Becoming Harry Styles

Chapter 4: Weekend Happenings

I walked back to my house, pushing any thoughts of Kyle and Riley out of my mind. I entered the house to find that it was empty. I forgot that my mom had a date with her new boyfriend, Robin Twist, and Gemma most likely had some sort of Saturday plans. She was the social life of the family after all. I checked the clock, and I still had an hour before I needed to leave for work.

I headed up the stairs to my room with my new clothing from Riley in hand. I poured the contents from the bag, which had symbolized a near perfect day, onto my bed and began hanging them all up nice and properly in the back of my closet. I wouldn’t ever wear any of them as regular old me, Marcel. There was still quite a bit of time before I would get the chance to audition. They were held in the early days of summer, and there were still so many more important things to focus on. My last year of primary school was soon going to be coming to a close and I would be headed off to college in the fall. I know Riley held such a high expectation of me getting onto the show and everything, and I was going to try my best, but I still needed to keep focused on the most important and realistic thing, my education.

When I hung the last shirt into my closet I checked the clock, and was surprised as to how much time had passed thinking about the future! I needed to leave for work. I quickly grabbed my apron and headed out the door.

I arrived at the bakery to the smiling faces of the sweetest old women I knew. I wrapped my apron around my waist as Barbara spoke, “Marcel! You’re here! You can help me make final preparations for the pick-ups for tonight yet.” I punched in and followed her into the decorating room.

I loved helping decorate the cakes. I liked to think that I was quite alright at it. Otherwise I don’t think they would allow me to help with that stuff. There were still three cakes that needed finishing touches within the next few hours before they were picked up. I had a steady hand, so the ladies usually left those to me on the days I worked. I checked the order form to make sure I was working on the correct cake and grabbed a tube of black frosting to get straight to work. I became focused, making sure I didn’t mess up. I always reckoned these cakes meant a great deal to someone, and I liked knowing I took part in making someone happy…even if it was just for a moment.

Barbara asked after a while, “So, Marcel dear, how was your day?”

“Great! I spent the day with Riley.”

“Ohhhh.” She gushed. “What did the two of you do?”

I pondered this for a few moments. “Well, we are doing a bit of a…project. So we did a bit of shopping in town today.”

“Well that’s lovely dear? Were you a gentleman? Did you pay for her?”

I had to laugh. Barbara was always mothering me, which I found endearing. “Of course I did. Chivalry isn’t completely dead yet.”

She giggled happily. “Well that’s good to know Marcel. I do worry about your generation an awful lot.”

“Me too.”

We finished up the cakes right on time as the people filed in one by one to pick them up before we closed. It gave me a sense of pride when I saw their faces lite up as soon as they saw their cake idea come to life before their eyes.

One nice woman in particular stated, “This is absolutely perfect! Did you do this?”

I smiled. “I helped.”

“Well thank you very much! You are very talented!”

“Well thank you! It was mostly these ladies though.” I stated while pointing to the other women.

Margaret heard the conversation and added, “He is just being modest! He is quite good!”

The woman nodded, “I figured. Thank you all.” Then she walked out of the store. I stood there a few minutes smiling. I had never been complimented on something that wasn’t my grades before by a stranger. It felt good. I couldn’t help but think that this is how it would feel if people heard me sing. Maybe they would say the same types of things.

I helped the ladies clean the bakery. I offered to do the floors, as usual, because I figured it was the most strenuous on them. We closed the store and I began homeward.

It wasn’t too late yet, so nobody was home. I wandered up the stairs and changed into some more comfortable clothing. I grabbed a book from off my shelf that ended up
being The Catcher in the Rye. I proceeded to climb into bed, pull up the covers, and begin to read from chapter one.

I read the book until my eyes began feeling heavy and I could barely hold them open any longer. I removed my glasses from my face and placed them along with the book down on my night stand and shut off the lamp. I nestled deeper into my sheets getting situated when I heard either my mother or my sister stumble into the house around 11:00P.M. The sudden stirrings from downstairs kept me awake a bit longer, making my thoughts wander back to the events of the day. I suddenly remembered that I promised Riley to tutor her in math tomorrow. I decided to send her a text saying that I’d be there in the morning sometime.

Hey!
I had a great time today!
I hope your night went well…
I just wanted to remind you about our plans for tomorrow. I’ll be there around 11:00 if that’s okay?
Goodnight Riley,
Xx Marcel

I set my phone on top of the book resting on the night stand. I attempted to wait for a response from Riley, although I expected she was still with Kyle. I ended up drifting off to sleep quite quickly before I could even find out. It had been such an eventful day.


I woke up the next morning, as the sun poured into my bedroom. I squinted my eyes as I blindly patted over the nightstand in search of them. I knocked a few things off, but eventually found them and slipped them on to my face. I realized that I was a bit hungry, so I sprung out of bed and went downstairs to see what I could make for breakfast.

To my surprise, my mom was in the kitchen making some morning tea.

“Good morning mum!”

“Morning love.” She turned from the counter to face me. “Oh Marcel. What happened to your glasses?”

She must have not noticed yesterday at breakfast. “Oh, I-uh… I dropped them…yesterday…and I just taped them together.”

