Harry

Her hand was so small in comparison to mine but it seemed to fit perfectly. She is a lot of fun to be around and I don’t really want the night to end. Part of me wished I had Niall’s nerve tonight. He was being bold and kissing Kim. I felt bold just holding Annie’s hand, which seemed unusual for me. Normally I’d be more comfortable trying to kiss her because I wanted to, I really wanted to. But I wanted to be a gentleman. I didn’t want to blow the last six months of work we’d put in to getting to know each other over a sloppy kiss on the walk home from the pub. But there she was smiling up at me with this giant smile and all I wanted to do was kiss her. Instead I took my free hand and tucked a piece of her wild hair behind her ear.
"Niall is coming upstairs for a drink," Kim said. "Harry, why don't you do the same?"
"I shouldn't drink. I need to be able to drive him home and then get back to my place." I did want to come upstairs though. I didn’t want to end tonight on the walk in front of her flat. I wanted to keep talking to her.
"Don't know about you mate but I'm too drunk. Not going anywhere. Kim said I could stay at their flat,” Niall said.
"We have a couch," Annie added. "And this really cool nook that's all pillows and cushions. You can stay here. You've probably drank too much to drive home. Yeah, you should stay." She seemed like she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince me.
"Are you sure?" I still hadn’t let go of her hand. I didn’t want to either.
"Of course I'm sure. Safety first. I need those dimples around." She poked one of my dimples with her free hand. I squeezed her hand in mine a bit before we started up the stairs. Kim and Niall had started to full on make out before even getting up the first flight. "Ugh keep walking you two. I don't need to see you hook up in the stairwell." Annie and I made it to the door and she unlocked it before Kim and Niall snuck past us in to the entry.
"This is my flat," Kim said. "And this is my room." She pulled Niall in to her bedroom and shut the door.
"Thank god the bedrooms are on the first floor. I don't want to listen to that tonight," Annie said giggling. Her natural laugh was this giggle most of the time unless it was something she found so hilarious that she was laughing hard enough that no sound came out. It was cute but not like she was trying. It was just her and it was kinda perfect. "Did you want something to drink?" She pulled her boots off leaving them on a rug inside the door as she started to take off her coat and scarf. I followed her lead leaving my boots on the mat, hanging my coat over hers and tucking my beanie in to the pocket. I ran my hands through my hair to try and fix whatever a day in a beanie had likely done to it. Normally I wouldn’t care how I looked right now but I wanted to impress her and hair sticking up in 90 directions wouldn’t do that.
“Sure,” I replied.
“Okay, quick tour first. Our flat is set up a bit funny. The bedrooms are all on the first floor. That is Kim’s.” She gestured to the door that Kim and Niall had gone to. “Enter at your own risk.” We both laughed a bit. “That’s the bathroom. There’s one upstairs too, off of the living room by the kitchen. And this is my bedroom.” She opened the door and I followed her in. The bed was on the wall opposite the windows, which gave a beautiful view of their neighborhood and the falling snow. Everything in the room was black, grey or white except some pillows thrown on the bed in purple and teal. The walls were white with black frames hung on them in clusters. The mats were grey and in each one was a black and white photo. I walked closer looking at them. I recognized some of the locations but not all of them.
“These photos are beautiful.”
“Thanks. My Mom saved up money to get me a really nice digital SLR before I moved so I could take pictures of everything to send home to her. She had always hoped I’d end up in London somehow but is disappointed that she’s not here to see it with me. So pictures are about all we can manage until she can take some time to come visit.”
“Did your Mum live in London?”
“No, she visited a few friends that lived in Cambridge and spent every day in London on that vacation. I’d intended to study here in college but chickened out.”
“Why?” I asked. She seemed to fit here and be so happy here. If she’d come while she was in school she would’ve thrived, I just knew it.
“I had planned on my final semester of college to be here. That way I didn’t have to worry about what classes I needed to take, just what classes I wanted to take. And if I didn’t feel like coming home right away then I didn’t have to. But I had a friend who spent a summer term here right before my senior year. She woke up late and missed the train she normally took, which happened to have a bomb on it that day. I was too chicken to study abroad after that.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t get to experience London as a student. But I’m glad you’re here now. So other than the pictures I recognize of London what are the others?”
“They are places back home. I took some before I left and then I snuck home for a week in November for Thanksgiving and took more then. My way of reminding me that home is always somewhere I can go back to but this is home now.”
“Well they are beautiful, all of them. I didn’t realize that you were a photographer.”
“I wouldn’t call myself a photographer. Just something I have fun with.” She shrugged a bit before pulling me out of her room. We heard noises coming from Kim’s room and at the same moment both got rather a disgusted look on our faces. “That just sounds…”
“Terrifying?” I finished. She nodded and grabbed my hand quickly pulling me up the small flight of stairs just next to the door.
“We are going upstairs where there are no scary sex noises from our friends.” We made it to the top when she stopped and I saw her smile looking in to her living room. “I love how giant our living room is. It’s the size of the entire main level, minus a bit for the kitchen.”
They had shelves under windows that ran both sides of the room that faced the street. There were vinyl records and books in all of them. Annie had told me that she collected vinyl but she didn’t let on that there was this much. It had to cost her a small fortune to ship them here from the states, along with the stereo she had told me about. It was her grandfather’s from the 70s. I glanced beside us to a breakfast bar that looked in to the kitchen. She pulled me across the room to a doorway next to her stereo.
“This is my favorite part.” Underneath a section of the building where the room changed was a circular nook. The pillow nook she lit up about on the street. “I lay in here for hours and forget there’s a world outside. It’s so comfy.” She crawled in and I followed her staying on the opposite side from her. There was a pole in the center to stabilize the roof.
“This is really comfortable. I might just sleep here,” I said getting situated.
“You’ll need a blanket then.” I watched as she crawled back out and saw her open a trunk that was behind their sofa, grab two blankets and crawled back in tossing one to me.
“You’re using my quilt,” I said smiling. It was the quilt I’d given her for Christmas. I’d been shopping with Gemma for something to get Mum and saw it. She had described her favorite from home one rainy day when she was cold in the shop. She told me about all of the quilts her Mum had at home and how she wished that she had one of them that day. Gemma started to question me after that purchase. Told me it was something sweet and sentimental, not something you get a friend. She knew I wasn’t interested in just being friends with Annie so she told me it was perfect.
“I am. I love it. Mom sent me that one,” she said gesturing at the blanket I was covered with. “But it’s just not as cozy as yours. Plus yours smelled like you for the first week. Unfortunately it started to smell like me after that. I got super sad when it didn’t smell like you anymore. Every once in a while I feel like I can smell you on it but then it goes away.” Her eyelids were starting to get heavy and I could tell she needed sleep.
“You look tired, Sugar.”
“I am. Long day. Too much wine.” She yawned.
“Get some sleep,” I replied. She scooted closer to me and rested her head on my chest. I was worried she would be able to feel how fast my heart was beating. But she acted as if nothing was happening and snuggled in. I had kissed her forehead and I started to play with her hair when I heard her phone start to vibrate and saw the screen light up. “Are you gonna answer that?”
“Yes,” she replied as she reached for her phone. I could see the screen as she replied to the text.

