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.

Seven seconds. What feels to be several minutes is just seven seconds before Darren pulls back. Her hands go to her sides, and she scoots over, her cheeks heating up into the faintest shade of pink. Harry takes his own hands off of Darren and puts them in his lap. Left between them is but a small gap, but enough of a space for them both to feel a cool breeze replace the warmth they had both just experienced.

“Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Harry mutters, his voice trailing off at the end.

Though normally Darren would be irked by an apology, she can’t seem to process anything. “Don’t be. It was, uh, nice…” Darren lifts her hand, to tuck her hair back behind her ears and takes a glance in Harry’s direction. Harry smiles and turns his head to look back at her, still caught up in the tingling sensation dancing on his lips. They don’t say anything, but a thousand unspoken words are said between their eyes. The eyes say what the heart can’t. What they are feeling and what they are thinking; it’s all there. Some of it is cloudy, but what this is, what they have – it isn’t ‘weird’, not in the slightest.

“So…” Darren says, breaking eye contact with Harry and looking around awkwardly.

“So,” Harry repeats. Darren shakes her head and starts to laugh. “What?”

“This is just so,” she waves her arms around the space about her, “weird. But not like I just kissed my best friend weird, but like… I just kissed my best friend and it’s not weird which makes it weird, you know? Because you’d think it would be weird, but it isn’t.”

Harry starts to laugh, too. “So because it isn’t weird it is weird. Yeah, that totally makes sense, Dare.”

Darren smiles softly. “Exactly.”

~

Late night Saturday, early morning Sunday seems to be just an all too surreal dream. Now Thursday, neither party has made contact with the other. There is no text messaging, kik-ing, phone calling, face timing – absolutely no communication whatsoever. And yet, neither can shake that moment’s event from their heads.

Talk of a new tour for the band is all the rage in the social medias. Fans across the globe are already jumping in the excitement about rumors, and the boys’ management have been hard at work to select the best dates possible for announcements, booking venues, and all of the other stuff that comes with a new tour.

Amongst all of the excitement, Harry hasn’t found the time to contact Darren. He had been in and out of meetings all week, and when he wasn’t in meetings, he was in an interview talking about their latest tour or hinting more at the new tour without giving anything away. Even when he had time, he didn’t, and when he thought he was finally about to call Darren, he either felt too exhausted or choked.

Harry Styles choked. He couldn’t call the girl, but she was constantly on his mind. After he had left her that night, he couldn’t help but think he had ruined everything. No, she didn’t seem to think it was awkward or “weird”, as she had originally put it, but she also didn’t tell him exactly what it meant to her.

“Call her.”

“No.”

“Call her.”

“No.”

“Call her.”

“For the last time, Louis: no! I will not call her,” Harry yells. “I can’t.”

“You can.”

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

“I can’t.”

Louis picks up a couch pillow from next to him and chucks it at Harry’s head, hitting him spot on. Harry glares at Louis from his spot across the room as the pillow falls to the floor. He picks up the pillow and tosses it back weakly so that Louis just deflects it back onto the couch.

“The way I see it, you’re being stupid. If she thought you ruined things between you guys, she would’ve said something. Besides, you like her. She likes you. Call her.”

~

Darren’s confusion grows as the days pass. It is now Tuesday, and over a week has passed. That moment that she had shared with Harry is still on replay in her head. All this time she had been convinced that Harry was just her “best friend”, but deep inside, that kiss told her so much more than just that. She would be thinking of that moment, and she would run her fingers across her lips and it would feel all tingly.

But he hadn’t made contact since then. In any other situation she wouldn’t have cared, but she can’t help but feel hurt that he hasn’t called her, or texted, not even a single kik message. He’s one of her best friends. He kissed her. She was just dumb enough to kiss back.

“Well, maybe you should just call him?” Finn suggests.

“I can’t call him. He has to call me first.”

His sister’s state is confusing him more than Darren’s own confusion for herself. A few years ago, Darren had been kissing guys back and forth without care if they called her back. He knows that girl is gone (and he’s definitely happy about that), but this situation is new to him. Here she is, laying on her back on the couch, hugging a pillow and – and sighing? She’s expressing her feelings to him and it’s weird – so weird. This is not his sister who doesn’t give a shit about the world and what other people say or do. This is the body of his sister whose mind and train of thought have been replaced by a normal teenage girl who has feelings. Not. Okay.

“Why does he have to call you first?”

“Because… because he just does, okay.” Darren huffs and presses the pillow she’s been hugging to her face. Through mumbles, she continues. “He kissed me first. He has to call me first.”

Finn feels like he’s been hit with the hundredth ‘duh’ in the past hour. It’s times like this he wishes Jack were still in the house to help him deal with having a little sister who isn’t at all like the average girl, and even when she seems like what people would consider the average girl he could definitely use the extra help.

Finn stands up, frustrated. “Maybe I’ll just call him then and ask him politely to stop fucking with my sister’s feelings and-”

Darren sits up and gasps. “No! You can’t do that.” Finn just rolls his eyes and turns around. Darren picks up the pillow in her lap and chucks it at Finn, hitting him square on the back. “It doesn’t work that way, Finn.”

Finn turns around. “Then, tell me how it works. Enlighten me, Darren. How the hell does this,” he waves his hand around pointedly at her, “work?” Darren just shrugs her shoulders and folds her legs beneath her, using her fingers to play with the fabric of the couch throw. Finn sighs and takes a seat back on the couch. He wraps his arm around Darren, and she rests her head against his shoulder. “I don’t know what to do, Dare. This isn’t you. I just want to help.”

“I know. I don’t know what to do either, and it scares me that I feel this way. I don’t even know how to describe what I’m feeling. Just… just give it time. I’m sure he’ll call, or text, or… something soon. He’s probably just busy right now.” On the surface, Darren likes to believe that what’s she says is true but deep down she knows that these are just excuses.

