a/n: hi babes!! happy early 10 years of One Direction!!!!
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Harry dives headfirst onto the bed, belly-flopping onto the mattress next to my feet. He rests his head in his hands, his elbows propping him up. I look away from my phone and down at him. He sat there, his dimples imprinted in his cheeks, not moving a muscle almost as if he expected me to take a picture of him like this.
"What?" I laugh, looking down at him, his smile contagious.
He removes one of his hands to fiddle with the duvet comforter underneath him. He smirks down at it, the thoughts in his head visibly taking over his emotions. He inhales deeply.
"Do you remember when we tried to pull an all-nighter, and then you fell asleep?" He reminisces in front of me, his eyes flicking up to make contact with mine.
"How could I forget?" I laugh. "You are aware of why I was so tired, right?"
He looks down in thought before the corner of his mouth turns up at the memory, looking back up at me.
"Anyways," he continues, the smiling dropping into a thin line, his facial expressions serious. "The rule was, the first person to fall asleep had to plan our next date. And if I remember correctly, you lost."
"But it was your fault I fell asleep!" I point my finger at him accusingly.
"Should've drank more coffee." He shrugs. "But I brought this up because I would like to receive my end of the bet."
"Like, right now?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows. He nods. "But I'd have to plan everything...What time is it?"
"It was like 4:30 the last I checked," he says, rolling over so he was now laying on his back, looking up at the ceiling. "So you've got time to plan. But I want to go on a date tonight...and I can't just let you lose a bet and not pay up."
I nod, thinking of the endless options of dates I could take him on, many with very little planning involved. I didn't have much time to think, so I just said the first thing that came to mind.
"We could go on a drive," I suggest. "And we could pick up food and then go eat it by the beach or something." I shrug. "Or would that be too lame?"
Harry rolls back onto his stomach, his smirk returning. "I love it. What kind of food?"
"Whatever you want." I shrug once again, not caring too much what we ate.
"Nope." He shakes his head vigorously. "It's up to you to decide. That's part of planning the date." His body takes the position as if he was about to do push-ups, and he pushes himself up, kneeling.
"What?! That's totally unf-"
"You figure it out and let me know when we're leaving," he cuts me off before I could finish my sentence. He climbs off the bed, slowly walking away. "Don't make it too late though."
And with that, he walks out of his room, leaving me alone. I had no idea where he was going, but I assume he left solely for the purpose of adding a little dramatic flair to his words.
I let out a groan, leaning to fall back onto the pillows behind me.
At least the date would give me the perfect timing to give him his present.
* * *
I've spent the last half hour or so freshening up while also trying to figure out what my "plan" for our date was. In that time, I came to the final conclusion that if Harry is going to think the idea is lame, he shouldn't have given me such short notice.
I had no idea where Harry wandered off to...all I knew was that he was somewhere in the house. I could quite honestly find him just by searching around, but that would require leaving his room and I felt way too lazy to do that. So, taking the easy route, I dial up his number bringing my phone up to my ear. And within a matter of seconds, and a few rings, he picks up.
"Why are you calling me? I'm just downstairs." Harry chuckles into the phone.
"I have a question," I say, answering his question, sitting down on the edge of his bed.
"Okay," he says, urging me to continue.
"Would you like to go on a date tonight?" I ask, though I already knew what his answer would be.
"Oh, did you finally decide what is it that you want to eat? That's a first."
"Ha-ha, very funny." I roll my eyes playfully, even though I was well aware he couldn't see me. "Are you ready to leave?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. I'll get my keys," he tells me through the phone. "Which car would you like to take?"
That part didn't come across my mind whatsoever. I didn't even know how many cars Harry had, so there was no way I would know the models he owned.
"I want to see the cars first," I lie. "I need to see them before me to decide which one matches the vibe I'm going for."
"Okay." He chuckles, his laughter ringing through my ear. "I'll get the keys and meet you by the front door."
"Okay," I say happily, springing up from his bed. We say our goodbyes and end the short distance phone call. I rush over to the hook hanging on the wall next to his door where he let me out my purse.
Just as I was about to walk through the door, I realized I was forgetting something. Turning right back around, I rush over to my suitcaseâwhich Harry has been urging me to unpack and put into the empty drawers he had. Rummaging through it in a hurry, I find the bag with Harry's already wrapped present inside.
