Blue

I woke up before him. He was sprawled out on his stomach, one arm slung over my waist and the other underneath his pillow. His lips were parted slightly and he was very, very faintly snoring.

He was adorable.

I closed my eyes and snuggled closer to him, sucking a deep breath into my lungs to breathe in his scent. He was amazing; sexy and sweet, kind and attentive. It was like when I was in the 4th grade and Joey DuFour kissed me on the cheek by the tire swings. Inside, I was a giggly ball of girly goo. Harry actually seemed to like me.

Seemed being the key word.

He stirred beside me and, after a few moments, I heard a raspy whisper, “Are you awake?”

“Yes.” I opened my eyes and smiled at him. “Hey.”

“Mornin’ gorgeous.” There was that dazzling smile again. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

Uh oh.

He started rubbing my low back with the tips of his fingers. “What’s your natural hair color?”

“Wait, what?”

“Your hair. I’m fairly sure you weren’t born with blue hair.”

“Well, no.” This was a weird question, but I was willing to go with it. “I haven’t actually seen my natural hair color since I was sixteen, but it’s mousey brown.”

“Would you wear lingerie for me?”

“This is a really weird conversation.”

“Because, I’ll be honest, I really like lookin’ at you naked.”

“It’s because you have exceptionally good taste. But, yes, I’d wear lingerie for you.”

He started laughing and rolled towards me, cupping my face in his hands and kissing me. It instantly deepened. His tongue played with the bolt in mine, flicking and massaging against it. I could feel him getting hard against my thigh…and the though alone was enough to get me wet.

He trailed his mouth down my throat, brushing his lips against my collarbone. “Do you want me to fuck you here or at my place?”

“I have a bridal party brunch at eleven.” I let my hands drift to his messy curls. “Unless it’s now past eleven, in which case, I have no agenda.”

“I’m too distracted to check the clock.” His mouth dropped to my breasts, his teeth grazing across my nipples. I arched my back, the throbbing between my legs growing in intensity. “What about you, love?”

“I have pop tarts in my suitcase if I’m really that hungry.” I wasn’t being cute, I actually did have pop tarts in my suitcase. It just didn’t seem like the appropriate time to point that out to him.

“I like the way you think, Laney Lee.” Harry laughed, hoisting me up on top of him and trailed his hands down my breasts to my low abdomen. “I’ll have yogurt later…something with protein…and perk up my stamina. I want to fuck you in my bed tonight.”

He felt amazing as he entered me; I arched my back and stared up at the ceiling, matching my rhythm to his. I heard him suck in a deep breath and murmur something under his breath, more to himself than to me. Pressing my palms to his chest, I looked down at him. My hair tumbled over my shoulders. “What?”

“You’re so beautiful.” He cupped his hands on my shoulders and pulled me into an intense kiss. His hands trailed down my waist to my hips, guiding me up and down with each teasingly soft thrust. Each time he moved inside me, he bit down on his lip in obvious pleasure and it made his dimple even more evident. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. His wide green eyes, the way his lips curled up into a smirk each time he tweaked his rhythm; his gaze was locked on mine and he cradled me, his hands anchoring my body against his. There was something about him. Something so damn intoxicating and addicting: I was falling too hard for him. And way, way too fast.

I pushed the thought from my mind and kissed him. His tongue massaged the bolt in my tongue, lifting his hands up to my breasts. His flicked his thumbs over my nipples. “You fuck me now, gorgeous.”

I pushed up on my knees and slowly ground against him. I took it a little faster than he had; a little more frantic. He pushed his head back against the pillows, a moan escaping out his lips. “Oh, baby girl, I like that.”

As I opened my mouth to answer, I heard the soft ringing of my cell phone. Seriously? Who cared where I was at this particular moment in time? Nobody cares for twenty-one years and then, boom, I’m fucking a sexy guy and all of a sudden it’s a telethon.

I ran my hands down his chest, trailing my index fingers around his butterfly tattoo. “Ignore that.”

