A Shot in the Dark: Chapter twelve

Harry Styles became famous at quite a young age. At sixteen he was the front man of his band, A Shot In The Dark, and was called a musical prodigy shortly after that. His life was perfect, he had everything; a perfect career, perfect friends and a perfect girlfriend. It all changed when his girlfriend died in a car accident. He lost the love of his life, but he also lost the child he was yet to have. Completely broken he gave up on everything. Alcohol and drugs became his new best friends and his career now existed of getting snapped when leaving clubs. Could his number one fan change his life?

A/N: And I got it out on time! It’s still Saturday where I live :) but I don’t know if I’ll update tomorrow :/ I hope you guys will like it! :)

Chapter eleven|Chapter twelve|Chapter thirteen

The next week had been hard on Louis. His birthday was getting closer and closer and Harry ignored him all week. He made sure to drop Charlie off last minute, so that class was just about to start and Harry could sneak back out again. The first day, he didn’t even come in the nursery. It really affected Charlie and Louis was mad that Harry dragged Charlie into it like that. Louis tried calling and texting Harry and eventually told Liam if he could tell Harry to please call or text him. To Louis’ surprise, Liam told him that he hadn’t seen Harry in a week. Louis didn’t know what to do; he was so scared he lost Harry as a friend. He knew the kiss was a bad idea, but he needed to kiss him. All the tension, he needed to get rid of it. And it seemed like the only way and he thought it was the only chance he got. Harry even kissed him back! But the two words after that killed him. I can’t. He kept replaying those words; they would hunt him at night when he tried to sleep. He felt powerless, knowing that everything was in Harry’s hands. And knowing that Harry wouldn’t want to see him ever again.

***

“So you haven’t spoken to him since?” Gemma asked and took a bite of the Christmas cookies Harry made.

Harry shook his head and sighed. “What the hell should I say? ‘I’m sorry. I like you a lot but we just can’t be together because it feels like cheating on my dead girlfriend?’ I can’t say that, Gems!” He put his head in his hands and felt a small hand on his back.

“Charlie, what did I told you,” Gemma said and looked stern at Charlie.

“Play with toys. But Uncle Harry is sad,” Charlie said and looked at Harry, “Mister Louis is sad too.”

“Charlie, just go play with your toys again, okay?” Gemma said.

“But I want presents!” Charlie said and demonstratively sat on the ground.

“Charlie… can’t that wait for a couple of minutes?” Gemma asked and rubbed her forehead.

“It’s okay, really,” Harry said and stood up, “Well, Charlie. I’m going to my car, because Santa accidentally left a present for you at my house! So I’ll just grab it, okay?”

Charlie squealed and clapped his hands excitedly.

“Harry, you shouldn’t have!” Gemma said.

“It’s cool, really. It’s a present from Santa Claus and he gave it with all the love he has.” Harry left to his car to grab the big packet. It almost didn’t fit in his car, but he somehow made it work. He then saw the cake and present for Louis. He still baked the massive cake and still bought the present. And he even put it in his car. He was prepared to go see him, but he just couldn’t.

He went back with Charlie’s present and walked back into the living room. Charlie looked with big eyes at it and Gemma was surprised by the size of the box.

“Harry, what the hell is that?!” Gemma said.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to let Charlie unpack to see!”

Harry put the box down and Charlie started to tear the paper off.

“It’s a train set!” Charlie almost screamed. He jumped up and started jumping of happiness, “Mommy, look! Santa got me a train set! It has rails and trains and stations!”

Gemma looked at Harry and he simply shrugged, “The kid deserves it,” he said.

“You are an amazing guy, Harry. Really,” Gemma said and gave her brother a hug. “And because you are a good brother and uncle, I need to be a good sister. Please go see Louis.”

Harry looked at his shoes and didn’t say anything.

“You know you want to,” Gemma said.

“Yeah. I know. I’ve got his presents in my car. I really want to… but I’m not ready for another relationship. I like him, but I just can’t.”

“Then tell him that. He’ll understand. Just say you want to take it slow. He’ll get it, I swear.”

“You think?”

“I know. Now go on and tell him you like him, he’ll hate you forever if you don’t show up on his birthday!”

