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  harry

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  "Mia, you've got to get back on the bus." I grumbled to the drunk girl in front of me. I was standing at the bottom of the bus steps with Mia in my arms. She had an iron grip on the doorway, making it impossible for us to get in. 

  "Take me back to the party!" Mia shouted. "I won't let go!" 

  "Mia, please." I begged her. "We're going to cause a scene. Please get in the bus." 

  "No." She said stubbornly. "He was making me another strawberry drink! Do you realize that you messed up my chances with him?"

  I glanced around to make sure that nobody was near. It was pitch black and the music from inside the party was still so loud that it shook the ground under my feet. The air was a bit nippy and there were mosquitoes swarming the light coming from the bus, but Mia still refused to go inside. 

  She was extremely intoxicated and didn't know what she was saying and all I wanted was to tell her what really was going on at the party and for her to not be upset at me. I knew if I had told her the truth it would break her heart, so I kept my mouth shut for now. Just do it Harry, you're going to have to tell her sometime. 

  "You don't want to be with a guy like him." I said calmly. 

  "Yes, I do." Mia slurred. "He told me he would take care of me." Just hearing her say that made me physically cringe- poor Mia thought that this man would protect her and treat her kindly, but I knew exactly what he meant when he told her he would take care of her and it was sickening. 

  "Not in the way you would have wanted him to, trust me." I sighed, running my fingers through my hair in frustration as Mia sat down on the bus stairs. I was afraid that someone from the party would come over to us, or worse- David. 

  "You don't know that." Mia challenged. "You don't know anything!" 

  "Please." I tried again. "Just get in the bus." 

  "No." Mia laughed. "I don't think I will!" 

  "For the love of God, get in that bus." 

  "I won't, because you ruined everything with David!"

  "Goddammit, Mia!" I shouted. "I watched him grab a pill and dump it into your drink when you weren't looking! He got you drunk, then he was going to drug you, then he was going to take advantage of you and leave you!"

  The air was completely silent. I bit my lip, instantly feeling extremely guilty for what I said to Mia. Her face paled and she looked at me for a few brief moments, the tears building up in her eyes. It killed me to see her so worked up, but she deserved to know the truth. I just felt so bad about it all that I wished I wouldn't have said anything in the first place, but then again, I knew that it had to be told to her at some point.

  "W-what?" Mia whispered. "He was going to drug me?" 

  "I was in the bathroom." I said in a quieter voice. "I saw you two making out on his bed and watched him grab the pill when you were gone. I followed him downstairs and watched him pour it into your drink, Mia. The date rape drug. He was going to rape you." 

  Mia's shoulders dropped instantly. The pained look on her face was absolutely heartbreaking. I felt so bad about all of it- if I hadn't taken her to the shitty party and taken the stupid phone call, none of it would have happened in the first place. I felt like I was the one to blame because I felt like it was my duty to keep her safe. 

  "Let's get you inside." 

  "Okay." Mia sighed. 

  I helped her up the stairs and closed the door behind us. Mia didn't say a word as she plopped down on the couch and took her shoes off. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and I just wanted to go over and comfort her, but then she started to pull her dress off. My eyes bulged and I quickly diverted them to something else. 

  "I'm going to drive us to a camp ground, it's not so far away." I said in a soft voice. "I'll go grab you some blankets and get you comfy in the passenger seat." 

  A few moments later, I was preparing Mia a small bed in the passenger seat. I walked back to the couch where Mia was sat, grabbed her hand, and lead her to the front of the bus. If someone would have told me a week ago that I would one day be tucking a nineteen year old girl into bed I would have laughed, but now here I was. Mia was still crying lightly and didn't say anything. 

  "It's about a half hour drive." I said once we had gotten off of David's street. "If you fall asleep up here I can take you back to my bed when we get there, if you're comfortable with that." 

  Mia still said nothing. Her silence drove me crazy in wondering exactly what was going on in that head of hers that I couldn't know about. I glanced over at her and tucked a strand of hair that had fallen out of her face behind her ear. Her eyes were puffy from her crying and it made me want to cry, too. 

  "Why are men so awful to me?" Mia whispered after a while. "Every person I've dated or had a thing with or even just messed around with treat me like shit."

  "That isn't your fault." I reassured her. "You didn't do anything wrong."

  "I know." She mumbled.

  "I'm serious, Mia." 

  "I know." She mumbled again. Her words were still extremely slurred- the hangover she would get would be terrible in the morning. "Even Matthew was bad to me and he was getting paid." 

  I frowned. 

  "Paid?" I asked. 

  "Dunno what I'm saying. I'm drunk." She giggled. "Can I tell you something?" 

  "Sure." 

  "I always thought you looked like Tarzan." She blurted. "Just because of your long hair. It's not a bad thing, I love your hair. It looks fun to play with. I think I could French braid it well. Would you let me French braid your hair?"

  "Of course." I chuckled. "But for now I think you should get to sleep."

  A groan escaped Mia's lips. She squirmed around in her seat and reclined it the whole way back so that it was nearly flat. It was hard to see her through the darkness of the night, but even her silhouette was pretty. It was basically a boy's dream to be stuck on a road trip with an attractive girl, and here I was living it. It had only been a few days, though, and I had learned that Mia Roden was much more than the appealing daughter of the owner of Roden Industries- she was someone that I was glad to be a friend of. 

  "Harry?" Mia yawned. 

  "Yes?" 

  "Thank you for saving me tonight." She said in a tiny voice.

  "Anytime." 

