Cut To The Feeling

The drive was quick, they didn’t get stuck in the traffic which Rory was thankful for but before she could thank God for having Harry keep his mouth shut the whole night, he spoke up when they reached the outside of the bar.

“Don’t talk to strangers and don’t absolutely take any drink from anyone and don’t wander off to anywhere by yourself and don’t even think of defil-”

“I’m twenty-one, Styles. I’m big enough to know what to do and what not.”

Harry hummed, “You sure act like it.“

“Look, Styles.” She turned towards him. He was still looking in the mood to rile her up, but his eyes conveyed the seriousness his face was lacking. “I would really appreciate if you could maybe, possibly let me spend my time here without wanting to bang my head on the wall and give myself concussion? Please.”

Harry was silent for a minute. “Okay.”

It took Rory by surprise how easily he had given in to get request, but she didn’t believe him completely. For all she knew, this could be one of his traps or something. “Okay?”

He nodded, “Okay.”

There was some weird The Fault In Our Stars shit going on right now. Rory was confused, but Harry was happily smiling. “You mean, you’ll stop bothering me to no end?”

“Yeah, Roro. I’ll stop bothering you to no end.”

Rory could feel something missing in his statement, a silent message he hadn’t got around to say. “But?”

He turned towards her, looking proud, he exclaimed, “But, I’m gonna need your number first.
There’s this gif I really want you to see.”

Oh, boy. Rory sighed, annoyed out of her mind. She was in for a long, long night.
.
.

The bar was full because of the weekend, and Newt was already drunk when Rory reached
them. He seemed pretty happy with himself when Rory stated Harry drove them both, and seemed pretty accomplished with himself. He was hanging on Lacey’s arm, who had taken to babysit him.

Harry was at her trail, complaining he didn’t know anyone at the bar when in reality Rory had counted almost five people who greeted him since the moment they arrived. Rory was in the mood to get absolutely hammered without caring for anyone else, and having Harry hot on her tail wasn’t helping her case.

She wasn’t afraid of embarrassing herself in front of Harry (that was a natural thing she couldn’t stop from happening even if she tried). All she wanted was not to spill anything she wasn’t supposed to and Harry wasn’t supposed to hear (for example, the fact her ex was marrying her best-friend) which would later subject her to more jokes from him. She didn’t want to reveal secrets which were better off kept hidden.

She was sat at the bar with Penny, while Lacey and Newt were drunkenly dancing in a spot which was clearly visible from where Rory was sitting. Penny was complaining about some guy she liked. He was a bartender at the same bar they were at right now. Penny had hoped he would be there so she could make a move, seeing the guy was beginning to look like a coward.

Harry had wandered off alone, not before telling not to do the same to Rory. As soon as
Harry was out of sight, Rory ordered shots of gin and tonic.

“Are you sure you should be drinking that much?”

Penny had taken the role of monitoring her. She ignored her voice and hurriedly drank down
three of the shots placed before her. “I came to get drunk on free drinks so I wouldn’t remember what’s happening in my life right now. Please, Penny,” She looked at her friend with the best puppy-eyes she could imitate, “Please let me have this.”

Penny sighed before getting up. “Okay, fine. But if anything happens it’s on you.“

Rory squealed as Penny’s figure became enveloped by the crowd, drowning the remaining shots before another three glasses were presented before her. She looked up to find a bartender, who looked younger than her, smiling. "Overheard you and your friend.

Experience says tequila makes you wild so if you’re in for that, maybe you should stick to it.”
Rory could feel the alcohol taking over her nervous system, Harry’s advice to not take drinks from anyone somewhere drowned by the thumping beat of the bar. Without further thinking, she drowned the clear liquid before asking for a bottle.

She would deal with the consequences later.

//

November

Something was moving inside Rory’s stomach.

It was probably blood, but even for someone who flunked biology in her school years knew blood wasn’t supposed to make squishy sounds. Maybe her stomach was being squeezed and probably making that sound but it was highly impossible.

Or maybe her liver was probably expelled.

But the thing was round and squeezy, not wet at all and felt something like a ball. It was averaged size, from what Rory could feel.

