Dad rang the doorbell of our neighbor's house. I straightened my shirt and fidgeted with a bit of my hair that wouldn't fit my ponytail as I waited for the door to open.
"Hello, Peter. Alyssa. Please come in," Anne greeted us, holding the door open for us to enter.
"Good evening, Anne," dad said, walking in.
I just smiled.
Anne shut the door and led us into the living room. Harry and his dad, Robin were sitting on the couch, awaiting our arrival. Harry smiled at me and waved at a hello. Robin got up and shook my dad's hand.
"Peter! Thanks for coming," he said, gesturing my dad to sit on the sofa across from them. I took a seat next to my dad.
"Thanks for inviting us," my dad replied.
I just sat, stupidly smiling at them all. All that worry I'd put into not making a fool of myself... well we can see what great use it's come into.
"So, Alyssa. How're you liking Cheshire?" Robin asked.
Wow. This is the third time I've had to answer this question. Is that all people can think of asking a foreigner?
"It's great! I'm loving it here. The weather, especially. It's much cooler than California." I said.
"Oh! I remember going to California on tour a few months ago. The boys and I would go out onto the streets and enjoy the sun. It was great!" Harry said.
"You don't get so much sun here. It's quite sad, actually," Anne said.
"Yeah, well California doesn't get much snow. Actually, it never snows where I live," I said.
"And where is that?" Robin asked.
"Towards the center, but a little higher up north. A small city called Cupertino. You may have heard of it, as it's where Steve Jobs is from. You know, the Apple company?" I informed them.
"Apparently, Alyssa and her mum live across the street from the Apple headquarters," dad added.
"Well, not directly across. More like a couple streets away," I corrected him.
"Wow, that's amazing! I love Apple!" Harry said.
"It must be quite a different experience, living in a place like that," Robin said.
"Well, it's nothing compared to Harry's life." I said.

"Harry, how does it feel to be famous?" dad asked.
"Famous? I wouldn't consider myself as famous, exactly. That just seems odd. But I like being a singer. It's interesting," he said with a smile.
"I bet you barely get any privacy. You're being watched everywhere you go," I said.
"That's the difficult part of this lifestyle. But it's not that big of a problem, really. It's not like they have cameras behind our backs 24/7," he said.
"Yeah right," I whispered under my breath, soft enough so he wouldn't be able to hear.
Just then, Gemma stormed into the room with a fat book in her hand.
"Harry! Can you guess where I found this?" she asked, anger clearly visible in her narrowed eyes.
Harry just looked at Gemma, his face melting from his relaxed, chilled out expression to a worried, or more like creeped out expression.
"Under your bed! You freakin' bed, Harry! May I know what it was doing there?" she asked, slightly losing control. She probably hadn't realized my dad and I were in the room.
"Gemma, can you two do this later?" Anne asked politely.
"Mum! Harry stole my diary and probably read every page of it! I've written down every secret I've had in my whole life in here! It's not something he can touch! It's my private, PRIVATE, property!" she screamed.
"It's not my fault you can't keep your secrets stored in that brain of yours. Besides, I haven't read any of your secrets. They're all safe," he retorted.
"Harry, not now," Robin warned.
"My diary was under your bed and you expect me to believe you haven't read anything? How could you, Harry? I thought you'd be more respectful of my belongings. You of all people, Harry" Gemma asked again, a little more sternly.
"I never said I haven't read anything..." he said.
"Harry! You... you...-"
"Gemma! Stop it! We have guests over and look at the way you two are acting! This is not fine behavior. You both are grown people. You should know better than to argue over little things!" Robin said, raising his voice.
"It's not little," Gemma said, bringing her voice down.
"Stop it. You are older than him. You should know how to handle this, Gemma." Anne said.
"Why are you guys yelling at me? He's the one who read my diary! Yell at him!" Gemma retorted.
"We shouldn't be yelling at either of you! You are old enough to learn to handle these situations yourself. Gemma, you're 24! And Harry, you're quite old yourself! And you both get down to bickering... in front of an audience?" Robin said.
"Robin, we can go, if you need. We'll come another time," dad suggested.
"No, it's fine. Gemma and Harry aren't going to continue this any longer. It's finished, right?" Anne said.
Harry stayed silent.
"We'll finish this later," Gemma said quietly, walking back out into the hallway and disappearing into her room.
"That was intense," Robin said, frowning at his wife.
"She'll be fine. Now. Who's hungry?" Anne asked, trying to lighten up the mood.
"Let's go eat," Robin says, getting up.
Dad and I got up as well. Harry, seemed to be lost in deep thought, staring into space. He seemed to be hurt. I looked at him, concerned whether he'd be ok or not. Anne said Gemma would be fine, but what about Harry?
"Alyssa, are you coming?" Dad asked, following Robin out of the living room.
"Yeah, dad, I'll be there in a sec," I said.
He nodded and left, leaving only Harry and me alone in the large room. Harry didn't seem to notice that everyone had left, or that I came and sat down next to him.
"Harry?" I whispered, "Are you ok?"
He blinked, coming back into reality.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." he said.
I frowned, "Are you sure? You don't seem ok,"
"No, really. It's fine. Gemma and I argue all the time. It's what brothers and sisters do," he assured me.
"Well, then. May I know what that was all about?" I asked.
"Um..." he hesitated, looking away at the corner of the room.
"It's fine. I understand. It's just... it seemed to suddenly change your mood when Gemma came into the room. I was just wondering if it was something serious," I said.
"No, no. Not really. It's nothing to worry about." he said.
"Ok then. I'm glad," I said.
"We should go join the others," he said, getting up.
"Yeah, we should," I said. At least I knew he was better now.
"And Alyssa?" he said softly.
"Hm?" I asked.
"Thanks. For... this. It helped me come back to life," he said.
I smiled, "Any time," I said.
He smiled back, his gorgeous dimples vividly showing.
We walked into the dining room together and joined the rest of them, seated at the table. Gemma eventually joined us for dinner and sat far away from Harry. The rest of dinner went by peacefully without any more arguments. Anne had prepared some steak, tomato soup, pasta, and vegetable salad. I ate everything but the steak, informing everyone of my vegetarian habits. Anne served me an extra bowl of pasta, to make sure I filled my stomach and provided some apple pie for dessert. Dad and I enjoyed our meal to the very last spoon. We thanked Anne and Robin for a wonderful evening, wished them a good night, and headed back home, tired after such an eventful evening.

Once you learn about a secret, curiosity strikes, making you die to figure it out until you actually do. Now, I am dying to figure out what Harry ad Gemma's fight was truly about. Why had Harry taken Gemma's diary? What did Gemma have in there that she didn't want her own brother to find out about? Would I ever find out?

Notes

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