Cats, CD's and Harry

A Story by Aehr

Harry Styles fanfic

“Andy, we go get meow-meow?”

My two-and-a-half year old sister Kristy looked up to me with her huge, bright emerald eyes, and that effortless puppy-dog face, which made even stones melt. Our summer break was going on, and since it was little Kristy’s birthday and we were planning on getting a pet since a long time to inculcate in her the value of caring, and a sense of responsibility, we were getting a pet cat.

Now I’m going to be honest: I’ve never been a really huge fan of cats or kittens, or anything that purrs or meows. It’s not that I hate them or anything, but I just… don’t have any good memories including cats. The last time I met a cat was at my cousin Brad’s place, and I ended up getting scratched. On my forehead. The claws of that fuzz-bucket were as sharp as razors, and it took me a while to get those marks off. And that too after applying (or should I say rubbing/scrubbing) numerous amounts of cream on my forehead.

Coming back to that afternoon.

So we were getting a kitten. Kristy wanted a female, a white one preferably. She had already come up with two or three crazy names for her, which I didn’t remember. She liked cats, and even though till back then her lifetime consisted of only seven hundred and eighty eight days (yes, I counted), her experiences with cats went pretty well each time, though I secretly thought that the total cat population of the world was against me. Which for obvious reasons was (and still is) stupid and irrational.

“Two minutes, Kris. Then we go get meow-meow,” I replied to her, and motioned her to go to Mom as I continued brushing down my long hair hastily and vigorously. I towered it up into a floppy ponytail, and my hands almost worked robotically from practice.

“Andrea honey,” I heard my Mom call, as I looked in the mirror for one last time.

“Coming Mom,” I called back, running down the stairs.

Kittens are good, I thought, more like reassured myself, as I sat in the car beside Mom, and fastened my seat belt.

No matter how much I thought cats hated me, I loved the pet shop. The owner, Mrs Sally Thompson, was one of our neighbours a year ago, but then she shifted to the more quiet part of the city. She was one sweet cookie! She loved animals more than her own self. ‘You can’t trust a man, but you can trust a dog,’ was one of her common sayings. With animals, she almost seemed to look ageless. And that glow on her fair, wrinkled but smiling face outshined even those of youngsters.

“Hello Lin,” she smiled and greeted my Mom, who instantly began talking to her. Kristy ran around the desk for a little while, in hopes of finding the kitten she wanted, but then she gave up and started following me around, as I scanned through the cages.

There were kittens in there, all right. Brown, black, white " fuzzy little cute things snug and asleep in what seemed to be like divided clans. And some of them were awake, tripping over each other, drinking milk from one of the many bowls, and some basically trying to get my attention as I watched them.

“See Andy, I see Whitey,” Kristy finally said, pointing at one of the sleeping white ones, who was waking up from the noise and commotion. Whitey was one of the names she had come up with for the to-be pet, after the colour. I don’t know why she liked it, but I found it lame and super-obvious. For some reason, even Mom thought that it had a good ring to it, but she hadn’t said anything else about it.

“Yea. I see Whitey too,” I said, and sighed.

“Mommy, come!” she shouted to Mom and called her to the cage.

Mom did as she was told, obviously fearing the tears that would come trickling down Kristy’s eyes if she wouldn’t have listened. Her eyes widened at the beauty, and she began to talk to Kristy about it. Kristy actively and attentively answered Mom’s questions about the cat, which led to my boredom. So I went to the little counter at which Mrs Thompson stood, and decided to talk to her to pass my time.

“So Mrs Thompson, how’s Grace doing?” I asked, beaming. Grace was Mrs Thompson’s granddaughter who was suffering from diabetes. She was a really good friend of mine and I used to spend most of my summer playing with her since she came during the vacations.

“Oh she’s doing okay. She’s spending most of her time on the book she’s writing. I’m so happy for her!” exclaimed the old lady flashing a genuine smile.

“Oh that’s great!” I replied with another beam.

I was just going to ask her something about her neighbourhood, when I heard the bell ring and a guy enter the shop. I turned around to see him, and well… I ended up staring.

He had the most beautiful emerald green eyes ever that took my breath away the moment I saw them. His hair was brown, longer than most boys, and incredibly curly. He was in a casual brown tee which said ‘1998’ and dark blue jeans.

