Ellie Hoover

“You know what’s crazy?”

I looked up from my sketch and into a pair of eyes more tempting than the devil himself.

“The bun on your head?” I joked, not giving up a smile. Harry gave me an unamused look.

“Very funny, but wrong,” he replied before bending his neck down to test the temperature of the tea that had just been set out of our table.

“I’m always right. On a serious note, your hair is starting to look better than mine. You should cut it because I’m getting jealous.” Half of his face lifted at his left side smirk. I looked back down at the design in front of me. I heard him snort into the cup.

“What’s crazy is us,” he said with serious intentions.

“Thanks, but the only crazy one here is you,” I snickered.

“Have I ever told you how funny you are? Because you’re not at all funny.” He paused and took a sip of his tea. “What’s crazy is not too long ago you hated me and now we are best friends again. What’s crazy is I never thought I would see you again and here you are. What’s crazy is you still don’t remember me and we are acting like we have known each other for years.”

I looked up to him. He was staring off into space which gave me the chance to analyze his features. The winter made Harry’s lips appear darker, almost as if he had used lip stain, against his porcelain skin. His cheeks had the same reaction; they were red, heated like a young boy’s. His hair was out of his face and pushed back under a gray beanie. There was no way to miss his jaw. The strong bone structure gave away his maturity. I didn’t dare look at his eyes. I had already paid close attention to every detail his green eyes held.

“Yeah. I guess,” I said, not truly understanding his statement at the moment. His eyes averted back to my direction. I took a sip of the warm cup of tea Harry had poured out for me.

“This is really good,” I mumbled.

He smiled. “I knew you would like it. But then again I feel like you would love any type of tea.”
“Lies. You are not a true best friend. I hate chai tea.”

“I knew that,” he rushed out too quickly.

“Mhhmmm.” We both broke out in laughter, causing everyone to look at the disruption we were causing in the quiet lounge.

“Have you talked to your jackass?”

I rolled my eyes. “No I haven’t talked to Ben.” He left the morning after Christmas. Harry’s girlfriend left yesterday, the day after Ben. I was planning on leaving in two days because I had to get back to work. Surprisingly I was sad to leave.

“Have you talked to Hallie?”

“No, she’s probably exhausted.”

I nodded. “I like her a lot. I think she is really good for you. Lovely. She is really nice and gorgeous too,” I smiled. His cheeks reddened even more and he looked away once again.

“Awe, Harry is in love.” With that his head snapped and he looked at me with crinkled brows. His lips separated a couple times as to speak until he finally committed himself to forming a sentence.

“I might break up with her.”

“What? Why?” I asked, not believing his statement.

“She’s great. I just think I love her and I am not in love with her,” he sounded unsure of himself almost like he didn’t believe his own reasons or there was more to tell.

“You sound like a girl,” I joked.

“Yeah, okay,” he sighed, offended by my joke.

“I was joking, Harry. The man bun makes you quite masculine,” I added. He fought the smile on his face but eventually lost the battle.

“You are too much,” he mumbled and dragged the palm of his hands back over his face.

I shot him a wink before taking a sip of the warm bliss.
“Tea was a good idea. It calms me so much. Thank you.”

“I could tell you were stressed from this trip and you will be stressed going back to Seattle,” Harry reasoned.

I nodded, letting the liquid pass through my throat to ease the stress held in the knot of my gut.

I looked back up at the creature in front of me, his green eyes clear with a glimmer, but I still could not understand what they held. I was entering the eyes of this man in front of me, my best friend. After a while he smiled and reached his hand out across the table before I could stop him from grabbing my sketch book. He looked at me expectantly. Knowing I had lost, I tossed him the pencil. I watched as he dragged the pencil across the sketching paper. His forehead wrinkled as he focused on his artwork.

“You better make a whole line just on this masterpiece,” Harry said, still forcing the pencil to
dance harshly across the page. He was covering up his so called masterpiece with his left arm, but I was guessing whatever he was drawing was could be no better than the abilities of a six year old.

“Anything for you superstar.”

The green in his eyes became visible as his eyelids lifted to look at me. He gave me a devious smile before returning his focus back on his page. He quickly etched something out on the paper and I realized it was his signature. I rolled my eyes at his doltish personality.

“Done. You are welcome,” Harry winked as he closed the book.

“How am I supposed to see what you just drew if you lost the page?”

“Sounds like a personal problem.” The dips in his cheeks appeared as he grinned, too proud of himself.

“Cheeky bastard,” I mumbled, giving up on my search to find something I thought of little importance.

“You love it.”

“Agree to disagree,” I smiled. “So, where are you off to later this week, mister rich and famous?”

“You need to come up with better nicknames. You are slacking,” he said before taking a sip of his tea. “I am planning on going back to Los Angeles for a bit until the tour starts back up again.”

I nodded, not knowing what to say.

“I mean, unless you had something else in mind,” Harry pushed out quickly again.

I laughed and shook my head. “I really do have to get back to work. I am getting such bad anxiety. Tea is barely working at the moment.”

“Are you a workaholic?”

“Depends on how you define a workaholic,” I countered. “Aren’t all of our lives centered on work? Without it I would be living under a tree on the side of the road. And I do something I love. I feel like it is the same for you. I hear people say they would drop everything, their job mostly, just for someone or something. But I find that hard to believe. Would you leave your, I guess it is a job, when later you will have regrets?” I took a deep breath and snuck a peak at Harry, his eyes widened at the direction his simple question took us, but his forehead showed the concentration and thoughtfulness on my perspective.

“So, to answer your question,” I continued. “Yes, the world would deem me a workaholic but I am just doing something I love. It is my life.”

We sat in a couple minutes of silence, staring at each other once again. The inside of my bottom lip was caught between my teeth and I became insecure and unsure of what I had just let out.

“You should warn me next time before you start to get all deep into life,” he joked before he revealed another grin.

“I got a little carried away, I admit,” I shrugged. “It’s easy to talk to you. It’s different talking to you than anyone else, even Kelsey.”

“Fate brought us back together.”

“Don’t tell me you believe in that bullshit.”

“Another conversation for another time,” he chuckled. “Which means we are meeting up soon.”

I rolled my eyes. “So smooth, Styles.”

“Seriously, Ellie, come visit me in Los Angeles. You can even look for some places for your store. Think of it as a business trip!”

He stared at me, waiting for an answer. I wanted to say no because I knew there was some reason for it to be a bad idea. Maybe this was all going too fast, I thought. Hell, we were only best friends. Best friends with Harry Styles…. Who would have thought? I was always a person to try new things but anything that involved Harry made me rethink everything. His eyes though, his eyes were something comforting and familiar. They soothed the tension in my body; Just looking into the unique pair.

“Fine. In the future.”

Notes

This is a weird chapter. But once again, thank you all for reading after the long waits! I can't thank you enough. I love you all so dearly. Alright enough with the sap. I have been a bit busy with other writing and midterms and annoying things like that. But I am excited for next chapter. Only God knows when I will be able to put that one out....
Comment! I would love to hear your feedback.

xo.