Always.

“Did you see Michael completely eat it during gym? Oh my God, I was laughing my ass off.” Harry practically shouts at me when he sees me get out of my car when we pull up to our houses.

“Yea, he was just lying there laughing but it happened in slow motion. Just the look on his face as he was falling though was terrible and you guys were already being dicks and laughing without even seeing if anything was wrong with him.” I shake my head and grab my things from the back seat of my car.

“Oh, you laughed too!” he accused, walking over to me.

“Yea, after he said he was alright, but I wasn’t crying.” I point out, and he moves up to run his finger through his hair before he realizes he still has a ponytail in and mumbles and “oh.”

“Whatever, at least he was okay. I’m not heartless.”

“Yea, mhm.” I say and push passed him as I walk toward my house.

“I’m not.” He continues. “Kel.” His hand is placed on my arm and spins me around to him. “Hurry, with your shower then come straight over, okay?”

“Why? Is something the matter?” I ask, still completely aware of his hand that is practically burning my skin. I always read about it in books, but I wasn’t aware it actually happens when someone touches you.

“It’s just be… strange at home lately. It would just be more comfortable if you were there with me.” He sighs and looks at the ground. “I know that’s stupid but it’s true.”

“It’s not stupid,” I whisper, desperately wanting eye contact again. “Harry.” I say and he finally looks at me, “It’s not stupid.” I repeat. “I always feel more comfortable with you there, too.”

He smiles slightly and wraps and arm around me, pulling me into his sweaty body.

“Ew, Harry. You’re still sweaty.” I push his chest and pulled away from him.

“I’ll see you soon, Kel.” He winks and begins walking toward his house and I walk to my front door. “And hurry!” he yells as I am about to shut the door.

Oh my God, I think I’m really in love with him.

I sigh and walk to my bedroom seeing no sight of my dad along the way.

I throw my things onto my bed and grab my clothes out before heading into the shower. It was a quick shower because the 5 minutes I took picking out my clothes, I decided not to wash my hair. One of the main arguments I have with myself. Washing all this hair is just way to much work, and it take 10 minutes less to shower without washing it. That’s why God made dry shampoo, isn’t it?

I was in and out in 7 minutes, though I admit to thinking about washing my hair again because once I get in the shower I really don’t want to get out. I really wanted to just stand under the hot water but I wanted to go to Harry more. I don’t think I’ll see him much this weekend. We have band practice tomorrow and then some of us are going out after to just hang out, and then on Sunday Louis, Zayn, Perrie, and Liam invited me out. I never know what we are doing and I didn’t want to ask. Liam told me Harry was not going to be there though.

It’s kind of weird that I’ve known them; or rather known of them, because of Harry and now I hang out with them because of Liam. It’s good though, I need to hang out with people because if I don’t I will probably just drive myself absolutely insane.

As I dry off, I put on my underwear then over it just a hoodie with “Styles” on the back. It was Harry’s from like, the 8th grade when he had decided to give basketball a go. That didn’t turn out like he had hoped, but he just outgrew the hoodie because he was such a baby when he was younger with his short hair and that. He was so adorable though. I just put a pair of leggings that don’t go down too far past my knee.

I threw my hair up into a bun after the dry shampoo, and redid it about 6 times before it looked decent, then I put on a thin headband and my glasses. Good thing they know me well enough to be aware that I wasn’t dressing up. We’ve intentionally dressed up 9 times in my time knowing them. Only 9. I laugh.

I remember to put on my bracelet before grabbing my phone and heading out of my bedroom door. As I walk to the front door my dad still isn’t home, so I put on my flip flops and leave grabbing the house key and locking the door.

The walk to Harry’s is agonizingly slow. HA, jokes. It’s like seven feet away.

I knock on the door and open it when no one answers. “Hello?” I call out, someone has to be home, Harry’s car isn’t the only one out there.

“Kelly, dear.” Anne comes out of the kitchen in her apron and wipes he hands on it. “How are you?” she says, wrapping me up into one of her warm, motherly hugs.

“Good,” I answer as she pulls out of the hug. I close the door behind me and take off my flip flops as she turns.

“Great, want to help me in the kitchen, love?” she asks, and I hum in response. “Harry should be out soon, he just got into the shower.”

Tells me to hurry when I’ve already showered and all that? Goodness.

“Oh, cheesecake?!” a smile spreads across my face and my mouth literally water. I love cheesecake.

“Yea, Harry said you were coming for dinner and asked me to pick it up.” She said, pulling some potatoes from the pantry.

“Well, that’s really sweet. Thanks.” I say, and wash my hands in the kitchen sink.

