Three days had passed since Penelope went on that magnificent date with Harry. She held onto the kisses they shared at Old Trafford Stadium and then again when he dropped her off at her house. They hadn’t gotten to see each other after that night because One Direction was travelling around Europe, but they still tried to communicate in any way that they could when they had time. Penelope was always working, either interning at a graphic design company, waiting tables, or babysitting, so even in the rare moments when Harry could talk, she didn’t have time. But it always made Penelope smile to see the cute texts and picture messages he sent her while she was working and she tried to send him just as many. Her phone’s background, which had once been a picture of herself and Charlotte out for dinner in London, was now a photo of Harry in a van, making a very strange face while all of the other boys slept in their seats behind him.

Tonight, a Wednesday, Penelope was babysitting Charlotte again for her brother Anthony and his wife Mage after she finished her shift waitressing at a small family-owned restaurant. They wanted to go out on a date because they hadn’t spent time together since the Friday before Anthony left for America. So, of course, Penelope was more than happy to watch Charlotte who was more like her little sister than her niece.

You see, Anthony raised Penelope just as he is raising Charlotte. Anthony and Penelope’s mother passed away when she was six and he was seventeen. After that heartbreaking day, a very dark time occurred in their lives. Their father didn’t handle his wife’s passing well at all. Rather than trying to cope or attempting to console his kids, he started drinking. His character changed drastically along with the way he treated his children. Anthony was just finishing up his gap year and was going to attend university in the fall. He felt extremely guilty for leaving his little sister with his father and made himself a promise to help Penelope after he graduated from university and he did. Not only did he help his sister, but he ended up becoming her legal guardian when he was twenty three and she was twelve. Around the same time, Anthony’s own daughter was born.

Now, Charlotte’s sleeping head is rested in Penelope’s lap as she and Mage chatted late into the night. She had just gotten back from her date with her husband and was completely ready to grill her sister in law on her date with Harry.

“So,” Mage whispered as to not wakeup Charlotte, “how did your date go with the super mega pop star and womanizer, the one and only, Harry ‘my hair is worth more than your house’ Styles?”

Penelope gave Mage a chastising look as she stroked her niece’s hair. “The date was wonderful actually, Miss Sass.”

“Oh, really now?” She chuckled a little. “Did he try to seduce you with his intense smolder?”

“No, oh my gosh,” blushing, she ran her fingers through her hair. “Harry was really sweet and funny and nice. He didn’t act like some inflated dumb ass. He was actually really down to earth.”

Mage pursed her lips, “Did he have his perfectly manicured hands all over my little sister?”

“Actually, his nails were sort of dirty.”

“Nell, that’s not what I asked.”

“He was nice,” she said still trying to avoid the question.

“My question for you, my sweet Penelope, is if he grabbed your arse.”

Penelope put her hands over Charlotte’s ears, “Your daughter is in the room!”

“She’s sleeping,” Mage said waving her hand as if to brush away the subject. “Answer my question. I’m not going to tell Anthony.”

“What if she’s just pretending to be asleep?” Penelope suggested as a last resort.

“Tell me what happened.”

“We… kissed.” She said hesitantly.

Mage squinted her eyes at Penelope, “Was it a kiss or a snogging fest?”

“What?” Penelope laughed. “Mage. Those two are on totally different sides of the spectrum! I’ll just say neither.”

“Will you please just talk to me like a normal human?”

“Okay!” She sighed. “We kissed after United pulled ahead to win at the match and then we kind of… sort of full on snogged when he dropped me off at my flat after.”

Mage silently squealed and grabbed both of Penelope’s hands, shaking her sister in law back and forth. “My baby girl tongued down a guy on her doorstep!”

“You’re proud of this?” Penelope whispered, giggling quietly.

“Well not ‘proud’ necessarily, but I think it’s cute in a weird way.”

“Mage, Its not like he’s my first boyfriend.”

“I know, Nell, but you seem so happy and innocent. I’m just really excited for you. I haven’ t seen you so bashful and giggly over a boy in a while.”

“I really do like him a lot,” Penelope sighed. “He’s so cute. Not just like his face, but his personality. We’ll be texting and he’ll say something about how he ate a pancake that looked like a cow, so it’s kind of like he ate a burger,” Mage covered her mouth as she laughed at the insanity so she didn’t wake her daughter. “I don’t know. I know we’ve only been on one date. I just think he’s hilarious. And he really makes me happy.” She paused and thought about the picture Harry sent her of him just waking up with a huge smile on his face.

“I think that’s really sweet, Nell.” Mage stood up off of her chair and went over to hug Penelope. “Alright, cutie, you’ve been working all day. I think you deserve some sleep. Don’t you have to work in the morning?”

“Oh yeah, what time is it?” She asked as Mage lifted Charlotte off of her aunt’s lap and placed it onto a pillow.

“It’s around eleven thirty.”