“Morning Mrs Thompson,” he said and smiled cheekily. I forced my gaze back to the old lady, not wanting the boy to know that I was staring at him.

“Oh hello, Harry!” she greeted him and beckoned him to come to the counter.

He walked to the counter and accidentally bumped into me. He mouthed the word ‘Sorry’ and I nodded and smiled. His lemony cologne was super intoxicating.

Stop it Andrea! I thought to myself and forced my gaze to the shelf behind Mrs Thompson.

“Yeah, I’m out of cat food ,” Harry said, gesturing with his empty hands.

Mrs Thompson thought for a moment, looking at the ceiling, and then said, “There’s a new box there… I’ll be back in a moment”

With that, she left, leaving me to deal with the crush-at-first-sight alone, by myself.

We just stood there, looking everywhere but each other’s faces. At one occasion when our eyes did meet, we just simple smiled at each other and turned away. When it happened the second time, Harry chuckled, surprising me a little, and held out his hand.

“Harry. I’m Harry Styles,” he said.

“Andrea London. Nice to meet you,” I replied with a smile.

“Likewise,” he said, and continued, “So you’re from… around?”

I chuckled, “Yeah I live a little far ahead. What about you?”

“Next house”

“Oh”

“You have a pet?”

“Nahh… I’ve come here to get one, actually. A cat,” I replied pointing towards Mom and Kristy. He turned to look at them, and then came back to me. Before he could say anything, I continued, “Kristy wants to call her Whitey”

He laughed at the name, and I could tell that he was about to say something, but Mrs Thompson came in, cutting him off in the process.

To be honest, at that point in time I wanted to exchange numbers with him, take a photo and save it on my phone. There was this weird air that swirled around him and made me want to know him more. Maybe even go out for a stroll down the street, or maybe on a dinner date with him even. His voice was so deep and beautiful, it made me melt.

But then Mrs Thompson kept the can of cat food on the counter, and the noise made me snap back to reality just in time.

“I see you met Harry,” Mrs Thompson said directly to me, and I nodded after giving her a short smile.

Harry smiled, murmured something to himself, and then handed Mrs Thompson the sum of money in exchange for the can. He shook hands with me again and said, “It was nice to meet you, Andrea”

“Same here. Bye,” I said, and watched him go.

“Cute, isn’t he?” Mrs Thompson asked me as she put her hands on the counter.

“Totally. So crushable,” I replied, giggling.

Well, the rest of the day passed in a blur. We brought Whitey home alright, and she seemed to be on good terms with me because I wasn’t rewarded with scratches on holding her and playing with her.

Harry and I also met once at a local CD store. He was looking for ‘Elvis Presley’s Greatest Hits’, while I was just checking out the new Jonas Brothers’ album. We didn’t chat all that much but we sure did say ‘Hi’ and asked each other about what albums we were looking for.

Oh I did have a crush on him. Quite a huge one. And after we met at the CD shop, I promised myself that if I ever met him again, I’d exchange numbers, and text him. And to be honest, I was pretty sure about meeting him again.

But, I didn’t.

And now here I am, four years later.

There’s nothing but screaming teenage girls around me wearing makeup and holding up banners. There’s loud instruments playing and there are five teenage boys up on stage singing one of my favourite songs called ‘Back for You’.

And yeah, the curly haired cutie Harry’s up there too singing his part.

Who knew that my crush-on-first-sight would turn out to be one of the members of the biggest boy bands on planet Earth? Now I’m in his concert, watching him do his thing. And he still manages to make my heart flutter. The effect has only increased, and that too in the best way possible.

As the song comes to an end, the instruments stop playing, and everyone around me starts screaming and clapping.

“Thank you! You guys are the most incredible fans ever!” Liam screams into the mike, making the smile on my face widen into a grin. The boys are thanking us and moving around the stage, waving to the fans and basically making us feel special.

And then, Harry looks at me.

His expression suddenly changes, and a flirty smile makes its way to his lips. He comes closer, and mouths the word ‘Whitey’ and waves at me. I giggle endlessly, and wave back. I bite my lower lip, tuck a strand of my open hair behind my ear and stare at the ground, suddenly feeling conscious.

“A massive shout-out to my friend Andrea London!” shouts Harry into the mike, causing me to look up.

OMG Andrea, I thought to myself, Best day ever!