"What about a sweater or something?"

"No, that's so simple and boring. I want to get him something nice."

"Why?"

I shrug and continue our slow walk through the mall. Tyler and I were just working on some homework together, so we decided to come to the mall for dinner and to do some shopping. Christmas shopping, to be precise. I've gotten gifts for Ty and Car already; Car is easy and Ty was quite specific this year thank goodness. I have an idea for Anne, but Harry is an absolute mystery.

"We're friends. That's what friends do."

"You've been friends for like a day, Adie," he laughs.

"Not true! I've known him my whole life!" I defend.

"Alright, fine. So what do you want to get him?"

"I have no idea," I groan. He laughs and drapes his arm around my shoulders.

"We'll find something. Are you getting something for Anne as well?"

"Of course. I wanted to get her something special since she's been so good to me. I have one thing already but I wanted to get something else as well. I was thinking maybe a scarf, she wears them all the time." We walk into the next store and browse through some selection.

"Did you get anything for Car yet?"

"Yeah, a bag from burberry. She's so easy to buy for." I was going a little more expensive with my gifts this year; I have quite a bit of money from my mom and I rarely use it for myself. Might as well use it for the people that I care about.

"Yeah she really is. So, did you ever talk to Harry about what happened at school?" he asks.

"Sort of. He didn't say much about it. Do you mind if we go in here?" I ask, heading towards an accessories store. "I need some jewelry for the formal tomorrow night."

He nods and we walk in. Everything is gold for my outfit; the dress, the shoes, and now for the jewelry and bag. I instantly find a gold sparkly clutch that would be completely pefect. I start looking through the jewelry, but nothing catches my eye. My outfit is pretty flashy on its own, so I don't want anything too big or complicated. I probably won't even wear a necklace, but a bracelet would be nice. I'm going to wear my mom's ring, as always. It's gold, so it goes perfectly. I find some and simple square gold studs, but nothing else seems to be quite what I'm looking for. Once I've paid we continue looking for christmas presents.

---

"Hey, where have you been?" Harry calls, propping himself up from his spot laying on the couch. His curly head appears over the back of it. I remove my shoes and drop all my bags by the closet; none of them are for Harry, since the simple idea for his gift still eludes me.

"I was with Ty. I brought you something."

He smiles and sits up, patting the space next to him. I sit down and give him the paper bag in my hand. He gives me a curious smile and opens it up. He laughs and reaches down to pull out the massive brownie.

"Wow this is huge. Thanks, you didn't have to do this." He smiles and I raise my eyebrows expectantly, waiting for him to figure it out. I put my hand on his arm to stop him from bringing the chocolate to his mouth. He looks confused for a second. "What, you're going to give me a brownie and then tell me I can't eat it?"

"This isn't just any brownie. This is the best brownie in the entire world."

His eyes go wide and a large smile spreads across his face. He knows what I mean now. When we were kids out moms used to take us to a bakery in the old part of town. The nicest ladies work there; Barbara is the owner and she's been baking there for thirty years now. Me and my mom have gone there so many times since I was a kid, including the years when we stopped talking to the Styles. But when we did hang out with them, our moms would take us there once every few weeks for a treat. Harry and I were quite small and we both always wanted a brownie, but the brownies were so huge and we could never eat it all. Besides, we were always way too hyper to begin with; all that sugar would cause even more trouble. So, whenever we went there we would share one. They're literally the best thing I've ever tasted.

He gently breaks the brownie in half and holds one side to me. "Here you go, miss."

"Why thank you." I smile and take the half from him. "What are you watching?"

"Don't make fun of me..."

I give him a weird look and the commercials end on the TV. The movie Miss Congeniality comes on, starting from the part where Sandra Bullock gets to the Alamo Dome as Gracie-Lou Freebush. I laugh and pat his leg.

"This is a great movie. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Well, maybe a little, but I won't tell anyone."

He laughs and shakes his head. We watch the movie and snack on our brownies together. I decide to sit and watch the rest of it with him, laughing and joking during commercials. By the time the movie is coming to an end, I'm laying down with my head on his lap. I really don't know how that happened, but it's nice.

