—16—

The rest of the day seemed to pass by with ease. The shopping trip was cut short due to his fans almost running us both over. We came back to the cottage, and I showed Harry around before we both settled in my room with a bowl of junk food, and a stack of movies. Somehow, within a couple hours, Harry and I ended up on my bed, our sides pressed against one another with our legs tangled together, and his arm draped over my shoulder.

“..and after that, both Ella and I swore we wouldn’t play hide and seek in the cemetery ever again,” I laughed loudly, a hand against my mouth.

Harry shook violently against me as he laughed hard at the story I’d finished telling him. For a while now, movies didn’t seem to entertain us, and we settled for stories from our childhood.

I just finished telling him the time when I was ten and Ella was five, and we decided to play hide and seek in the cemetery we lived by. The old man who kept the cemetery running was scary enough to spook us the hell out of there. At the time we had no idea it was actually the old man who had spooked us, only thinking that a couple of the dead corpses’ spirits were angry with us.

“I would pay to see the old man’s face,” Harry murmured, laughing lightly.

I nodded my head, the ghost of a smile still playing on my lips. It stayed there until I realized that Ella and I weren’t as close as we used to be. Harry quickly noticed my change in mood and he nudged me, a way of telling him what’s wrong.

“I...” I sighed letting my head fall onto his shoulder. “I just wish Ella and I were closer than we are now. We used to be like best friends when we were little, back when things were so much easier. Back then, nothing mattered. Not same-sex love, not racism, not age, nothing. Why does things have to be so hard, Harry?”

I glanced up at him through my eyelashes to see him smiling grimly. “Things are hard because it’s life, sweetheart,” he brushed fallen strands out of my face. My heart lept. “And things will always be hard. That’s kind of the way life is.”

A couple tears fell from my eyes, rolling down my cheeks as I spoke. “Then why do things seem so impossible right now? I’m trying my best to seem like a good person, that I’m doing what I love, but nobody but you, my family and work seem to understand that. Why do people have to be so judgemental, I just. . . .”

I couldn’t hold in the tears anymore, not with the feeling of my chest being constricted and tightened. I burst into tears and hid my face into Harry’s shoulder. Seconds later, I felt myself being moved onto Harry’s lap. He rubbed his hands in circles on my back as he cooed me quietly.

Sobs shook my body as I cried into Harry’s shoulder. No longer able to hold in all the pain I’ve bottled up for months, I clung to Harry as if he was my life saver. Minutes passed as I cried harder and harder, memories running through my mind only causing me to sob hysterically into Harry’s chest. My chest squeezed as I felt another wave of pain sweep over me. I sobbed hysterically, the only way to let out the pain, as hiccups started shaking my body even more.

Harry pulled me away from his shoulder, his large hands cupped my face. “Shh, sweetheart, it’s okay. Everything is okay, I’m here.”

Harry looked me straight in the eyes as his thumbs brushed away at my tears. I sucked in a breath and felt my stomach do a double backflip as he leaned forward and pressed his lips against my tear-stained cheeks, kissing away my every tear. When Harry pulled his face away from mine, I was left with my mouth slightly agape.

“There,” he smiled at me, “no more tears.”

I moved one of my hands towards my tear-stained cheeks, and realized Harry was right. I wasn’t crying anymore, and the sobs were nonexistent, only leaving an occasional hiccup. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and laid beside Harry on the bed, resting my head on a part of chest that wasn’t soaked with salty tears.

I closed my eyes and murmured, “Thank you, Harry. For being so kind to me when nobody else in the world was.”

Harry took this moment to run his fingers through my hair gently. I let out an approving sigh, and relaxed in his arms as Harry responded with a whisper. “Well, how could I not? You are a human being after all.”

A sad smile reached my lips. “I wish everyone thought that way.”

Harry’s chest vibrated with quiet laughter. “Well, not everyone knows you like I do.”

“Can you sing to me, Harry?” I barely mumbled, feeling a wave of fatigue wash over me, as a yawn slipped out of my mouth.

“Of course, Sofia,” Harry whispered before I heard his soft voice in my ear.

“Do you dream that the world will know your name? So tell me your name. Do you care about all the little things or anything at all? I wanna feel, all the chemicals inside, I wanna feel. I wanna sunburn, just to know that I'm alive, to know I'm alive.”

His voice was raspy and quiet, moving so slowly, it relaxed my body even more than it already was. Slowly, I felt the slumber I was waiting for creep up on me as if it were on its tip-toes. I sighed quietly in contentedness. I was still upset, but Harry was keeping me sane.

“Don't tell me if I'm dying, 'Cause I don't wanna know, If I can't see the sun, maybe I should go. Don't wake me 'cause I'm dreaming of angels on the moon where everyone you know never leaves too soon.

“Do you believe, in the day that you were born, tell me do you believe? Do you know, that every day's the first of the rest of your life? Don't tell me if I'm dying, 'cause I don't wanna know. If I can't see the sun, maybe I should go. Don't wake me 'cause I'm dreaming of angels on the moon, where everyone you know never leaves too soon.”