Even though Finn never really intended on calling Harry, he wouldn’t mind giving that boy a piece of his mind for what he’s being put through right now. Still, he respects his sister’s views. “Alright. I really don’t want to sit here and have to see you be like this, but I won’t do anything.”

Darren sighs in relief. “Thank you.”

“But, for whatever reason, if this – whatever this is – gets out of hand and you get hurt, I will not hesitate to kick someone’s ass.” Darren laughs and harshly nudges Finn’s side. “Hey! I only want you to be happy.”

Darren looks down and loses the slight smile. ‘I am happy. Yeah. Happy…’

~

Darren sits alone at her usual table in the back of her favorite café, humming along to the soft music that fills the background noise of the small café. She scribbles away at the children’s menu she had once stolen from a Denny’s one time and stuffed in her purse for later entertainment as she waits for Emmy Lou to return from the bathroom. Her feet are tucked under her legs on top of the seat, and she is hunched over her picture of a couple of dolphins in the ocean. While outlining waves in blue crayon, she continues to pick at her carrot muffin.

The bell rings as the door opens, signaling the entering or exiting of another customer, but Darren is too caught up in her coloring to care. She doesn’t even want to be here, but Emmy had insisted on Darren going out to breakfast with her so they could catch up. As Darren had explained the events since they last had ice cream together at 10 p.m., Emmy had gone from absolutely shipping Harren together to wanting to rip Harry’s curls out of his head so he can get his shit together. Darren just kind of shrugged and continued to color one of the dolphins in with the red crayon.

Emmy Lou exits the bathroom a few minutes later, first smiling at Darren in a silent apology for taking so long to make sure she looked okay, and then looking up further and laying her eyes on someone who should probably wish they hadn’t made eye contact. She passes by the table with Darren casually and walks her way over to the line, not breaking her eye contact with the café’s most recent customer. Darren is too absorbed in her distraction of coloring dolphins the color that dolphins should not be to notice or care.

“Hi,” Emmy says flatly. She sticks her hand in one of he pockets and continues to act casual even though she wants to start screaming and demanding answers for the sake of her sister’s heart. Only, she’s only ever met him once, briefly, and she was just a teensy bit star struck when he engaged her into a hilarious conversation.

“Why hello, little Lou. Surprise meeting you here…” He smiles politely back at her, and Emmy soon realizes that she can’t take things out on him. It’s not him; it’s his band mate.

She sighs and gives a small smile, “Hey, Louis.”

Louis chuckles a little. “I’m guessing by that sigh that something is bothering you, but by the red hair sitting over at that table over there I’m guessing it’s not a personal problem that’s bothering you.” Emmy nods solemnly, regretting even thinking of wanting to yell at Louis. The cashier calls beckons Louis to come up to the register so she can take his order. “Well, you should get back to her. I’ll come sit with you after I’ve ordered?”

“Um… yeah. Okay.” Emmy Lou agrees reluctantly, unsure of whether Darren will want to start demanding answers, as she had wanted to, and walks back to the table. Darren, who faces the back wall of the café just before the short hallway where the bathrooms are so that her back is turned to the rest of the café, looks up shortly when Emmy Lou sits down before going back to color in the last dolphin with her green crayon.

Louis walks over to join the silent two at the table just a couple minutes later. He slides into the seat next to Darren, nudging her lightly. Darren’s hand jerks across her paper with the yellow crayon she had been using to draw in a sun. She looks up to Louis and frowns at him. “Thanks a lot, Louis. Now my sun has dumb rays like a kid’s drawing.”

Louis laughs and greets her as well, but Emmy doesn’t laugh. The normal Darren would have started yelling and clenching her fists so tight to keep from physical fighting only to result in her crayon breaking and more yelling to occur. This Darren sounds so weak compared to the normal Darren, and even though this Darren is much nicer and more considerate, Emmy doesn’t like this Darren.

“So how are things?” Louis decides to ask as he helps Darren color the sky orange.

“Okay,” Darren answers. Louis stops coloring, which in turn makes Darren stop coloring and look at him. She sighs. “Not okay.”

Louis nods and picks up the red crayon to color in the eyes of the dolphins. “He’s just… confused. And a bit scared.”

“Why is he confused? He kissed me first, and then he never called me after,” Darren counters in a whiney voice.

“I know. I don’t know. I’ve told him multiple times to call you but he’s just scared of what you’ll say. He doesn’t want to ruin what you guys have. He likes you, Darren. He’s just scared.”

‘Well he needs to stop being scared,’ Darren thinks to herself as she takes another sip from her tea. ‘I think I might like him too…’

Notes

Why won't Harry call Darren?
Why won't Darren just call Harry instead?
Are they both just being stupid?

Yes. The answer is yes. And now you can all start yelling at me for not updating in over month. Between school starting and adjusting to high school I've only found time to do reviews and update my other story (Mainstream) which is on a schedule that H doesn't seem to understand (love you, H :*). And then I sort of lost my train of thought for this story so this chapter is two weeks worth of trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to write and actually writing it. Honestly, I'm just surprised that almost no one unsubscribed.

But, um, if you're going to yell at me, go ahead, and then once your done yelling, give me some feedback on this chapter maybe? And then yell at me more because this story is kind of sort of almost over - almost. I haven't worked out numbers but my guess is less than 10 chapters until I'm done writing about Harren. So after you're done yelling and then yelling some more, we can all cry about it together :(

~A

PS: Has anyone else listened to Steal My Girl (it got leaked recently)? And if you have, does anyone else think it kind of sounds similar to Faithfully by Journey(the intros)? Or is it just me…