I shove the gift into my bag and rush out the door, not wanting to keep Harry waiting too long or he might get suspicious. At least that's what the paranoid little voice in the back of my mind told me.
I walk down the short hallway, taking a left to walk down the dark brown, semi-spiral staircase. As I hop off the last step, my eyes immediately land on Harry who was already waiting for me at the door. He looks over, his eyes locking with mine, and smiles.
"Shall we go take a look at the cars, my love?" Harry asks in a posh accent, a grin remaining on his face.
"We shall." Instead of walking normally, I skip the last few steps I had left to get to Harry. He giggles as I do so, wrapping his arm around my waist.
He opens the front door, allowing me to walk out first. I step out onto the patio, waiting for him as he shuts the door behind him, joining me outside.
"The garage is just over here," he tells me, gesturing over to a building, separate from the house but I swear almost as big. I follow behind him as he walks over to said building, approaching a door. Pulling a key out of his pocket, he unlocks the door. The door lets out three quiet beeping sounds, which I'm assuming were from the security system he had all around his house.
Harry and I step inside the dark room, and he flips the light switch, lighting up the giant room. I couldn't help but let out a gasp as I look at all the cars he hadâsome new, but most vintage. He must've pulled the Range Rover in from when I used it earlier today because it was sitting neatly in line with the rest of his variety of cars.
"Holy shit," I mumble under my breath, causing Harry to chuckle.
"Take your pick," he tells me casually. "Choose whatever your heart desires. But I will warn you, some of them only have a radio if you're wanting to connect your phone for music."
"Hmm," I say, walking along the front of the cars, making the hard decision of what car of Harry Styles' I wanted to take. There were so many, all probably insanely expensive. But I guess Harry's been doing what he does since the age of 16...and what 16-year-old boy wouldn't buy the car of his dreams if he had the money to do so?
I continue to walk slowly until one car in particular catches my attention. It was a blue, very vintage-looking car. It was obviously a convertible, the top already down.
I rush over to it, peering into the inside, my body tilting over the side, one of my legs springing up in excitement. Everything was so neat and tidy inside...it almost looked like a car you'd come across at one of those car shows at a carnival. The ones where older men show off their prized possessions that they spent all their time fixing up.
"Find the one you fancy?" He asks, the posh accent flooring his voice once again. I hear his footsteps approaching me and soon enough, I feel his presence by my side.
I step away from the car, nodding my head vigorously. "This is the one."
"I had a feeling you'd go for the Mercedes," he says. "I'll go get you the keys."
Just as he was about to step away, I grab his arm, gently pulling him back.
"Part of the plan is that you get to drive though," I inform him, flashing him a cheesy grin.
"I'm okay with that." Harry chuckles, walking around me before reaching down, pulling the door handle to open the passenger side door. He uses his hand to gesture for me to take a seat, and I do so. But just before he's about to shut the door, a thought strikes my mind.
"Wait, is it going to be too cold out to have the roof off?" I ask him wearily as he shuts the car door. He turns away to think for a moment, then turns back to me.
"I'll tell you what," he says. "I'll run inside and grab some blankets. Just wait here for like two seconds."
I nod and Harry runs off, leaving me sitting there in his car, stranded in his garage. But just as he promised, he returns a few moments later carrying two chunky blankets stacked in his arms. He walks over to where a line of hooks was mounted on the wall, plucking the key to the car off of one. He makes his way over to the car, stopping once he was standing right near my door.
"Would you mind tucking these under your legs? I just don't want them flying out while we drive." He requests and I take the blankets from him. "Thank you."
"No problem," I say as I place them on the floor then rest my feet my legs on top, trying my best to not let them be dirtied by my shoes. Harry walks around the car, spinning the key ring around his finger and he does so, opening his door once he reached it.
"Where is our first destination?" Harry asks, inserting the key and starting up the car. After doing so, he reaches down into the pocket of his tan pants, pulling out a garage door opener. He pushes the button and the door begins to lift up.
"Food," I say simply, my stomach growling at the thought.
"And where are we getting said food?" He asks, pulling the car slowly out of the garage.
"I decided on pizza," I tell him. "It's easy to pick up and we can eat it in the car...if you're okay with that, of course."