“Shit,” she said extra quietly. “I really do have to go.”

“Thanks for watching Charlotte again. It was really sweet of you.”

“It was no problem, Mage.”

“Yeah, we would ask someone else every once in a while, but she always talks about how she misses you. She never wants anyone else to babysit.”

Penelope looked at Charlotte sleeping on her small pink bed, “I miss her too… a lot.”

“You already know you can come through whenever you’d like. This is your house too.” Mage gave Penelope a hug and walked her down the stairs where Anthony was sitting in the kitchen.

“Nell!” He smiled as he rose out of his seat. “Headed home, yeah?”

“Yeah, I didn’t realize how late it was.”

“Well, you better get back to the flat, then,” Anthony smiled and hugged his sister. “We don’t want you to be too tired for work tomorrow. We’re so proud of you, Penelope.”

Penelope smiled modestly, “Thanks, Anthony. I love you both.” She waved to the couple as she walked out the door.

“See you later,” Anthony waved with one arm around his wife.

Despite all of the unfortunate events in Penelope’s life, she considered herself to be quite lucky. She had many friends who had all of the opportunities in the world, but never took them. Living with her brother made her realize how you have to work hard to get what you want and that you don’t have to sacrifice being close to the ones you love to do it. She always thought about how she would never be where she is, or who she is, if Anthony wasn’t such an amazing person.

After her drive home, Penelope tossed her purse on the kitchen counter and immediately went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. She just put her hair into a bun and began brushing her teeth when she heard her phone vibrating. She ran into the kitchen and dug through her bag to see Harry’s smiling face on the front of her phone, his caller ID.

“Harry,” she greeted him gleefully in spite of how tired she was.

“Nell, you’re still awake!” He sounded pleased and slightly hyper. “What’re you doing?”

“I was just getting ready for bed.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just wanted to tell you the good news really quickly!”

“What is it?” Penelope asked, now feeling quite energized herself.

“We’re going back to London a day early!” He cheered and Penelope could hear a few other people cheering with him in the background as well. “So we’ll be back on Sunday!”

“That’s fabulous!” She was genuinely excited. Harry was originally supposed to get back on Monday so they wouldn’t have been able to see each other again until Friday night. “Do you know what time you get back?”

“Really early. Like, insanely early.” He laughed sounding slightly miserable about the prospect of a morning flight. “You don’t have to work or anything, do you?”

“Nope, I’m totally free on Sunday.” Penelope announced.

“Cool, we were all thinking about having a huge cookout to celebrate being back.” He paused for a second. “But if you just want to go out like just us, that’d be fine.”

“Harry, a cookout sounds great.” She laughed.

Niall took the phone from Harry, “Good because we were gonna make you come to the barbecue anyways.”

Zayn’s voice came through the speaker next, “Penelope, are you any good at grilling?”

“I’m alright, I guess,” she giggled a little as she could hear a struggle in the background.

“Fuck! Get off!” She heard Harry yell as he laughed really hard.

“We’ve got the sacrifice!” Louis shouted with a Russian sounding accent. “We shall season him and eat him for lunch tomorrow. What do you think, Liam?”

“We’ll have to shave his head, but he’s got a good bit of meat on him,” Liam said mimicking the same accent. Harry was still yelling in the background. “Nell, you like medium rare or well done? Or we can just eat him raw.”

“I’m more of a well done girl myself…” Penelope said trailing off. “But as long as the sauce is good, I should be okay.”

“Shit, Nell, don’t encourage them!” Harry yelped followed by a laugh. “Will you stop poking me!”

“Liam, make sure you save me a big piece, okay?” She said shaking her head at her own absurdity. “It’s about midnight and I have work soon so, I should probably go to sleep.”

“I’ll save you a thigh,” Liam said still in character. “Goodnight, fair Penelope.”

“Goodnight everyone!” She shouted into her phone.

They all shouted back a reply and someone must have held the phone up to Harry because he was speaking but his voice was strained and muffled, “Help me!” He laughed some more. “Goodnight, Nell! Can’t wait to see you Sunday! Ouch! Zayn, cut it out!”

“I can’t wait! And good luck escaping the Russian mafia!” Penelope laughed.

“You can bring more people if you want! Its sort of going to be a party,” Niall told her. “So if you have a hot sister… or cousin… or friend…”

“Alright, Niall,” She humored him, shaking her head. “I still want that thigh, Liam!”

“You can get more than a thigh!” Harry shouted. This was quickly followed by sounds of beating and yelps of pain.

“Goodnight, Harry!” Penelope rolled her eyes before hanging up the phone. She was so excited that she didn’t know if she would even be able to go to sleep now.

Notes

I'm really sorry that this is incredibly late, guys!
I've had a lot of class work to do so I haven't had time to write!
Sorry, if there are a lot of mistakes in this, I just wanted to get a chapter up asap :)
So keep on reading! I love you all! :)
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