Friend or Foe

Hannah—

That never happened, I kept repeating
to myself. I did not have a five minute
make out session with Harry Styles,
and most importantly, I did not like it.
After Harry left, I had to fix my lipstick
and my dress, it looked crumpled. I
wonder why? I thought to myself. I
quickly got out of the room and
bumped right into my boyfriend, Austin.

“Hey babe,” he greets. “Everything
okay?”

“Yeah,” I lie through my teeth and hide
my guiltiness. “Just tired, that’s all.
Being a bride’s maid isn’t so easy.”

I turn away from his gaze and walk
forward and gulped down my fears.
Austin caught up with me and my dad
called me over. I went up to him and
Austin followed behind me.

“Austin,” my father curtly greets and
then his eyes slice into mine and I give
a sheepish smile.

My father hated Austin, he always told
me that he’d either hurt me or run
away with your money. And if he did,
he’d remove all contacts from me and
from the will as well. In my sense, my
father was a huge drama queen. But
being me, I never listened and
sometimes I hated myself for that.

“Shall we dance?” My father asked,
ignoring Austin.

Rolling my eyes I slip my hand in my
father’s hand and follow him to the
dance floor, where my brother Jordan
and Anna were having their dance,
along with the other guests.

“You look pretty,” my dad
complimented me. “You look just like
your mama.”

Hearing compliments from the
stubborn George Curran is very rare; also
it meant he was planning on
something. My mother and I looked
nothing alike. I had black hair while
my mother had blonde and I had odd
blue eyes, while my mother had hazel
ones. But I appreciated it though.

“Anna dresses me well,” I smile at
him and sway back and forth.

I was wearing a green satin sheath, the
shoulder straps fastened with two
crustal buckles. My feet were strapped
in delicate silver three inch heels.
Anna had insisted on doing my hair
It had taken her fifteen minutes
to twist and pin the long wavy
locks into a simple updo that I
could’ve never produced. She was four
years older than me, but her manner
had been maternal, gentle and
seldom, in a way my mother had been.

“There,” Anna had murmured when
she was finished, and picked up a
powder brush to dust my nose
playfully. “Perfect.”

It was really hard not to like her.

As dad and I danced, one of the
photographers approached. We
leaned close and smiled into the
blinding white flash and then resumed
our distance. I took in my father’s
appearance, he had a barrel chest,
short legs, and blue eyes; with hair
so thick you could hardly detect his
scalp. All that and his German chin
made him a striking man, if not a
handsome one.

“Austin and I are going to New York,” I
said.

We were going to fly commercial—even though I had two first class
tickets, paid by my father’s credit card.

“Looking forward to it,” my father
answered un-interested. “Tell Tim I
said ‘hi.'”

Tim was my dancing coach and we
were for a tour to New York and I was
bringing Austin along, his dreams were
to sight see New York. So being a nice
girlfriend and a friend, I invited him
along and he happily agreed.

“Before we leave, Austin wants to have a
talk with you,” I continued.

“Looking forward to it.”

“I’d like you to be nice to him,” I spoke
sternly.

“Sometimes I’m not a nice person for a
reason. It’s a way to find out what
someone’s made off.”

“Dad,” I laughed. “You’re making it
sound like I’m going to marry him. I
have time.”

Dad looked me in the eye. “Austin will
want to marry you later on; he wants
the money from the heiress.”

“Have you ever thought,” I asked, “that
someone actually loves me, not your
bloody money?”

“Honey,” my father spoke with
patience. “Your only eighteen, forget
finding love. Girls your age are
supposed to be having a huge number
of dates and sneaking out.”

“Well, maybe I’m not like that,” I spat
back.

“You’ve made up your mind,” Dad
said. “Then don’t ask for my
permission,” he went on, “Make your
choice and accept the consequences.
Your brother sure as hell didn’t ask
what I thought about him marrying
Anna.”

“Of course he didn’t. You’ve done
everything possible to push them
together. Everyone knows you’re crazy
about her.” Shocked by my jealously I
continued quickly. “Can’t we just do
this the normal way? I bring my
boyfriend home, you pretend to like
him, and I go on with my life and if my
heart breaks, I’ll cry and fix my broken
heart over a tub of ice cream and
bother my brothers.” I smiled. “And my
life will go on and then I’ll go to college
and call you during the major
holidays.”

“You won’t be happy with him.”

“How would you know, you never
spent an hour with him,” I said.

“I’ve been around long enough to
know what his company is like.”

We weren’t raising our voices but we
did get curious glances. I didn’t know
our argument was going to make
anyone notice. I struggled for calm
and kept my feet moving to some
music.

“Any boy I pick, you’d hate them
unless you picked them,” I told him.

I thought this would be enough to
make my father angry. “If you go, I’m
cutting you off.”

“Thanks dad,” I pulled away from him
and put on a fake smile. “You’re the
best.”

I walked away from him, and very
angry. How could he say that to his
daughter? Cut me off? I never thought
my father would go to that extent of a
threat to break Austin and I apart.
Fine, I thought to myself, I never
wanted this money. I’ll earn like every
human being and be rich. I grabbed
some kind of fizzy punch and guzzled it
down, trying to calm myself. I’ll
deal with my father later but right now
I was feeling insanely guilty. I knew I’d
never tell Austin that I made out with
Harry Styles but truth be told, Harry
kissed way better then Austin. And when
Harry told me kissing me was that good, I
felt a wave of pleasure everywhere. I
went out of the tent and my face
paled. Leaning against the pillars was
Harry Styles, arms crossed and
laughing. And he looked sexy and care
free. Suddenly his eyes went on to
mine and he exposed his white teeth.

“Hannah,” Anna called over.

I follow her voice and I didn’t realize
that Harry and Anna were talking to
each other. My sister-in-law knew
Harry Styles? To my astonishment,
Anna regarded him with no awe or
curiosity, only a grin. She stopped and
folded her arms across her chest. “A
pony for a wedding present?”

A smile touched his mouth. “Hope
liked him when we went riding.”

His accent was a little deeper, unlike
mine. Mine held an American British
tint. “Figured you'd already have
everything, so I got something for your
sister.”

Hope was Anna’s nine year old sister.
Anna practically raised her on her
own; her mother was always at home.
Suffering from pain and then later on
died. I absolutely loved Hope; she was
the little sister I never had. I was raised
by guys since my mother passed
away when I was five and I missed her
dearly, but there was nothing I could
do about it.

“Do you know how much it costs to
stable that ‘little something’?” Anna
asked with heat.

Harry shrugged. “I can take him back if
you want me to.”

His smile turned slightly mocking as
he looked at me. His green eyes
glinted with uncivilized suggestion.
Certainly wouldn’t want to be alone
with him again, I thought. But a deep
desire ran, I did want to be alone with
him again. I bit my lip from smiling at
the thought.

“Hannah,” Anna pulled me out of my
thoughts. “Have you met Harry
Styles?”

“Oh we did,” Harry gave his dimpled
smile and it did not look innocent.

“Yeah,” I casually say and smile at
Harry. “Nice to meet you again.”

“It’s very nice to meet you as well
again,” Harry’s eyes gleamed with
humor.

“Harry and I have known each other
for a while now,” Anna spoke as if
Harry wasn’t the family enemy. “He’s a
very nice lad, and very flirtatious.” She
acknowledged to Harry. “She’s taken
so don’t you dare try to use your
moves on her.”

Harry laughed and smiled down at
Anna and then to me. “I’ll try not to,”
he winked making Anna erupt in
laughter.

I didn’t know what they spoke about
after, but I was sure Harry’s green orbs were on me
with a hint of wicked thought and my insides were burning.

Notes