*** EVERYONE GO LOOK AT THE BEAUTIFUL TRAILER MADE BY xBeautyRisesx BECAUSE I LOVE IT SO MUCH YOU GUYS AH OMG

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quick little note before the chapter:

  I know that this is purely a work of fiction, but stuff like forced marriages happen ALL THE TIME. It may not be happening particularly in your culture or where you live, but there are certainly places around the world where girls (sometimes 12 or even younger) are forced into marriages by their families (to men that are usually older than them by a lot, which is disgusting).

  One reason that I wanted to write this book was to make the public more aware about things like this. In the West Midlands and countries like India, forced marriages happen all the time and I think that it is so wrong. And I understand that this is just a fiction story and that it doesn't deal with things nearly as awful as that, but if I could just make one more person aware about those things that go on, I'm still making an impact.

  You're probably wondering "well what could I even do to help people who are victims of this if they live so far away"- there is SO much that you can do. There are many, many organizations out there to help victims of forced marriages and even by donating just a little bit you are helping out. You can also just share what it is to the community around you so that other people will take action as well.

  It may not be happening where you are, but it IS happening somewhere and you can help to make a difference.

  ALSO before I start the chapter: alcohol and drug abuse is in it so read with caution.

  Enjoy!

  -del

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harry

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  We had spent a few more hours on the beach. Mia went back to our spot and took a nap while I boogie boarded in the small waves until a crab bit my big toe. I hobbled back to our towels and gushed about it to Mia, who was half asleep, but responding to me nonetheless.  

  After my crab incident, we decided to call it a day and head back to the RV to get ready (although Mia just fell right back asleep on the couch and I had to wake her up again). I felt slightly nervous for David's party- I wasn't very into the party scene and I didn't want anything bad to happen when Mia was in my company. She had gone through too much in the past couple weeks.

  I buttoned up my red shirt as I looked at myself in my bedroom mirror. My hair had pretty much air dried and hung in loose waves just above my shoulders and I had to admit to myself, I looked pretty snazzy. 

  "Are you ready?" I called out to Mia, who was in the living room. The last thing I wanted to do was barge in the room while she was naked. 

  "Yeah, I'm good!" I heard her shout back. I opened the door to see her hobbling up and down as she tried to put on heels. She was wearing the dress that I had picked out for her and she looked so beautiful that I found it impossible not to just watch her. 

  "Heels are impossible." She huffed. "I give up, I'll go barefoot." 

  "Get yourself a pair of boots like mine." I suggested. "They're very comfortable."

  "I'll just wear flats, I don't even care anymore." Mia finally decided. I chuckled at her and made my way to the front of the bus. We had about a five minute drive to David's house and we were already late.

  A few moments after I had gotten the bus started up and pulled away from the beach, Mia joined me up front and sat in the passenger seat. I had to use my phone as a GPS because I didn't really know where I was going and Mia had practically no sense of direction (she had tried to navigate us on the way to New York and she held the map upside down.)

  "Did you steal my blouse?" She teased me. 

  "Hey!" I said defensively. "I'll have you know, Miss Roden, that this is a very manly shirt and that is no way to treat a man with an injured big toe." 

  "I'm sorry." She giggled. "I'm just kidding, that is a very manly shirt and I apologize to your big toe." 

  "Well he doesn't forgive you." I teased back as I made a left hand turn onto David's street. 

  "He?" Mia asked. "You're saying that your big toe is a boy?" 

  "Man." I corrected her, trying my best not to laugh. All the conversations that we seemed to have were always so senseless and stupid, but entertaining nonetheless. I thoroughly enjoyed having company on my road trip and having someone to just say whatever I wanted to say to.

  I parked the RV alongside of the road and took the keys out of the ignition. I had to admit, our giant bus definitely did not fit in well among the chic black cars that surrounded it. Mia trailed behind me as we approached the front door, the loud music from inside pouring out the windows.

  "Let'hope they don't play any One Direction at this thing." I joked. 

  "I'll be sure to make a request." Mia laughed lightly.

