Meet and Greet the Silent Readers

-Two Weeks Later-

Have you ever been stuck for a long while on the same spot, but you only realize when you start moving? Maybe someone taps your shoulder and you just blink and mumble an excuse and you start moving again. Have you ever been so deep into a hole, that only when you are out, you realize how deep it was? Have you ever been in a toxic relationship with someone, but you only realize how toxic they were when you back away from them, and you feel free.

The problem is that I am in a toxic relationship with myself, so it is so damn hard to escape. How can one escape oneself? Today, for some reason, it happened. That toxic side of me-the low self-esteem, the depression, the anxiety, the guilt, the grief, the pain-just backed off, and I am free at last. I used to think that only death could bring you this kind of freedom, but it seems there is a way out after all. It feels like, for the first time in ages, I have been pulled out of a very deep, dark, horrible place. It feels like a lace has been loosened from around my throat, and a weight has been lifted from my chest. It feels like clean air in the most polluted city in the world. It feels like chocolate ice cream after the longest of diets. It feels like a family meeting, after months of lockdown. It feels like happiness.

I just wish I could live like this forever -feeling free and light.

I walk into this crowded auditorium and I feel feather-light. It's easy to talk, to touch, to feel...everything is easier.

"Oh my God, oh my God, I'm so excited!" Tessa reaches out to me, squealing like crazy. She puts her arm around me and pulls me into a small, tight hug as we all continue walking. I bring Dawn closer to us and make her part of the hug. My eyes look back when Hardin huffs a loud puff of air, his eyes rolling up to the ceiling.

"Oh come on, Hardin!" Tessa reprimands him, bringing him into our group hug as we walk.

"Yeah, your moody self stands out in the crowd," I tell him craning my neck above the crowd to get a better view of the stage. My eyes squint when colorful lights flicker on and off as we keep walking.

"You want me to be squealing like all of you girls?" he clicks his tongue. "I don't even know what we are doing here." He takes a step away from us, detaching himself from our group hug. Then, he puts his black hood on, hiding almost half of his face.

"We are fulfilling Tessa's wish to meet a decent version of yourself, remember?" I raise my eyebrows and give him a deep nod of my head. Someone bumps into me and I flinch. I fix my clothes around me, and look back, annoyed at this random person.

"That cannot be that hard to find," Hardin growls. "We didn't need to come to his concert to find someone better than me. We could have just gone across the bloody street."

His words make me laugh, like, genuinely. "Hardin, please don't say that. You have changed so much."

I can see his eye twinkling with appreciation, even behind his hood.

"But I thought someone wrote this for you in that Wattpad publication..." Dawn reminds us.

"Yeah, they did, I met him... It's just that this is different...it feels more real..." Tessa says while biting her thumbnail.

"Because it is outside fiction, Tess, this is real, we are in an actual Harry Styles concert," I explain to her and her smile doesn't fit in her small face.

"I can't believe we are here-with Tessa and Hardin," Dawn adds. I couldn't not tell her. She helped me so much with the Wattpad publication.

"I can't believe you would bring us here," Tessa utters.

"Yeah, Dean is corrupting you, Sun. I would never have taken you for the kind of girl who breaks into forbidden places," Hardin interjects, his hands are shoved deep into his dark, tight jeans.

I give him an annoyed, side look and ignore his words. "How could I not bring you, Tessa? This is epic, I'm in a Harry Styles concert with Tessa and Hardin, I'm living a dream!" I beam at them. In fact, my face aches from smiling so much right now.

"Oh come on," Tessa pulls at his arm and then clings to it. Dawn and I continue walking together. "Let's just dance and have fun..." Tessa trails off. Hardin stops in his tracks, so I also stop walking and look back at them. He pulls her against his chest and fixes his hooded, emerald eyes on hers. Her delicate arms go around his neck. He leans down towards her, and his lips meet with hers. At first, their heads move slowly, but then everything intensifies, and he seems to be committed to finding a way into her throat.

I look away. Uhg. I am so single.

"Yuck!" Dawn covers her eyes and turns around dramatically. I laugh tipping my head back, and I realize that we have finally arrived at a good spot. We have a perfect view of the stage, while we are also at a corner where we can have privacy and the toilets are right around the corridor that is on our left.

"Excuse me, miss, is this boy with you?" A security guy asks Tessa and

"Oh God, Hardin, what have you done now?" I ask, dreading the answer. My heartbeat races as I think of what could be happening now.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" Tessa asks him. The guy peers over his dark sunglasses and x-rays Hardin from head to toes, and all the way up until he glares at him.

