Lane wondered if it could always be like this. Just her and Harry, and London. But the shows he was playing were getting bigger and bigger, opening for bands people had heard of, and soon they would know Harry. She couldn’t seem to shake the idea that the days where they were just Lane and Harry were fading, and one day they would just disappear. Someone would come along and offer Harry the world and he would take it. It made Lane want to grab onto him, hold him tightly and hide away in their bedroom where it was safe. The world couldn’t touch them there. But Lane knew she wouldn’t do that, she wouldn’t stop him.
Because that wasn’t how love worked.
A short tale about a girl who drinks too much coffee and a boy who writes love songs
written for the autumn fic exchange and now on tumblr! (oh an I added an extra flashback scene because *harry voice* I love pain)
This wasn’t exactly how either of them saw their night developing.
Gianna Rosetti knew better than to talk to strangers, but after the terrible night she’d had she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t help but sympathise with the boy sitting across from her on the train. His green eyes looked defeated, his dark curled hair dishevelled and thrown under a bright blue beanie. He just looked like he needed a friend.
Harry Styles had no idea where the hell he was going, but after the horrendous night he’d had, hopping on the tube and going anywhere seemed better than being in that apartment. The feeling of lingering eyes dragged his stare to the girl sitting across the aisle from him. She looked frustrated and curious all at the same time. She looked like she wanted to talk, to get something off her chest, but most of all, those brown eyes looked comforting and like they belonged to someone who would listen.
She could hear Harry groaning and searching his room for pants or joggers. She reached the door when she heard him coming after her.
“Zoe!” he yelled, jogging down the steps. “Zoe, wait!”
Zoe gave him one more look and left, making sure to slam the door. She walked down the hall on search for the lift. When she reached a turn she saw two silver lifts and pressed the down button. The doors opened and she stepped in sighing in relief.
Just before they closed, she saw him standing there in nothing but joggers. She ran a hand through her hair and let out a shaky breath. The last thing Zoe expected was to wake up, naked, next to a man she absolutely loathed the night before. She hated herself for it. It might have been great sex but she hated herself for leaving with him. She could have left with Carter and Tim back to her flat but no, no. She had to leave with Harry.
Just Stay Here Tonight now up on 1DFF and Tumblr!
read on tumblr | read on 1DFF
100+ stories have now been posted and can be found on the masterlist!
aka the exchange is now over!
stories by boy: harry | niall | liam | louis | zayn | slash
stories by title: a-e | f-m | n-z
writers, don’t forget to pick up your participant banner, which you can post with your story on 1dff if you’d like! all of the banners were made by @danuberose.
thank you to everybody who participated in the exchange and helped to make it a success!
summary: Indi thought this summer would be another one full of exhausting, activity-filled days under the sun and mountains that she had known since she was a camper. Along with her best friend, Harry, the two would be counselors again and making the most of their summer by running after campers and trying to make sure everyone wore sunscreen, the latter mostly being Harry. But with a new summer brings new faces, Harry bringing his college friend, Liam. Suddenly, Indi realizes, this summer is going to be unlike any other.
A summer camp au featuring khaki shorts, giggling campers, and a tank top of Liam’s that gives Indi a run for her money.
word count: 8,703
warnings: mild drinking, brief language, enthusiastic camp counselor harry
main pairing: liam/ofc
June
One of the main reasons I loved working at Camp Holly Brook was because of the trees that surrounded it and the lake that kissed the shores of the camp itself. It wasn’t that I had a lack of trees back home –my college had trees lining the streets and the buildings throughout campus, so my tree appreciation was pretty well rounded no matter where I was. But the trees at camp relaxed me and made me feel like I had escaped the busy life of college and the real world. Harry laughed at me when I told him about my fascination of the trees that made up camp, but I knew he understood too. Especially since he did yoga some mornings in one of the clearings down by the lake.
With campers arriving the next day, everyone was rushing all over camp doing things in preparation from figuring out cabin assignments, organizing activities, and make sure everyone had enough bug spray and sunscreen. I found my best friend yelling about the latter at the program office, the central headquarters for campers and counselors where they could do anything from check their mail or use the computers (which was a counselor privilege).
“Has everyone got their sunscreen? Come on now, don’t want to be a bad example for the kids with a sunburned nose right?” Harry shouted as fellow counselors walked by. Most either ignored him or shared a laugh in agreement.
I was grinning as I walked towards him. “Harry!”
His hair was thrown up into a bun, it had gotten that long since I had seen him over Christmas and he had a white t-shirt on and jean shorts that were cuffed. His face broke into a massive grin when he spotted me, and we ran to each other, throwing our arms around one another like we had been separated for years, not months. “Indi! I can’t believe you’re here! Glad you aren’t late like last year,” he noted, still hugging me after I had let go.
“Oh shut up, I wasn’t that late last year,” I said dryly, remembering my car trouble that hindered me from getting to camp on time.
Harry chuckled, his dimples coming out and making me smile. “Well now that you’re here, let’s go find Julian and get your cabin assignment yeah?”
We found Julian down by the water, assessing the canoes to make sure they were sturdy enough for campers with minimal canoeing knowledge to paddle. Julian was the director of the camp, his appearance fitting the camp director title. He had a head of dark curly brown hair, curlier than Harry’s, and an around the clock scruff that gave him that extra woodsy look.
He gave me a one armed hug once he spotted Harry and I. “Was wondering when you’d get here, you’re in the Dogwood cabin. You’ve got six girls this year, think you can handle it?” He challenged, raising an eyebrow at me in jest.
“As long as Harry and I are near one another, everything will be just peachy Julian,” I said with a confident nod.
He nodded, sending us off to unpack and returned to his canoes.
“Think we’ll ever see him clean shaven?” I questioned as we climbed back up the hill to unload my car now that I had my cabin. I had had a cabin of six once before but my past two years I was a counselor to four campers, so this was nothing new to me.
Harry shook his head, his bun shaking in its hold. “Nope, he says the rustic look attracts the women when he goes back to the city. I guess they like lumberjack outdoorsy types.”
**
We had just brought in the last of my things when someone was calling Harry’s name down the line. There were two separate rows of cabins and split into two sections for the boys and girls, with a massive wood staircase filled with woodchips in between leading up to the program office.
Harry stood up and poked his head out of the cabin since we had propped the door open. “Ah Liam!” He said cheerfully, disappearing down the stairs.
I frowned, dropping the t-shirt I had been folding on my bed and followed behind. I didn’t know a Liam, but then again we had new counselors every summer just like we did campers.
“Mate! Get settled in your cabin okay?” Harry asked a boy near his height with short brown hair and I quickly noticed the tattoos going up his arms.
Liam, whoever he was, glanced my way before looking back at Harry and giving him a nod. “Yeah, it’s great. I’ve got six campers apparently, I just got their names and everything.”
“Ace, oh yeah,” Harry said, suddenly remembering that he was helping me. “Liam, this is my friend Indi, she’s been here nearly as long as me.” He lowered his voice enough that I could still hear from my spot on the steps. “She’s not as cool as I am though, the campers love me.”
“Oh that’s such bullshit! They love me just as much as they love you,” I protested, stomping down the stairs and walking towards him. “The only reason they love you is because you’re an easy target and they’ll have you screaming for mercy in the grass after a game of kickball.”
