You get me dizzy

Chapter 2

When Harry Styles woke up on that Friday morning, the first thing he did was to make sure that the guy he spent last night with was gone from his hotel room. There’s a note on the bedside table with a phone number and a ‘call me’ under it.

He leaves it there and goes to take a quick shower before he has to leave for the press conference at 3pm.

A car is there to pick him up half an hour later, after he made sure he instagrammed a photo of the view from his hotel room, looking over the golf course right next to the festival, tagging it with the proper location.

The press conference goes as it usually does, questions about what he’s expecting from the festival, which song he looks forward to performing the most, and if he’s got any groupies in the crowd. He shakes his head at that question, because it’s one of the most frequently asked questions and interviewers never learn. Everyone expects him to have groupies, what with being an ‘indie rockstar’ and all, and even though that might be true, it’s not something he wants the whole world to know.

He arrives at the festival together with Levi, his best friend and also one of his producers, around 4pm, and they manage to sneak in through the VIP entrance without being spotted by any fans.

Harry gets himself a Rum and Coke from the open bar and goes to say hi to everyone he already knows in the VIP area, as he usually does, losing Levi along the way. He catches the eye of someone by the bar, one of the prettiest guys he’s ever seen in his life. He’s got black hair and tattoos, and he’s smiling at his friend in the green jacket.

Someone tugging at his shirt, asking for a photo, interrupts Harry’s train of thought, so he looks away, ready to engage in some conversation with his fans. He texts Levi ten minutes later, after he just finished a conversation with a group of fans.

Where are you?

The text doesn’t come as soon as he’d like, and there’s someone nudging his ankles, so he turns around. There’s a guy standing there, and scratch that. This is the most beautiful guy Harry’s ever seen. He’s shorter than Harry and looks very annoyed.

Blue.

“You’re in my way.” The guy tells him and even though he’s irritated, he’s got one of the softest voices Harry’s ever heard.

After exchanging snarky remarks and comments, the guy leaves Harry completely intrigued because (1) the guy had no shame to voice his thoughts and (2) because he didn’t even know who Harry is, which is extremely refreshing.

He smirks when he sees that the guy just sat down with Levi and Noah, another one of his oldest friends.

This should be fun.

***

Alan Walker finishes just in time for Leo, Noah and Zayn to get to the Coachella Stage before 7:30pm, and Leo is pumped up. And maybe a little past tipsy. Okay, way past tipsy, but not entirely drunk. His speech is just a bit slurred. The sun has already started to go down and it’s getting a bit chilly, but Leo can’t even feel it.

There’s one more performance before Imagine Dragons come on stage, and Leo had no idea people would be this excited to see them, seeing as they made it just in time to get a good view of the stage. They’re on the left side of the stage, three rows of people away from the front row, and looking behind him, Leo can see that a giant mass of people have gathered behind them, so many people that he can’t even see where the crowd ends.

“Whoa, big crowd.” Leo observes and looks down at his beer. Thank God he was wise enough to go to the bathroom and get some beer before, because there’s no way he’ll get out of this crowd until the show ends.

“Yeah, people are really excited to see him. That’s why he’s got two shows this weekend. Friday passes sold out almost instantly so they put him on Sunday as well. Sold out. Next weekend too.” Noah tells him and Leo makes a face.

“Who are you talking about?” Leo asks and turns with his back to the stage.

Noah laughs, not answering, and Zayn shakes his head, telling him to pay attention.

The lights go out at exactly 7:45pm and everyone screams, bursting Leo’ eardrums. Girls are starting to surface from the crowd as they’re lifted on shoulders and a lot of banners are put up.

Leo turns to face the dark stage, only lit by two words in fluorescent blue. Harry Styles, it reads, with an anchor in the middle. Leo’ mind drifts to that girl he was chatting to yesterday, and how she must be somewhere in the crowd right now.

The screens light up then, and there’s an animation of two hands with rings on them playing with a Rubik’s cube. It ends after a couple of minutes, and the whole thing does black again.

There’s silence. Then an electric guitar chord rings through the speakers and everyone screams again.