Her head was pounding, but her whole body felt numb and tired all at once. One of her arms
was covered in pins and needles and she realized she was sleeping on it. Her eyes were shut but something was irritating them. It was the sunlight.

Rory groaned when the round something got in her way as she rolled over the bed which was most definitely hers. It took all of her power to open her eyes. Sunlight poured in like fresh acid, making her groan and shut them again.

She was hungover, which meant last night was a success. She definitely didn’t remember what happened the previous night.

Rory tried again. This time she was successful in keeping her eyes open for more than two seconds. She realized she was sleeping with a rubber ball the size of a football close to her, and was probably hugging and squeezing the life out of it.

Her phone was dead, so she couldn’t check with anyone to find out what happened the previous night. Was she a total babe or embarrassed the hell out of herself? She strongly believed it was the latter but it didn’t hurt to confirm.

She begrudgingly got out of the inviting bed and went straight to the kitchen to make herself a strong cup of tea to get rid of the headache. Her leg ached and there was a pretty big bruise running from her knee to the mid on the side of her leg. Her phone was put on charging, she needed to thank whoever cared enough for her to make sure she got home safe. It was probably Penny, since Lacey and Newt were wasted even before she got her first drink - which she remembered.

The door bell rang minutes after the kettle sounded, announcing that the water had boiled. She practically dragged her feel across the tiled floor up to the front door. She knew she wasn’t in any shape or form to open the door. Her hair was all over peeking from the haphazard pony tail someone had made out of it, probably dark circles guarded here eyes and her breath smelled heaps. But frankly she didn’t care.

She had no idea who could be at the door. It was around twelve, so she couldn’t say it was too early for any visitor. Her leg muscles were burning and as she opened the door, her eyes started burning too.

“The consequence…..”

She trailed off as Harry’s freshly showered and brightly smiling figure stood in the doorway in the same position she remembered seeing him when he came to pick her up. He looked way too happy to be hungover, and the chip in his step when Rory stepped aside to let him in proved her theory. He wasn’t even close to being hungover.

“You look awful Roro.”

He was leaning over the kitchen counter, the tea Rory poured for herself already in his hands.

“Do you really have no manners whatsoever? And were you never taught to not eat food lying around?”

Harry shrugged, eyes down. “Can’t say.”

Rory disregarded the answer, pouring herself another cup of tea. She didn’t bother asking Harry what he was doing at her house, thinking it was another of his antics to annoy her.

“Here.” He pulled out something from his pocket. When he set it down on the counter, Rory realized it was a key, her key. The key to her house. “I forgot to return it when I dropped you off yesterday. You were pretty much out of your mind so I had to search your purse for this.”

Rory took some time so that Harry’s words registered in her brain, “You dropped me home last night?”

He nodded, “It wasn’t technically dropping off if you add me dragging you to your room and
fighting with you to let go off the ball you dragged from God knows where and then treating myself to a cup of tea and the junk you’ve stored in your fridge. Which reminds me to tell you to eat nutritious food.”

Rory scrunched up her nose, “What about Penny? Did she get home safe?”

“She ended up leaving with the bartender. Decent dude. I saw them leaving together so I went looking for you. Spotted you the moment your leg got caught in the leg of the chair and ended up falling face first to the floor.”

That explained the bruise. Rory couldn’t be annoyed at him because if it weren’t for him, God knows what would have happened to her.

“I guess then thank you, Styles. For getting me home safe.”

Harry didn’t believe her half-hearted gratitude. “That wouldn’t work. You owe me something.”

That was what Rory wasn’t willing to do; owing something to Harry when she knew how evil his mind could be. She didn’t want to get stuck in his evil schemes for she knew all he was good at doing (besides taking care of animals better than her) was annoying her.

“What do I owe you?”

Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she was thinking. Maybe all he’d say was some harmless thing that she’d have no trouble complying to and-

“Have lunch with me.”

Forget that thought.

Notes

hiya people!!! i hope you all are enjoying the story! I would really like to hear your thoughts and as always, feedback and constructive criticism is much welcomed!

have an amazing day/night.

until next time xx