Liam started laughing, his eyes crinkling and his hand on his stomach. I smirked in satisfaction and Harry’s expression was full of indignation.
“That’s so not true. I’m just loveable and a joy to have around,” Harry defended himself, putting a hand on his chest to show his worth.
“Are you a golden retriever? Because I’m pretty sure you just described yourself as one,” Liam noted, making me laugh next.
Above us at the top of the hill, the bell rang signaling lunch. The dining hall was straight ahead at the bottom of the hill with a view of the lake from its windows. Harry, Liam, and I walked together towards it, chatting away about what activity we wanted to be in charge of for the summer.
The dining hall was like a replica of the one in The Parent Trap except elevated with more windows and honey colored wood that gave the room a sense of openness and comfort. We sat together with some veteran counselors, Poppy, Miles, and Naomi.
Working through our BLTs, I found out Liam went to school with Harry and had been his roommate freshman year. I had never heard of Liam before but I didn’t question Harry about him. Liam had a knack for grabbing someone’s attention when he was talking because I was hanging on every word. He moved his hands a lot when he talked; even when he was seated he was still animated.
After lunch and Julian’s announcements (to which we all banged our fists on the table –a camp ritual), the three of us set off back to our cabins to change into our bathing suits for boating and swimming.
“No it was you that used my toothbrush after we did that beer crawl!” Harry stressed to Liam, both of them engaged in a story that had started over Liam noting that he forgot to bring toothpaste.
Suddenly Harry stopped and patted the pockets of his jean shorts. “Shit, I left my phone back in the dining hall. You two go ahead, I’ll just see you at the docks.”
We watched his tall, lanky frame grow smaller as we put our distance between the dining hall. “Honestly, it’s like he needs a string tied to him and connected to all his possessions. Does he lose his phone a lot at school?” I asked Liam, trying not to take too long to stare into his warm brown eyes.
Liam shrugged, a small smile on his face. “Sometimes yeah, usually he can’t find his glasses, or his phone and flops around like a lost puppy until he suddenly remembers where he left them. It’s amusing after you’ve been studying for six hours straight.” He pinched the skin between his eyebrows, as if the stress of school made him twinge.
I chuckled. We parted ways once we reached his cabin and I didn’t have to go far to mine. Being at camp was like escaping from the world. All insecurities and worries went out the window when it came to things like putting on a bathing suit. No one worried about how another looked because it was camp, everyone was here to have a good time.
I spent the afternoon lying on my towel in the grass with Poppy and Naomi while the boys and other counselors paddled around in canoes and kayaks or messed around in the lake. I wasn’t ready to full embrace the lake yet but I would once camp started. We talked about the past school year and who had studied what and more specifically who. Once camp started, all talk of so-called non-camp activities and language wasn’t allowed, so today was our only day to fill each other in on the non-edited versions.
We had a night off from camp before campers started showing up the next morning so we pulled ourselves together in our best non-khaki shorts and polo shirts that we could. I applied some make up and pulled on a pair of black jeans since it was chilly at night up in the mountains.
A knock on my door made me quickly grab for a t-shirt and cover myself up. I didn’t really have anyone to hide from but it still made me hesitate. “Who is it?”
“It’s Poppy, can I come in?” I laughed, giving her the okay and throwing my shirt back on my bed. I was glad she stopped by so she could help me figure out what to wear.
**
We took Poppy’s car into town since she had a Jeep and it was made for the hilly curves opposed to my Honda Civic that tried its best to get up here. The town down the road only had a handful of bars that were half family restaurants before eight. It probably a little overwhelming when ten camp counselors in search of beer breezed through The Bear Claw just after seven.
“Do you really have bears around here?” Liam asked, his expression full of worry.
I shook my head, laughing at Liam’s uneasiness. “There are some around here but they never come into the camp. At least I’ve never seen one.” Harry chose that moment to appear with Graham, another counselor, with drinks in hand.
“Rum n’ coke for you Indiana,” Harry announced, placing it in front of me like we were in a restaurant.
“Thanks Harold.” I took a sip of my drink, ignoring Harry’s use of my full name and turning back to Liam. “Don’t ask Julian if he’s seen any bears though. He’ll try and tell you about the time he saw one and climbed a tree to spy on it.”
“He got me with that one,” Harry said forlornly, bringing his beer to his lips.
“That’s because you’re one of the most gullible people around Harry,” Poppy commented next to me.
Harry scoffed. “Am not, I have a wonderful sense of humor thank you. I just like to put on a façade of gullibility to add to it.”
“Not sure gullibility is a word but I’ll let you have that,” I told Harry, laughing as I brought my glass to my lips.
Having no desire to have a hangover the next day, I cut myself off after two drinks knowing how busy tomorrow would be. In between catching up with everyone, I stole glances from Liam as he got to know everyone around him. At one point I was staring off into space with my head in my hand and Liam looked over at me. He moved over until he was in my line of vision, breaking me of my reverie and making me laugh.
**
“INDI! I can’t believe you’re my counselor!” Lily, a camper that I had grown to know the year before, greeted me as I came out of the cabin.
“Lily! I can’t believe you’re my camper!” I gave her a hug before introducing myself to her parents. Lily was the second to arrive with Gigi arriving twenty minutes before. It had been whirlwind morning already and coffee from the dining hall was my life source. I had glimpsed Harry running around on the boys’ side of camp unloading cars and bouncing between parents. Liam had nearly crashed into me when we were in the dining hall, claiming he was still half asleep. I saw Liam carrying trunk after trunk into his cabin.
Within the hour, Maggie, Amanda, Katy, and Emma joined Gigi and Lily and the cabin was full of high-pitched voices as everyone unpacked. I chimed in when the girls asked me something or gave me a chance to join in. I knew half of them from the year before but the other girls were fresh faces.
After moving in, everyone made their way down to the dining hall for the first lunch of the summer. Counselors went first to set the tables and get the food from the kitchen for each table and ensure there was enough for everyone. It was amusing to me as the dining hall filled up with campers of various heights and features, Julian greeting everyone as they rushed past.
“One of my campers tried to put up a Frozen poster in the cabin today and I was like I can’t break this early in camp, it’s the first day,” Poppy said dryly as our table filled up with campers once they found their table assignment.
I shook my head, laughing and smiling once our entire table was full. We sat down shortly after everyone made it inside. After a round of introductions around the table, a customary requirement at the start of camp, everyone tucked into lunch. The familiar din of voices carrying over the clang of silverware hitting plates filled the dining hall.
The rest of the day was spent running to and from activity and back to my cabin. I barely saw the girls except for when they came to sign up for activities. I was in charge of Land sports mainly, but on Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, I spent the morning down by the docks. Harry and I had become certified lifeguards together after our first summer so we were able to be in charge of water activities. My campers and some of Harry’s (who enthusiastically greeted me) were quick to sign up with me and made sure to get in for my canoeing classes.
Before I knew it, I was crashing into my bed, feeling thoroughly exhausted than any college course could make me feel. The girls were quiet too as they got ready for bed and we were going to play a card game as an icebreaker of sorts.