  We were just about to walk inside when I paused with my hand on the doorknob. Mia looked up at me for a brief second and I smiled down at her. 

  "You, uh, you look very pretty, by the way." I said bashfully. When I had played the words over in my head before I said them they sounded so smooth, but when I actually spoke it sounded rather awkward and I involuntarily blushed. 

  "Thank you." Mia beamed.

  "Remember, stick by me. I'll introduce you to some of my friends." I reminded her.

  Once we were inside, we made our way through the crowd. A few people said hello to me as expected and I introduced Mia to a few people as well. I introduced her as my "friend", mostly because introducing her as "the runaway bride that I sort of kind of brought along with me on a crazy road trip" didn't really sound great to people.

  "Harry, you made it!" I heard a voice say once we were by the bar. It was David, the host of the party, with a big grin on his face as he shook my hand in the way that men always did to each other. He then turned to Mia, who had a polite smile on her face. "And who is this?"

  "This is Mia." I shouted over the music. "She's a friend that I brought along, hope that's alright."

  "More than alright, trust me." David laughed loudly. "Pleasure to meet you, baby."

  I suddenly felt much like a third wheel and my big toe was still throbbing immensely from the crab that bit me. 

  David pulled her in for a quick and a bit awkward looking hug as she said hello to him quickly. I didn't really know him well enough to figure out how he operated around women, but it was no secret that he was flirting with Mia. You don't call someone "baby" just to be friendly (unless you were talking to an actual baby.) 

  David insisted that we come to the bar with him for drinks so we both followed suit. I saw Mia give me a look as he turned his back to us and I just shrugged in response. The bartender that David had hired for the night mixed the two of us some drinks and David left us alone to go talk to some more guests. 

  "That was weird." Mia said. I didn't respond as I took a sip of my drink. Having him openly flirt with the person I brought to the party made me angry. It made me wonder if he had any common sense at all. 

  "The last time we were at a bar together you thought my name was Susan and I was twenty five." Mia said.

  "And you had no clue what to order, either." I reminded her with a chuckle. "Have you ever even drank before then? You literally looked like you had never seen a drink before." 

  "I have." Mia nodded, taking a sip of her drink. "I've gone to high school and college parties, but you never really had options at those. You just kinda took a cup and drank it."

  "Sounds very safe." I mused.

  "Extremely." She said back, just as sarcastic as I had been. "And I used to steal wine from my dad's wine cellar. He'd never notice it, either. Sometimes I would drink a whole bottle by myself and just fall asleep on my bedroom floor." For some reason, this seemed incredibly sad to me, but I didn't say anything.

  "Are your parents worried about you?" I asked. She frowned and pointed to her ear and I sighed. It was impossible to hold a conversation in the middle of a party. The music was far too loud to hear anything else.

  "I wanna go dance!" Mia decided loudly. 

  "I hate dancing at parties." I huffed. 

  "I'll be right back, then!" She slid her drink beside mine and waved quickly before disappearing into the crowd of bodies. The lights moved all around the room and at times I could catch a glimpse of her hair or her hand in the air and I chuckled to myself. I envied her ability to be so carefree and jump into an unknown situation like that.

  "How's it going over here?" I heard a voice from beside me. I turned to see David, who sat in the seat that Mia was at only moments ago. 

  "Good, great party man." I said as I took a sip of my drink. 

  "Even better when you showed up with her." David laughed loudly. "There's so many hot girls here, it's unbelievable. How did you say you knew her?" 

  "We're friends." I said honestly. 

  David nodded and ordered himself a drink as I watched Mia dance with different people in the crowd. She didn't dance like the other girls who were desperately trying to grind against some boy, she jumped up and down and even twirled a man who was a whole foot taller than her.

  Suddenly, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I grabbed it and saw that it was someone from our management team and realized that it would be best to answer it. The boys had a meeting today and I assumed that one of our managers wanted to catch me up on it. I dismissed myself quickly upstairs and answered the phone in the bathroom in David's room, the place farthest away from noise.

