Adopted By Harry Styles

18

I wake up to an ache in my skull and immediately bring my hands to my head. "Ow," I groan and roll over onto my back. I stare at my ceiling before shutting my eyes, hoping I could shut out the headache as well but to no avail.

I don't know how long I stayed there, with my hands pressed to my head and eyes shut, but I eventually feel a dip on the other side of my bed. When I open my eyes, I see none other than Harry.

"There's an ibuprofen and glass of water over there," he points to the small table by my bed. I look over at the table and then back at Harry, who nods his head toward the medicine. "It'll help with your hangover."

I sigh and sit up, taking the pill and swallowing it with water. "Thanks," I mumble. My clothes were still the same as the ones I wore to the party last night, and I pull the blanket further up my body to hide the top as best as I can.

I glance at Harry who hasn't said anything else and then look down. He was still mad, I could tell. I thought about what he was going to do with me. Would he send me back? He obviously wouldn't want to take care of someone like me, someone who can't follow simple rules.

"Sorry," I whisper, not really knowing what to say, but figuring I had to say something. Harry was probably waiting for me to speak first.

"Why'd you not text me last night?" He asks. Here we go.

"I...I don't know," I admit. "I guess I forgot."

"You forgot?" He says and then shakes his head. "I'm not buying it."

"Well, that's what happened," I say. "Do we have to talk about this right now?" I just woke up and I'm already being lectured.

"You didn't seem to want to talk about it last night, so, yes, we do have to talk about it now," Harry says, his voice stern. "Look at me when I'm talking to you."

I turn my head toward him and shrug my shoulders. "What do you want me to say?" I ask, hoping my voice didn't sound as rude as I thought it did. I really didn't know what to say, though. I don't know why I forgot to text him, I just did.

"I want you to tell me the truth," Harry says, raising his eyebrows. "And I want you to drop whatever attitude you've got."

"I just told you the truth," I say and turn my head away from him once again.

"So you don't think the weed and alcohol you had last night had anything to do with you forgetting to text me?" Harry says, raising his voice. "What's gotten into you?"

"I didn't even have a lot of alcohol," I say. "Someone gave them to me, so I drank them. It's no big deal."

Harry scoffs. "Tell that to your hangover," he says. "And the law, Maddi. It's against the law. You got arrested, christ sake! That looks bad on you, and that looks bad on me. They can take you out of this house any day if you keep acting like this!"

"Fine! Let them. You don't want me," I argue. I cross my arms over my chest and blink away my watery eyes which I could only hope Harry didn't notice. I don't want him to think I cared that he didn't care about me.

"That's just not true. Quit saying that," Harry says.

"Then why are you mad?" I ask. A tear rolls down my cheek and I wipe it away quickly.

"Because I'm supposed to be protecting you! You put yourself in danger last night, and I had no way to reach you and didn't know where you were. I was worried sick about you all night," he says. I look over to him and see him purse his lips together, frustrated.

"I've gone my whole life without protection. I don't need you to start protecting me now," I retort. I wish he just didn't lie to me about wanting to keep me. Right now, it was almost impossible to believe he liked me at all.

"That's exactly why you need my protection, Maddi. You don't know how the world works. I'm here to help you, even if you don't see that," he says. His voice was calmer now, but there was still an edge. "And the first thing you need to learn is that there are consequences to your actions, good and bad."

I roll my eyes. "I already knew that. I'm not an idiot, Harry," I tell him.

"Good. Then you won't be surprised that I'm taking your phone for a while," he says. His hand is held out toward me, like he expects me to hand my phone over. But I don't.

"No. It's my phone," I say.

"Actually, it's not. It's not like you use it much anyway, isn't that right?" He says, continuing to hold his hand out, waiting.

"How am I going to learn how to use it if I don't have it with me?" I ask. I pull my blanket off me, revealing Jade's top that I was wearing. I couldn't stay under my covers all day, and I knew Harry was going to talk to me about my top eventually.

"You won't be going anywhere unless you're with me for a while either. You won't need your phone," Harry tells me. So he was taking away my phone and my right to go out.

"It's like you want me to be a loser. I'm just trying to fit in with my friends, and this is how you react," I say. "You're doing everything you can to make sure I have no friends."

Harry shakes his head. "I don't remember telling you you could look away from me," he says.

I turn to look at him again.

"I'm doing everything I can to make sure you stay away from bad people. And it seems like you're friends aren't the greatest people out there," he says.

"Well, I like them," I defend my friends.

"And I don't," Harry says.

I shrug my shoulders. "Okay...they're not you're friends. And you've never met them," I say.

"If you're coming home like this, I don't need to meet your friends to know they're a bad influence," he says. That had to be the dumbest thing he's said today. My friends didn't make me do anything. I chose to drink. I chose to smoke. I chose to wear Jade's top.

Harry stands up and walks to my side of the bed. He picks up my phone from my table and slides it into his back pocket. "That's fucking ridiculous," I say.

"Watch the language, Maddison," Harry scolds. It was weird hearing him use my full name and not just 'Maddi.' I roll my eyes and crawl back under the covers.

I feel Harry's hand touch my shoulder which was covered by the blanket. I don't bother to turn around and look at him. "I know you're mad at me, I understand. And I'm not doing this because I hate you...I'm doing this out of love, whether you think that's the case or not. You may come downstairs when you start feeling better," he says.