“Okay, I will go then,” Harry said and started to get nervous.

“Bro, I promise you it will be okay,” Gemma said and gave him a hug.

“Yeah, okay,” he said and got up. He looked at Charlie and saw he was engrossed in the train set. Harry crouched down next to him and said, “You like it?”

“I love it,” Charlie said with a big smile.

“Good,” Harry said and gave Charlie a kiss on his forehead, “I’m going now, I’ll see you in a couple of days again, okay?”

“You really have to go?” Charlie said and pouted.

“Yes, but why don’t you ask your mom to get the train set ready? Then you can go and play,” Harry smiled.

“Mommy, can you?” Charlie asked and looked at Gemma.

“Sure, honey,” Gemma said and helped Charlie getting everything out of the box.

“Okay then, bye,” Harry said.

“Bye, Harry. Good luck, which I’ll know you don’t need, because it’s going to be great!”

***

Harry sat in his car in front of Louis’ small house. He’s only been there a couple times before and being there then he felt really nervous. It wasn’t just going to be him and Louis but also Louis’ mom and sisters. And what would they think? How would they feel about him being there? Louis probably told his family about him and them being friends, but still… He took a deep breath and got out of the car. He grabbed the massive cake and walked to the door. He knocked on the door and waited for the door to open. It took a while so he went to knock again and just as his knuckles hit the door, the door opened.

“Harry,” Louis said and Harry could almost see the color disappear from Louis’ face, “You’re here,” he stuttered.

“Yeah, I am,” Harry said, “Um. Could you maybe let me in? It’s a bit cold out here,” he said, when they stood quietly for a minute.

“Yeah, sure,” Louis said and opened the door. Harry closed it after him and turned to Louis again.

“I want to apologize. I ignored you without a good reason and I think I was just afraid of facing my feelings. Basically, I like you. But I don’t know if I’m ready for a relationship. So… I’m here to tell you that. And that I would like to keep seeing you,” Harry rambled, the words leaving his mouth quickly to just get it over with, “And I baked you a cake as promised.”

He held out the cake and Louis took it, still seeing a bit white and shocked of seeing Harry on his doorstep.

“Thanks,” he said and looked at the cake, “Wow, it looks delicious!”

“Thanks,” Harry said and smiled sheepishly.

“I’ll just… put it in the… kitchen,” Louis said and walked to the kitchen to put the cake away. There he took a second to let Harry’s words sink in. He liked him. Harry admitted he liked him. And he wanted to be in a relationship. He couldn’t believe it!

He walked back to the hallway and saw Harry standing there awkwardly.

“Can I give you a hug?” Louis then said. Harry looked up and nodded. Louis wrapped his arms around Harry’s neck and Harry wrapped his arms around Louis’ waist.

“Thank you for coming. It’s the best birthday ever,” Louis whispered, his lips barely touching Harry’s neck.

Shivers ran up Harry’s spine and he felt a bit week in his knees. “It’s cool,” he whispered back and let the side of his head rest against Louis’ head.

“Oh, right. I got you a Christmas present,” Harry said as he let go of Louis. He got the tiny box out of his jacket pocket. He then gave it to Louis, “Merry Christmas.”

Louis looked at it and noticed how small it was, “There’s probably nothing in it, is there…” Louis said as he opened it. He then saw a guitar pick. “What? A guitar pick? Is this some weird joke or something?”

“Look at it,” Harry said.

Louis looked at it and a smile formed on his face, “A Shot in the Dark pick.”

“Yeah, it’s from our first small tour. There were like 50 picks made,” Harry smiled.

“Ah, thank you,” Louis and gave Harry a hug.

“You are very welcome. Plus, it matches your birthday present!”

“What?” Louis asked.

“Give me a second,” Harry said and left the house to go to his car. He grabbed the guitar case from his trunk. He walked back with it and saw that Louis was watching him from the doorway.

“You didn’t…” Louis said softly.

“I did. I saw your guitar was really old. And Charlie told me that it had cracks. So… I bought you a new acoustic guitar. It’s really great. I’ve got one of these at home. You’ll love it, I’m sure of that,” Harry said and gave the case to Louis.