"I really do want world peace," Harry says, mimicking the final line and waving his hand in front of his face, mocking the final scene of the movie. I laugh and watch as he acts out the pretend crying, fanning his face like a girl.

"You're way too good at that for a boy," I tease, still laughing. He stops and puts one arm on the back of the couch while the other rests on my stomach.

"I had a heavy woman influence, alright? I basically grew up with you, my sister and our mothers. Sue me for being able to fake cry."

"Hey, no need to get all defensive. I was just giving you a compliment."

"Well it was well disguised."

"So, are you excited to play tomorrow night?" Harry has been practicing like crazy for the last few weeks. The boys are all so excited about it.

"I am. It should be good. I just hope we don't mess up, I want everyone to like us," he says solemnly.

"Everyone already does love you. I'm sure you'll be great." He smiles down at me and I feel his hand start playing with my hair. I can't imagine doing what they're doing; getting up in front of the whole school and singing. I would absolutely die. Mostly because I really can't sing, but still. It would be so scary.

"Are you excited to go?" he asks quietly, peering down at me. His fingers are still running through my long hair behind me.

"I guess."

"You guess?"

"I don't know. It's not really my thing, I guess. I didn't go last year."

"I know, I noticed. I remember the dress you wore our freshman year."

"You do?"

He smiles and nods his head. "It was white and simple. Longer than most other girls dresses, which is why I noticed. It had straps and it didn't reveal a whole lot of you." I blush and look away from his eyes. I remember feeling so uncomfortable at that dance. Caroline made me go with her and if I could have worn a nun's outfit, I totally would have. I felt so insecure about myself back then. I'm a girl, so of course I still have my moments, but I feel more comfortable with myself now.

"Did you have a date?" he asks. I shake my head, no.

"Caroline and I went together. Did you?"

"Yeah, I went with Ashlee," he admits, laughing. I remember now. I remember thinking then that he must have changed, because the Harry I knew would never be interested in someone like that. That's when I figured we would never be friends again. I guess I was wrong.

"How was that?" I ask, laughing a little as well.

"Horrible. She brought a flask and ended up passing out in my mum's car on the way home. It was so embarrassing." I laugh and can just picture Anne's face at the sight of Harry's intoxicated date.

"Anne must have loved that."

"Oh yeah."

We sit there in silence for a while, my head still on his lap and his hand running through my hair. It's not an uncomfortable silence; quite the opposite. It's...relaxing. My eyes fall closed after a while and at the soothing feeling of his fingers combing out the slight tangles of my waves.

"Ads," he says gently. I open my eyes a little and he smiles down at me. "Don't fall asleep, love."

What? Love? Where in the world did that come from? I sit up and run my own hand through my hair.

"What are you doing?" he asks, whining slightly. I stand and adjust my top.

"I need to umm...I have to finish that math thing." I quickly walk around the couch and pick up all my bags off the floor. As I'm rounding the corner Harry calls out after me.

"What math thing?"

I ignore the question and retreat into my bedroom, dropping my bags on the floor and leaning up against the closed door. Things have been normal since monday...then he calls me love? Since when? And the hair thing...I don't know what that was about. It was nice, though. That's what worries me. Sometimes it feels like the lines of me and Harry's friendship gets blurred, like we go a little further than what's normal. It's always completely innocent, but sometimes the way he looks at me...

No. That's not possible.

I pull out my sketchpad and sit by my window, tapping the back of my pencil on the page as I stare outside into the darkness. What to draw...eventually my pencil starts to trace along the page with no real direction. After a while a shape starts to form. I let the tip of my pencil guide my mind instead of the other way around, letting it to do the work and lead me to some sort of image.

After a while I start to recognize the portrait in front of me. My face pulls into a frown as the image becomes clear to me. What in the world....

I'm drawing Harry again.

I stop and stare at the incomplete drawing in front of me, curly hair on a face incomplete from missing a nose and mouth. The eyes and the hair are clearly his distinguishing features. I'm slightly creeped out by myself at this point. What would Harry do if he knew that I now have two drawings of him? Is that not extremely weird?

