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I stood up fast as soon as I heard the sound of the doorbell, walking to the front door quickly and surpassing my mother, that was sitting on the armchair close to the TV.

"Bye, Sierra" she said, barely looking up from the book she was reading.

"Bye mum" I said, nervously observing myself in the reflection on the closed window. I'd decided to put on something casual and not wear a dress, not wanting Harry to think I was trying too hard. It wasn't even a date, after all. More like, just two people casually deciding to go out together.

I gave myself one last worried glance before reaching the door and opening it, taking my coat at the same time and sliding out fast, closing it behind myself. I put on my coat and looked up, my breath stopping in my throat in the second my eyes met Harry's. His gaze on me was hot, sharp, almost burning right through me, making me feel as if I was naked in front of him.

"Shall we go?" He said after a few endless seconds, putting his hand on my lower back and directing me towards the dark car that was parked in front of my house. As we reached it he pressed the button on the key, making the lights shine twice and signalling me it was open.

I opened the door and sat down on the passenger seat as he walked around the front of the car to get to the other side. I looked down, side-glancing at him as he opened the door and sat down as well, inserting the key in the ignition, but not turning on the engine.

He turned his head, glancing in the direction of my house, his profile barely enlightened by the few lights on the street. I turned my head towards him, not daring to look up at him in fear of meeting his eyes.

"Thanks for coming with me" he said lowly, the deep sound of his voice easily reaching my ears in the silence of the car.

I pursed my lips, trying to soothe my nervousness from being so close to him. "It's fine."

He hummed, his hand reaching out to push back a strand of my hair, putting his index under my chin to make me look up, my heart skipping a beat when I realised how close we were. He passed the pad of his thumb over my lower lip, making a shiver run down my spine.

"Did you miss me?" He whispered, leaning over the gap between our seats to diminish the distance between us. "Because I know I did" he said, the hot air leaving his lungs with his words and hitting my cheek. He brushed his lips against mine, lightly enough for me to barely feel it, not enough to stop me from desiring more.

I took in a shaky breath, trying to fight the way my eyes were almost forced shut by our closeness.

He let out a breathy laugh, a puff of air brushing against my skin. "I'm not moving until you reply" he said, so low that the sound almost seemed to come out from his chest, his lips grazing mine and making my eyelashes flutter with expectation.

"Yeah" I whispered faintly, and he raised his chin, closing the distance between us.

When he kissed me his soft lips moulded perfectly over mine as if they were just meant to be, the air leaving our throats mixing together and becoming one under the sweet taste of mint and winter nights of his mouth.

Not wanting to break the kiss, I breathed through my nose, his scent intoxicating me and making my deepest concerns surrender to him, leaving me with nothing but a flaming spark in the depths of my chest. My fingers intertwined with his hair, a deep groan leaving his throat and vibrating down his chest as his cold ones traveled down my bare throat. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pushed his chest against mine, a sudden warmth washing through me as our bodies came in contact through the clothes.

After a few sweet, interminable seconds we broke apart, my heart rushing against my chest as I looked at him with wide eyes.

He breathed in, his thumb grazing his lower lip as his eyes burned into mine from where he was sitting. He cleared his throat, sitting up better and turning the key in the ignition, making the car come to life in a deep roar.

I widened my eyes when the clock, being turned on with the car, showed that it was already half past ten, but I pushed it away, figuring that he'd just come to get me a little later than what he'd said some days before.

I turned my head to look out of the window, trying to ignore his presence next to me, that felt like a spark of electricity in the darkness. We stayed silent for the entire trip, but I didn't mind, feeling as if my voice had been stolen by the intensity of his kiss.

After about twenty minutes Harry stopped the car in front of a huge house that I didn't quite recognise. I exited the car just as he did, waiting for him to reach me before walking together towards the door, where he rang the doorbell.

Only when the door opened time seemed to start to flow again, making me suddenly aware of the loud music coming from the inside and the cold air around me. I thanked the boy that had opened the door with a little smile as we walked inside, feeling my awkwardness exponentially rise the more I looked around.

"Take off your coat" Harry said all of sudden, and I did, allowing him to take it and throw it in an empty room on the side of the hallway together with his.

I looked at the people all grouped together here and there, laughing loudly and drinking what I was sure wasn't water, the whole situation giving me a weird feeling. I'd never been to a party like that before, and I didn't quite know what to do with myself in that kind of situation.

"Come on" Harry said, putting his hand on my back and directing me towards the living room, giving a slight nod to all the people that greeted him as soon as we walked past them.

I nervously bit my lower lip, but the warm touch of Harry's hand on my back kept my dubiousness away. As we walked through the crowd Harry put his arm around my waist, making sure we wouldn't have got separated, stopping to chat a bit whenever someone addressed him.