"No." His bald head gives us a small nod. "You have been requested in the meet and greet section," the guy says, pointing his thumb behind him.

What the-?

"Wait. Isn't that at the end of the concert?" I ask with a puzzled look.

"Are you coming or not?" The guy asks impatiently.

"Oh..." Tessa stammers, "oh-kay...but he is not going alone," she states, "we are all here together." She gestures us to join them.

"We can do that," the guy utters and we trail behind him. Dawn, Tessa and I clutch each other's hands and squeal manically. The guy turns to us and throws us a death glare.

We freeze and Hardin takes a side step distancing himself from us as if implying he didn't come with us. When the guy turns around again we squeal once more - for Hardin's sake.

We are finally behind the stage, in a small stall with a graffiti on the wall with the letters "TPWK".

"He will be here in a minute," the security guy states and leaves the four of us alone.

I swallow the lump in my throat as silence showers us all.

"This is how I die," Dawn blurts out with both of her hands on her heart.

"F*ck, is it girly to admit that I'm nervous?" Hardin chuckles.

"I'm not gonna judge," I say feeling a little bit nervous myself.

I'm about to say something else, but he walks in.

"Hello, I was told someone looking like me was in the audience, and I had to meet you."

"Holy crap," Dawn utters and I elbow her - all of our eyes fixed on Harry Styles, but no one moves.

"You seem to be in shock, but I am in shock to see you, I always wondered how I would look wearing a lip ring," he adds but still gets no response. "Oh, you have one in your eyebrow too!" Harry takes several steps closer to Hardin.

I look at Hardin and then at Tessa and they are both staring at Harry with their mouth agape.

"Hi," I interject offering my hand to him," I'm Sunset, these are my friends, Tessa and Hardin..."

I trail as my eyes flicker between them. Dawn clears her throat next to me.

"Oh," I look at her who is currently shooting daggers at me, "and this is Dawn, my sister," I smile politely and let go of his hand. Oh my God. I touched his ring.

"Hi," he says and hugs her.

F*cking hell my sister is going to die.

I cock my eyebrows when Harry looks pleadingly at me because Dawn has a death-grasp around his neck.

"Ok, Dawn..." I trail and shake her shoulder lightly. She finally lets go of him and I grin politely.

"Well," Harry starts, clapping his hands together. "What's your story?"

I snort making the weirdest noise. Oh my God, the irony of those words just killed me. "Sorry." I clear my throat.

"We are all friends," Tessa explains to him as they approach us.

"No- I- She, well, she is my girlfriend," Hardin stammers while placing a possessive arm around her waist and I smile at him -some things never change.

"The story is," I drawl the last word, "that we have seen several toxic guys slash relationships, and we wanted to show Tessa that some guys are not toxic, and somehow your concert came in handy for that," I conclude.

Harry is squinting his eyes at me as if he wouldn't understand my words- and I don't blame him.

"Ok, you are not toxic." I wave my hands in front of me, making gestures to make my explanation clearer. "But many people in certain virtual worlds like to think you are very toxic, but I know you are not toxic, do you see what I mean?" Someone shut me up.

"Can we just do a selfie?" Dawn interjects thanks to all the Gods above.

"Yes. Please." I smile and bring Dawn towards me.

We all gather around to do the selfie, squeezing to fit into the picture frame. Our arms go around each other's back and I'm very much aware that Harry's hand is pressed against my lower back.

Tessa's phone screen reflecting all of us and I wonder... Who is Lukah anyway? I laugh to myself.

Harry bluntly detaches himself from the group. "What are your names again?" he asks-a deep frown appears on his face.

"I'm Dawn," my sister says.

"I'm Sunset," I voice. Haven't I said this before?

"I'm Hardin."

"I'm Tessa. Can you get closer so that you are seen in the pictur-"

"Wait a second." Harry takes a further step back from us. His index finger flickers along the four of us. "You all seem to be out from a book with those names." A deep scowl draws on his face.

I roll my lips and chuckle. "That's funny, you... I... actually-"

"No, wait, for real," he stutters in that English accent of his. "Hardin and Tessa, as in that fanfiction about me, how could it be possible? How old are you? There's no fucking way..." he trails off, his fingers clutching his chin.

"Did you hear that fooking'?" Dawn pulls at my denim jacket and I shush her.

