Even when Morgan, Liam’s girlfriend of almost two months now, arrived, Eleanor and Darren kept their distance. Darren had strong urges to tell Eleanor off for judging her and making assumptions as she did, but she knew she had to keep her cool. Sure, she is negative at times, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care for Harry. She wanted to tell Eleanor about how she got Harry to open up to his mum – literally open the door for her, helping him positively, but she decided she didn’t want to associate herself with Eleanor anymore.

Throughout the concert, Darren tapped her fingers on her knees to the beat of the songs and made conversation with Morgan who had no problem chatting up a storm about whatever came to mind. When Harry came backstage for quick changes or a short break, he made it a point to pull a face at Darren, so she decided to start pulling them back, laughing as she did so.

Almost to soon, the concert is over, and the band is yelling out thank yous to everyone who made the tour possible before running off behind the scenes where the three girls are waiting. Darren is leaning up against a wall, having been tired of sitting for so long, when Harry runs over and starts to spin her in a hug. The sudden loss of contact to the floor almost throws her off, and the spinning is dizzying, but she shouts a ‘You guys were amazing!’ over the other yelling in the room.

Harry sets Darren down on her, thanking her. “We were thinking about going out and getting a few drinks to celebrate another tour well done. Want to come with?”

Darren immediately shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s such a great idea…”

“Why not? It’ll be fun,” Harry insists.

“I- I can’t, Harry. I haven’t gone drinking since… forever ago, and it’s for the better,” Darren explains. Ever since she got out of her dark times, her lips haven’t touched the poison of alcohol. She gets too careless when she drinks, and she finds it best not to drink because once she starts, she doesn’t stop. Harry seems to understand why Darren refuses his invitation to go with them, and even though she insists that he go without her, he tells her he’d rather celebrate any other way with her. Darren rolls her eyes of course but complies with him.

“What about my sister and her friends?” Darren’s phone starts to quack. “Speaking of the devil…”

From Lou-Lou:
Where are we supposed to wait for you???

“The more the merrier,” Harry tells her.

Darren scoffs. “Are you kidding me? They’d all be freaking out the entire time.” Harry shrugs, not caring what might happen, and takes the phone from Darren.

To Lou-Lou:
Meet me at the left side of the stage in five.

“There.” Harry sends the text and hands Darren her phone back. “We can go out for… ice cream or something. Now let’s go meet your sister and her friends.”

Harry grabs Darren’s hand and starts to drag her towards the stage entrance he and the other boys had been using all night going in and out. The fans that are still in the arena start to scream when Harry smiles and waves at them all. Darren gasps in surprise and covers her face with the hand Harry isn’t holding. He laughs at her and drags her along to the side of the stage where Darren’s sister and her friends should be meeting them. Darren sneaks peaks at all of the fans through her fingers as she follows behind Harry and tries not to fall over.

They get off the stage and stand in front of the dividers and a couple of security guards. Harry obliges to signing a few autographs and chatting to a few of the fans while Darren scouts out Emmy Lou. Soon enough, a blonde pushes her way to the front of the dividers, pulling along three more girls with her until they are standing in front of the security guards before Darren. She notifies Harry who asks the guards to help the girls through the dividers. They are hesitant at first, but they oblige to do as the popstar says.

Once Lou-Lou and her friends are on the side that Darren and Harry are, Harry waves goodbye to the rest of the fans and leads Darren and everyone else off to the side into the maze of underground hallways.

“Oh, my God; this is so surreal,” Zelyah squeals to Emmy Lou ate her right. “I still can’t get over the fact that your sister is basically best friends with Harry Styles.” Emmy Lou tells her to hush a little bit but squeals back with the same excitement that she can’t believe it either.

Darren shoots Harry the look that tells him she told him that this would happen, but he just gives her a hearty laugh. He turns Darren around so that they are both walking backwards and starts a conversation with the four friends who are all almost too excited to speak, pinching themselves as if it’s a dream. Harry leads the group of them back to where everyone else is backstage, and as if Darren thinks the girls’ excitement levels couldn’t get any higher, she is clearly underestimating them.

Brenna starts to hyperventilate when Niall walks over and introduces himself. Haylee almost drools as she stares at Louis who is all the way across the room talking to Eleanor. Zelyah and Emmy Lou are surprisingly calm and act casual, even when Zayn and Liam walk over to say hello, but Darren can tell that Emmy Lou might explode when Liam leans over to hug her.

“Have I told you how much I love you right now, Dare?” Emmy Lou asks Darren as she smiles in her own lala land. Darren laughs and puts her hand on her sister’s shoulder to keep her stable as she sways side to side.

“Dare?” Niall asks. “That’s a really cool nickname. Short for Darren, right?”

“Obviously,” Emmy Lou answers for Darren, snapping out of her own world. “Well, short for Darren and also because she always chooses dare and hasn’t turned one down – like, ever.”

“So if I dared you to do something right now, would you do it?” Niall asks Darren directly.

Darren smirks. “Shoot.”

Niall also smirks and turns to Liam to discuss his dare for Darren. Liam shakes his head, making Niall frown. Then, Liam cups his hand over Niall’s ear and whispers something back. Niall smiles widely at what Liam tells him. He even bites his hand trying not to laugh.

“All right. I dare you… to kiss my dear Harold," Niall says, quirking his eyebrow up and down in a suggestive fashion.

Darren instantly frowns. “Ew, no. What are you, twelve? Harry’s my best friend. That’s disgusting.”

“Yeah, don’t I get a say in this?” Harry adds in, not sure how he feels about this idea. When the dare slipped from Niall’s mouth, the words brought butterflies to his stomach. The only problem is that he doesn’t know if that’s because he’s nervous or if he wants to throw up. They’re just friends.