“What if it’s important? I don’t want you to get in trouble or something.”

“It’s not important. It’s Vi. She’s the only person I like enough to assign the song ‘Bitch’ to as a ringtone.”

He laughed and again pulled me against him, flipping me over onto my back. Tangling his fingers in my hair, he tugged my head backwards and pressed his mouth to my throat. “I can’t get enough of you.”

“You can have as much of me as you want.” He again groaned in his throat and as he did, the room phone started ringing. His lips broke into a smile. “Someone is bent on finding you.”

“We’ve been friends since we were eight, there’s nothing else I really need to say to her that hasn’t been said.” I flailed my arm to the side, my knuckles smashing into the phone. Victory. I plucked the handset up and then slammed it down, leaving it off the hook for good measure. “Besides, I’m yours right now. Everything else can wait.”

He kissed me, lacing his fingers around mine and pinning my hands on the mattress. I wrapped my legs around him, gave into his rhythm. I was sailing the stars again; he made love to me tenderly this time. It wasn’t as frantic as last night, but was definitely passionate. We kept our eyes open and stared into each other’s eyes; the intensity in his green irises enough to make my breath freeze in my throat. He’d take me right to the edge and then slow down—sometimes to a complete stop—until I calmed down, his lips curling up into a sexy smirk. We’d only been intimate twice, but it seemed like he already knew exactly what I liked—and what I loved.

We climaxed together and for several minutes afterward, he kept his forehead pressed to mine as he caught his breath. I trailed my fingertips down his shoulders and his back, gently drawing my fingernails down his flank. This was trouble; the sex was too amazing and he was too addicting. I didn’t even know how he felt about me, other than the obvious fact he enjoyed fucking me, but the feeling of his skin pressed about mine was perfect. It felt right.

I am not that girl. I don’t get quivery over a nice smile and a cute face. But this was different; this felt different. I wanted to believe it felt like it was supposed to be; like fate or something had drawn us together. It wasn’t just a casual “fuck buddy” scenario at this point, I desperately wanted him to like me. I didn’t want this to end.

Someone knocked on the hotel room door.

“Jesus Christ.” I slapped my hand to the side of my head. “I swear to you, I am not this popular. This is out of control.”

He laughed, softly pressing his lips to mine. “Hopefully it’s not your boyfriend here to beat the shit out of me.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Really.”

He looked at me for several brief beats of my heart and then, after the person outside my room pounded on the door with much more force, he did a pushup and slid off of me. “Do you want a shower or a bath?”

“I’m not hard pressed for time, no matter what this fool at the door says.” I yanked an oversized Washington Nationals t-shirt over my head and padded towards the door. “I’ll rub up against you wherever you decide to land.”

I heard him chuckle. At least I had that to look forward to after whatever disaster was at the door.

I peered through the peephole. Vi.

I groaned and opened the door just enough to glare at her. “What.”

“So, let’s discuss how not cool it is for you to, first, ignore my call on your cell, and second, slam the phone down in my ear.” She glanced at my t-shirt, her eyes widening. “You’re not dressed. Why are you not dressed?”

“I’ll be honest, I have no idea what time it is. I…um…” My mind raced. Vi was my childhood best friend and my college roommate. How did I explain this to her? “I had a lot to drink last night.”

“As did I, probably more so, but as you can see, I’m dressed.”

“Fair enough. I’ll come at this from another way,” I took a deep breath, “I’m not going.”

“Bullshit.” She stepped forward as if she was going to walk into the room.

I braced my hip against the door. “You can’t come in.”

“Why? What the hell is the matter with you?”

“Reasons.”

She stared at me like I’d spontaneously grown an extra head in mid-sentence. “We were told we had to go to this stupid luncheon. She typed it up on the instruction list for the weekend. Don’t make me get it out of my purse, Laney, but that bitch is bolded and italicized. I didn’t even know Susanna knew how to turn on a computer, let alone italicize something.”