For about half an hour I went around with him, enjoying the different ways he interacted with people, somewhat sarcastic with what I supposed were friends, cold with everyone he didn't like that openly crossed his path, figuratively and physically, and completely ignoring the rest. It was so different for me to see him in a similar situation but, for some reason, it made it even more endearing to me.

"Harry?" A voice said all of sudden.

I looked up at the sound of Harry's name being spoken, seeing that Zayn was standing in front of us, his short nails tapping on the table at the rhythm of the music blasting through the house.

He passed a hand through his raven hair. "I might have something interesting" he continued, completely ignoring me.

Harry gave him a slight nod, seeming somewhat unsure as he turned to look at me, giving me an indecipherable look. "I'll be back in twenty" he said after having lowered his head just enough to be able to whisper his words into my ear, overpowering the loud beat of the music. "Stay here or else I won't know where to find you."

I tried my best to ignore the goosebumps that formed on my neck as his hot breath hit my skin, distancing myself from him just enough to regain control over my body, forcing myself not to wrap my arms around the back of his neck and kiss him and giving him a little nod, sure as I was that my voice would've shaken if I'd communicated my agreement out loud.

His hand found my forearm and squeezed it lightly before disappearing into the crowd followed by Zayn, leaving me alone in the kitchen.

I sighed, pouring myself a glass of water and going to lean against the wall on one side of the room, next to the door that brought to a huge room that I supposed was the living room. From where I was I could see the mass of people dancing or just standing around chatting away still managing not to be in the middle of it all. I'd always hated parties - not that I'd went to many to be honest. They'd always given me the feeling of there being way too many things going on at the same time, which had always been a major turn off for me. I wasn't the kind of person that fit in that kind of place.

I sighed, sipping my water absentmindedly. Harry and I were so, so different, everything around me proved it. I hadn't initially noticed it when I'd been around Harry, but now that he was gone I couldn't help but acknowledge how awkward I was feeling. I cleared my throat just to do something, debating on whether I should've just taken my phone and done something on it to pretend to do something, but deciding against it when I realised that that would've made my battery go down fast, potentially leaving me without a phone by the end of the night.

I glanced to my side when someone leant against the wall next to me, a bottle of beer in their hand.

"Crazy, isn't it?" The boy said staring at the people chilling around the kitchen, drinking from the bottle.

I shrugged, following his glance to have a reason not to look at him. I'd always found it quite hard to stare at people I didn't know in the eyes. I didn't know why, but it was just embarrassing. "I guess."

He let out a chuckle, looking up fast to get a strand of light brown hair out of his eyes. "You here alone?"

I shook my head. "I'm here with Harry" I said, my eyes drifting to the side to glance at him.

He widened his eyes. "Harry?"

I nodded. "You know him?" I said, and he gave me a little laugh.

"Honestly, who doesn't? He comes to all of these parties" he replied. "But no, I don't really know him. We talk sometimes, that's it. He has quite the small circle of friends, let me tell you." He took a sip out of the bottle, poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue as a thoughtful look took over his features. "What's surprising is that he came with you. He doesn't really do that."

I furrowed my eyebrows at his words. "He does it with Janette."

He openly laughed, making some people's heads turn in our direction. "Nah, not really. Janette just takes whatever she wants."

I frowned at the sentence, but I didn't ask anything more about the subject, feeling like it wasn't my place to ask about what he meant. I barely knew Harry, after all.

The boy took his phone, looking at the screen. "Gotta go before my girlfriend sees me talking to a girl and gets jealous. I'll see you around" he said, shoving it into his back pocket, leaning down to put his empty bottle on the floor before going out of the kitchen.

I played with the glass in my hand, resuming my activity of before and going back to looking at everything around me, wondering when Harry would've been back. I felt so out of place there, alone.

I finished the water and put the glass back on the counter, trying my best to appear as busy as possible not to have anyone coming around to spark a conversation. A fast look at my phone's lock screen told me it was already eleven and half, and I sighed, realising that I would have had to go back home soon. It wasn't that I had any kind of obligation to, it was just that I wasn't used to coming home too late.

All of sudden I felt a hand brush against my side and I turned around fast, relaxing the tensed muscles of my back when I realised it was Harry.

The corners of his lips turned up in a little smile and he brushed his dark chocolate curls back, stepping towards me as the song in the background changed, its beat reverberating into the depths of my chest.

"Let's go in the other room" he whispered in my ear against the music, wrapping his arm around my waist.

I nodded at his words, following him as he took my wrist and pulled me towards the door that brought to the living room.

As soon as we changed room the music became higher, suddenly mixed with the smell of a few hundreds people all crumpled up together in a relatively small space. I looked down as we walked through the middle of the room squeezing between people, since they were all too drunk or just too careless to let us pass. A sudden wave of relief washed through me when I saw a white couch a bit towards the side of the room, with Niall and a few boys I didn't recognise sitting on it.

We reached them and Harry sat down next to one of the boys, bringing me along to sit on the space left empty between him and the armrest. I sat down, instantly freezing when Harry put his arm on my shoulders. I gave him a weird look, expecting him to acknowledge the seemingly out of character action, but he completely ignored.