Message with Kim
I heard you two sneak upstairs. You decent?
Hello....are you clothed??
Yes. Why?
I'm thirsty. I was gonna have Niall get some water from the kitchen. He didn't want to interrupt you two while you're banging on the couch.
Well we aren't banging on the couch. I was almost asleep as you started to text me.
Wear out that fast?
We did not have sex. We talked for a while and I got tired.
Alright whatever. Niall is on his way up.
Fine. Just be quiet. Is he clothed?
Boxers so you're good. And you should be banging on the couch.
NO! And thank god he's clothed.
Hey you don't need to see him prancing around naked. That's Harry's job that he is failing at.
He says he's not failing but being a gentleman. He can see this BTW.
Good. I'm glad he can see this. HARRY BANG THE POOR GIRL. Six months of flirtation is just sad and you two need to stop the insanity.
Nice job there Susan Powter. We are still getting to know each other is his response.
You know her. Trust me. Now know her intimately.
You are quite bold. Again from him. I'm aware you're bold. I live with you.
Eh. Got me laid tonight. I'll be bold if that's the outcome.
Oh god.
That's what he said.
Ha. That was actually funny. Harry is unaware that you are a walking 'that's what she said joke' he literally laughed at that.
Please tell me you kissed her. Since I know he's reading these I'm just going to disregard asking you through him.
Forehead count?
No but that's a sweet gesture. She likes that. She also likes being woken up in the middle of the night by a guy who is ready to do the dirty.
I'm ending this conversation now. You are not allowed to say things like that to him via my phone you weirdo. Have fun with Niall and leave me alone.
Oh I will. Goodnight. And mine will be better because I plan on having some more sex while you two cuddle and share forehead kisses. LAME.