“Don’t thank me, dear. So will you cut up these potatoes? I’m making the ones with the ranch powder on top, like your mum used to make.” She says.

I nod and smile weakly down at the towel next to the sink as I dry my hands.

“Anne, I have uh- uhm, I have a question.” My voice is quiet, and I’m absolutely sure if Harry came in and caught me asking he’d have a fit.

“What is it?”

“Uh,” I gulp. Rethinking my decision to ask the question. “I was just wondering whether or not,”

“Hey, mum where’s da- Oh, hey Kel. Didn’t know you were here yet.” He said walking into the kitchen. If that wasn’t sign not to ask, I didn’t know what as.

“Yea, well you told me to hurry so I did.” I shrug, chopping the potatoes on the cutting board in front of me.

He rolled his eyes and stood next to me, leaning his back against the counter. “Any, mum where is dad? He’s usually home by now.” The last part is more to himself than it is his mom.

“He’s just busy, should be home soon.” She says turned toward the stove, which is weird because she loves eye contact, especially with Harry because it makes he feel “closer” to him.

Harry sighs and moves from my left to my right. “Right then move over.” He says, nudging me with his hip.

“What, why?” I move over anyway.

“I’m going to help you.” He answers grabbing a knife and potato.

We all are quiet in the kitchen until Harry and I are done chopping all of the potatoes into mini wedges. “Can you hand me a pan Harry?” He says yes and pulls one out from underneath the counter placing it in front of me. We spread an even layer on the pan and I pour the olive oil and ranch powder packets over the top.

“Alright, they’re finished.” I tell Anne, washing my hands again.

“Okay, thank you two. You can just go relax, I’ll tell you when dinner is ready.”

“Okay,” Harry and I both say before walking out of the kitchen and towards his room.

I plop down on his bed on my stomach ad turn my head to the right with my eyes closed. Harry soon sat beside me. “Thanks for asking to get a cheesecake.” I smile at the other side of the room.

“It’s your favorite so…”

I turned my head toward him and moved into a more fetal position, as unattractive as that sounds.

“You okay?” I ask, putting my head on my arm.

Harry stares at his lit phone in his hand before locking it and looking toward me.

“Does me dating Caroline bother you?” he asks.

What? Why would I? Never mind, obvious reasons now, huh? “Course not. Why would you think that?”

He looked away from me again, almost as if he was disappointed in my answer. “I was wondering if that was why you hadn’t been talking to me as much.”

“What if it was Harry? What would it matter?” I sit up on the bed, the curiosity making it too frustrating to lay anymore.

“I mean, yea. I guess I’m just looking for an explanation.” He runs a hand through his still damp hair.

“I just- Harry you’re going through things, I know. I didn’t want to be in the way, I know you need space, time to yourself to think.”

“You’re the thinker.” He states, chuckling a bit as he looks back at me biting his lip. “That’s not what I need though. That’s not what I want.”

“What do you want Harry?” I looked at my hands in my lap, picturing him saying the words I had only recently began wanting to hear.

“I need my best friend, someone I can talk to.” He says, almost embarrassed.

I took a deep breath and exhaled something I think I needed to say. “You have Caroline now, Harry. Maybe you need to confide in her if you’re going be with her.” Holy shit, why did I say that?

He looks at me with a confused and almost hurt expression. “Oh.” He looks away from me and lets out a pained laugh.

I shake my head. “That’s not what I meant Harry I just mean that…”

“No, I get it.” He cuts me off, “Maybe you’re right, I mean you usually are huh?” he smiles at me but I know him enough to know how fake it is.

Not this time. I hesitated, but eventually grabbed his hand and entwined my fingers with his. “I didn’t mean it like that.” Maybe holding his hand wasn’t the best idea, maybe being alone with him isn’t the best idea but I can’t control myself. “Sorry.”

He shifts on the bed and looks at me, “It’s all right, love.”

We sit there in silence, as per usual I guess before my tummy rumbles and Harry looks at me with a huge grin on his face…

“You think we could get away with sneaking a slice of cheesecake before dinner?” he says.

“That sounds like such a good idea.” I laugh and let go of his hand climbing off of the bed and he does the same.

“Everybody, dinner is ready!”

Harry and I look at each other and laugh. “Guess we’ll have to sneak desert first some other time,” he whispers and follows me into the kitchen where dinner is on the counter and plates are as well.

“YES! Hamburger steaks!” I squeal when I see the food and fill up my plate with two burgers, some potatoes and broccoli.

Anne laughed and so did Des who was leaning against the fridge.

“Hey, Papa Des.” I greet with a smile and take my plate to the table.

“Hello, Kelly.” He says and Harry moves to fill his plates. “I’m glad your favorite foods are mine as well. Well, mostly.”

