Jess and I walk out of the terminal, me carrying both of our carryons by myself. I didn't really mind in this case though...it probably wouldn't be the best idea for Jess to lift anything.
Harry texted me back at around 2 am, but I was already awake when I saw it. He told us he would love to have us both, as long as we cleared it with Jess's doctor. We called them this morning and they said she should be fine but she just needed to be as careful as possible. Our flight boarded at a little after 4 today and we just landed a few minutes.
We get our bags from the bag claim and walk outside. Jess walks faster than me, all the bags dragging me back and causing me to walk much slower than her. She takes a look around, her entire face shining bright. She seemed so excited to be here.
Once again, Harry told me a black SUV would be picking us up. But there weren't as many at this airport as there were in Florida, surprisingly enough. Most SUV's were just parked near the curb, but one in particular had a man standing outside it. The windows were much more tinted than any of the others, so I decided that should be the first one I check.
"Come on Jess," I say, so rudely tearing her attention away from the pretty palm trees.
She follows by my side as I walk up and approach the man near the car. He stood with his hands held together in front of him, obviously waiting for someone.
"Excuse me," I say in the politest voice I could muster up, plastering a smile on my face. The man turns to me, smiling politely back. "May I ask who you're here to pick up?"
Jess squints her eyes to me, furrowing her brows as well. "I thought you said Harry was picking us up," she says. I hold a finger up to silence her, awaiting the man's response.
His smile drops the slightest bit as he switches his glance from me to Jess, then back to me.
"Liliana Mason," he says firmly, his smile returning. He removes his sunglasses. "You look like the picture."
"The picture?" I ask, shaking my head in confusion. That sentence honestly terrified immediately to my core, but I tried my absolute hardest to stay calm. If we were about to get kidnapped, Jess would be able to fight them off...even with a cast and a bruised up body.
"Sorry, allow me to intrude myself." He shakes his head, chuckling...completely breaking the intimidating character he was playing a millisecond ago. He holds out his hand for a handshake. "I'm Mr. Styles' driver, Mark."
"Oh, nice to meet you." I grip his hand and give it a firm shake, a million times more comfortable with him now. "I'm Lili, Mr. Styles'..."
"'Good friend', I know," he finishes the sentence for me after I pause for an abnormal about of time. "I can only assume what that means, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Most of Mr. Styles' friends would be able to drive straight to his house on their own, but he specifically requested for me to pick you up. So I took a hint."
I blush and pull my hand away, folding my arm with my other one against my stomach. Mark turns to Jess, holding his hand out again.
"And you are...?"
"Jess," she answers, reaching out with her broke arm to shake his hand. He furrows his eyebrows in confusion and I feel my face turn bright red.
They withdraw their hands and Mark speaks up once again.
"Let me take your bags for you," he offers walking around to the trunk of the car, pushing a button near the handle to open it up. He walks back over to us, picking up the suitcases that sat near me. I hold Jess and I's carryons still as he shuts the trunk door, walking back to us once again.
Mark opens the door for Jess and me to climb in the backseat. He shuts the door for us once we were sitting comfortably inside, walking around the driver's side of the car. Jess and I exchange confused glances, the vibe of this guy seeming a little off.
He takes his place behind the wheel and puts the car's gear into drive, considering the car was running this whole time. Not very eco-friendly of him, but okay.
It takes a minute, but he maneuvers the car around until we're driving away from the airport. The sun was sinking, almost completely set by now.
"Are we going straight to Harry's house?" I ask, simply just trying to start up a conversation to make for less of an uneasy car ride.
"No, actually," he says to me, his eyes never leaving the road. I feel my heart skip a beat, my nerves spiking.
I look over at Jess, who didn't seem phased whatsoever, like she didn't even hear what he just said. I look back up at him, only able to see his eyes through the rearview mirror. The fear in my body made my head feel like it was floating off the rest of my body.
I tried to remain calm, and continue to convince myself that I was just being paranoid. I watch way too many Lifetime movies to function properly in life. I hear true horror stories and thoroughly convince myself that they're going to happen to me. They rarely do, but I always have that tiny voice in the back of my mind telling me that just because they haven't, doesn't mean they won't.
I watch the passing cars outside my window as an idea strikes my mind. I could just call Harry and ask him what the deal was. It was such a simple and obvious thing to do...yet it didn't cross my mind until now.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket, unlocking it and dialing up Harry's number. I hold my phone up to my ear, keeping a strong eye on Mark as I waited for Harry to answer his phone.
But after a few minutes of waiting, he doesn't pick up. My mouth opens slightly as I pull my phone down away from my ear, staring down at it in disbelief.
"What's the matter?" Jess asks me softly, finally noticing that something was wrong. I turn off my phone to look over at her.
"I just tried calling Harry and he didn't answer," I catch her up in a whisper. I place my phone in my lap between my crossed legs, taking a deep breath. "I don't know, something just seems a little...off about all this."
"I don't think so." She shakes her head along with a shrug.
I sigh and look out the window again, feeling insanely anxious. We drive in pure silence for a little longer before pulling into the parking lot of a strangely empty outdoor mall complex. There were a few cars outside, all very expensive looking.
