#taadaaaa

It also seemed that every year September and October just got more and more busy for me. After getting my promotion at work, I’ve found myself working long 10 hour shifts at the boutique. Then on my off days I’ve been helping my mother with her own things. It was rare for me to not having any plans on a Thursday afternoon; yet here I was driving home with nothing to do.

So in my head I began to plan. I planned to put on the kettle and make myself a much deserved cup of tea. Then I would snuggle into the couch with a blanket before diving into whatever TV show I could find. Or maybe I’d read a good book. I shrugged at the thought, reading would most likely be passed up by the telly.

I had noticed the light turn yellow ahead of me, the person ahead sped up while I was cautious to slow down. All of a sudden as I came to a stop my car jerked forward, causing a gasp to escape my lips. My hands tightened the wheel, utter shock rippling through me at the fact I had just been rear-ended.

"No fucking way," I muttered under my breath. Upon noticing my car rolling forward into the intersection, I hit the brakes and put my car into park. After a few deep breathes I peered up to my rear-view mirror and saw the other person rush to get out of their car.

It takes two to go through all the legal shit, so I followed suit and opened my car down. I barely had a chance to get my feet on the ground before I was approached by them.

"Holy shit, I'm so sorry," I looked up from where I still sat in my car and only saw the dark shadow of the person standing in front of me. I raised my hand to block the glaring sun, taking a better look at whom had crashed into my car. There was something familiar about the young man standing in front of me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

It also didn't take an idiot to tell how attractive the guy was. He had to be my age, maybe a year or two older, with brown messed up curls upon his head and a jawline he couldn't even hide in the shadows of the sun. I stood from my car, and at nearly eye level I noticed his were green. And that he was only a few inches taller than me, all things considered I was wearing heeled boots. But his looks were besides the point.

"Are you alright?" His voice was laced with worry as I began to rub my head. It was typical fender bender symptoms to get whip lash and some headaches. Even I, whom had never been in a car accident, knew that.

"I'll live," I answered with a nod.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to the road. This was completely my fault," he continued to ramble out his string of apologizes. I couldn't help to notice the lines between his eyebrows, set in place with the worried tone of voice to match. It was cute.

"Honestly, it's alright. Accidents happen," I said, being sure to keep my voice as calm as I could. There was no need for the both of us to be frantic.

"It looks like all the damage was to yours too, damn, I'm sorry," he apologized for the millionth time. I brushed my hair from my face and crossed my arms at my chest, more to keep myself warm than to come off annoyed. The bumper of my car was done, my car would have to be sent off to replace the entire back end of it. Only downside of having a new Audi, it’s not as easy as taking off some silver bump, hammering it down, and then sticking it back on.

“You have all your information with you?” I questioned, turning my head to look back at the still flustered young man.

“Uh, yeah, just let me grab it,” he sputtered out while rushing to open the drivers door of his car. It was older, probably as old as myself, but kept in fairly well condition. I had always liked the look of older trucks, and the country feel they gave.

As he grabbed his information I took my time finding mine. First going to the passengers side to open the glove department and finding my insurance papers, next searching for my wallet in the mess of my purse. Just as I had everything I needed in my hands, the sound of a car pulling up to a stop beside me caught my attention. Behind the drivers seat was none other than Mr Krats, my high school english teacher and a friend of my family.

“Are you doing alright there, Emily?” He asked, eyebrows pulled together while taking in the scene before him.

“All good, Mr K,” I said with a small salute. “Just your average fender bender,”

“Have you called your parents? Let them know you’ve been in a accident?”

“No, I haven’t got the chance yet but it’s nothing major,” I stated while jabbing my thumb behind me to where the crash wasn’t much to report of. Neither the police nor my parents were top priority in this moment.

“Alright then,” he seemed spectacle to leave the whole ordeal. When you’re the only child of such loved and popular people of the town, it’s not rare for others of the town to care for me. I’ve just gotten used to it over the years.