  "Hello?" I answered.

  "Harry, how have you been? It's Scott." The voice on the other end said. Scott was one of our head managers and was the one who helped us come up with the look for our shows and our set lists and stuff like that. 

  "I'm good." I said.

  As Scott began to drone on and on about how the meeting went with the other boys, I realized that this was going to be a long conversation. I didn't want to be rude and tell him it was a bad time, so I put the lid down on the toilet seat, sat down, and prepared myself for a long discussion. In the back of my mind, I thought of Mia and hoped that she wasn't looking for me and that she kept out of trouble.

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  "Alright, Scott, I'll talk to you soon. Okay. Alright. Bye." I hung up the phone with a sigh. The last thing that I had wanted to do at this party was take a half an hour call about promotional events in the hosts' bathroom, on the hosts' toilet, but here I was. 

  I stood up and fixed my hair in the bathroom mirror before deciding to head out. My only concern was for Mia and I felt like an awful friend for basically deserting her at the party. I began to open the door to leave when suddenly I saw something that made my eyes nearly bug out of their sockets.

  In David's room, on David's bed, was Mia and David. They were making out quite a bit and neither of them saw the bathroom door crack open or the horrified expression on my face. Out of all the things that I didn't see coming, this definitely topped the list.

  "We should go back downstairs." Mia slurred.

  "Are you sure? We can just chill up here for a while, if you want." David offered. My hands clenched so hard that I could feel all the blood rushing to them.

  "No, Harry's probably wondering where I am." Mia giggled. "Can you make me one of those drinks again, please? The one that tastes like strawberries?" 

  "Sure." David said. "Hey, uh, you head down a while and I'll catch you in a sec. I gotta grab something quick." 

  I froze and prayed that he didn't come in the bathroom. I glanced all around the large bathroom for a hiding spot and decided that, if it came down to it, I would hide in his dirty laundry hamper. That was the only possible solution of a hiding place that I could think of. I couldn't believe that I was that desperate that I would hide among David's dirty underwear, but I was. 

  I watched Mia as she stumbled drunkenly out of the bedroom and David turn back to his bed. He walked over to his side table and grabbed a packet of pills. He got one and slipped it into his pocket before closing his drawer again and leaving the room. 

  I felt like I was going to throw up.

  Immediately, I burst out of the bathroom. I made no hesitation to open the drawer he got the pill from and found a bottle of Zolpidem. There were warnings all over the bottle, cautionary things about a "date rape drug", and I felt like I could have threw up all over his floor. He was going to drug Mia.

  Within thirty seconds, I was downstairs at the scene of the party. My eyes scanned the crowd frantically for any signs of Mia or David and I even began to call Mia's name through the crowd, earning some looks from strangers that weren't very kind. My heart felt like it was beating a million miles a minute as I thought of all the possible things that could happen to Mia.

  Suddenly, I spotted them. They were back at the bar and David was mixing up her drink. Her back was turned to the crowd and she was looking all around- most likely for me, I figured. I watched as he finished up her drink and then subtly poured the contents of the pill into her drink.

  "No!" I shouted. 

  I ran through the crowd until I reached Mia and David. Mia was literally a drunken mess, whereas David seemed completely sober. He smiled up at me and I didn't hesitate to take Mia's drink and dump it over his head. 

  "You try something like that again and I swear I'll kill you." I warned him, my voice filled with venom.

  "Please." David scoffed. "Harry Styles wouldn't hurt a fly."

  "That's right." I fired back. "Because flies help the decomposition in the environment. But you are just a prick who needs to drugs girls in order to get one. So yes, I will hurt you."

  And with that I punched him square in the nose. 

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  a/n:

  harry slayin mad hard in this chapter wowowow

  also wattpad isn't letting me bold or italic anything and idk why

  also ALSO some people were wondering if it was pronounced mee-ah or m-eye-a. it's pronounced mee-ah. if it was the other way i would have spelled it probably maya or mayah. sorry for the confusion!

  -del