“Look.” I pounded my index finger to the middle of my forehead. Only Vi would be this difficult. “Someone stayed over last night.”

She stared at me.

“And he’s still here.” I held my breath, praying she wasn’t going to ask any more questions. Move it along, Vi. Nothing more to see at Room 1526.

Her eyes widened considerably. “Who?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Laney.” Even though I didn’t think it was possible, her eyes widened even more. “Was it—“

“It’s a guy. He’s here and we’re busy.” I could hear the faint sounds of Harry’s sexy British accent from the bathroom, like he was on the phone. Or talking to himself, either way, I didn’t want to be at the door; I wanted to be with him. “What time is it?”

“It’s ten fifteen.”

“I’ll try my best to be done in forty-five minutes, but I’m not making any promises.”

She tried to look past me, but I pulled the door closer to my body. Raising her hands in defeat, she said, “Fine. Anyway, Susanna’s dad is going to put all our luggage in his van while we eat. The limo is taking us to the airport, together, even Susanna so she can kiss us goodbye or some shit. God knows why we need to be a spectacle yet again.”

“About that…” I hesitated. She was going to take this one of two ways: bad or worse. “I’m…uh…I’m not actually flying home today.”

“What the fuck is the matter with you?” She leaned closer to me again, shoving her face right next to mine. “If you’re in trouble, just give me a code word….like the color of Andy Truman’s puke after the 5th grade school carnival and he ate all the cotton candy.”

I pushed her away. “I’m fine. I’m just hanging out here for a few extra days for sightseeing and thanks for stopping by, but I’ll see you later.”

“Are you staying with him?”

“No, I’ve decided to drop out of school and become a crack whore.” I rolled my eyes dramatically and closed the door. “And his puke was neon pink.”

She made an unidentifiable squealing noise, but I locked the door behind me, peeling my shirt off as I walked back to the bathroom. Harry was half in the glass walled shower, adjusting the water temperature. His face lit up when he saw me. “Everything okay?”

“It was Vi, just being nosy.” I pulled a ponytail holder out of my bag and wrapped my hair up in a messy bun. “I think she’s convinced I’m being held against my will. I eased her concerns by telling her I’ve decided to turn to cocaine instead of contributing to society.”

He laughed and caught my hand in his, pulling me into his arms. His skin felt soft against mine. “Did you tell her about us?”

“I told her a guy was here. The rest was implied.”

“I thought she was your best friend?”

I stepped into the shower, pulling him in behind me. “She is. But, we’re like opposite ends of a battery. She’s all natural and earthy and folksy. I’m blue and tattoos and rock. I’m lame, she’s skeptical. We’re the Cagney and Lacey of Temple University.”

He lathered up his hands with soap and started massaging it onto my back, then turned me towards him, holding me at the waist. “I’m sorry if that sounded like I was…accusing you or something. I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I didn’t take it that way.”

“I just…I mean…I like you. A lot.” He hesitated, like he was far too used to hiding this sweet, vulnerable side from people. “I tend to get very serious about a girl as soon as a meet her, soppy I guess, especially if I really like her. And it’s hard, sometimes, figuring out if someone likes me for me or me for who I am. That’s why I asked you last night why you had sex with me.”

He looked so serious, his fingertip trailing across a tattoo that followed the curve of my collarbone. Alis volat propriis: Latin for She flies with her own wings. This was one of the things I was starting to adore about him: he was funny and rambunctious part of the time, but he was also sweet, serious, and romantic. I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. “I had sex with you because I like you. A lot.”

He nuzzled against my neck, practically purring in my ear. His deep, raspy voice turned me into pudding, “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”

“Probably as happy as it makes me knowing you feel the same way.”

“Being with me isn’t easy. I travel constantly, the paparazzi never go away, and some fans are…erm…difficult.”

“I’ll be honest, Harry, it’s going to be more difficult for me to get excited about pop music.” I wrinkled up my nose. “I haven’t listened to top 40 music since I was twelve.”

