Darling (Harry Styles)

chap 03

ANNABELLE WILCOX
Louis' House

"Just approach him," Beatrice egged me on, the alcohol flowing through both of us nicely, "he's cute! And he's been staring at you for the past half hour."

I looked over my shoulder momentarily, feeling slightly confident as the man's eyes locked with mine. A shy blush crept upon my cheeks and I almost got whiplash from how fast my head spun back towards Beatrice.

"I really don't think he even notices me."

Beatrice's face dropped, giving me a 'are you fucking dumb?' look that earned itself a hidden laugh, "You literally just locked eyes, Bels."

I brought my glass to my lips, talking into it, "What? ..I don't know what you're talking about, Bee."

She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to respond again before being cut off by another reaction being sent through her body. Her green eyes widened and she smacked my shoulder, loudly whisper-shouting.

"Here he comes!"

Now my blue eyes were the ones to widen, my spine straightening immediately. "Do I look good? Fuck, Bee, tell me what's wrong with me—and quick!"

"That'd take too long!" Beatrice reached out and brushed down half of my hair before pretending to have never had her focus on me, moving her eyes around the bar.

"Hi there." A deep voice spoke behind me and I shut my eyes tightly, breathing out through my mouth to calm myself.

I spun around, smiling slightly as my words came out in an awkward squeak, "Hi."

The attractive man reached his hand to me, "I'm Jacob. And you are?"

"Annabelle," I shook his hand with a small and not very confident smirk, "a pleasure to meet you, Jacob."

I shot straight up out of my sleep, breathing heavily as sweat formed onto my forehead. It was just another dream, a flashback to the worst decision I've ever made—to let that man into my life.

The flashback didn't scare me necessarily, I had been having plenty of nightmares about Jacob recently. But, it was the fact my mind couldn't get over him that scared me. I didn't love him anymore.. right?

I don't want to dwell on it any longer, it'll just cause even more headaches than I already have to deal with.

I shut my eyes tightly, stopping small tears from slipping through as I silently cried. This was a routine now, I really shouldn't be surprised anymore.

I don't know how I hadn't completely run out of tears at this point.

The desert that my throat had become caused my feet to jump over the side of my bed, landing themselves onto the cold floor of one of Louis' many bedrooms. This bedroom had become my own in a way, I suppose.

It'd been a week since I first came to Louis' and most of the time it was just Maria and I. Quickly though, I learned that Louis threw parties once every week. Today was the first I was present for, the last one being the night I first came. Each and every Friday without a hitch.