyzer," he says. "Measures if you have any alcohol in your body. If you didn't drink, you shouldn't have anything to worry about," he adds.

I roll my eyes and breathe into the thing. There really wasn't much I could do to avoid it at this point. The cop raises his eyebrows, maybe in shock, when he sees the number on the device. "Do you know have a phone on you?" He asks.

"Yes," I blandly say.

"I'll need you to call your parents and tell them to pick you up at the San Diego Police Department," he says. "Until they arrive, you can wait over there." He points to a waiting area with a few benches and chairs, all of which were already filled up.

I nod my head and pull my phone from my back pocket. I walk to the corner of the room and sit down, facing away from everyone.  I wipe a tear from my eye as I scrolled through the many texts from Harry:
Darling, am I picking you up?-10:15
You there, Madds? Haven't heard from you all night.-10:28
Send me the address.-10:48

There were more, of course. And there were even phone calls from him. I felt bad. I betrayed his trust. How could he ever forgive me for that? How could he still want to be my parent after that?

I call Harry and put the phone to my ear. He picks up on the third ring. "Maddi?" He immediately says.

I don't say anything, and part of me wondered if I should just leave. Leave Harry, San Diego,
California. Go somewhere new and start over. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't leave Harry, even if I was scared he might want to leave me after this mess.

"Maddi?" Harry repeats himself. I couldn't tell exactly what he was feeling, but he most definitely wasn't happy.

"Yeah," I squeak. Hearing his voice made me nervous.

"Where are you? Are you okay?" He asks. I hear him walking through the house and eventually hear a pair of keys rattling. He was already getting in his car to come get me.

"I'm fine," I breathe out. "Just please don't be mad at me." I play with the ends of my shoelaces as I wait for Harry to respond.

"We can talk about that later. But you've gotta tell me where you are," he says. He sounded harsh, impatient, maybe. And I didn't like it. Though, I'm sure Harry wasn't too fond of me right now. "I'm serious, Maddi. Tell me your address. You didn't text me it as you said you would."

"I'm at...the police station," I mumble the last part, but he still heard me. I guess that was a good thing because I didn't have to repeat myself.

"The police station?" Harry asks, shocked. "What've you done?" He was angry now, it was obvious.

My head felt heavy from the alcohol, and I could already feel a headache coming along. "I...nothing...I didn't do anything," I say. By the clear lack of confidence in my response, I knew Harry was aware that I wasn't telling the truth. I really had no reason to lie either. From the looks of me, and the fact that I'm in a police station, I've obviously done something wrong.

"Tell me—" he cuts himself off. "You know what, forget it. We're not doing this over the phone. You're clearly not in the mood to cooperate."

A few more tears slide down my cheek and I pull the phone away from me so Harry couldn't hear my sniffles. I use the back of my hand to wipe away the tears.

"Maddi, I'll be there in fifteen minutes," I hear him say.

"Okay," I whisper.

And then the phone beeps. He ended the call.

I look around the room. There were still a few people here, not nearly as many as before, though. I could go sit in an empty chair now, but I decided against it. I didn't have the energy to get up, and, maybe this way, the first thing Harry sees won't be the revealing top I had on, which I know will only get me into more trouble.

I stare down at the ground and keep my legs pulled up to my chest until a pair of black Vans steps into my vision. I look up slowly and immediately shrink back when my eyes meet two angry green ones.

"Stand up," he says impatiently.

I eventually do, trying my best to pull the top I was wearing down lower to cover my stomach. Harry grabs my arm and walks us over to one of the cops.

He pulls out his ID and hands it to the cop. "She had some alcohol tonight. Blood alcohol level was 0.06," the cop says as he hands over a clipboard with a paper Harry had to sign.

Harry let's go of my arm for a moment to sign the paper. "Thank you, officer," he says.

The cop only nods his head and then takes the clipboard back from Harry. "Have a good night," he says, though I think he already knew we wouldn't.

"You do the same," Harry says. He grabs my arm once again and starts walking us outside. It was cold, and having a top that didn't cover my belly wasn't helping at all.

Harry opens the passenger car door for me and I get in. He doesn't say anything as he slams my door shut and gets in on the other side.

The engine starts but he doesn't start driving away. Instead, he turns to me. "Do you wanna start explaining yourself?" He asks.

I keep my eyes focused out the window and shake my head.

"No?" Harry scoffs. "Nothing? You don't want to tell me about why you never texted me the whole night? Why you missed your curfew? Why a cop had to tell me you drank alcohol? Why you smell like weed? Why you're wearing that top?" He his voice seemed to get louder, angrier, with each word he spoke.

I shake my head again. There was nothing I could say that would make him any less angry. I had no excuse to break Harry's trust so soon. I have only been living with him for like three weeks.

"Then you're gonna have a very long day tomorrow," he says. I hear him let out a breath, like he was attempting to stay as relaxed as possible.

"I won't be hungover the whole day," I finally say, rolling my eyes. I know he couldn't see, but I'm sure he could tell.

"Trust me, darling. A hangover won't be the only thing that makes your day long," he says and finally starts driving home.