"I'm always okay with eating pizza," he says, pushing the button to shut the garage door as he drives down the long driveway. "But, I'm trying to not eat meat...remember?"
"Vegan pizza then?" I suggest, my face twisting into a cringe. I felt slightly guilty that I forgot about his new year's resolution.
"It's alright, I'm only teasing," he says, looking over and giving me a soft smile. "I can make an exception for you."
* * *
"It's so pretty!" I gasp, referring to the sunset as we drive along the coast. My hair was flowing in the cold wind. Normally, this would bother me, but it didn't today for some reason. Tonight was different.
"There's a place to park up here. We can watch the rest of the sunset from there," Harry informs me, pointing with his finger to gesture up the road.
Sure enough, after a few more minutes of driving, there was a little place where you could pull off to park and walk down onto the beach. Harry pulls into an empty parking spot, though they were all empty at the momentâwhich I was eternally grateful for.
Harry puts the gear of the car into park and shuts off the car, obviously not needing it to be running at the moment. He turns to me, a soft grin on his face.
"How was your pizza?" He asks me, resting his elbow on his head, his head resting in his hand as he spoke.
"Different," I say honestly, nodding. "But very good. I liked it a lot. How was yours?"
"Incredible." He shakes his head passionately, but I could tell that part of it was a joke.
I laugh softly as I look out onto the water, which was now painted a lilac color, the same color as parts of the sky. The clouds were pink, the rest of the sky an array of different warm colors. Today was a warm day for wintertime, and you could definitely see that in the sunset.
"This would be a lot more romantic if we had music," Harry speaks up, snapping my attention away from the beautiful sight before me. I look down to see an older stereo, one with only a CD player and buttons to change radio stations. "I replaced the stereo a while back, but I normally don't listen to music when I drive this car. And if I do it's with a CD."
Harry mentioning music made my mind immediately think of his present...which I felt like now would be the perfect opportunity to give to him.
"Oh, I, uh...I brought you something, actually." I chuckle nervously, reaching into my purse for the small gift I had to give him.
"You brought me something?" He repeats my words as a question.
"Yeah, your present."
"Present?" He asks with furrowed eyebrows, a confused look on his face. "What for?"
"Your birthday," I say, thinking that part of it was already obvious. I find his present inside my purse and place it in my lap looking over at him. "I brought it to Florida, and I was going to give it to you then... But you were really sad, and even though receiving the present may have made you feel better, the present itself might not have. I just felt like the timing was wrong, so I waited."
Harry looked both nervous and confused as he stared over at the small rectangle that rested in my lap. I was nervous as well, but I always feel weird giving people gifts. I always get nervous that they won't like them or something.
"So," I begin to explain the meaning behind the gift before I give it to him, laughing sheepishly and blushing like crazy. "For my birthday, you gave me a ring that fits inside the cutout of yours, as a symbol of missing each other whenever we're apart...correct?" I confirm and he nods. "Well, when I was trying to come up with an idea of what to get you, I decided that I wanted your present to kind of revolve around the same idea, but also like the opposite...if that makes sense."
I hand Harry his small gift and he gives me a look as if to ask permission to open it. I give him a nod, urging him to continue. As he peels back the wrapping paper, I continue to explain the gift.
"It has an hour worth of songs on it," I tell him as he pulls out the cassette tape. "It was the music I was listening to the first time you left that made me feel a little better. I listened to them again when I flew home from Florida, and they made me smile with tears in my eyes."
He looks over at me after flipping it around a few times. I could tell his eyes were glossy, even with how dark it was. He flashes me a soft smile before looking back down at the mixtape.
"And I know it's not Gucci or anything but I figured you already have the new line so-"
"No, t-thank you." He shakes his head vigorously as he cuts me off. "This might honestly be the sweetest gift anyone's ever given me."
I wasn't sure what to say to that, so I stayed silent for a moment. But then I remembered I had something to add.
"If you don't have a cassette player, then I have one of those little portable ones they used back in the day. I hardly ever use it, and I brought it if you want it," I tell him.
"I can just buy one." He shrugs, nearing breaking eye contact with the tape.
"There's really no need to." I shake my head vigorously. "I hardly ever use mine anyway, so you'd probably get way more use out of it than I ever will."
"Are you sure?" He asks wearily, finally looking over at me.