I shake off the thought and continue the drawing anyway, edging in a crooked smile and a dimple on his left cheek. When the portrait is complete I sit and stare at it. It's pretty good, if I do say so myself. Scarily accurate to Harry's face. Beautiful. I never understood the rare occasions when boys were called beautiful, but now I do. And Harry is. There's no other way to describe him.

When I feel creepier than ever before I shake my head and chuckle to myself. I don't know what's gotten into me. I walk back to my bed and put away my sketchbook as my phone starts ringing on my bed.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Adie."

I smile to myself. "Hey, Liam. How are you?"

"I'm great. How are you? How was shopping?"

Liam and I have been texting a lot this week and I had told him earlier that I was at the mall with Tyler. "It was good. Got some gifts done and completed my outfit for tomorrow night."

"Did you now? Well I can't wait to see it. I'm sure you're going to look incredible."

I blush and lay back on the bed. Liam is the sweetest guy in the world. "What are you wearing?"

"No, no. You have to wait for the big reveal. I searched and searched for my outfit and it's finally perfect. I can't tell you."

I laugh and shake my head. "You're crazy."

"That's fine with me. What are you and Harry up to?"

"We umm..we just watched a movie." I get uncomfortable with the question and a little guilty. I don't know why guilty. We didn't do anything.. "Listen, I have to go. I'll see you at school, Liam."

"Okay. Goodnight, Adie."

"Goodnight."

---

the next day

I start to feel anxious as my art class drags on. The formal is tonight and I'm finally free of all my assignments. To be honest, I'm completely exhausted and if I had my choice I would simply change into my sweatpants and watch movies all night by myself. But instead I have to get all dolled up and go to a dance. Yay.

When class ends I head straight to my locker. Caroline and I are getting ready at my house together and she's already waiting for me by my locker when I get there. She's so excited about this.

"It's finally here," she squeals excitedly. "My mum dropped everything off at your house already. We should go because I have a feeling I'll be doing both your hair and mine."

When I have my stuff she links her arm through mine, walking quickly towards the doors. Niall didn't end up asking Car to the dance, but neither of them have dates and there's definitely something going on there. She talks about him nonstop and they're constantly flirting.

"Car, I don't know why you're in such a rush. Harry drove me to school, we have to wait for him."

She groans and we stop at the doors. It's snowing and we are not going to stand outside in that.

"Well call him! Tell him to get his ass over here!"

"School ended like thirty seconds ago, I'm not calling him and telling him to hurry up because we need to do our hair."

She rolls her eyes and pulls out her phone, holding it to her ear. "Niall? Hey, are you with Harry? Okay, great. Tell him to get his ass to the front doors. Me and Adie are waiting."

She hangs up and I just shake my head at her. She's so weird.

Harry's POV

"So they said that if we want we can go right now to do a sound test and play a few songs to rehearse. The decorating committee is doing some last-minute decorating, but they don't mind. So I say we head there right now and run through all the songs," Louis explains.

"Oh, hold on." Niall pulls out his phone. "Hello? Yeah, it's me. Yeah, he's right here." He looks at me. He laughs and nods his head. "Alright, he's on his way."

"Who was that?" I ask.

"Car. The girls are waiting for you apparently."

"Oh shit, right. I drove Adie here this morning. Okay, I'll meet you guys at the hotel?" They nod and I head off down the hallway. The formal is always held in the banquet hall of one of the nicer hotels in town. Apparently we need to rehearse again but I'll have to drop the girls off first. When I round the corner I see Adie and Caroline; Car is talking away and Adie is leaning against the wall listening. She looks exhausted.

"Finally!" Car yells when she sees me. "Let's go!"

Adie rolls her eyes and gives me an apologetic look. Car babbles about her plans for tonight the entire time. I can tell that Adie isn't really looking forward to this; if she had her way she would probably stay home. I'm really glad that she's going, I really want her to hear the band. When we get to the house Car practically runs to the house.

"Ads, I have to go to practice for a bit. Do you want me to drive you guys to the hotel later?"

She shrugs and opens the door. "I can drive if you want. Or Car can drive my car. My dress is long so that might be hard for me."

"Liam isn't picking you up?"

"No, because me and Car are getting ready together. I'm just going to meet him there." I nod and try to smile, but the thought of her going with Liam makes me want to punch a wall. I can't stand it. She gets her bag and steps out of the car. "Have fun."