“She worked her way through a cheap pack of cigarettes!” a raspy voice screams, and everyone loses their s**t even more. Leo makes a face and takes a sip from his beer.

The beat is cut out, and then light engulfs the stage. There’s a dark silhouette standing in the middle with a smoky background, holding an electric guitar.

“Good evening Coachellaaaa!” the guy screams, deafening Leo for eternity.

The lights shift to reveal him, finally. He’s wearing checkered trousers and a white blouse rolled up to his sleeves, hair pulled back and curls fanning his face and-

“Hold on a second.” Leo says, mouth falling open as he turns to look at Noah. “Is that-“

Noah laughs. “Yeah.”

“Shit.”

So Leo might’ve trash-talked the most important act of the festival just hours prior. That still doesn’t mean Harry Styles isn’t an asshole though. Who would’ve thought that the flamingo dude is actually an ‘indie rockstar’ (as the girl put it last night), filling out giant venues? Leo definitely wouldn’t have, not in a million years.

“How’s everyone feeling tonight?” Harry asks, looking through the crowd, who goes crazy at his words.

Leo looks up at the screen to his left, where Harry’s face is displayed in hd.

“I see some signs there, but I’m going to get to that later.” Harry says into the microphone and laughs, earning yet another round of screams.

His band starts with a beat and Harry makes sure to start walking to the other side of the stage, blowing kisses to everyone until he gets to Leo’ side. He doesn’t spot them because he’s looking into the crowd before he goes back to the mic stand and grips into the guitar around his neck.

“Coachella are you reeaaaadyy?” he screams, closing his eyes.

He waits for everyone’s screams to die down and signs over to the band. The same chords as before come through the speakers and he repeats the first line he sung about a cheap pack of cigarettes.

And the crowd goes wild, singing along to every single word.

Leo watches the screen, not really sure if he should be laughing about the fact that this guy got on his nerves just a few hours ago or about the fact that he’s singing about a girl who told him she thinks she’s having his baby.

He sings three more songs Leo isn’t really paying attention to, even though he hates to admit the fact that they’ve got a good beat and his voice is…wow.

At one point during his fifth or sixth song, Leo starts jumping along with Noah and inevitably spilling beer over the people in front of him, which earns him dirty looks.

The music stops and the crowd dies down, which means that Leo also stops jumping around and looks up at the screen.

Harry wipes his face with the back of his hand and smirks as he looks into the crowd, sending everyone into a frenzy.

Okay, he doesn’t look that bad, but still. He’s an asshole. And half of the people here probably don’t even know it.

“Are you having fun?” Harry asks and removes the mic from the stand before he grabs the wire and starts walking towards the edge of the stage. The crowd cheers as a reply to his question.

“There’s a couple in the crowd there who’s been making out since my first song. How are you guys doing?” Harry asks, pointing down at someone in the middle. He leans over as he listens. “You’re good? Are you enjoying the show? I’m glad.”

He looks through the crowd again and points at something. “Can I just read you this sign? I’ve seen it since I came on stage. It says ‘Harry, praying isn’t the only thing I do on my knees’.”

Laughter erupts around Leo, who shakes his head.

“May I ask, what else are you doing on your knees?”

Leo’ phone rings then, and he turns his head away from the stage. It’s Charlotte.

“What?” he yells into the phone so she can hear him and places a finger against his other ear, accidentally spilling a little bit of beer on himself.

“I saw you on the livestream!” she yells back and Leo looks around until he finds the cameraman.

“And?”

“And you’re drunk as f**k!”

Leo laughs as he listens to her talking about how jealous she is that she’s not there.

“I’m sorry, I have to stop the show, someone’s on their phone.” Leo hears and his head snaps up towards the screen to see Harry looking at someone off stage. Then he turns to look at Harry, who, dear God, is looking right at him with a smirk on his face.

“LEO OH MY GOD!” Lottie screams into the phone.

Harry crouches down at the edge of the stage, right in Leo’ line of vision. “What’s your name?” comes through the speakers and Leo is on the big screen now. Even though he’s not looking at it, he can tell with the corner of his eye. He rolls his eyes and flips Harry off, who laughs at that.