"Fancy seeing ya here, artistic girl" Niall said loudly, leaning forward to look at me from over the other two people that were sitting between me and him.

I turned my head in his direction quickly, eager not to look affected by Harry's touch on me. "It's Sierra, actually" I replied, feeling as if I'd just given a stupid answer in the second the words left my mouth.

The blue-eyed boy gave me a little smirk. "Oh, I know."

I almost jumped when a hand suddenly came from over my shoulder, holding a bottle of beer.

"Harry" the person behind me said, successfully catching Harry's attention and holding the bottle until he took it. He walked around the couch as soon as his hand was freed, allowing me to look at him without risking to meet his eyes by mistake, sitting on the opposite armrest and looking at us. "Heya. Was wondering when you'd show up."

He had a kind of familiar look, that I attributed to the fact that we probably went to the same school, even though I couldn't remember ever seeing him.

The boy sitting next to Harry nodded. "Yeah, we thought you'd got lost" he said with a little chuckle, the grey of his eyes so light that not even the dim light of the room managed to put shadows on it. "Also brought a girl, I see. What's your name?" He added, looking at me.

"Sierra" I replied, a faint blush taking over my cheeks when I realised he hadn't paid attention when I'd first spoken.

"Sierra, nice" he said with a little nod. "What do you do, Sierra?"

I just glanced at him, feeling my embarrassment rise when I realised I didn't know in which kind of context he was asking it. Did he mean in that moment, or in general? It would've been awkward to answer in the wrong way.

"He means what do you study" Niall said standing up all of sudden. "Gonna leave for a while." He gave his bottle to the brown-haired boy who had just joined us and went away, being swallowed by the crowd after a matter of seconds.

The boy sitting next to me turned to me again. "So?"

"Art, majorly" I replied, feeling a little awkwardness hit me because of how shy I was. I cleared my throat and leaned back against the couch, not wanting to look too on edge.

"Ah" the boy said, "are you any good?"

Harry removed his arm from around my shoulders, gripping the bottle with his left hand and taking a lengthy sip. "She is" he said, so low that I wondered if the other boy had even heard him, leaning his head against the cushion.

The boy nodded, a somewhat impressed look on his face. "Nice. I'm Noah, by the way."

"Nice to meet you" I said, feeling a little more at ease now that Harry and I weren't touching anymore. "And you?" I asked. "What do you do?"

He shrugged. "A little bit of this and that."

"It means he keeps changing classes after failing them" the boy sitting on the armrest said, an ironical smile on his lips.

Harry sat up a little straighter, drinking from the bottle before leaning down to leave it on the ground, empty. It slipped from his hold when it was a couple of inches away from the floor, falling down but not shattering, thankfully. Harry cleared his throat, a little frown on his face, and leaned back against the cushion again.

I bit my lower lip, confused by what was going on. He seemed way too silent, which kind of made sense considering the kind of person he was, but didn't quite since he was around what I supposed were his friends.

"Oversharing quite a bit, you are" Noah grumbled, turning his head to look at the boy sitting next to him, that shrugged, an innocent look in his eyes.

A smile formed on my lips at the interaction, but was quickly swiped away when I heard Harry take a sudden deep breath, before relaxing next to me again.

"I'm sure she won't mind" the boy said, motioning towards me. "You don't, do you?"

I shifted my attention back to them. "Of course I don't" I replied reassuringly.

The brown-haired boy gave me a short nod. "See, told ya."

"Always there bickering, aren't you?" The boy Niall had given his bottle to said all of sudden, looking up from his phone.

"Oh shut up" Noah said, not even bothering to look at him.

The other put Niall's bottle on the floor, next to his feet. "Gets boring after a while."

"You get boring after a while" Noah replied fast, rolling his eyes. "Stop being boring, Jason" he added snappily.

I kept listening to their exchange for a while, a little smile on my lips, with Harry being completely silent and not moving an inch next to me. I wondered if he'd started to regret his decision of bringing me to that party with him, and letting me hang out with him and his friends. I surely hoped he didn't because, despite being completely out of my element, I was kind of having fun.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Harry sat up next to me suddenly, a confused look on his face, his foot hitting the bottle he'd dropped on the floor and making it clash against the other, that poured over, the little drop of beer that was left spilling onto the rug.

I turned my head fast as the sound was drowned by the harsh beat of the music, furrowing my eyebrows as I took in how pale Harry looked. "Harry?" I asked him faintly relying on our closeness, but he completely ignored me.

He gave a detached look around before standing up, stopping his movements as soon as he was on his feet for a couple seconds, before slowly starting to walk. A hint of nervousness pervaded me when he froze in his place a few feet away from us, after having taken just a few steps.

"Harry, are you okay?" I asked him again, right before his legs gave out and he fell to the ground with a thud.

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