Coincidence

"Look at me now I'm falling. Can't even talk, still stuttering. This ground of mine keeps shaking, Oh, Oh, Oh, Now. All I want to be, yeah, all I ever want to be, yeah, yeah, is somebody to you." ~ The Vamps, Somebody to you.
~
I woke up to a light flashing in my eyes. Sitting up, I pull the covers off. I don't remember getting under the covers after Marie left so she must have done it.
I walk into my bathroom and stand in front of the mirror in my little bathroom. It was a cute bathroom, painted a very light-washed purple. I splash cold water on my face trying to wash out yesterday.
10:34. I was late to my job down at the Timber Lake Grill. The dressing process goes by in a blur and by 10:35, there's a TL Grill shirt and dark jeans on me. The drive to the grill was only 10 minutes, luckily. It was the main hangout for everyone - from kids who could make it there alone to anyone who could barely walk without a stick. Parking in the back was for employees only so that we could get in to the grill faster than we could from the front.
"You're late." Abby says as she walks out of the back room and into the kitchen.
"I know. I'm really sorry. I had a really bad day yesterday." I say following my boss and placing my apron over my jeans.
"Since you are my best employee I'm allowing it today, but no more." I nod and follow her out of the kitchen and behind the bar. "You know the drill." She looks at me waiting for me to repeat what she has told me a thousand times.
"If any employee is late they will work the bar for their shift." I repeat from the depths of my brain. Whether I was late or not, everyone knew that it was my spot. The bar was at the back of the grill and not many people came this far back. They all knew we had a bar, but knowing and seeing are two totally different things. Everyone--who didn't consider this bar their second home-- thought that this far back was haunted by a very punctual ghost who really likes me. No one knew that it was me who created the myth.
"Good." She left me there and walked back into the kitchen to get more plates full of steaming hot food.
Not all the stools were occupied, only the ones the regulars sat in. Every face I've seen at least twice before and probably more than that. John, the town drunk sits in his usual spot at the end of the bar, drink in his hand. He finishes it down in one gulp, hitting the table with his glass indicating he wants another. I take one look at his dilated pupils and decide to cut him off. The town drunk didn't need to become the town deceased.
"I'm going to call you a cab." I grab the phone and punch in the only cell phone number I choose to remember besides Marie's.
I yell into the kitchen where Abby is that I'm just taking John to a cab and she just waves at my message. Calling cabs here was so common the cab basically lived here. Actually he did, we had a small cot placed in the back room for him. "Hey, Ricky. The usual." I say to the cab driver through the car's small window. He nods with a smile as I help John get in.
The cab speeds away, leaving me in its dust trail. Coughing, I make my way back through the front and towards my spot behind the bar. The walk is only half a minute, but me being the anti-social person I am, makes it seem like forever. Looking around at all the people, I see some familiar faces from school or just from around. Then, there's a man sitting in a booth. His head is tilted down and his back is facing me, obscuring his face from my view. I'm not sure why he intrigues me, but his posture makes him look like a mystery that someone has to solve. I make it to the bar and continue with my mixing of liquors and spirits that I'm still not allowed to drink.The bar has a cut off wall that only reaches mid-way up from the ground, so everyone in the grill is able to see me and me them, but I ignore them.
~
My shift ends an hour before the grill closes, but being late caues me to stay till the grill officially closes - no extra pay. There is almost no one in the grill besides a table of high school students working on some project and the mystery man sitting in his booth in the far corner. "Grill closes in 25 minutes." I announce. The man doesn't look up, but he bobs his curly haired head in understatement.
I continue to clean the dirty dishes in anticipation of the last few minutes of work that I have. "Alice will you lock up?" Abby asks me from the back. I give her a simple yes and hear the back door close as she leaves. 10 minutes left.
We keep the keys on a hook in the back room. I fetch them and walk back to the front locking up the front door so no one could enter, but people could leave. The group of teens were gone probably to go to the library down the street. The mystery man was still sitting in his seat with his head down. He looked like he was sleeping and I was afraid to wake him up, but knowing I had to close, I reached out to shake him awake, but I didn't need to.
"It's not nice to wake up the sleeping." said the British accent that I knew all too well.
"Harry."
"Yes, love. I'm happy you can say my name. Now, don't wear it out." He says, finally looking up at me. His emerald green eyes pierce into my chocolate brown ones.
"How did you find me?"
He smirks and stands up so he is towering over me.
"I don't have to answer that." He says. I just glare at him with a my not-so-scary death glare. "You look cute when you try and glare."
"Seriously what the fuck are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with your prissy little boys and your creepy stalker fans?" I say, my words dripping with venom. Cussing was never my style; shy mischievous was.
"Let's call it 'getting a breath of fresh air.'" He replies.
"What the fuck does that mean?" I ask irritated that he was here. That he found me. How did he find me?
"Nothing, love. I was just going," and with that, he left. I watch him walk out full of confidence and jump into his car across the street.
I lock up the grill and jump in my car, flooring it all the way back to my house. It was late and my parents and sister were probably asleep. Making my foot falls as soft as possible I make my way to my room and close the door.
There is a soft knock on my door and I open it to see my sister, Melody. She was only 16, but we were really close. She had on her pajamas with the faces of all the boys of One Direction. I found it quite disturbing that they would make them. She walked in and sat on my bed cross legged.
The magazine in her had was crumpled as she hands it over to me to read. On the cover had five smiling idiots all looking like they were having the time of their lives. The headline read: One Direction decide to spend some quality family time after the release of their fourth and best album of their career.