“Who are you calling?” Harry asks and everyone in front of Leo turns to look at him. (Noah’s dying again.)

“My sister!” Leo yells.

“Your sister? What is she saying?” Harry continues and Leo has to take the phone away from his ear because Lottie is hyperventilating now.

“None of your business!” Leo screams back and Harry laughs. The girls in front of Leo look at him open-mouthed.

“What’s her name? Is she watching?”

Leo nods.

“What’s her name?” Harry repeats the question.

“Lottie.” He says and repeats it again, louder this time, when Harry makes a confused face.

“Lorry?” Leo shakes his head. “Lottie?” Leo nods.

“Well then.” Harry smirks and licks his lips before he stands back up and looks into the crowd. “Give it up for Lottie!”

‘Call ended’ flashes on the screen as the crowd roars and Harry walks back to the mic stand.

“This is one of my favorite songs to perform.” Harry says and strums on his guitar. “Sing along if you want.”

What an asshole, Leo thinks as the girls turn back around to face the stage.

It’s a slow song, and Harry starts it with a raspy “Just stop your crying it’s a sign of the times.”

Leo knows this song. He’s heard it on the radio a hundred times while he was at work, so he mouths along to the song.

The whole festival sings along, and during the chorus, when Harry stops singing to hear everyone instead, Leo gets goosebumps. Harry looks at him then, catching his eye as the crowd sings, and Leo makes a face at him, which earns him a smile. The screen shows it all, and that’s when Leo notices the dimples.

“For f**k’s sake.” He mutters under his breath as he lights up a cigarette.

Harry sings two more songs after that and waits for the crowd to quiet down so he can announce his last song.

“My time is running up now, but we have time for one more song.” He pauses and grips into the mic stand before he picks it up and moves it further to the left side of the stage, closer to where Leo is. He takes the guitar from around his neck and walks to put it down before he comes back. “Now, this song doesn’t have a studio version, but I’m sure you can sing along.”

He winks into the camera, causing a massive meltdown, and then points over to the drummer. The music starts and Harry smiles into the microphone. “This song is called Medicine.”

Everyone screams, including Noah and Zayn, who Leo seems to have completely forgotten were even there. Harry visibly cracks his knuckles and his neck before he does a little dance and then grips into the microphone.

“Here to take my medicine, take my medicine, treat you like a gentleman.” Harry sings and okay, he just looked at Leo. The girls in front of him seem to think that he looked at them, because they jump even higher and scream the lyrics even louder.

The song continues and Leo actually pays attention to the lyrics because they’re f*****g obscene.

“I’ve had a few, got drunk on you, and now I’m wasteeed.” Harry sings and f*****g grinds against the mic stand, and now that image is embedded in Leo’ brain forever. “And when I sleep I’m gonna dream of how you…”

“TAS! TED!” everyone screams before they go off.

The song is clearly about s*x and Leo actually loves it. Might be his favorite one yet.

At one point close to the end of the song when the instrumental plays, Harry drops to his knees and sticks his tongue out while moving his head, and the fact that everything is displayed on the big screen isn’t doing Leo’ ears any good.

“If you go out tonight, I’m going out ‘cause I know you’re persuasiiive.” Harry sings and then lets the crowd do the singing as he stands up. “We’re getting dizzy, oh, getting dizzy, oh…”

Leo watches him on stage, dancing like he doesn’t give a f**k about anything, and by the time the song is finished, he’s staring out into the crowd with a content smile on his face, sweat dripping down his temples that have his hair stuck to them.

Harry looks at Leo then, licking the corners of his mouth.

“Coachella, you were amazing!” Harry screams, taking a bow. “See you on Sunday!”

Then the lights go off and it’s over.

Leo turns to Noah, who’s already smiling like he knows something Leo doesn’t.

“Are you serious.” Leo says and then looks over Noah’s shoulder to see that a lot of people are scattering now.

“You flipped him off on screen. What a legend.” Noah laughs, throwing his head back.

The beer in Leo’ hand has gone stale now, so he makes a face as he drinks it all.