"She is hilarious."
"Most of the time she is," Annie replied. "Sometimes she's a bit forward and as you can see on my behalf. Which is funny but also makes me blush because well I blush easily." She yawned a bit and burrowed farther in to my chest. We were sleeping almost in an L shape around the pole. I had an arm over her chest and she was facing me.
"Get some sleep Sugar."
"Okay," she replied. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep for good. I watched her sleep for a while before finally drifting off myself. I woke up in the morning to her phone buzzing again. I knew I shouldn’t look at her phone without her knowledge but I did. It was a text from Kim so I slid to reply hoping she didn’t have a password on her phone. Luckily she didn’t.

Message with Kim
OK. Ask Harry a question for me. The space heater little Irish friend of his is cuddling me and I want out.
Haha. He is a bit of a snuggler. She's still asleep BTW.
How do I make it stop?!
Mention breakfast. He wakes up when he hears anything about food. Which I'd like you to do. She's too cute to wake up and I'm starving.
Work up an appetite last night?
No. We fell asleep. But it's 8:30. I'm normally up, already done with the gym and breakfast at this point.
Food worked! He moved. Thank god! Make sure you're decent we're coming back upstairs. I don't need to see naked people.
We aren't naked. We fell asleep talking. Why do you assume that I’d try and get her naked so quickly?
Six months is not quickly Styles.

“Hi,” came Annie’s tired voice.
“Did I wake you up with my laughing?”
“Yeah but it’s okay,” she said. “Are you on my phone?”
“I am. Kim sent a text to you that was actually for me. So I replied. You don’t mind do you?”
“Not at all. What was it about?”
“Niall. He was cuddling her,” I said shaking my head.
“Oh good god. She needs to get over that. She claims she gets too hot when she is cuddled in her sleep. Cuddling is my favorite. I’d rather be warm and snuggled than cold.”
“Thank you for replying to my text Harry,” Kim called as she entered the living room. “Someone felt like they didn’t need to.”
“I was asleep, like most sane people at 8:30 on a Saturday morning.” Annie crawled out of the space leaving the quilt behind. “Holy fuck. Look at that snow.” She reached her hand towards me pulling me towards her. I stood up and slid my arms around her waist pulling her back to my chest and resting my chin on top of her head.
“Wow! It is coming down pretty heavily. And my car looks like it isn’t going to have an easy time moving. It’s pretty much snowed in.”
“Snow day!” Niall yelled.
“Oi! Where are your clothes?” I finally noticed that he’d come upstairs in just boxer shorts. My hand moved to cover Annie’s eyes causing her to giggle again.
“Normally you’re the naked one. Didn’t feel like scaring off Sugar?” he asked.
“Not particularly. I’ll leave that to you.”
“I’d really like to have my sight back now,” Annie said trying to move my hand from her eyes. I moved it before kissing the top of her head. “Okay so I’m thinking we should have breakfast. I can make waffles and eggs. We have bacon but I’m terrible at making bacon.”
“I can help,” I said. I followed her to the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator. “You’ve got potatoes in here. We can cook those too.”
“Perfect!” She started to move around the kitchen to get everything out that she needed as Kim made coffee and Niall sat at the counter. This day was starting a bit different than I expected. I didn’t think a sleepover I hadn’t planned on would turn in to a snow day with Annie. I was nervous but also excited. This could be our chance. Thank you mother nature!

Notes

A snow day!! What on Earth are Annie, Harry, Kim and Niall gonna do with themselves?! What do you think so far? Please let me know! I love hearing what people think so I can practice my craft.

The next chapter should be up soon but of course I'd love to hear from you before then! :) Message me, comment below, or find me on twitter: www.twitter.com/raybansncoffee AND tumblr: www.raybansandcoffee.tumblr.com.

A bit about this title - Andrew McMahon is hands down one of the greatest songwriters. So heart felt, beautiful, and amazing. Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, and his solo stuff will always be on regular rotation for me. As You Sleep is an incredible song, if you've never listened to it I highly recommend it. It's always been an important song to me.

Thanks for reading and I hope you're loving it as much as I am. xx