**
“Alright everyone, you know the drill, grab a life jacket that fits, a paddle and meet me down by the dock!” I shouted to my group of canoeing campers, Harry fiddling with his whistle in his mouth. “Cut it out, you’re going to blow our ears out before you know it,” I warned, pushing him in the ribs.
He winced, holding his ribcage. “Ow, you know I’m still sunburned there from last weekend.”
I snorted, unlocking the dock and stepping onto the warm wooden planks. Last weekend we had our swim & boat meet and with Harry and I running the canoeing part, he had forgotten to reapply his sunscreen and had gotten a nasty sunburn across his chest and back. “Idiot.”
Soon enough the campers filed out onto the dock, holding their paddles like the pros they were slowly becoming. One of Harry’s campers elbowed another and they giggled when one of them nearly fell in.
“Oi! Alex! Don’t do that or else I’ll send you in as well!” Harry reprimanded, shaking his head.
Across the water, Liam, who I learned was lifeguard certified and all to eager to be in charge of kayaking, was pushing campers into the water and lifting kayaks off the racks. I caught myself staring one too many times since activities had started, Poppy was the only one who knew of my vague interest in Liam.
I turned away from Liam, helping the kids drop their canoes into the water. I relaxed once a handful was out paddling around and a couple other counselors joined them in kayaks. It was a brisk, warm day for boating, making me remove my loose tank top, revealing my bathing suit underneath. It wasn’t anything special, a simple bandeau with straps since I knew I would be moving about.
With his kayakers somewhat safely paddling around, Liam came over to the canoe docks to see what we were up to. “Who wants to do canoe slides?” Harry asked the campers hanging out on the docks. An expectant chorus of cheers followed, making us grin. I loved canoe slides, we anchored the canoes in the bottom of the lake, wet the underbellies of them, and the kids were able to slide down and swim around. Another canoe was set up as a ladder so they could repeat the process.
“I’ve never done a canoe slide,” Liam mentioned, standing next to me. He was shirtless, in just a pair of swim trunks. Even though I had seen him shirtless from afar, seeing him up close was another story.
I forced myself to breathe and give him a smile. “They’re so much fun, try surfing down it. So much more fun, ‘course the kids can’t do it. Don’t want them to hurt themselves.”
“Oops, watch out!” Harry yelled behind me, as he lost his footing and sending me into Liam.
We both knew what was happening before we could hit the water. I heard myself screaming Harry’s name and Liam’s hands wrapped around my forearms. We hit the water with a smack, going under the surface. I was coughing and sputtering as I stood up. The lake wasn’t deep right by the docks but it was still up to my waist. Next to me, Liam was rubbing water out of his eyes.
I was ready to bite Harry’s head off, but I remembered the campers still watching the whole ordeal. Most were laughing along with the counselors out in the lake.
“You absolute idiot,” I glared at Harry, swimming over to the canoe to bring myself up. Harry was grinning once I stepped on the wooden planks, but he was soon to be a dead man.
“That was beautiful,” he said in between laughing breaths, clutching his ribs.
“If the kids weren’t around, you’d go right in too. But I’m going to be the better person and not do that,” I said, shaking a finger in his face. I had forgotten about Liam, the other poor unfortunate soul that went down with me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him swiftly lift himself out of the water, making my jaw drop.
“Indi, there are still children around,” Harry whispered in my ear, breaking my stare at Liam’s abs. “Best close your mouth until you’re alone,” he suggested, and I snapped my mouth closed, still glaring at him.
Liam and I made our way up the dock, still dripping water everywhere once we made it to the boathouse.
“What happened to you two?” Heidi, one of the other kayaking counselors inquired as we came into the counselor room to grab our towels.
“Harry the horrible pushed me in-“ I started, dabbing my face first.
“-Then took me with her,” Liam finished, wrapping his lower half up and his bare chest exposed. Heidi burst into hysterics once he finished, clapping her hands. “Classic,” she added on her way out.
I was a pro at revenge, so ten minutes before the bell rang and Harry and I were pulling the last canoe in, I pushed him into the water. My laughter combined with the campers up at the boathouse drowned out Harry’s protests as he went underneath.
“Now we’re even Styles!” I yelled, running back up the dock.
**
Tucked back off one of the main paths through the camp and overlooking the lake was the Ark, the one place counselors could replenish what sanity had been taken by rabid, energetic campers. There was a television circa early 2000s set up with a unique collection of DVDs ranging from Elf to The Lego Movie to Gone with the Wind. I figured Julian’s obscure taste mixed with movies donated by past counselors had something to do with them.
Naomi, Graham, and Heidi were watching a movie in the old squishy chairs and out on the porch, some counselors were working on their camper letters that went out to the parents every week. I chose to make myself at home across the room with a magazine I had picked up on my day off and turned my phone on for the first time in days.
I heard the door open and someone breeze through as I scrolled through Twitter and Facebook. I felt a presence by my foot, and I glanced up from my phone.
Liam smiled down at me, gesturing to the chair across from my spot. “Mind if I sit?”
I shook my head. “No go ahead, it was just going to become my footrest anyways.”
“If your feet fall asleep I’ll be your footrest,” he offered, making my heart beat a little faster over a simple suggestion.
“The man of my dreams,” I muttered, smiling at my phone screen even though it had nothing to do with how I felt. I locked it and turned towards Liam. “So, have you enjoyed your first month of camp? Are your campers giving you a hard time?”
Liam chuckled, nodding at me. “I’ve loved it so far, I’ve never been to a camp like this so I feel like I’m a grown up camper here. I think one of the boys cut the sides off one my t-shirts though, so I look like some wannabe muscle head if I wear it.” I giggled, not wanting to be the one to point out that he could rival Zac Efron in Neighbors if he did.
T-shirt worries aside, we moved onto how Liam enjoyed running Archery, which was in the field next to mine while doing tennis and kayaking as his other activities. He was the most active counselor within the camp I knew, all Harry did was his yoga and occasional runs with me around the camp. He asked me about my camper days and I was more than happy to dish out embarrassing stories about Harry, which usually involved me being tied up in them too.
Shortly after midnight, the Ark had cleared out except for the two of us and I was about to fall asleep in my chair from another strenuous day of activities. Liam walked me back to my cabin, which was on the way to his.
“I’m actually kind of scared of the dark so I’m kinda glad I have the company,” Liam voiced truthfully, the rocks crunching beneath our feet.
I stared at him, the moonlight illuminating his features, and fought the urge to laugh at him. “I hate to break it to you, but you are carrying a flashlight that you could turn on at anytime.”
Liam glanced down at his flashlight, which wasn’t on. “True but what if it attracts a giant frog? Have you heard those things? They sound terrifying.”
He was scared of frogs and worked at a camp settled by a lake. Brilliant. I was still laughing once we reached my cabin, which was dark and silent inside. After saying goodnight, I watched Liam make his way down towards his cabin. Only once I was inside, did I see the beam of his flashlight come on.
July
June moved over for July, which was hot after a particularly roasting Fourth of July. The camp had jumped into full patriotism with various water games on the lake and kickball on the land sports field. On the archery field, red, white and blue balloons had been taped to the targets and once campers shot them, they exploded with glitter, making the grass sparkle. By the time the camp gathered for the barbeque, Poppy, Liam, and I were somehow covered in glitter. Once the fireworks started, I ended up sitting next to Liam as the fireworks exploded against the black night sky.