She gave me a curious stare as if she didn’t quite believe me. “Really? That’s strange?”

“Is it?” I asked with a lighthearted tone.

She shrugged her shoulders, “Well I guess not. Why don’t you give them to me so I can go get them fixed today? You still have your contacts, right?”

“Erm… yeah.”

“Great. Just give them to me before I go in to town today.”

“Alright. I will.”

Gemma then strolled down the steps. “Something smells good in here.” She proceeded to take the kettle, pour herself a cup, and began sipping. We all sat down around the breakfast table and began to eat some cereal. “So how did date go mum?”

She always beamed when she talked about Robin. That is how I knew she really liked him. He was a nice guy, always treated her with respect and kindness. “It was lovely. We did dinner and then went out dancing.”

Gemma and my mom talked about girly romantic topics for a while, so I just sort of listened and ate my breakfast until my mom asked, “How did your day go Marcel? Did you find new clothes for your little…scheme?”

“I wouldn’t call it a scheme really, but yeah. Riley sort of has this whole vision about it.”

“Well that sounds fun. Do I have any money left?”

I nodded my head. “Yeah. I can get it to you later.”

We all finished up and I checked the clock, it read 10:30. I realized I hadn’t even checked my phone for a message from Riley. I raced up stairs and grabbed my phone. I read that I had one new message.

Hey Marcel…
11:00 sounds fine.
See you then.

I set my phone down and preceded to the bathroom, thinking about the message didn’t seem as joyful as she usually did. I shrugged at the thought thinking I was overthinking it. I showered quickly and threw on a usual sort of outfit. Realizing I had to get my glasses fixed, I attempted my contacts. They went in quite a bit faster than the other night with Riley, but they still weren’t the most comfortable thing to wear around.

Before leaving my room I grabbed my math book and reached into the pocket of my slacks from the previous day, pulling out a wad of cash. I raced down the steps to find my mom once again. I gave her my glasses and the money I didn’t use from the previous day. “Thanks mum!”

“Wait, wait! Didn’t you get new clothes?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t want to use your money. Thanks though!” I kissed her on the cheek and raced out the door and around the corner towards Riley’s house.

I stepped onto her front porch and knocked three hard times against the metal door. I waited as I heard some stirring from inside. The door opened, it was Riley.

She smiled weakly at me. “Hey Marcel. Come on in.”

I was surprised that she hadn’t commented on me wearing my contacts, usually that would have been the first thing she noticed.

I quietly followed her into her living room where we sat on the couch and got situated. “Are you ready to get started then?”

“I am never ready for this. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

I smiled because she seemed like she needed cheering up for some reason. “You would still do great things without me Riley.” A real smile spread across her face as we began looking at the first problem.
By the time we were half way done with the assignment, Riley was really getting the hang of it. I didn’t understand why she always thought she wasn’t good enough. I personally liked to blame the influence of Kyle and his douche bag friends. I laughed a bit at my own thought.

“What’s so funny?” She asked.

“Oh… erm… You are just really smart. Smarter than you give yourself credit for.”

She pushed at my arm a little. “What are you talking about? I am a freaking genius. I just ask you for help to make YOU feel better.” I liked when she joked around like that. She was always so goofy.

About an hour later we had worked our way through her entire assignment. We began packing up our things and I reached across her arm when I noticed her skin around her forearm looked to be a bit discolored. It looked like it had been badly bruised or something. Riley took notice of where I was staring and pulled down her shirt sleeves, smiling weakly at me. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it Marcel. I just had a little accident.”

I nodded my head in disbelief. “Oh…okay. Did you want me to stay? We could hang out?”

She pondered that suggestion in her head for a moment. “I-I-uh… don’t think so Marcel… I’ve got some other homework and things I need to get done today. I’m really sorry.”

I let my face fall only slightly. “Okay. That’s fine. Enjoy your Sunday then.”

“You too.”

I was about to leave when I turned and asked, “Are we still good for our music session this week?”

This made her true beautiful smile come out. “Of course… We need Harry Styles to constantly be practicing if we want him to go anywhere. Also, stop teasing me with little pieces of him!”

“Huh?”

“Your contacts. Don’t you dare think I didn’t notice them! Sometime this week I am going to see the whole package put together! Promise?”


“I promise.” We both laughed briefly before I put my hand on the door knob. “Well see ya tomorrow Riley.”

“See you Marcel.”

I waved and shut the door behind me. I walked back home with thoughts of those marks along Riley’s wrist. At first I was confused as to how they got there. Then I thought… Kyle. That bastard. Would he dare touch her like that… that violently? It would have definitely explained her upset mood. Then my thoughts turned from pissed to worry. If it was Kyle, how often had he been doing it? Was it my fault? Was he that angry that she spent time with me instead of him? I could handle the beatings from him and everyone else. It was something I had grown accustomed to. I didn’t think, however, that I could stand to see anything of the sort happen to her. Even more… I couldn’t take it if something like that was happening… because of me.

Notes

New update! Tell me what you think by commenting below, as I love hearing what you have to say about it!

What do you think happened to Riley? Are you worried for her? What will Marcel do? Anything? How do you think the Harry Styles bit is coming together?

Thanks for reading! :)
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