"Of course." I nod, giving him a soft smile. He turns away to look back at it yet again.
"Cool," he mutters, smiling to himself.
I look back to the water, the sun sinking faster now than before, the sunset fading into a dark infinity. I hear Harry suck in a breath until I feel him move. I look over to see him placing the cassette in his pocket, finally done looking it over.
"Would you mind grabbing one of those blankets?" He asks me. "It's getting cold."
I mumble a quiet "mhmm" and reach down, lifting up one of the folded blankets and handing it to him. He immediately begins to unfold it and spread it across himself.
He reaches down and I see his chair slide back away from the steering wheel. He lifts up one of his arms, opening up the end of the blanket that faced me.
"Come sit." He pats his lap, gesturing for me to sit there.
"Harry, this isn't exactly the biggest car in the world," I tell him. "Where would I even put my legs?"
"That way." He points to the direction of the seat I currently sat in.
Not wanting to hurt his feelings, I hesitantly climb over sitting on his left leg, my legs draped over his right while my feet rested on the passenger seat.
"Am I crushing you?" I ask, feeling like I weighed a million pounds after eating so much pizza.
"I don't think you could crush me if you tried." He chuckles, wrapping the blanket around the both of us, securing our two bodies like a giant cocoon.
I rest my head on his chest and he rests his head on top of mine. We stare out, watching the waves crash up onto the shore. Strangely enough, very few cars drove on the highway behind us, the sound of the beach keeping us at peace.
"Tell me a secret," he says, out of the blue. I can hear his heartbeat as he talks.
"A secret?" I ask, his request taking me by surprise.
"Yeah." He shrugs beneath me. "What's your deepest darkest secret?"
"I'm scared of life," I tell him.
"Life? Why?" He asks. It was a simple question, but the answer was almost too deep to comprehend.
"I don't want to be a waste of life," I tell him. He was the first and only person I've ever told this to. Some things you just keep to yourself and others you share with your best friend when you're in that kind of mood. Jess and I have never gotten this deep into a conversation before.
Harry stays silent but attempts to pull me closer to him. I took that as a sign that he wanted me to continue.
"Like... you graduate high school... go to college... find a job... pay off debt... work 9-5 and vacation 2 weeks a year... pay off mortgage... die," I explain, getting sad at just the thought. "I don't want to live like that. That's so fucking boring."
"But what about all the good stuff?" He asks. "Like finding your soulmate... marrying them... having kids... watching them grow up... growing old with the person you love... What about that?"
"That's not just it though," I say, staring out at the endless waves as I explain to Harry what I mean. "What if this is it? What if...this is the only life we get, and we waste it away thinking we're going to get a second chance? And then we die and...we don't. This is it. This is all there is."
"Well that's why you have to live like you're only going to once," he says.
"But it's not that simple. You get so scared of making mistakes and fucking things up that maybe...you miss out on something that could be life-changing...in a good way, obviously." I say, my eyes welling up with tears. "That scares me. And I don't want to be scared of living. Because I'm already afraid of dying."
"Can I tell you something, L?" He asks. I can't help but smile at the new nickname.
"Of course," I say.
"I'm afraid of death as well," he admits. "The idea of not knowing what will happen terrifies me too."
"It's good to know I'm not crazy then," I say, laughing.
"You're never crazy to me." He combs his fingers gently through my hair, sending tingles to my scalp.
* * *
After a while, the night grows cold, and Harry and I grow tired, talking about anything and everything under the sun. Well, under the moon I guess you could say.
But just as everything always does, the date comes to an end and we're preparing for the drive home. My phone buzzes from where it was tucked between my leg and the seat. As Harry turns the car on, I pull it out, checking to see who was texting me. From my home screen, I could only see the fact that a number that wasn't already assigned to a contact in my phone was texting me.
So, as anyone would, I unlock my phone and open the message. As I read the first line, my heart drops.
"Hi Liliana, it's Noah. My messages weren't going through, so I got a new phone. I had to get a new one anyway. Anyways, I took the advice you gave me a while back. I've been thinking a lot, and I've come to the conclusion med school is not for me. I want to travel the world. And I'm starting with the states. I'm moving to Los Angeles in three weeks and, if you would allow me to, I hope to make it out to Denver to see you."
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a/n: ik you all looooove me rnð