“I’ll see you around,” I said before turning my back to him. Mr Kratz got the clue and drove off. As I turned back around I was faced with the second party of the accident, nonchalantly leaning against his truck while looking down at the screen of his phone. He looked up as I took the few steps towards him, his eyes staring at me and my every move. It made my stomach twist up, like it had when Bradley Porter asked me to his Senior Prom when I was only a Sophomore.

“I really am sorry about all this,” he spoke slower now. It seemed his nerves had finally calmed from this all. “I’m sure you had better plans for your day than stand around with the idiot who ruined your car,”

“Not really, just some sweatpants and some reading,” I admitted before realizing I was even responding. I should have lied and said I had much bigger and better plans, I always did, but instead I found myself blabbering my mouth to this cute stranger in front of me. “And my car isn’t ruined, it’ll be like new again soon enough,” I noted with a shrug.

He tilted his head, then his eyes curled up to a nice smile. I swear his dimples could be seen from a mile away. “Good to know I haven’t tore you away from some hot date or anything,” he said with a smug look.

I snorted, rolling my eyes at his comment, before reaching for his information. We exchanged papers and pulled up the notes app on our phones to get down the things we needed.

“Harry Edward Styles,” I hummed his full name while typing it in my phone.

“Emily Marie Fletcher,” he copied my tone of voice. Pulling my eyebrows together, I glanced away from his license and couldn’t help the small smile at my lips. I also caught the smile on his face as well. The twist in my stomach went again as I caught sight of his dimples. Oh boy.

“You don’t live in town?” I questioned while reading over his basic information. Also, for the record, he was born the same year as me.

“I did, when I was a younger. Then I moved away sometime before I was fifteen, but now my step dad has some work out here for me and I’m back,” Harry explained the situation in short. My curiosity grew knowing he was from here, maybe we had some class together in secondary school or something? Or maybe we had passed by one another in the streets.

“Do you mind writing in your current address for me?” I asked while holding out my phone.

“Getting quite personal hey?” He teased, but typed in the numbers and letters of his address.

“You have mine too,” I countered back in defence.

“Chill, I was only joking,” he said with a smile.

I rolled my eyes, but still had that stupid smile on my face while grabbing back my phone upon him being finished and filling out the rest of what I needed. It seemed I was quicker at typing, so as Harry finished up getting down my bit of information I opened up my camera app and snapped photos of the accident.

“Been in a few of these before?” Harry asked, I had rounded the sidewalk and taken a different angle of what was left of my bumper. Keeping my gaze on my photos, I only shook my head and licked my drying lips. The temperature wasn’t on our side, a cloud had made it’s way in front of the sun and judging by its darkness it threatened us with rain as well.

“Never, actually,” I said.

“Well, sorry to break the streak you had going,”

“You apologize a lot,”

“Sorry?” Harry’s voice was higher, making the word out as more of a question. I turned my attention back to him, catching the ink peeking from his rolled up sleeves, but managed to quit my staring and raised an eyebrow at him. My response only caused a smile to appear on his face, again.

“Well, I think that’s about it,” I sighed while grabbing my information from where Harry had left it on the trunk of my car.

“So my people call yours?”

“Something like that,” I shrugged. I was becoming colder, my tolerance for standing around was shrinking. Harry nodded his head, then shot me a smirk.

“Well, if you ever wanna grab a drink, you know where to find me then,” he said and then had the audacity to wink as well. I chuckled at his attempt to hit on me, then settling for a slight eye roll.

“Clever,” I pointed at him. “Crash your truck into the girls car, get her name and address, kidnap her,” I listed off a joking theory. Harry only laughed in response, his eyes crinkling as he did.  “Goodbye, Harry,”

I opened my driver door, placing my hand on top of the door frame to bend down and sit on the leather seat. Only just as I began to move, Harry called out, “see you later then, I’ll be a gentleman and use the front door instead of the usual window escape,”

I didn’t bother to turn around and give him my amused look. A smile upon my lips and eyes full of amusement. A boy who could carry on my ridiculous jokes was one after my heart. If we were to ever bump into each other again, hopefully not literally, I was in trouble. Here I was, minding my own business and a cute green eyed dimple smiling idiot crashes into me. For both our sakes I hoped our paths did cross again. Because it was obvious I had quite the infatuation with the boy.