She shuts the door and I watch her walk into the house after Caroline. I close my eyes and lean my head back against the seat. I want to go with her so much. I don't even know what I'm going to do when I have to watch her with him.

Rehearsal ends up going a lot longer than I thought; they had to kick us out so they could finish setting up. Louis made us run through every song twice and our newer one like five times. It's weird that he's so serious about this. We finally go our separate way to go get ready. I practically run inside and go straight into the shower. When I'm done I head to my room and start getting dressed. After a few minutes there's a knock on my door.

"Come in."

To my surprise my mum walks in; I thought for sure she would miss this. She smiles and walks over to me, fixing my collar and doing up my top button. I roll my eyes and undo it again. She laughs.

"You look quite handsome, Harry. Your date is a lucky girl."

"I'm not going with anyone, mum."

"Why not?" I shrug and fiddle with the buttons on the end of the sleeves. "Harry, did you ask someone and they said no?"

"What, no!" She puts her hands up in defence and laughs a little.

"Just a question! Did you not want to go with anyone?"

"I did..." She raises her eyebrows and I turn and pick up my jacket off the bed. "She's just..she's kind of already going with someone."

"Oh." She frowns and hugs me. Geez mother. "She's crazy. You'll have a great time. Are you excited to play?"

"Yeah, it should be fun. Is Adie still here? We should go."

"No, Caroline forgot something vital to survival. Well, that's what I'm assuming since she was freaking out so much. Adie looked incredible, Harry. So beautiful."

"I bet."

She gives me a weird smile as I shrug on my jacket. "Did you end up getting that gold bracelet for Adie for Christmas?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I think you should give it to her. The only jewelry she was wearing when she left was some earring and her ring. It would look perfect."

I had told my mum what I wanted to get Adie for Christmas last week. She told me it was a great idea, so I went to buy it the next day.

"What will I give her for Christmas then?"

"Oh who cares, just give her the bracelet."

I laugh and shake my head at my mother. She's so crazy sometimes.

Adison's POV

After twenty minutes of Caroline trying to pick out the perfect necklace, we are finally ready to go. Anne took a few pictures of us at home and we left before Harry got back. I hope he doesn't get there late. Caroline's mother snaps some picture of us before we leave. Car drives my car to the hotel, since driving is completely impossible for me in this long dress. I'm feeling really good about tonight now. Caroline did a great job on my hair and makeup, giving me a simple and elegant look. She pulled her hair into a low messy bun, drawing attention to a chunky purple necklace to match her shoes. She looks like a model. I feel a little bare with no jewelry, but I couldn't find anything to go with it. Except my ring of course; I never take it off. I twist it around nervously on my finger on the drive over. When we get there Caroline lets out a girly squeal. She's so excited about this.

She hooks her arm through mine as we approach the doors.

"You look so pretty, Adie. This is going to be an amazing night, I can feel it."

When we get inside people are filling the foyer for the mocktail hour. We're not that early, so dinner should be starting soon. The place looks beautiful. The decorating committee went all out with the winter wonderland theme this year. It looks really pretty. I spot Ty down the bar talking with his date; he's pretty smooth with the ladies, I have to admit. He asked a girl from one of his classes that he's been crushing on since the beginning of the year. I wave at him and he smiles at me before turning back to the girl.

Car turns and holds a drink out for me. "Here. Where do you think the boys are?"

"I'm not sure." I should probably be trying to find Liam right now. The tables seat up to ten people, so ours is me and Liam, Caroline, Niall, Harry, Zayn and his date, Louis and Tyler and his date. Never in my life did I think that I would be at a table with these boys at the formal. Now they're my friends and I'm here with one of them. It's crazy how much things have changed in such a short amount of time.

"Adie?"

Liam comes up beside us and smiles as he looks down at my dress. "Wow...you look..." he shakes his head and finally looks up at my face. "You're beautiful."

I blush as he takes my hand in his, lacing our fingers together. "Thanks. Are you excited to play later?"

"Yeah, hopefully it goes okay. You look great, Car."

She smiles and dismisses herself to go find Niall. Liam leans against the bar in front of me, still holding my hand.