“I’m going to see Harry backstage now. You want to come?” Noah asks the two of them.

Leo shakes his head. “I came here for Imagine Dragons, so. No.”

Zayn tells Noah that they don’t even have backstage passes anyway, so Noah promises they’ll meet up after their show for some drinks, before he disappears into the crowd.

The girls in front of Leo leave as well, and soon enough he’s against the barrier in the front row, smiling at Zayn.

“Did you know he was an artist?” Leo asks him.

“Yeah. I know who Harry Styles is.”

“Of course you do, you’re an indie fan.”

“He’s not…not entirely indie.” Zayn argues. “But everyone knows him, I mean, he’s Harry Styles.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Because you only listen to EDM. And bands.”

Leo shrugs and asks the security guard in front of him for some water. The number of guards has been cut down to half compared to what it was during Harry’s performance.

Imagine Dragons start playing at 9pm sharp and Leo films everything he can while he tries to live in the moment as well. During Rise Up, he spots Harry, Levi and Noah coming out from the side of the stage to watch it as well, and the people next to him freak out when they see him, motioning for him to come over and take photos.

Harry spots Leo from where he’s filming the show up-close and smiles, before pocketing his phone and walking over. He’s got sunglasses on, even though it’s dark outside, and the people next to Leo immediately ask him for a picture, so their conversation is delayed.

Once they’ve calmed down, Harry finally places an elbow on the barrier, between Leo’ arm and the arm of the guy who just asked for a picture, and leans on his side against it, with his back to everyone but Leo.

“Did you enjoy the show?” Harry asks and places a hand on his left hip before linking left ankle with his right and bending his knee.

“It’s not over yet.” Leo informs him, just as Dan Reynolds finishes the song.

Harry lets out a breath through his nose and shakes his head. “I know you know what I meant.”

“And I know you know that I know what I meant.” Leo says, executing the retort in perfect manner, which is really unexpected since he’s kind of off his face.

Harry doesn’t say anything nor does he move at all, so Leo sighs. “Yeah, it was nice. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“I saw your face when I came on stage. Priceless.” Harry says and throws his head back as he laughs at the memory.

“Are you quite finished? I’m trying to watch this.”

“You s**t yourself.” Harry continues to tease and Leo’ kind of had enough. The guy next to him and his friends are watching them intently right now, subtly filming because they think it will go unnoticed and?? Leo hates it.

“I need to tell you a little secret.” Leo says and Harry raises his eyebrows over his sunglasses, leaning closer. Leo presses his lips to his ear.

“These people are filming everything. So unless you want the press to think you’re flirting with a guy, I suggest you step back.”

Harry pulls his head back so he can look at Leo. “Bold of you to assume that I give a shit.”

Leo doesn’t really know what to say, but Harry steps back nonetheless and walks back over to where Levi and Noah are standing with their arms crossed, looking up at the stage.

He tells them something before he pats Levi on the back and walks back around the stage, disappearing.

“You’re trying to put the moves on him.” Zayn tells him during the next pause between songs and Leo looks at him like he’s just insulted him.

“Um? No I’m not.”

“Yeah you are. I know you. I’ve seen you. You gave him your ‘f**k me now’ look.”

“I don’t-he’s straight anyway.”

“So you would.” Zayn concludes.

Leo wants to say something but he sees that the guy is still filming so he snatches the phone from his hand, taking him completely by surprise.

“Stop invading people’s privacy for likes and retweets.” Leo educates him before he stops the recording, deletes it, and then deletes it from the ‘recently deleted’ folder as well. It’s a five-minute video, so he dodged a bullet there.

The guy looks like he wants the ground to swallow him up, so Leo throws him a sweet smile as he hands him his phone back, before turning his attention back to the band.

The concert finishes half an hour later and Leo links his fingers with Zayn’s as they try to get out and go meet Noah and Levi by the bar next to the VIP area.

Noah greets him by placing a drink in his hand, which makes Leo’ entire day.

“You’re my favorite person.” Leo tells him as he sips on the straw.

