Stage Lights || H.S.

the cigarette

Harry

She wouldn't leave my mind, now that I got a taste of her I didn't want to let go, she was like a drug, and I couldn't help but wonder if I was the only one that saw her this way. No, definitely not. Couldn't be.

She fell asleep as we laughed and drank wine on my couch, a baseball game played on the tv, her legs up against her chest as she crawled up on the corner. We talked, about nothing serious: pop music, candy, aeroplanes, Australia; and we laughed throughout the night, finishing the bottle.

Luna was a great girl. She wasn't only gorgeous, with a slim body and beautiful smile, but she was also interesting underneath the front she put on. A girl that preferred caramel popcorn over butter, sour skittles over regular. And although we talked so carelessly for hours, I could see the guard she kept up, looking away when our eyes locked, hiding a smile whenever I complemented her.

I woke up with the sound of my alarm going off, my first instinct was to groan and shut it down, and next I sat up searching for her. Her smell was on the pillows next to me but her body wasn't there anymore. I got up fast enough to make myself dizzy and walked quickly to the living room. I let go a sigh when I found her there.

"Good morning, stud." Her voice was raspy.

Luna stood tall by the window, the sun shined on Los Angeles behind her, her clothes now a little wrinkled, her hair a little messy pushed behind her ear and a cigarette she place back in between her lips.

"Early bird, aren't you?"

"Not really, you're just quite the snorer."

"Touché." I walked up to her and she leaned on the window, a smirk on her face as I got close. "About last night..."

"It's okay. I already ordered an uber, it should be here in about five minutes." She took another puff.

"No. That's not what I was going to say." Her eyebrows raised in curiosity. "I like hanging out with you, Luna."

"Harry, it's too early for this conversation." She let out a laugh.

There she was again, with the barrier she put on in between us, and probably in between anyone she meets. Making herself excluded from the world, living in her own, alone.

"Alright." I said.

"Alright?"

"It's not that serious, Luna. You want to go, you can go. I'm not gonna beg for you again. That's all I've been doing since I met you and you love it."

"Oh I love it?" She stared at me, her blue eyes shinning under the light, that was it, the most fascinating girl I've met shutting me down once again. "So you think I love feeling the way I feel and turning down every person that seems to like me even the slightest? You think I do it because I love it?" She smiled sarcastically. "I don't love it, Harry. This is why I told you that we could never see each other again."

"Okay."

"I don't know what else you want me to say. I wish I could stay and I don't know why it's so hard for you to not see that. You're just like Paul."

"Who's Paul?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Luna..."

"I don't know if you've realized, but every time you've asked me to see you I did, and every time I tell myself it's the last, but then there you are again."

Her eyes were hollowed staring at me. I didn't want to let her go and I couldn't. That's how I felt every time I saw Luna: I couldn't let her go, I'd be an idiot to do so.

"Cancel the uber and come with me to Las Vegas."

"You're crazy."

"I want you. You. I don't care if we sit and drink wine and talk all night, or if you end up hating me and we fight, or if we just kiss the whole night. I want you to come with me. I like being with you and I know that you like being with me too."

"I don't have any clothes."

"So is that a yes?"

*******

Luna

I ran up the stairs making my way to the third floor. Ten minutes, ten minutes. The clock was almost ticking in my head. I opened the door and there was Amy, spread across the couch watching How I Met Your Mother and drinking coffee.

"Hello." I said, getting into my room quickly.

"Where the hell were you?! You said you'd be back!"

"Sorry." I threw a bag on my bed and ran my hands through my hair thinking about where to start. "I totally lost track of time, I feel asleep at Harry's." I could feel her watching me from the doorstep and I took my shirt off and replaced it with a clean one.

"As in his house?"

"Sure." I grabbed my hairbrush and a couple of underwear, throwing it all in the bag.

"And what are you doing now?"

"I'm going to Las Vegas." I pushed in my makeup bag and ran my hands through the hanging clothes in my closet, finding a black simple dress.

"What?! You're leaving?!"

"Just for the night, I'll be back tomorrow."

"Are you going with him?"

I stopped on my tracks. With him. I was once again dropping everything for Harry Styles, and my stomach tied into a knot just thinking about it.

"Yeah, he's doing a iHeart something and..." I took a deep breath. "Am I going crazy, Amy? Should I not go?"

"I just think you shouldn't mess with feelings. When you get back please take a second to think about yourself, Luna. I just... Worry about you."

"I know."

"And Harry is not Paul."

"I know."

"And I think you should go, and have fun. You love Vegas."