I read through the article specifically looking for anything having to do with Harry, but it says that he is with his family and enjoying a great time at home. Nothing on being in the states, in a small back watered town outside of Chicago.
"It says that he is in Holmes." I say. My sister didn't need to know that he was in town or this town wouldn't be a town anymore. It would become a tourist attraction for all the fans trying to figure out why on earth he ended up here.
"It says that." She replies. "but that's not true. You know that I own one of the biggest blogs." She sound's a little stalkerish if you ask me, but I nod and she continues. "One of my million followers told me she saw him at a book and music signing down in Chicago." My sister was in love with One Direction and all things Harry. I never told her and I begged my parents not to say who did this to me. I smile at her not knowing what to say.
"I have a feeling he's here in Timber Lake." She continues and at this I laugh.
"Timber Lake? I bet he doesn't even know this place exists. Its population is not enough to count it as a town." It was hard ot protect him, but protecting him meant protecting me and my family and friend. If my sister found out so would the press and everyone everywhere. My safe heaven would be ruined, all because of him.
"But, he was in Chicago and maybe he came here to make sure no one found him and make a big publicity stunt. I mean this is the perfect place to go. Not too far, not known by anyone, probably no fans. Perfect."
"Hey, Mel, this theory is making my brain hurt. I'm going to go to bed." I pull her up from my bed and push her out of my room. She gave me the 'what did I say' look and I just closed the door in her face.
After changing, I crawled into my bed and curled into a ball. How could I tell her? They saved her, I can't tell her. As my bedroom fades away, I promise myself that no matter what, my sister does not find out, even if that means pretending that what happened with Harry never really happened at all and that Harry wasn't here in Timber Lake.
~
It was dark around me and wet. I was underwater, but I could breath and see perfectly. In the far distance there was a shark swimming towards me. I tried to swim in the opposite direction, but I just hovered in the same place, immobile. As the shark got closer I noticed that it had multiple faces. It would switch from one to another in less then a millisecond. I couldn't get the features of each face, but I knew exactly who they were. Jess, Alex, Noah and Harry.
As they started tearing at my limbs I could hear their voices in my head. The bruises from the teeth wern't as bad as the ones that bruised my heart and soul. Those hurt the most. They always do.
~
I wake up when the pain is too much, yelling at them to stop. My sister was hovering over me with a weird expression on her face. "I'm fine," I say, trying to get her away. She doesn't look convinced, but decides to take my word on it and let it go.
My mom was in the kitchen making my favorite breakfast. I smile and give her a kiss on the cheek before grabbing a glass and filling it with orange juice.
"You're up early and perky" She states.
I shrug and sit at the table. "Bad dream." I take a sip of OJ not looking my mom in the eye.
"Do you want to talk about it?" A dark shadow covers her face and she gives me the "is this about you-know-who" look. Most teens would say no, but our relationship was different. Actually, I was a teen who could completely trust my mom and have her as a best friend. She was almost a 20 year old like me. She could gossip like no one I've ever meet. She could also take a secret to her grave.
"Maybe later." I say trying to get the nightmare out of my mind. "Not ready to remember it." I continue trying to explain so she doesn't think I'm blowing her off. She nods in agreement and we sit and eat our breakfast in silence. The strawberry waffles she makes are amazing as always with strawberry sauce on top. As you can probably tell - strawberries are my favorite food.
"I'm thinking of going to church today." I say nonchalantly causing her to chock on her tea.
"Why? You never go."
"I believe that I should go once and a while so that I don't look like I absolutely hate everything." She doesn't seem convinced with my answer, but she drops it anyway knowing that it was as good as she would get.
Harry can't find me there. I just need to go someplace that's not at all associated with him.
I give her a reassuring smile and run up to change.
I pull on a light lavender dress that I bought for church when we moved here almost 7 years ago. I was surprised that it still fit me. The flats that go with the dress fit me as well. Down stairs my family rush around the house prepping for church and the after party.
I had to pick this day to go to church. I inwardly groan, but I can't really back down now. I made a commitment and I was pretty sure that Harry would not show up at Church. A few tedious hours at Church would be better than going to work and running into Harry.
We make it to the local church in less then 10 minutes and find a parking spot down the street and across the corner. It would have been smarter just to walk.
As we make our way up the church steps, I see Marie. I point at her and my mom nods knowing that I like to go to church with her. I see she is talking to someone so I wait where I am for her to see me. She turns around when the person points me out. She smiles and starts walking towards me. She makes it about ten feet before I realize she was talking to the one and only, devil himself. I never understood how stupid fan-girls were. (A/N I am not calling any fangirls stupid. I am a fangirl myself. It is just for the story do not take it personally.) How couldn't they see that Harry fucking Styles was standing right here.
I turn on my heels and stalk into the church without Marie and definitely without the demon. I scan the pews for my family, finally spotting them near the front but choosing a small pew in the back blocked by a piller. I must be the worlds worst hider or he was the worlds best finder because right before mass started Harry took a seat next to me. "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be in Holmes?" I ask before he can say anything.
"I like it here and I have the rest of the summer with you until I have to go on tour again." He states calmly a smile tugging at the end of his lips.
"You're staying the whole summer?" I ask incredulously.
He nods.
This is going to be the worst fucking summer of my new life.
~

Notes

I just wanted to say that I am a fangirl. Maybe not as much for 1D as anything else, but I am not calling anyone stupid. This is her opinion. Now that that is out of the way. This was a really long chapter, wow. I didn't think I could write this much, but yeah. I hope you like chapter two and please vote, comment, and follow. Please if you find a typo tell me. I want this story to be the best it can be. Thanks. Ily.
~Sadie