“I didn’t even plan on making Kelly favorite, I was already going to make the hamburger, we don’t have them too often.” She moves to get her food and Harry has set his down then walks to the fridge gently putting his hand on my lower back for a moment, but long enough for the heat to raise to my cheeks.

“Mum, Dad. You want milk?” he asks them, and they say no. Which is usual, Harry and I are the only milk drinkers between all of us, including Gemma.

As soon as everyone had their drinks, and food at the table we began eating.

It’s always been really easy to be here and chat with Harry’s family. They’ve really taught me what family is especially when I needed most to know what it was. That is definitely why I know Harry is worried about the yelling, the fighting. Honestly, I am a little worried. Right now, it seems like nothing is wrong with them.

They joke and laugh and talk about their days at work and converse about anything really.

“How did your presentation go today?” Anne asks us. She seated next to Des across from Harry and I’m next to him.

“Went well. We were the class favorite.” He answers.

“Yea, we’re getting extra credit on our next test. I guess everyone voted for us beside ourselves.” I add. “It’s cool, really.”

“Innit? It literally took us an hour to write that and another hour or two of practice and then everyone liked it.”

“Maybe it was the cookies.”

“Maybe, I don’t care though. No we’re going to be the coolest kids in class. Like the big cheese. The kids with the pudding cup and crayon sharpener.”

We all laugh at Harry and I just nod in agreement as we finish our meal.

The excitement when I’m finally finished and get to eat a slice of New York style cheesecake is absolutely unreal. Harry brings everyone a slice, such the gentlemen and I am the first to bite in once everyone is settled.

“Oh my God.” I moan. “This.” I whisper, pointing to the cake with my fork. “Is incredible.” My eyes are closed, savoring each delicious bite.

“I’ve never seen one get so excited over cheesecake.” Des says.

“I can’t help it.” I reply.

After we are done eating Harry and I clean up the kitchen. He didn’t want to, but I convinced him it was a good idea, and it was nice.

When we finished and wiped the table down Harry spoke up. “You should stay here tonight. We can put down blankets and sleep in the living room.”

I smile at the thought. “Yea? I think it would be fun. Just nothing scary!” I say.”

“Nothing scary.” He smiles at me and leaves to ask his parents if I could stay.

I hope they say yes because I’m already dragging the blankets out and making myself at home.

They did end up saying yes, and Harry was very and let me pick The Notebook as the first movie. I shouldn’t have really. Should have kept the love stories to a minimum but it’s just so good.

We both laid on the ground with our pillows propped beneath our heads a good two feet apart.
It’s getting later and dark outside and I am already tired, but Harry insisted on one more movie.

“You’ll love this one.” He said, lying back down on the floor after he put in the movie.

I waited for the movie to come on and of course it was The Conjuring, The fucking Conjuring.

“Oh, hell no.” I move to get off the ground but Harry pulls my arm.

“Come on, it’s just a movie.” He says, “I’ll be right here.” He grins cheekily.

“You do this every damn time, Harry.” I complain, lying on my back and pulling the blanket up to my chin. This cannot en
5d quickly enough.

Probably 30 minutes into the movie I had been screaming like crazy but trying not to scream too loud. The next scare set me off and I moved into Harry’s side, hiding my face in his side.

“I really fucking hate you.” I mumbled, keeping my eyes closed.

He sighs and wraps an arm around me. “You’re fine, Kel. It’s just a movie.” He says.

“Whatever.” I turn and let one eye peak at the t.v screen. I jump every so often and Harry’s arm just tightens as he gives a light chuckle.

I try not to, I really try to watch it because there is more of a chance of having nightmares while I’m unconsciously listening to the movie but my eyelids and Harry is rubbing my back through the hoodie and I can’t help but fall asleep.

I wake up to Harry lightly snoring in my ear. I blink open my eyes and inhale looking around at the living room. Harry’s right arm is wrapped around me, pulling me close to him. When I take in the surrounding I notice the faint sounds of shoes on the floor board.

“We should probably tell him soon.” Anne’s soft voice suggests.

I immediately close my eyes and nuzzle further into Harry so they don’t know I am awake.

“We need to wait for Gemma to get here, we can’t just tell her over the phone.”

“I know that, but she doesn’t have to live with this like Harry does.” Anne replies to Des.

The footsteps get closer so I know they are by at the front door and can see us.

A feminine exhale is released and I blink and try not to make unnecessary noises.

“Look at the two of them. The only think that’s remained the same in our lives.” Des says.

“What it would be like to be young and in love again. Quite a shame really, that they don’t see what they both have right in front of them.”

Notes