"Oh my God, okay." I take a step towards him detaching myself from the group. "Aside from the fact that you have just acknowledged that you know about After, and I need to shout this to the world but I can't right now; there's some explaining I should do but you may have noticed that I am not that good explaining stuff...and you need to promise me not to say anything... and please don't freak out..."

"You can trust me," he interjects, "I'm not like those assholes in those stories," Harry scoffs. "No offense," he mumbles addressing Hardin who has just clicked his tongue.

"None taken," Hardin quips rolling his eyes ever-so-slightly.

"Well, they..." I point my index finger at Tessa and Hardin, "...are the characters from this book called After and I took them out thanks to this special charm they have in this first edition of their book which I have in my bag. Every time I open their books, they just materialize. And we wanted to come here... basically, because we all wanted to see that you were different from...from..." I stutter because I really don't want to make Hardin feel bad, "from other toxic guys we know," I end up saying.

"So..." Harry points at Hardin, "you are Hardin Scott and you are Tessa Young." The wheels behind his eyes can be seen turning.

"In flesh and bones," Hardin jokes.

"Sort of..." Tessa adds crinkling her nose.

"Wait...So one of you has to be I_burn_stuff" Harry says and my heart just stopped beating.

"Wh- what?"

"There's this chick that posted a publication bringing changes to characters and stories, is this you?"

"I'm 'I_burn_stuff!" I state with the biggest smile stitched to my face.

"You have no idea what it means to me, my manager is always paying attention to the stuff written in Wattpad about me, and when he told me that this user was trying to make a statement about how characters should be treated better, especially when they are based on real-life people, I had to read it. We... I'm glad someone else is fighting stereotypes and in a world as dark as Wattpad. I'm really in awe." His emerald eyes fixate on mine and I have no idea how I am standing right now.

"Y- you read me?" I speak in slow motion.

"Well yeah but I-,"

"Wait," I take a step closer to him, "what's your user name?" I speak as I become overly aware of the intensity of his green eyes.

"I happen to be a silent reader," he adds winking an eye at me.

"Oh my God!" I choke. "Harry Styles, is my silent reader? I thought no one was reading me! I only have five readers!" I look at Hardin and Tessa in utter amazement.

"Well I am one of them!" he gestures at himself as he speaks. My arms fly around him without even caring to see if he was ready for my display of affection. My arms cling to his neck, the tips of my converse pulling me up to reach for him. Then, I feel his hands around the small of my back, pressing me against him. Both of his arms wrapping tightly around me. His touch feels like appreciation and kindness-but appreciation for what?

"What you did for those characters was amazing, you treated them with kindness," he whispers into my ear and shivers spark on my spine. Then, he grabs my shoulders and his eyes lock with mine. "I appreciate you drawing a line between Hardin and myself, that's the thing about fiction, some people build a character around a real name, and then it is hard to distinguish between the character and the real person. Not everyone is aware of the division line that exists between fiction and reality, you know?"

"Yeah I mean, your TPWK philosophy brought actual kindness into my life, I met people who are kind just because they love you, so I had to..."

"Thank you." He stresses the pronoun, clutching my fingers.

"Thank you, we all need to spread the message where we are...that's what you do as well. So, we all admire you so much."

"Though you were a douche to Taylor," Hardin blurts out and all of our eyes bulge out of our skulls.

"Hardin!" I yell at him and he just shrugs his shoulders.

"Well, in that case," Harry smiles, "I'm just glad we all have the chance to grow up and have a second chance."

"Awwww," all of us say in unison, except Hardin.

"In that you are right mate, we can all grow up and just be better than what we were," Hardin replies and they nod their heads to each other in acknowledgment and Harry offers him his hand and they shake them. My eyes flicker from Harry to Hardin and the other way around -this is so creepy

Forget everything that happened before. Harry Styles and Hardin Scott shaking hands-this is the definition of an epic moment.

"Let's get that selfie done, shall we?" Harry suggests and we all squeeze to fit into the camera's frame. Harry stands next to me placing his arm around my shoulder.

"Ready?" Tessa smiles at the camera.

"Cheese!" we all say and right when Tessa taps the screen. Harry turns and I feel his lips pressed against my cheek, then he lets them linger there for a second too long or maybe too short. I can't tell to be honest.

My eyes go big in amazement and my smile as wide as it can fit into my face, right after that, the clicking sound of the camera echoes in the room, and the moment is captured for eternity.

I may rest in peace now.