No sooner than he finished the part had I felt the black curtain finally close in front of my eyes. I fell asleep in Harry’s arms, wishing I wasn’t anywhere else but here.

.

.

When I rolled my heavily asleep body over comfortably on my stomach, something cold touched my face, followed by a loud crackling sound. Confused, I lifted my face only to see a piece of white paper right where my head had been. I lifted it into the air as I rubbed my eyes, trying to read the black scribbles written on it.

After a moment, the scribbles turned into legible words and I squinted my eyes to read them better.

Sofia, it first read.

I rubbed my head absentmindedly thinking, this must be from Harry.

I’m sorry you woke up to me gone, I apologize. It was getting late, though, and I had to leave. I’m sure your dad wouldn’t have been happy with me being there in the morning. Protective dad, I’m assuming, even if you’re eighteen and a legal adult.

Anyway, I’m really sorry leaving you, especially in the state in which I left you. I’ll make it up to you in a few days when we hang out again. Text me in the morning to tell me if you’re alright, okay?

-Harry x

My cheeks burned red at the memories. I had broken down in front of Harry, and he had been the sweetest. He not only held me tight and whispered sweet things to me while I had cried and possibly ruined his t-shirt with my salty tears, but he kissed them away. Not many guys were willing to do go that measure to make a guy feel better, I knew that much. Quite a bit of them actually had no clue on how to make them feel better. Yet Harry had calmed me in a matter of minutes after I started hiccuping.

I touched my cheek tenderly, right where Harry had kissed me. Well, the tears if I’m being technical. . . .

“I wish he’d kiss me somewhere else,” I blurted, unthinkingly.

When I realized what I thought, my cheeks burned a deeper red, my face resembling a ripened tomato. My heart sped up as everything came rushing towards me. I couldn’t deny it any longer. I, Sofia Adams, had massive crush on the British, boy-band member, Harry Styles. A shaky sigh left my lips.

I glanced at the clock on the wall, and realized it was close to two in the morning.

Pushing the sheets aside, I knew there was only one person I could talk about with this subject. Unfortunately, I would make her very grumpy in the morning, or I could get hit for waking her at this hour. Either way, I was willing to take the chances.

My feet padded down the cold, wooden hallway. I paused when I was standing in front of Ella’s door. I knocked twice before entering, though I knew she was heavily asleep. Ella could never stay awake past eleven, no matter much effort she put into it; she always seemed to pass out the moment the clock it eleven.

When I walked into her room, I noticed her body sprawled out across the bed with the sheets in a crumpled mess. Even a pillow had been laying on the floor. I sat down in an open spot next to my sleeping sister and nudged her. She barely moaned before turning herself over to sleep more. I nudged her again, except I whispered her name.

“Ella, come on, wake up,” I pushed her again, “I need to talk to you.”

This time, Ella spoke, though her voice was doused in fatigue. “Sofia, come on. Can’t this wait until morning? I’m sleepy.”

“Nope,” I responded, waiting patiently with my hands folded in my lap.

I watched as Ella sleepily arose from her slumber, rubbing the nest of hair that had been sticking up in multiple directions. I probably looked just as bad as my sister, if not worse. Her eyes fell on me, as if to say, “Now tell me why the hell you woke me up.”

“I, um, started crying in front of Harry last night when he was over, and he was so sweet about it. He kissed away my tears, he held me tight and he sang me to sleep, Ella,” I gushed, my cheeks turning pink from the memories. “Nobody has ever been that sweet to me. And when I woke up just minutes ago, he wrote a note to me, telling me he left and-”

I couldn’t help but cut myself off. I needed a moment to breath in, and calm my erratically beating heart. It seemed to do that a lot lately, when Harry was in the picture or the star of the conversation.

I continued on where I left off, a smile on my face. “And I just realized I really like Harry. And I just... I needed to tell someone, and you were the first I thought of.”

Ella rubbed a hand over her face before she spoke. “I’m happy you came to your senses. Though I knew way before you did. You light up like a Christmas tree when he sends you a text message or calls you, did you know? And your cheeks turn a very light shade of pink.”

I frowned. “You’re just really perceptive.”

“No,” a smile appeared on Ella’s face for the first time. “I just know you well, that’s all.”

I shoved my sister’s shoulder lightly before a yawn slipped out of both our mouths. I chuckled, “Well, I’ll leave you to your sleep. I’m going to catch up on the rest of my Z’s. See you in the morning, El.”

“You, too, Sof.”

That night, I went to bed feeling lighter than a cloud. And damn, was it a good feeling.

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Ahhhhh, double updates in one day! Hahahaha, so lots of Hafia feels (should that be an official ship name? Help me! I'm so terrible with ship names!). What do you think about this?! I got really inspired to write this chapter and really wanted you guys to see it. So, double update. BTW, the song Harry sings to Sofia is in the sidebar! It is such a lovely song.