-&&&-

I tuned in and out of the one-sided conversation going on in the other room. With this being my first car accident, I had no clue how to go about the entire thing. I had held my ground at the accident, that was the easy part, but after arriving home and realizing my parents were away on their yearly annual vacation I blanked out. So I called the only person I could think of in the moment.

“Everything’s sorted,” Niall’s Irish accent broke my train of thought. I looked over as he made his way across the living room, taking a seat on the full sized couch parallel with the love seat I had taken over.

“Thanks again, Ni,” I smiled.

“No problem, just another notch on the ‘best cousin ever’ board,” he joked while making an imaginary tally in the air.

“Yeah it’s getting so full now,” I taunted and shook my head at him.

“Hey, I’m great,”

I mocked his accent, as per usual, and got a eye roll from him in return. It was funny having a cousin with a different accent than you whilst growing up. His mum is my dad’s sister, she ran off to Ireland for school or something and met my uncle. It was by chance that both my aunt and my mum got pregnant only months apart, I was older by two whole months and basked in it.

“Where are you parents this year, again?” Niall questioned.

“Bora Bora,” I replied while reaching for the TV remote. It had settled down beside my sleeping french bulldog. I had gotten her, Bentley, only two years ago now and I still absolutely adored her.

“Sucks you don’t go along,”

“It’s their anniversary sort of thing, plus I’ve been on plenty vacations,”

“Remember that time we all went to Disneyland-“

“And I puked on the dumbo ride,” I cut him off knowing exactly where the conversation was going. It was his running joke, and had him laughing at the old memory. “I also recall being like 7 years old and having heat stroke,” I stated in defence, just like every other time it got brought up.

“Regardless, it was hilarious,”

“Har har,” I mocked laughed before flipping the channel to the cooking channel.

“You’re so boring,” Niall suddenly groaned as I watched the show and snacked on the crackers I had grabbed awhile ago. I rolled my eyes and threw a cracker across the way, aiming for his head but missing completely.

“I was just in a car accident, I’m not really up for your usual shenanigans, Niall,” I stated.

“Fine,” he sighed before stretching out on the couch.

I was rather content with Bentley curled up at my legs and watching someone on MasterChef panic as their chicken didn’t cook properly. Honestly, this was a regular day thing. I had been watching the cooking channel since I was a kid. I recall one time when I was acting up my parents threatened to cancel the channel subscription for my punishment. I nearly cried, begging them not to.

“Well, I’ve gotta go now,” Niall exclaimed while sitting up and groaning out as his body stretched after an hour of laying around. I watched as he reached for his car keys and shoved them and his phone into his jean pocket. “Someone funner than you has finally asked for my presence,”

I didn’t even bother to correct his grammar. I thought by now that everyone knew the correct way was to say ‘more fun’ and that funner was indeed not a word.

“Who? Britney?” I asked. Niall smiled at the mention of my best friend since primary’s name was brought up, and his girlfriend too I suppose. The subject of my cousin and my best friend hooking up/dating wasn’t a pleasant one. It usually involved me gagging and asking to change the subject.

“Unfortunately not, just some lads,”  Niall smirked.

“Well, have fun with your lame friends then,”

“Have fun by your lame self,”

“Oh, got me there didn’t you?” I narrowed my eyes at him in a joking matter as he began his way out of the room.

“Don’t crash the Bentley!” He shouted on his way out, the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut followed. Upon Niall shouting her name, conveniently the same as the make of my fathers car, Bentley lifted up her head and stared off.

“Not you baby,” I cooed while rubbing her ear. She moved into my loving touch before settling back down and shutting her little eyes. My heart warmed as she was content again.