Ever since that night at The Ark, Liam and I had become closer friends. We walked to meals together, usually exchanging stories about what camper had done what in our activities. When he wasn’t up in the archery hut, Liam usually helped campers with their shooting, occasionally waving my way as I ran around the land sports field. Harry acted like one of the campers getting candy for the first time in weeks when he figured out that Liam and I had become friends.
Being friends with Liam meant I was spending a lot more time with him than before. I had to control my heart racing every time he took his shirt off, which seemed to be a lot. From going swimming, returning from his runs around the lake, to when he played soccer with some of the guys, I couldn’t take it.
One day during free time, I was sitting in the computer lab at the program office watching Youtube videos when Liam came in with Graham and sat down next to me. It only took one glance his way for me to burst out laughing.
He held up a finger in front of my face but I was laughing too hard as I took in his appearance. Liam had chosen to wear the t-shirt that his campers had turned into a tank top with no sides, exposing his ribcage and the sides of his torso. “Stop laughing!” he shouted, putting a hand over my mouth.
“Laundry day get all of your shirts then?” I asked once I had finally calmed down. His cheeks were flaming as he punched at the keyboard.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He shook his head and avoided my eyes.
“You look great,” I said dryly, still giggling at my screen.
**
As much as I enjoyed being with my campers and camp life itself, I was grateful for two days off away from it all. The girls were sad that I was going to be away for two days, they had become like my little group of followers. They all formed their own little bonds between one another and I loved seeing them in my activities.
When it came to days off, a group of counselors would go and the other group stayed behind to cover the camp with Julian. So Naomi took care of my cabin along with hers and Poppy had another counselor take care of her girls. Poppy’s parents had a house near the camp that they let us stay at on our days off so we could have fun in town and have somewhere to sleep for free.
“It feels so nice to not have a child yelling in my ear,” Poppy noted as we browsed through one of the little shops lining the main street.
I nodded. “I know, I don’t think I’ve had this much quiet since the day before camp started.”
We shopped a bit more, eventually adding another bag to the ones we had already collected. The weather wasn’t blistering hot for once and I had traded in my uniform khaki shorts for a pair of jean cutoffs and a white t-shirt.
“You and Liam have become quite the pair,” Poppy voiced when we sat down for lunch.
I sipped on my drink, staring at her over the rim. “What do you mean?” I knew we had become friends, but Liam was still Harry’s friend.
Poppy stared back, unamused with my nonchalance. “Don’t try and tell me you don’t like him, like like him Indi.”
I shrugged, dancing around her. “He’s cool, we’ve had a good time this summer.” I paused, looking around the restaurant. “Do you know something I don’t know?”
She shrugged, glancing down at the table and back up at me. I narrowed my eyes at her. “I mean the way you two keep running into each other all over camp-“
“The camp’s not that big,” I pointed out.
Poppy waved a hand, dismissing me. “Whatever. And then you falling into the lake with him. How the two of you are always at the coffee station together…walking from the Archery fields like you’re both in on your own secret.” She pointed a finger at me, “There’s something there.”
My heart started beating quicker than it was minutes ago, my mind trying to pin point what Poppy meant with all of this. “What’re you trying to say Pop?”
She shrugged, pulling on her straw. Our food arrived then and she took her sweet time answering me. “I think you should do something about whatever’s going on between you two before August.”
I didn’t say much more after that, but Poppy’s words stayed in the back of my mind. The rest of the afternoon we ambled around the rest of the town and went back to Poppy’s. We watched a bit of the Kardashians, which was mindless entertainment if anything. It was like we were cut off from the real world at camp when in reality, technology just wasn’t a big thing within the camp’s borders.
That night we headed down to one of the bars, which was packed. Poppy and I weaved around people, my shoulder nearly pressed to hers.
“Well will you look who’s here,” Poppy said, stopping short and colliding with me.
“Jesus Poppy, warn me next time,” I huffed, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Guess who’s here,” Poppy ventured, grinning like mad.
I rolled my eyes, a dull throbbing coming up under my eyebrow. I needed a drink if Poppy wanted to play guessing games. “Channing Tatum,” I guessed dryly.
Poppy snorted, standing close to me and leaving inches between us. “Nope, better,” She paused in thought. “Maybe.”
I followed her gaze, spotting Liam sitting across the room. Electric shocks went down to my heart to jump-start it and spread through my torso as I stared. “Oh great.”
Poppy took my hand in hers before I could protest. “C’mon, let’s go say hi.”
Liam along with Graham and Eli, another counselor, were sitting up at one of the high bar tables, beers all spread out in front of them. Liam was laughing at something Eli was saying and I suddenly wanted to be the one to make Liam laugh. But my brain was having a hard time communicating with my vocal cords as Poppy pulled me along.
“Hi guys, funny seeing you here,” Poppy announced once she reached the table. At once three sets of eyes looked her way, immediately lighting up once they realized who was speaking. I smiled at Liam before glancing away. Idiot.
“Because there are so many options around here right?” Eli voiced dryly, taking a sip of beer.
“This seemed like the best option to be honest,” Poppy agreed, taking the seat Graham had pulled out for her. I ended up next to Liam, who kept his arm around my chair as I climbed in.
“You look nice,” he noted, raising his eyebrows at me.
I rested an elbow on the table and looked at him. “Well thank you. It’s weird not seeing you in khaki and a camp T-shirt.”
Liam shook his head at the thought of our uniforms. “I know, when I got dressed this morning, I almost went for the khakis and I was like, ‘No, you can wear jeans for once.’ It took me a minute to even put on a shirt that didn’t have the camp logo on it.”
“Or one that has sleeves that haven’t been cut off?” I grinned smartly as he rolled his eyes.
“Never going to let that go are you?”
I shook my head. “Never, I keeping that etched in my brain forever.”
The boys took our drink orders, which gave Poppy the perfect opportunity to heckle me about hooking up with Liam. “At least try and get him alone. It’s so obvious that you two like each other. At least to me it is.”
“Because you’re my relationship advisor,” I added tonelessly. I tapped my fingertips on the tabletop to give me something to do.
“For the time being, yeah I am. I’ll tell Naomi about this later.” Poppy shut up shortly after that, the boys returned with our drinks and fresh beers for themselves.
Getting Liam alone wasn’t really that hard, especially since a couple hours later he was the one to ask me to come outside with him. I ignored Poppy’s eyes boring into my back as I followed Liam through the bar. While the inside was packed wall to wall, the porch that wrapped around the bar was pretty empty. Some of the tables held couples sharing appetizers and having a cigarette.
“I know smoking’s really not that great so if it bothers you, you can leave me here. I just needed some fresh air,” Liam said, pulling a pack out of his back pocket.
I turned my head to the side in amusement. “You want fresh air but you’re going to smoke a cigarette. Somehow that doesn’t quite make sense.”
Liam paused, unlit cigarette between his lips. Lips that were so nice and supple, I wanted to kiss them so bad. He chuckled, which made my eyes snap up from his mouth to his eyes. “Guess you’re right. I’ll just save this then.”