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  mia

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  I woke up in the morning with a slight headache. My body was stiff all over and when I opened my eyes they immediately shut from the sunlight that poured in the room. When I finally had time to squint my eyes open and take in my surroundings, I almost screamed. 

  There I was, in Harry's bed, cuddling, with Harry. 

  Our legs were literally tangled together and my head had been in the crook of his arm. Trying to remember what happened last night, I checked to make sure that I still had clothes on and to my satisfaction I did. If we had had drunken sex on one of the first nights of our road trip it would have sure made the rest of our journey all the more awkward. 

    "Harry." I whispered as I rubbed my eyes. "Harry, wake up." 

  "Hm?" Harry groaned. "What time is it?" It took me a minute to regain my composure because his morning voice was actually incredibly attractive. He took my body and pulled me closer to him. I stayed frozen- unable to react. Oddly enough, it felt nice to be held like this. 

  "Oh shit, sorry!" Harry immediately sat up in the bed. "You asked me to lay with you last night and I think I fell asleep."

  "Harry, it's okay." I assured him. "It just scared me a little. I got a bit freaked out when I woke up next to you... I thought we had... you know, done something."

  "Oh, uh no we didn't do- like, anything like... you know..." Harry said. I glanced over to see his cheeks turning pink.

  "Is Harry Styles blushing?" I teased. 

  "No." Harry said. "It's just a bit warm in here." 

  "Are you sure?" I smirked. 

  "Positive. Oh and cute bra by the way." This time it was his turn to smirk. I looked down to see that I had put on a neon pink bra under a sheer white tank top last night whilst I was drunk. "Looks like it's your turn to blush now, Roden."

  "Stop!" I said, covering my heated face. "That's not funny." 

  "It's alright, pink is definitely your color." Harry teased.

  "Moving on." I chuckled nervously. "What is the plan for today? Are we staying at the beach for a bit longer?" 

  "I thought we could go to the boardwalk tonight." Harry grinned. "There are these really cool rides that I want to try and I also want to win you a prize." 

  "Win me a prize?" I laughed.

  "Of course!" Harry stated, as if it was obvious. "The guy is always supposed to win a prize for the girl, that's how it works. Even if you're just my road trip roommate." He pinched my cheeks as he sat up in the bed. He was weirdly touchy this morning, and to be honest, I didn't mind. 

  "Maybe we should go during the day when it's less busy." I suggested. "We could eat lunch there and walk around without people following us."

  "That sounds good." Harry murmured. "That way we won't get mobbed." 

  "Yeah, sorry about that. It's just that I'm so famous, people literally don't leave me alone." I said sarcastically. He grinned and poked me in the stomach playfully, causing me to squirm and burst out laughing. "Don't do that, I'm ticklish!" 

  "Ticklish?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "You have ten seconds to run, Roden." 

  "Run where?" I screeched. "We're in a bus!" 

  "That's unfortunate for you then!" Harry shouted, charging at me. I squealed and ducked past him into the kitchen, but I felt his arms grab me and literally tackle me to the ground as he tickled me. I was laughing so hard that catching my breath was literally impossible. 

  "Stop!" I laughed. "I can't breathe!"

  "Fine, I'm done." Harry laughed. I laid on the floor and caught my breath, holding onto my stomach. I looked up to see Harry laughing at me and I brought my leg up and tried to kick him but ended up completely missing. "Nice try."

  "Shut up." I laughed. "You literally just tackled me to the ground." 

  "Yeah, but in a nice way." Harry smirked. "All the love." 

  "Not again." I groaned. "That's literally like your catch phrase."

  "It's a very nice thing to say." Harry scoffed. "I have lots of love for lots of people and that's my way of showing it. And if that's my catch phrase then yours would probably be something like 'I hate healthy food and physical activity'."

  "True." I agreed. "You eat so much healthy food it's insane. Literally half of the fridge is stocked up with fresh kale."

  "Kale is very good for you." Harry informed me. "You should try it sometime."

  "Over my dead body." I laughed.

  "That can be arranged."

  "Harry!" I said, slapping his arm. "You're very violent today. First you tackle me to the ground, then you threaten to kill me? I'm a bit scared for my life right now."

  "I saved your life last night, though." He reminded me. I smiled up at him through my eyelashes, not wanting to make full-on eye contact. I was still embarrassed about how I treated Harry last night.

  "Thank you, by the way. I remember what you told me last night about the pill... if you weren't there in time I would have woken up and not known what had happened to me. Come to think of it, you're always coming around and saving the day. Are you sure you don't have any super powers?" 

  "If saving pretty girls from bad situations is one, I guess." Harry smirked. "Speaking of, last night you mentioned something about Matthew being paid. What the hell was that about?"

  "Oh." I said, trying to remain as calm as possible. My body felt hot and my heart immediately picked up as I tried to come up with an excuse that would sound believable. "Honestly, I have no clue. I'm, like, prone to saying weird stuff when I'm drunk." I tried to throw in a laugh to sound more convincing, but my voice ended up awkwardly cracking.

  "Oh." Harry nodded. "Makes sense. Hey, I'll go make us some breakfast and we can head to the boardwalk, okay?" He stood up from the floor and pulled me up with him. I hummed along in agreement, still a bit tense from the arranged marriage secret almost spilling out.

  Close call, Mia. You can't let that happen again.

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  a/n: poor mia

also harry is s'cute

pls VOTE, FAN, AND COMMENT! I WILL BE DEDICATING THIS CHAPTER TO A COMMENTER SO MAKE SURE TO COMMENT THINGS, ESPECIALLY INLINE COMMENTS. thx yall

  -delilah