I hoped to God one of those cars happened to belong to Harry.
Mark parks the car fairly far away from the rest of the cars. He picks his black, folded up sunglasses from the front cup holder, placing them over his eyes.
"We're here, ladies," he says, reaching down. Just as I expected him to pull up a gun or something, I hear a popping sound coming from the back of the car. Turns out, he was only opening the trunk.
Jess opens her door, getting out with no hesitation.
"Wait," I say, quickly reaching over, grabbing her arm to stop her from getting out of the car. She looks over at me, a weirded out look on her face. "What if this is some sort of sex trafficking trap?"
"Oh my god." She rolls her eyes, continuing to get out. I stop her once again, and she turns back to me, even more annoyed now than she was before.
"I'm serious," I say, feeling terrified for both of our lives.
"You're overreacting," she says with another roll of her eyes, yanking her arm away from me. She reaches down, slinging her backpack over her arm before hopping out of the car and shutting the door behind her.
Sure, now that I was annoying her she was willing to carry her own stuff.
I hesitantly get out of the car, taking my phone and carryon with me. I walk around to the tail end of the car to see Mark getting Jess and I's suitcases out, setting them on the black asphalt.
This all seemed very strange to me. First, this weird guy picks us up. Then Harry won't answer his phone. Then weirdo takes us to a nearly empty shopping mall parking lot. Now he's taking out our suitcases in said parking lot. What was he gonna do next? Leave us here?
All these thoughts run through my mind as I suddenly feel a light tap on my shoulder. I jump slightly out of fear and turn around quickly, my eyes only to be met with the pair that I've missed most.
"Didn't mean to scare you." Harry chuckles holding out one of his arms for me to hug him. In his other arm rested a bouquet of lilies, which made my heart melt right out of my ribcage.
"You did," I say, still trying to catch my breath as I accept his embrace, wrapping one of my arms around his waist and giving his body a light squeeze. He hands over the flowers and I immediately blush. "You didn't have to..."
"Hey, where are my flowers?" I hear Jess's voice behind me. "I'm the one who got in a car accident a few days ago."
"Good to see you, Jess." Harry chuckles hugging her as well. As soon as they pull away, he inhales a deep breath, clasping his hands together. His eyes land on the driver and he smiles, walking around over to him.
Jess and I exchange glances and she points down to the flowers, wiggling her eyebrows up and down. I seat her arm lightly, knowing exactly what she was implying that they meant. I turn my attention back to Harry, who was now already standing in front of Mark.
"Thank you so much, Mark," Harry says shaking his hand firmly. "You're truly a lifesaver."
I furrow my eyebrows, still confused as to why Mark picked us up alone.
"Anything for you, Styles," Mark says, his smile brighter than ever before. His personality did a full 180 and he was now acting like a normal person, rather than some creepy kidnapper.
"Well thank you again," Harry says again with a nod. "Drive safe, yeah?"
"Right." Mark nods once and turns his attention to the direction of Jess and me. "Goodbye, Liliana and Jess." He waves. "It was great to meet you both."
"Bye," I say sheepishly and Jess simply waves her hand up. Mark returns to the driver's seat of his car and as he begins to drive away, Harry turns back to us, clasping his hands together.
"Let's go home, shall we?" He suggests, smiling.
"Please," I say, tired of traveling all day. With how much I've traveled in the past few days, I just wanted to lay on a couch and do absolutely nothing.
We pick up our luggage and the three of us walk over to Harry's car, Jess and I following closely behind him. He stops in front of a black, sleek Range Rover.
"This is the only car I have with a backseat," he tells us as he walks around to the driver's side.
"I'll sit in the front," I whisper to Jess, giving her back a gentle push to guide her to walk in front of me. She opens the backseat door, climbing inside. Harry and I walk around to the trunk of the car loading the suitcases in.
"Why didn't you just pick us up from the airport yourself?" I finally ask as he loads the trunk.
"It's way more likely for paparazzi to be at the Los Angeles airport than the one in Miami, and they've been up my ass lately," he tells me. "It's not that I don't want to be spotted with you, I just want to keep our relationship as private as possible. Openly dating is so different for other people, but for me, it just seems...I don't know...impossible?"
"I get that." I nod, even though I didn't. I didn't get why it had to be different for Harry. If anything, he's a better person than half the celebrities that openly date. So why does he get the backlash?
Harry shuts the trunk once everything's inside and we walk towards the front of the car. I reach my hand out to open the door to the front passenger seat, then suddenly feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist. I squeal out, my heart beating rapidly now.
I'm spun around before being set down, facing the direction of the back of the car. I turn back around to see Harry, chuckling and opening the door.
"I have to open the door," he says simply, stepping out of the way for me to get in the car. "You're really jumpy today."
"Well if you didn't scare me, I wouldn't jump," I mutter half-jokingly, walking past him and sitting down in the front seat. He shuts the door once I'm fully in the car and walks around to his side.
It was dark outside now, and I haven't been in the car with Harry many times, but he drives different in California. He drives much faster.
* * *
a/n: hello, i'm aware this chapter may have sucked, but it's kind of just a filler chapter :)