He leaned against the railing, his hands resting next to him. I stood in front of him, our feet about a foot apart. My head kept trying to convince my feet to move forward but they liked where they were.
“How many times have you wanted one of those while being a counselor?” I inquired, intrigued.
Liam shook his head, “You have no idea how many times. One of my campers, Nick, wakes us up every morning singing whatever song he heard the day before. I’m thinking about investing in ear plugs but then I’d probably miss the wake up bell.”
I laughed as he finished, campers were something else. “Which song did you hear yesterday?”
“’Anaconda,’ please don’t ask me how but all through breakfast as I ate my bagel I kept thinking, ‘my anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hun,’ it was horrible!” Liam started laughing with me halfway through his sentence, pressing a hand to his forehead. “I don’t know where he comes up with these things, it’s something else.”
I was laughing so hard that my whole body shook, my laughter had me nearly crying. Between laughs, Liam continued to tell me to stop as he laughed along, probably more entertained by me now. I swiped under my eye as Liam’s hand took mine, pulling me closer. My eyes quickly met his, the ghost of my laughter on my lips.
“You’re really cute when you laugh. I thought I should tell you while I was thinking about it,” Liam voiced, his golden brown eyes pulling me in.
My heart was beating against my chest, my hand still in Liam’s. “Thanks.” Thanks, thanks, thanks.
Nonplussed by my gratuity, he smiled. “You’re welcome.” He paused for a moment before I pushed myself against him and caught his bottom lip between mine. His other hand came around and wrapped around my waist, pulling me to him.
I imagined my heart doing some sort of salsa dance in my ribcage and there were fireworks in my brain. Kissing Liam was the best thing that had had happened all summer, I knew it already. What I didn’t know was how long we stood there intertwined until Liam finally pulled back, taking a deep breath. I breathed too, filling my lungs back up with air.
“I’ve been wanting to do that ever since that day we fell in the lake,” Liam said first, catching me by surprise.
“You mean when we were dripping lake water everywhere? And I was about to make Harry my first murder victim?” I asked with mild interest.
He nodded, pinching his bottom lip between his fingers. “Mhm, you were standing so close but I wasn’t sure if we were friends yet so I couldn’t touch you or anything without it being weird. Then next thing I know we’re in the lake and you looked just so surprised. I don’t know what came over me. Once we were drying off, I realized I wanted to get to know you more than I already had.”
Blood was rushing through my ears, everything asking, ‘is this even real?’ I laughed softly, reaching out to take Liam’s hand. “Do you know that I started to look forward to walking to meals with you? Like I would purposely take longer to gather up the soccer balls just so we could finish up at the same time.” Putting away soccer balls only took five seconds, but I made it last until Liam locked the archery shed.
Liam laughed with me once I finished, his fingers slotted between mine. We stood there until we realized we had left our friends for way too long. I avoided Poppy’s eye once we returned to the table, and the pinch I received on my knee that came from her too.
Our little group left the bar together after midnight and Liam and I made plans to hang out the next day before returning to camp that night. Once I got back to Poppy’s, I spilled all the details of what happened on the porch as she tried to open a wine bottle. She was struggling since she was trying to listen to me at the same time, too focused on me to worry about the cork that blocked us from the wine.
“Oh I knew it! I’m so happy for you two, he’s so hot Indi, like seriously,” she said with an air of desire. I smiled demurely into my wine glass, still remembering the way Liam’s mouth felt on mine.
**
After spending our second day off together, Liam and I didn’t return to camp until way after our campers were fast asleep. We were lucky it was dark out as Liam kissed me outside my cabin. The next morning at breakfast, the air between us was loaded with a clueless Harry between us.
“So, tell me about your day off. Did you two run into each other at all?” Harry asked cheerfully, his hair tied back this morning in an army green leaf printed scarf. He looked like he belonged in the woods, up a tree.
Liam coughed, and I looked at him quickly. “Yeah, we, uh, saw each other at one of the bars. Indi and Poppy showed up like an hour after us and we all hung out.”
“Typical. Even on a day off, we still end up spending time together,” Harry added.
We reached the dining hall, which thankfully was buzzing with fellow counselors getting ready for breakfast. Quiet murmurs came and went as we set the tables, the smell of pancakes filling my nose. My stomach growled as Julian let everyone in for breakfast. “Hungry Ind?” Harry inquired, smirking at me.
“You know how I love pancakes Harold,” I shot back, leaning back against the wall as our table filled up. We changed table assignments every week, counselors and campers moving around the room so keep things fresh.
If Harry suspected anything between Liam and I, he didn’t show it. Not even during our run that we took every afternoon once our last activity had ended. It wasn’t that I was keeping me kissing Liam from Harry, I just didn’t know what to do with that information once I gave it to Harry. Who knew where Liam and I would go from there? Even though every time Liam was near me, I had to resist the urge to pull his face towards me and make out with him in the middle of camp. Julian would probably disapprove of that.
**
I didn’t have to worry about keeping anything from Harry a few days later since he went on his days off with the other shift of counselors. Liam was in charge of Harry’s cabin in his absence and I had my own to tend to as well, along with my own cabin. The girls all wanted to have a cabin sleepover with the others, which had to be cleared with Jamie, the head counselor and second in command under Julian. They were cousins, baring no family resemblance with Jamie’s clear blue eyes and chocolate brown hair compared to Julian’s dark features.
The morning after the sleepover, which Jamie had agreed to quickly, I was already emotionally done. I had gotten little sleep since the girls were giggling the whole night about a lake monster and how kissing boys was gross. The latter made me chuckle, even as Liam walked through the kitchen door that morning with his eyes half shut.
“Morning, sleep okay?” he asked quietly, grabbing a coffee cup beside me. We had fallen into a routine of meeting at the coffee maker and preparing our coffee together. One morning when I was running late, I had found a cup of coffee already sitting by my plate.
I groaned automatically. “Hardly. The ten girls I had in my cabin last night decided to have a giggle-thon and I can still hear it in my ears.”
“Shit, sounds like you need coffee more than I do,” he sympathized, rubbing my back gently. We faced the kitchen, which was empty save for the kitchen staff.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod, moving towards the door. “Tell me, what song did Nick grace you with this morning?”
“’Single Ladies,’” he said with a shake of the head. “I appreciate his taste in music, I don’t understand where it comes from. Or how he learned to do the hand movements as he made his bed.” Liam had a look of slight torture on his face which made me giggle. We both had been through some shit this morning and it was hardly nine.
We parted ways once I reached my table, but I had to get up again as one of the campers emptied the cereal container that I wanted. I took a sip of coffee as I got up, ignoring Nina, the counselor sitting with me, who offered to go. “Need to get the blood moving this morning.”
The kitchen had a mixed line of campers and counselors waiting for refills on eggs and who knew what else. Thankfully it was moving quickly and I was standing before Rob, the head cook, before I knew it. I slid my empty cereal container across the counter, putting on a smile. “Can I have some more Lucky Charms please?” After the night of sleep I had, I could have the palette of an eight-year-old.
Rob shook his head. “You can wait until tomorrow morning.”