“Hazza.”

“I have no idea what you just said.”

He chuckled. “No, you can call me Hazza. My friends called me Hazza in school; my name’s just Harry. Not Harold. Not Henry. Just Harry Edward Styles and…there’s something sexy about the thought of your American voice saying Hazza.”

“Okay…Hazza.” It was kind of adorable. My heart felt like it was beating a thousand times a second. This sexy man, naked and wet and smooth against me, telling me he liked me? I wasn’t entirely sure how I hadn’t squealed or done something else equally awkward.

Our shower lasted a little longer than we’d initially anticipated. Harry insisted on the tattoo scavenger hunt and then insisted he kiss each of my tattoos…which then in turn led to me insisting on kissing his…which then turned into a very slippery, very cold session of 69-ing on the bathroom floor.

When we were dried off and (reasonably) calmed down, he sat on the edge of the bed and watched me get ready. I slid a pair of black panties on and set to work doing my hair and makeup: my makeup would take longer, so I started with it. My look was kind of emo mixed with punk mixed with 50s/retro with thick eyeliner, heavy mascara, and red lipstick. I glanced at him in the mirror. “You being naked is distracting me.”

“I’d rather be naked. A while back Twitter nearly exploded when my cousin posted a picture of me watching television naked.” He trailed his finger down the face of his phone. “I have a thing tonight, uh, a show. Jimmy Kimmel? Do you want to go? We could go to dinner afterwards or, maybe a club or something.”

“Sure.” I put a deep side part in my hair and swept it to the side, pinning my blue bangs underneath a loose section. “What does one wear to a club in LA?”

“You’ll be naked at my house later. So, you know, sexy. Easy to take off.”

I finished the small cat eye swoop to my eyeliner and studied my reflection in the mirror. California was hot and heat was stupid, so I had a feeling all my hard work was going to melt off the first moment I stepped outside. Whatev. At least I tried.

“Can I take your picture?” He sucked in a deep breath and, in the mirror, I could see he had a shy smirk on his lips. “You look so fucking sexy right now.”

“Okay.” I stood on my tiptoes so my butt would look better, and grinned at him over my shoulder. He took a moment to adjust the phone and then took the picture, smiling broadly when he looked at this finished result. “Gorgeous. I need your phone number…ah…so I can call you. And text you.”

“I need yours too.” I walked to my suitcase and pulled out a pair of short black shorts and a red, 50s style low cut red shirt. We were told to dress business casual for the brunch—probably only because Susanna liked being in charge—and this was as close to that as I was getting. The shirt was casual the rest was my business. If she didn’t like it, she was more than welcome to let me leave.

He plucked my phone up from the bedside table. He glanced at the face and then raised his eyebrows. “This is an interesting picture.”

“Ah, that.” I pulled my bra straps up and adjusted my boobs, then slipped my shirt over my shoulders. “That’s from the rehearsal dinner.”

“Is that a condom on a lobster tail?”

“To be fair, I wasn’t the one who started it. I was the one who encouraged it, yeah, but you know. When you’re drunk everything is hilarious. It was the far side of the table’s interpretation of what Susanna and Devon’s wedding night would look like.”

“You need a better picture.” He reached his hand out to me. “Come here.”

I sat next to him on the bed and he draped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close, and held my phone out to take a picture. “Hey, Laney baby?”

I turned my head and looked at him. “Yeah?”

“Nothing.” He pulled the phone back to him and smirked at me. “I’ll let you see it when I’m done.”

“Laugh it up, Hazza. It seems like a victory now, but you’ll be amazed how easily distracted I am.”

“Mmmm, baby girl, I love the way you say my name.” He pressed his fingertips across my cellphone and then glanced up at me. “Do you mind if I download a song to go with my number? Because I want to.”