“I… I can’t accept this!” Louis said and looked at the case, ‘This really is too much.”

“You deserve it! And it’s a present. How rude is it to reject a present,” Harry said.

“But… you really don’t need to spend all this money on me,” Louis said.

“It’s cheaper than what I planned to buy you…” Harry said, “Please, just take it.”

“Okay… fine,” Louis said and opened the case. His eyes started shining as he saw the guitar. “It’s beautiful.” Louis didn’t even notice the words leaving his mouth.

“Glad you like it,” Harry smiled, “Happy Birthday, Lou.”

Louis closed the guitar case and caught Harry in an embrace again. The impact of the embrace made Harry wobble a bit, but he closed his arm tighter around Louis to catch his balance again.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he heard Louis whisper and felt a pair of lips on his own and leave just as quickly again. Louis let go of Harry as he realized what he did in an upwelling of emotion.

“I’m sorry,” he said with wide eyes.

“It’s cool, really. I don’t mind,” Harry said and smirked a bit.

“Okay… um… let’s go to the living room. My family is probably wondering where I am,” Louis said, not wanting any more ‘accidents’ to happen.

“Oh, right. Your family,” Harry said anxiously.

“Don’t worry! They like you! They’ve been influenced by me for years now to think anything other than: ‘What an amazing guy is he!’ I promise you they like you,” Louis said and walked in front to the living room with the guitar case in his hand. Harry walked slowly behind him. The door opened and Harry was met by loud laughter and girly giggles.

“Dear family, I present you: Harry Styles,” Louis smiled and stepped away from Harry. All eyes were on him and he waved awkwardly.

A woman stood up and walked to Harry, “Hi, it’s so nice to meet you! I’m Jay, Louis’ mother,” she smiled and embraced Harry. He stood with wide eyes, not expecting the embrace at all. “I’m so glad you could make it after all! Louis said you weren’t feeling well, which is just too bad on a night like Christmas Eve!”

Harry smiled at her, because who couldn’t. She was nice and just a big bubble of positivity.

“I’m also glad I could come,” Harry smiled.

He then saw four other pairs of eyes on him. He saw two girls from around 9 or 10 years old sitting on the floor and two girls from around 14 or 15 years old sitting on the couch.

“These are the twins, Daisy and Phoebe,” Louis said and pointed to the two on the floor, “And they are Lottie and Fizzy,” and Louis pointed to the two on the couch. “And this is Harry,” he said and looked at Harry.

“You were telling the truth,” Lottie said looking at her brother.

“Of course I did. It’s your fault you didn’t believe me,” Louis said and crossed his arms.

“Um… so, Liam left already?” Harry asked, noticing it was just Louis and his family.

“Yeah, he left like two hours ago. He’s going to spend Christmas with his own family,” Louis said.

“Oh, too bad I missed him,” Harry said and looked around at where to sit.

“You can sit here,” Fizzy said and patted the space between her and Lottie.

“Please promise not to harass him,” Louis said.

“We won’t,” Lottie said.

Harry looked at the space between the two and went to sit in between.

“So you and my brother are dating?” said Lottie a second after Harry sat down.

“Um. We’re not,” Harry said and avoided Lottie’s stare.

“You bought him a guitar,” she said.

“He’s a friend.”

“Who you’ve known for a month.”

“So, does that mean I can’t buy my friend of a month a birthday present?”

“You can, but something as big and expensive as a guitar?”

“I’m rich. So for me, a guitar isn’t that expensive,” Harry said, “Actually. Since Louis mentioned his family would be here, I got you guys something too.”

All eyes were on him again. “Um. How would you guys like to go to Disneyland Paris?” he said as he got the vouchers out of his jacket pocket.

“Oh, Harry. We can’t accept that,” Jay said as Harry went to give her the tickets.

“O hell yeah we can,” Lottie said and took the tickets.

“Lottie!” Jay said and shook her head, “Well, thank you Harry. You really shouldn’t have.”

“You’re welcome,” Harry smiled.

“So… who wants some cake? Harry baked some!” Louis said and Harry looked at all the happy faces. This Christmas wasn’t bad at all.