My false cheer disappeared and I glared back at Rob. “I can see the container right there. You can give me one bowl if that’s easier.”
Rob refused, and we fell into a stare down. I wanted fucking Lucky Charms and I wasn’t leaving this kitchen until I got some. I tried to bargain with him again until I felt someone put their hand on my arm and pull me away before I had the nerve to whack Rob on the head with my Lucky Charms dusted container.
“Okay, let’s go outside,” Liam said smoothly, giving Rob a winning smile to match my sneer. He escorted me quickly past Rob and out the backdoor of the kitchen, which was usually off limits. Rob must have really wanted to get rid of me.
Outside, I spun around, facing Liam. “Why did you do that?”
Liam smiled, pulling something from behind his back. “So I could steal your cereal for you.” He handed me the full container and I hugged it to my chest. “And you were holding up breakfast for everyone in line.”
I tried to hide my smile as we went back into the dining hall, Jamie’s eyes following us as we slipped in. Nina was dumbfounded as I sat back down in my seat with one more container than I originally started with.
“Cereal anyone?”
**
Harry returned from his days off still oblivious to Liam and I. He only paused when he caught Rob glaring my way as we set the tables for lunch.
“What’s got Rob all pissy with you?” Harry asked, French fry between his teeth.
“I have no idea,” I said with a casual shrug. “And stop eating the fries before the campers get here,” I scolded, slapping his hand away.
That afternoon, once the bell rang signaling the end of activities for the day, I walked over to the Archery hut to wait up for Liam. Since he knew my secret of loitering around, I didn’t have to do it anymore.
When I came around the corner, he had an arrow loaded into one of the compound bows, aiming at a target. I watched silently as he pulled back, his bicep bulging against the fabric. He let go smoothly, and the arrow soared, landing in the target two bands away from the bull’s-eye.
I clapped my hands, walking out from under the trees. Liam turned around, quickly, lowering the bow. “That was impressive.”
Liam beamed sheepishly, bowing slightly. “Thank you. I know I can do better though.”
“Want to let me have a go?” I asked, dropping my water bottle on the steps of the hut.
He nodded. “Absolutely.” He stepped back while I loaded my bow. “I don’t think I’ve seen you shoot at all this year.”
“I’ve been a bit busy running after rouge kick balls, thank you,” I pointed out, taking aim as I spoke. I focused on the target, pulling back and once I felt it was right, I let the arrow fly.
A noise sounded as my arrow hit the target, landing two bands in from Liam’s arrow. A grin broke out on my face as I realized I had hit the center. “Oh my God! I haven’t gotten a bull’s-eye in years!” I turned around and I saw Liam with a look of surprise on his face.
“Good job! That was…amazing,” he breathed.
I laughed, pulling him close to me, my lips clashing with his. My body experienced the same feelings it had the first time I kissed Liam, which seemed like ages ago not a few days.
“You should be teaching archery, not me,” Liam said once we broke apart.
“Bullshit, you’re really good.” I stepped back, our hands keeping us together. “I watch sometimes from the field.”
A new voice coughed nearby and I jumped when I realized Harry was standing feet away from us. Our hands dropped quickly, one of Liam’s flying up to his hair and mine to my mouth.
“Well aren’t you two just the cutest thing,” Harry said, voice full of delight.
“Excuse me?” I asked because it was the only thing that came to mind. My mind was still full of Liam and Harry’s sudden appearance.
Harry came closer, chuckling. “I came to see if you wanted to still go for a run and I guess I walked in on something else.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Harry. I guess I forgot,” I said lamely but he just smiled.
He threw his hands up in forgiveness. “Who needs running? I’ve been waiting for this to happen.”
Liam finally spoke, his tone full of shock. “What do you mean you’ve been waiting for this to happen?”
Harry looked from me to Liam, still grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “There’s been something going on between you two since you got back from your days off. Call me gullible all you want, Indi, but I can be perceptive when I want to. Just please, keep it to a minimum when it’s the three of us yeah?”
Liam started laughing at Harry’s dry tone, making me join in, feeling more relaxed at Harry’s reaction than what I thought it may have been. Harry tried to give us a hug like a proud dad but we both ducked around his embrace, running ahead of him.
Once Harry found out about the two of us, we didn’t bother with hiding our feelings. Julian caught wind of our new relationship status, if there was one, and clapped Liam on the back, smiling between the two of us.
“Well it’s good camp is over soon so you two can act your age. But for now, just keep the PDA to a minimum please. I don’t want the kids in hysterics if they see two counselors making out,” He held up air quotes around ‘making out’ and continued. “Hand holding, nice and simple.”
For the rest of camp Harry kept a smug expression on his face whenever it was the three of us. Liam told him to give it a rest before pushing him into the lake one more time. I broke into hysterics up in the grass with the other campers like we had back in June.
The arrival of August was bittersweet and a sense of sadness had washed over the camp. Even though activities were wrapping up and campers were acquiring all their things from around the cabins, there was also a sense of happiness. It had been a jam-packed summer as usual, everyone leaving with something they didn’t expect to receive.
Of course I hadn’t expected Liam and I was still caught off guard when he would come around the archery shed and pull me to him.
On the day before the end of camp, activities were done, final shows performed, leaving the camp to host a giant party for the last night. Tables were set up all along the waterfront and in the same clearing where we had our Fourth of July barbeque. Campers and counselors were scattered across the grass with music playing throughout. Liam and I got snow cones at one point, mine turning my mouth blue and Liam’s turned red, making both of us laugh at each other.
Once camp was over, Liam and I had about two weeks before we had to be back at college. We hadn’t discussed much of what we would do about the fall, instead we chose to enjoy our time together.
We had dinner down near the boathouse, where everything really started for us. Occasionally we said something that made the other laugh, dancing around the college talk. Finally I spoke up, telling him what I really wanted.
“I think we can continue this once school starts. It’s really not that far for us to come visit, that is, if you want me to come see you,” I said, biting my lip.
Liam looked over at me, his index finger grazing my hand. “Of course I want you to come visit. I can come to you too, you don’t have to do all the driving.”
“Harry will probably want to see me too. Now that I think about it.” I rolled my eyes at my best friend, who was currently playing Frisbee with some campers. I watched him run away with it before being tackled to the ground.
“I know he will, he’s already been buzzing about all of us being together at school,” Liam agreed, following my eyes.
I turned back to Liam, putting my plate to the side and resting my shoulder against him. The sun was just going down, washing everything in a golden tone. “Besides, we’ll always have camp.”
“I never imagined having the summer I did,” Liam said honestly, pressing his lips to my temple. “You’re right, we’ll always have camp.”
Vic hates her co-counselor Harry. He would let their campers steal for a Klondlike Bar, and let her clean up the mess.
word count: 2858
Main Pairing: Harry/Vic
Day 6 (Night-time)
From: Harolddd: meet me outside ur cabin in 10, lets stargaze @dock!! :)
This was the text that made my phone buzz and light up at 1:17AM, startling me from my barely 45-minute snooze. I rubbed my eyes sleepily, not sure if this was a dream. Stargazing? Now? Was this kid insane?
It was the last night of the summer camp after a seemingly never-ending day. We had to get up early tomorrow to tidy up the cabins and help our campers pack up, and this hooligan wanted me to lose even more sleep after such an exhausting week. I didn’t think so.