“Come on. It’s just one kiss. I thought you never turned down a dare?” Liam tells Darren, completely ignoring Harry. Liam knew what he was doing when he told Niall about the dare. After all, half the world wants to see this relationship set sail, and Harry’s band mates are the strongest supporters of the Harren ship. Soon enough, everyone in the room is either chanting ‘kiss’ over and over again, or making chicken noises because Darren is refusing the dare so far – everyone minus Eleanor anyway.

Darren turns to face Harry, her body parallel to his. She gulps back built up saliva in her throat. She doesn’t know what to do as she stares into those green eyes of his. Harry is her best friend, and to kiss him would be wrong, but she’s never turned down a dare before. She’s done way worse than this, but everything about this dare seems so twisted and wrong. This could change everything. What if they kiss and it becomes too awkward for them to still be friends? She doesn’t want to lose this friendship.

Harry is sweating with anticipation. The last girl he kissed was Leanna, and he hasn’t touched lips with anyone since. What if he’s a bad kisser because he hasn’t had practice? What if the kiss is so bad Darren doesn’t want to be his best friend anymore because of it? He doesn’t even know if she’s going to kiss him though. Is she going to kiss him? Does she even want to kiss him? Of course she doesn’t. Why doesn’t she want to kiss him?

Darren looks around the room at the people surrounding her and chanting like idiots. She rarely succumbs to peer pressure, but she is basically the queen of dares. She’s done everything from skinny-dipping in the middle of winter to dyeing her hair blonde for a week, so why is one kiss so hard? Her eyes meet Eleanor’s hard glare. Eleanor is shaking her head back and forth, mouthing the words ‘don’t do it’. It only gives Darren the courage.

She turns back to Harry, smirking again. Her head starts to lean in. Harry leans down a little when she does, trying to figure out if this is really happening. He can feel the warmth of her breath fan over his lips just inches from his face. The feeling goes cold, and he feels a small peck being placed by soft lips on his cheek.

Darren steps back and winks at Harry, who is dumbfounded. She turns to Niall. “Happy?”

“No! You were supposed to kiss him on the lips,” he tells her.

Darren laughs. “You said I had to kiss him. You never said anything about it being on the lips.” Niall groans and Louis boos her from his spot in the room.

Harry laughs from beside Darren, masking his slight disappointment. “So, ice cream then?” he asks her.

~

“You’re sister seems nice,” Harry says. The midnight sky draws their attention tonight, and they both find themselves lying on Darren’s roof, staring at the stars. Darren’s phone quacks again.

From Lou-Lou:
I’m still mad at you. TEXT ME BACK!!!

Having now received something like twenty plus messages from Emmy Lou since Darren dropped her off at home an hour ago about her being mad that Darren didn’t kiss Harry, Darren finally puts her phone on do not disturb and focuses back on the stars. “She’s nice, but she’s persistent.”

Harry chuckles. “Sounds like someone else I know.” Darren lets of a small ‘ha’ as she looks for the man on the moon. A brush of cold air sends shivers down her spine and the hairs on her arm to rise. “Are you cold?” Harry asks, noticing her exposed skin get covered in Goosebumps within seconds. He sits up and pulls his plain black sweater up and over his head. Darren sits up and accepts his sweater, pulling it over her body and leaving her hands in the sleeves that are much too long for her. She doesn’t mind though.

“Thanks,” she mutters, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs.

“Can I ask you something?” Harry asks.

“Sure.”

“Why didn’t you kiss me?”

Darren creases her eyebrows together and turns so that she’s looking directly at Harry. “You’re my best friend, Harry. That would be…” Darren scrunches her nose up as she racks her brain for the right word “… weird.”

“Would it really be that weird?”

Darren lets out a frustrated sigh. “Why are you asking me this? I don’t know if it would really be that weird, but I don’t know. Friends don’t really don’t that kind of stuff – kissing, I mean.”

Harry looks down at his hands, nodding. “Yeah, they don’t,” he says, “or at least that’s what I thought until…”

“Leanna?” Harry lifts his head up. Up until now, Harry had been sure that Darren knew nothing of the situation. She didn’t even know who Leanna was until that day he broke down. “Caspar filled me in on the situation. It started out as a friendship, and it became something more. That’s why you’re so much more beat up about this, you know? You not only lost your lover, but you lost a friend in the same person. Relationships like that tend to be the best…”

Harry stares not only into Darren’s eyes, but also into the truth behind her words. She can’t be more right about what she’s saying. Having your friend and your lover as the same person is one of the best forms of relationships one can possibly have. Harry’s relationship with Leanna was great. Falling for his friend was the best thing that he’s ever done, and that feeling of being so in love and happy is starting to come back but much more intensified. He wants to deny it, but Darren makes him feel warm inside, and sometimes he gets nervous around her, like a million butterflies are trying to break free. She’s been on his mind ever since the first time he spoke to her.

As he stares deeper and deeper into her into those bright brown eyes of hers, he feels himself leaning in. His face is soon just inches from hers. The familiar feeling of her warm breath heats his lips, and his heart begins to beat faster in his chest. He sneaks a short glance down at her lips before staring back into her eyes. Unsure of what to do next, her shuts his eyes, and suddenly, their lips are touching.

Harry puts his hands on Darren’s waist, and she brings up her hand to rest on the back of his neck and pull him in closer. A million butterflies are flying free, and the whole world seems to just stop.

Notes

About damn time, isn't it?

I don't even know what to ask you all right now. Please leave some feedback and comment your reaction to this chapter below. i love you guys!

~A