“Go for it.” I started packing up my makeup while simultaneously wracking my brain with what I was going to wear to “dinner and a club.” Dinner and a club? I brought enough clothes to last me two days in Los Angeles, plus a couple cute outfits incase Vi and I hit the town—which we didn’t. I didn’t give a fuck if NOVA hot translated to LA hot, but I wanted Harry to think I looked hot. If I’d known this was going to happen, I’d have done a better job packing. I’d have brought less underwear and more heels.

“You’re not allowed to listen to it until after I leave.” He kissed my bare shoulder and then started getting dressed. “It’s pop. And I picked it just for you, baby girl, because it’s how I feel about you.”

I made a noncommittal noise in my throat. “Pop.”

“You’re going to love it. You’ll be a pop princess before long.” He pulled his shirt over his shoulders and fastened the bottom few buttons. “So, the show films in the former Hollywood Masonic Hall…ehm…near the Kodak Theater. They start filming at 4:30, but we’ll be there long before then. Just come over from here. I’ll leave tickets for you at the will call booth and we can just hang out before the show.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

“I’ll leave it for you under the name Clementine Darling.” He winked at me. “It’s hot.”

I giggled. “I can’t believe you remember Vi saying that. That was like, the first ten seconds we’d known each other.”

“I know.” He pulled me into his arms and crushed his mouth to mine. “You were the most beautiful girl in the entire building.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“I would. I watched you walk down the aisle during the ceremony and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you. I wanted to know who you were, to touch those studs in your cheeks…to kiss those lips.” He kissed me again, cradling my face in his hands. “I gotta go, baby girl, but I’ll see you a little later. The car’s here for me. You’ll be there, right?”

I pulled him back into a kiss. “I’ll get all dolled up for you.”

We walked to the door together and he kissed me again, hesitating before he stepped into the hall. “You know, love, I’ve always believed that when it’s time for souls to meet, there’s nothing on Earth that can prevent them from being together, no matter where they’re from. You are amazing.”

“So are you, Hazza.” I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him again. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

After he’d left, I jumped up and down like an idiot a few times, and then rushed around the room to finish packing my bag. I still had to check out of the room and then run as fast as I could to the stupid brunch. It was probably going to be delicious. Stupid, stupid, food. Stupid bridesmaids. All I wanted was to be with a boy.

I jammed black heels onto my feet, checked the room one final time, and then dragged my bag down the hallway to the elevator. While I waited, I hit the button on the cellphone to check the time—and immediately smiled. Harry had changed the lock screen picture to the one he’d taken of us. I was looking up at him, my lips spread in a shy smile, and he was grinning back. It was adorable.

I kind of wanted to do a backflip.

I also wanted to throw up, because I had two minutes to check out and make it to the restaurant before eleven. The brunch wasn’t actually important to me, but the sooner it was over, the sooner I could get a taxi and get to Hollywood and Harry. That was the goal.

The woman behind the counter smiled broadly as I sauntered up, pulling my suitcase behind me. “Checking out, miss?”

“Yes.” I slapped my room key on the counter and then started digging through my purse for my credit card. “Room 1526.”

She typed a few buttons on the computer and then smiled. “It looks like you’re good to go. The room is paid in full.”

I stared at her, slowly shaking my head. “No, um, I think you’re mistaken. I didn’t prepay.”

“The room is paid in full.” She took the key and then thought for a moment. “1526, yes, your boyfriend came down earlier and paid for it.”

I kept staring at her, to the point where she started to frown. “Miss?”

“Uh, yes, thank you.” I wheeled my case out of line and shuffled over to a posh red chair in the lobby. He’d paid for my room. He called himself my boyfriend.

I ran my finger across the face of the phone and pulled up my contact list. He’d taken a selfie of himself to go with his number: he was smiling broadly at the camera, with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. So fucking cute.

I touched my finger to the ringtone he’d set. It sounded like it was picking up mid-song; a sexy raspy voice that was immediately familiar to my ears. Harry.

“…But you're perfect to me.
I won't let these little things
Slip out of my mouth
But if it's true
It's you
It's you
They add up to
I'm in love with you
And all these little things.”

Notes