To: Harolddd: Nah thanks. Goodnight, Harold. Go to sleep.
I sighed, snuggling back into my warm sheets. The cabins were good protection from the wind chill outside, but I knew from experience that it would only get colder as the night went on. I didn’t realize how cold this secluded forest camp-ground would get at night even though it was the middle of summer.
As I finally settled in and got comfortably still again, my phone buzzed once more next to me. I groaned. It had become a habit for Harry to text me late at night with either a fun fact or a weird story. Often, he recounted something funny that happened earlier that day, as if we hadn’t been together the whole time because we were paired as co-counselors. Many of my replies were just, “I know, Harold. I was there too.”
For example, on the third night our messages went something like: “remember when u tried to kill me in archery today hahah” “Yeah I remember. And I’m sorry that I missed my target. It wouldn’t stop moving.”
I sat up and checked his text, only slightly annoyed because over the week I had become used to his weird texts at strange hours of the night. Usually, I was still awake when they arrived, but my muscles were sore, aching, and in desperate need of rest from rock-climbing today.
From: Harold: :( pls? I stole a bag of chips for us to share ;)
To: Harold: ….You didn’t.
The first day we met at orientation, we got into an argument over what we should do if we ever caught a camper stealing anything. He chastised me for being too harsh on the kids, as he had continued doing halfway through the week until I let him try to reprimand them himself.
He was unable to control them, to say the least.
He finally realized how hard I was actually working to keep the peace. From then on, he repeatedly praised me whenever I had to discipline our campers, going as far as to say that I would make a great mother one day. He was the fun parent, but I was the one that they really respected.
Harry still acted like kid, so it was really no wonder that they all gravitated towards him. He let them braid his hair, and draw even more tattoos on him with markers. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually stole chips from the gift shop’s convenience store despite the fact that even the campers knew better than that. No wonder he thought I was being too harsh.
From: Harold: Ok, i didnt actually steal it, i confiscated it from one of our kids that did
Freaking Billy. The kid was loads of fun, but he was a trouble-maker. Well, I guess as long as it wasn’t the adult toddler that was Harry Styles.
I glanced over at the five little girls sleeping in bunks beside me. None of my half of the campers were fidgeting, and a couple of them were even snoring. I wondered if our boys were just as deep in sleep in Harry’s cabin. I, however, found myself much more alert than I was a few minutes ago, excited at the prospect of a late night adventure.
Well.. it was our last night. My co-counselor and I hadn’t really been able to talk alone since orientation, and my heart had softened for him considerably since then in more ways than one. He was one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever met, even if we didn’t get off on the right foot at first. He always served the kids and me our food first even though he was obviously starving. He always made sure that all the kids were included and having fun.
I guess if any of my campers woke up, I could just tell them that I was at the communal bathroom…
To: Harold: At least it wasn’t a Klondike bar…what kind of chips?
Day 0:Orientation
“I don’t think you did that right,” a slow drawl accused.
I looked up, face incredulous, as my eyes met the lips of a concerned frown.
“I wasn’t even done yet!” I defended, blushing as the circle of eight counselors watched closely for my response to the blunt critique.
We were all currently at the summer camp orientation, a meeting to discuss the schedule and ground rules of the week-long camp, a couple of days before the kids would actually arrive.
Carol, the camp director, was making us practice how we should react in different worst-case scenarios with the kids. She would give us an example of something un-ideal happening, like bed-wetting, and ask us to improvise how we would go about managing the problem. It was a little bit pessimistic, but I guess you could never be too careful at a kid’s camp. Kids are unpredictable; Crazy things happen.
It was also a good icebreaker to let all the counselors act-out, albeit terribly, funny situations. In one scene, the “kid” brought drugs, and the counselor asked them to share instead of reprimanding them. Carol shoved her face in her hands helplessly as everyone laughed around her.
I tried to take this exercise more seriously than the rest of my co-workers, but obviously someone didn’t agree with that.
This was not the first time that this particular long curly-haired punk had disagreed with my tactics of handling the awkward situations given. We were eventually supposed to be partners, leading the same group of kids, yet it felt like he was the only one working against me, even before the kids arrived.
“You were stealing, not just from other campers, but from the convenience store. I’m not gonna just let that slide with a slap on the wrist,” I asserted, looking straight into my opposer’s eyes to assure him that I was serious and would fight him on this.
Harry stared back at me, just as seriously, before he broke out in a chuckle a second later, shaking his head. His floppy curls bounced around his face. When his hair was finally still, his green eyes met mine yet again.
“Oh please! It was an ice cream bar! Maybe I just didn’t eat enough at lunch. I just think that you’re being a bit harsh. I probably already feel guilty enough getting caught.”
“Yeah, but if you got caught without any repercussion, it would only encourage you to keep going. First it’s an ice cream bar, but if we let it go this time then the next victim could be a wallet.”
“I’m just saying. I don’t think boring me with a lecture is gonna stop them from doing anything for a Klondike Bar.”
I pursed my lips, crossing my arms in aggravation.
“I didn’t even punish you! I’m just talking to you!”
“More like yelling..” he sing-songed.
“Alright!” Carol clapped, sensing the tension in the room. “Let’s move on to the next scene.”
I narrowed my eyes at Harry. He only smirked back at me. I could already tell we would make a terrible team.
~*~
As we were surrounded on all sides by eight other camp counselors and one camp director, Harry suddenly grabbed one of my hands from out of my lap and looked into my eyes.
What stunt was this annoying punk trying to pull now?
Very solemnly, he stated, “Vic… I have to tell you something.”
I cleared my throat, uncomfortable and caught off guard at the sudden seriousness in Harry’s demeanor. I scooted my chair a little bit away from his.
I tried to ignore how intensely his green eyes were searching mine, as if the two of us were alone and weren’t being closely watched by our co-workers. It made me want to roll my eyes, that he was now taking this so seriously.
“What is it, Harold? I’m here for you- you can talk to me.” I replied, acting concerned for the sake of the activity.
He gestured for me to come closer, so I inched forward the tiniest bit. Rolling his eyes at my reluctance to share personal space with him, he leaned in closer to my face, then tilted his mouth towards my ear.
“I think you’re really pretty, and I have a crush on you,” he whispered, trying to make me flustered.
I barked out a laugh, falling out of my “concerned counselor” character.
I hoped that my laughing undermined the fact that I was blushing. The kid had charm, even I had to admit. He had that hipster-next-door vibe going for him.
“Well, Harold, that’s rather inappropriate because I’m your counselor and you’re just a kid. Wait a few years, then maybe,” I shook my head fondly.
Harry pouted, like he actually was a child.
“I’ll wait a few days.”
*~*
Day 4: Feel Your Pulse
Every day, for an hour, we had free time where we were able to pick which activity we wanted to partake in instead of one being scheduled for us.
Harry and I, getting along much better now for the sake of the kids, had fallen into a habit of playing cards with some campers. We had been playing Mafia for the past couple days, but the campers were tired of it and itching for something new.
Honestly the only other card game I knew was poker, and I didn’t find it appropriate to teach that to a bunch of kids, so that was out of the question.