"I'm really happy you're here," he says sweetly. "And you really do look incredible. I'm the luckiest guy in the room."

As soon as he says this the doors slide open, catching my eye. My gaze falls upon Harry, who apparently has just arrived. I probably shouldn't stare, but I can't tear my eyes away. He looks amazing. His hair is a perfect mess and his suit is crisp and simple. How does this boy not have a date? As I slowly return my gaze to Liam I notice almost every other girl in the room gawking at him. Don't they know it's rude to stare? Why don't they all just pay attention to their own date.

Wait, what?

"We should go find our table," Liam suggests, keeping his hold on my hand and pulling me towards the hall.

"I'll meet you in there, I have to use the ladies' room." He smiles and kisses my cheek before heading back towards the banquet hall. I manoeuvre through the crowd towards the door of the bathroom, but before I get close someone catches hold of my hand. I turn to see Harry staring down at me with an adorable smile on his face.

"Hi, Harry," I sa shyly. He's intimidating when he looks this good.

"Ads you look...perfect," he says softly, running the back of his fingers gently along my cheek. Unlike Liam, who looked down at my body first, Harry's eyes have not left my face. I look down at his chest nervously, trying to hide the blush in my cheeks. He puts a finger under my chin and tilts my head back up to meet his eyes. By now most people have filtered into the hall for dinner.

"I have something for you." I give him a confused look and he pulls a long and narrow box from inside his jacket. "It was supposed to be your Christmas present but...here." He hands the box to me and I take it hesitantly, still looking at his face. He lifts his eyes from the box back to my own. We're standing quite close and my heart is beating faster than normal. He gives me an encouraging smile and I gently lift the lid of the box.

I gasp when I see the beautiful piece of jewelry inside. It's a gold bracelet with a thin band. In the centre the band twists into an infinity symbol. I look at the ring on my right hand and back at the bracelet. How could he have known?

"I thought it might be nice for you to have something that matched," he says softly, taking my right hand in his and touching the ring with his thumb. "My mum said it matched your dress, so I thought I'd give it to you now."

"It's beautiful Harry." My voice is soft and I can feel a lump growing in my thrat. This is one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me. "Thank you so much."

"You like it?"

I raise my eyes to his and nod my head, smiling up at him. "It's perfect."

"Here." He lifts the bracelet from the packaging and takes the box from my hands, taking a step beside me and tossing it into the garbage. He gently lifts my left wrist up, smiling at me before wrapping the gold around it and clipping it into place. He spins it so the pendant is facing up.

"How did you know?" I ask.

"You never take that off," he says, taking my other hand and now holding them both in front of him. "I wanted you to have something to go with it. It was your mother's, wasn't it?"

I nod and feel the lump in my throat more prominent now. His smile fades.

"No, sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad."

I shake my head and smile p at him. "I'm not. I love the gift, Harry. Thank you so much." I remove my hands from his and wrap my arms around his middle, leaning my cheek against his chest. He kisses the top of my head and wraps his arms around me as well. He smells incredible. I reluctantly pull away from him and give him a smile.

"I'll meet you in there."

He nods and I bravely lift myself on my toes to kiss his cheek. Without looking at him I turn and make my way to the bathroom. Why did I do that? I didn't really thing about it, it just happened. He's so sweet to me and I have no idea why. No one has ever given me something so thoughtful before. After I've used the restroom I go to the hall and find my table. Awkwardly enough my seat is between Harry and Liam. After what just happened I feel weird about being here with Liam. Harry and I just had a really...personal moment and I'm not even here with him. I don't know what to do with that.

This should be an interesting night.

Notes

awww harold. so cute.

so this chapter is kind of boring i feel...just a few cute moments with those two clueless people. the next chapter will hold the drama LET ME TELL YOU. i think. anyway.

please tell me what you think! HUGE shoutout to @Lazylaserpants aka my favourite reader who comments EVERY TIME i update. love you :) everyone, follow her lead. what a champ.

comment, vote subscribe.
I'm going to try to get another chapter up tonight, but if I got lots of votes and subscribers, that would definietly help the process....know what im saying

thanks for reading :)