“We’re going to hang out in there for a bit, I need to sit down, me back is killing me.” Noah says and nods over to the VIPs.

“Try to sneak us in?” Leo suggests, but Levi cuts in.

“No need for that. Here you go.” He says and hands him and Zayn two passes to hang around their neck.

“What?” Leo asks incredulously.

“Courtesy of Harry. Told me to give these to you guys. He noticed you had general access bracelets.”

“How nice of him.” Leo says, only half sarcastic.

“Tell him thank you.” Zayn chimes in after he hung it around his neck and Leo does the same.

“You can thank him yourselves.” Levi smiles. “He’s in there having a drink.”

Okay so not only did Leo manage to sneak into the VIP area and talk s**t to a ‘rockstar’s’ face earlier, but now he gets free VIP passes? How is this his life?

They enter the area calmly this time and find Harry at the bar.

“Hi.” He says to them, but only looks at Leo.

“So you finally noticed that there’s no sun huh.” Leo greets him back and bats his eyelashes at him over the straw.

Harry breathes harder through his nose as if he wanted to laugh but not quite. He looks surprised by Leo’ choice of greeting.

“Thanks for the passes though.” Leo says then, choosing to play nice instead.

Harry smiles at that. “You’re welcome.”

Leo knows the answer but asks anyway. “How’d you know we’d need them though?”

“Your bracelets are general access.”

“Why are you checking out my arms?”

Okay, it’s a stupid thing to ask, but Leo is drunk and this guy is way too attractive for him to act normal right now.

What.

“I saw your rope tattoo on your wrist. And…” Harry trails off, pulling his sleeves up and showing off his anchor tattoo.

Leo stares at it. “So?”

“If we ever held hands, they would match.”

“That’s an unlikely scenario.” Leo nervously laughs.

“Just saying.” Harry shrugs and gives him a asshole-ish smile.

“Maybe you should lay off the alcohol.”

Harry c***s his head. “I could tell you the same thing.”

“I’m twenty-six, don’t tell me what to do.”

Leo drinks what’s left in his cup, slams it down the bar and makes a face at Harry before he walks off to look for the toilets. There are two people in front of him waiting to get their turn, so Leo pulls out his phone, and after updating his i********: story with a few videos from Imagine Dragons, he clicks on Safari. He types ‘harry styles’ in the search bar and waits for it to load.

“s**t festival connection.” Leo mumbles, because the WiFi is a joke.

When the page finally loads, he clicks on the first result, which is Harry’s Wikipedia page.

Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter and actor.

Leo scrolls through his Wikipedia page, quickly skimming through the lines, which tell the story of how he was discovered when he was twenty years old and singing on the street in London. A record label owner walked by one day and heard him sing, asked him to come to the studio and try out some covers, before he signed him. He wasn’t such a big deal in England, but when they released his first single in the US it skyrocketed from there.

“That’s not really accurate.” Someone says against his neck and Leo jolts, turning around.

Harry’s standing there, looking at him.

“What?”

“The ‘personal life’ section. I never dated those women.” Harry explains.

“I didn’t get to that part.” Leo answers, keeping his head held high as to seem like he isn’t embarrassed that he’s been caught doing research. “And if it isn’t accurate, why don’t you contact them?”

Harry shrugs. “People always choose to believe what they want to believe, regardless of what I say.”

“Yeah, I noticed. That guy next to me filmed our whole interaction and it felt weird. I deleted it though. The video.”

Harry raises his eyebrows. “How’d you do that?”

“I took the phone and deleted it.”

“Never thought about that.” Harry laughs, switching his weight from one foot to the other.

“Yeah, well, if you did it, it would probably show up in the press the next day and you’d be called aggressive.”

“True.” Harry agrees, a small smile playing on his lips. Leo’ eyes drift down to them and Harry notices, of course he does, because he leans in closer. Leo looks into his eyes.

“Leo.” Harry states, breath fanning over Leo’ face.

“Hm?”

“It’s your turn.” Harry says and nods towards the toilets.

“Ah, s**t, yeah.” Leo stutters.

He turns around and enters the toilet, cursing himself for losing his composure for a second.