“Wait, I know the cool cousin of Mafia. It’s called Pulse,” Harry snapped his fingers excitedly sitting next to me, remembering with a grin.
He suddenly turned towards me, dimples still showing, viridescent eyes bright with youth and shiny of mischief.
“First you hold hands like this,” he declared, abruptly grabbing one of my hands from off the table and interlocking my fingers tightly with his before I had a chance to react. My brows shot up in surprise, mouth slightly ajar. I blushed at the sudden contact, along with how close his face was to mine. His strong gaze reminded me of orientation, when he pretended he had an important secret to tell me.
What was it with this kid and grabbing my hand without my consent.
He kept his eyes on mine, biting his lip, trying not to laugh at my fluster as the kids hooted and went “ewwww” around us. Wow. I hate this kid.
“If you’re the killer, you squeeze the hand next to you the number away your chosen victim is from you. For example, if I wanted to get Jimmy (No! Jimmy protested), I would squeeze Vic’s hand four times because Jimmy’s four spots away from me in the circle.” He squeezed my hand four times, slowly and deliberately, and watching for my reaction each time with a smirk .
I, on the other hand, refused to look up at his face, instead keeping my eyes on our intertwined hands. I could feel my cheeks heating up and didn’t want to risk looking at his smug face right now in case I accidentally wanted to punch it. Or hold it.
Whoever let him know that he was attractive was my new worst enemy.
“They get the point,” I muttered, shaking my hands out of his and still avoiding his eyes.
I could sense Harry’s face fall from the corner of my eye. He cleared his throat.
“Yeah, anyway. You send down one less pulse than you received on the other side. So, Vic would send down three pulses, and next down the chain sends two and so on. If someone gives you only one pulse, that means that you were killed, and you have to turn over your card. If you’re accused as killer, then you flip over your card, and if you do have the Killer King card, then the game is over and the villagers win. If not you keep going until you find the killer,” Harry explained the rules.
We passed out the cards and checked our own. We all hid our connected hands underneath the table so that we wouldn’t be able to see where the pulse originated. It occurred to me that we didn’t need to be interlocking fingers to squeeze the other person’s hand.
We waited for the killer to start the pulse. Suddenly, Harry squeezed my hand too many times for me to count.
“Wait! Harry, you’re going too fast!” I exclaimed, stressed at the sudden attack of pulses.
“Oh, I just liked squeezing your hand. Ignore me,” Harry laughed, forever finding entertainment in annoying me.
I was so done. He only flirted with me to get a rise out of me, and I was incredibly tired of being used as his amusement in this way. Why couldn’t he just play with the kids instead of playing games with my emotions?
Frustrated, I stood up.
“I’m gonna go take a nap,” I called back to the kids, leaving the game for my cabin.
“Heeeeeeey, I’m sorry, come back,” Harry called from behind me. I ignored him.
I needed more rest from Harry than I did from the kids.
“Are you and Vicky like a mom and dad?” I heard one of the campers, Courtney, ask.
Harry only chuckled.
“Sure, Courtney. I wish.”
Day 6
We were both perched at the edge of the dock, legs hanging off and swinging at the same time, looking up and inspecting the sky. There wasn’t much light pollution in this area, so a lot of stars were clearer and brighter than I’ve ever had the chance to experience. Being surrounded by the celestial bodies made me feel really small, but in a good way, in a deep way, in a way that didn’t make me any less important in the universe.
I was wearing Harry’s sweater, despite my objections, because I had been shivering. He stripped himself of it, wordlessly handed it to me, and refused to take it back when I tried to return it. He may do stupid things sometimes, but he was still a sweet and caring kid.
Harry cleared his throat from next to me. I turned to find him already staring me, the serious look back in his eyes.
“What?” I asked, concerned.
“So.. tommorow’s our last day,” Harry stated.
“…Yup. It sure is.” I replied, confused.
“It’s just.. I’m gonna miss you. I feel like we bonded a lot taking care of our goofy kids together,” he confessed. This is the most vulnerable I had seen him through this entire week that I’ve known him. He was always laughing or grinning at whatever was happening around him, always cool and upbeat. He seemed almost nervous now, a stark contrast to our relationship which had grown really comfortable.
“Yeah, Harrison, me too. Well, we have each other’s numbers,” I said, trying not to think about how tomorrow was probably the last time that I’d ever see this silly kid that I’ve grown so close to this week.
“Our towns are only like 30 minutes away from each other. We should visit each other or something?” he asked, unsure of my response. He wasn’t even looking at me anymore, he was staring blankly at the lake. He was definitely nervous.
His curls were flowing with the wind. The light from the moon was hitting his eyes in such a beautiful way. I was finally sure that he wasn’t just being nice, or flirting with me just for fun. He actually liked me.
I was finally the one that was able to take him by surprise by grabbing his hand. He actually gasped as his face whipped to face me. I chuckled at that.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “Come visit me.”
Then, at a summer camp ,with a boy I only knew for a week, I did the most impulsive thing I’ve ever done. I leaned in until our lips met.
When we parted a few seconds later, he grinned sweetly at me.
“I told you, a few days. I’m a camper with moves,” he laughed, referring to our orientation scenario.
“Oh, shut up, Harold,” I rolled my eyes, but not without a fond smile, leaning in again.
Skype would probably be third-wheeling us a lot, but for now the summer was enough.
for: Christina || @studdedbraids @cuddlingdirection
by: ali || @cowlek
summary: Harry is a little bit homesick and thinking of someone else and on the road.
word count: 5697
warnings: drinking, language, sexual references
main pairing: Harry/OFC
To start with on that morning, I had a dinosaur face, some stroppy boots, an empty bowl and:
“Why…? Why did you do it?”
My hands trembled. I was overreacting, you know. Except she was, too, as she was already grinning and shaking her head and condolences… condolences. Her bowl was full. Mine was empty.
“You’re ridiculous,” she said. She giggled when she did it, and that is what really did it.
“Gimme yours.”
“No.”
“I don’t—just… why this?”
As if there had never been anything more terrible. She was overreacting; so was I. That’s all I thought.
She’d flooded the dining hall of the Best Western with breakfast. My hand shook, my bowl shook, my mouth shook; it crossed my mind that I might really be about to cry. A massive frenzy of kiddish hotel staff surrounded me, all of them wanting to sweep away breakfast before actual color buried forever in close-cropped cream carpet.
“It just broke,” she insisted. “I was using it, and it broke; why d’you have to look like that for?”
“…Why’d you have to break it for?”
“Quit pouting.” She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. “Just get another kind.”
Her “another kind” are Kashi Seven Grains of Hell and Cran Bran Grapeseed extract grandparent’s deepest recesses of cupboard right next to expired Nesquik.
“We’re shooting for seven,” Liam crunched up, right next to the catastrophe. Honeycomb.
“Y’all right?” Louis asked, pouring out the last travel-sized Applejacks box (he took the two remaining ones.)
She was off with Tabby, and Tabby had the bit of Honeycomb that Liam left. The real dusty, broken powdery refuse.
My breakfast, my Froot Loops, they were beneath our feet. And she didn’t even act like it was an accident.
Because it wasn’t.
So I wouldn’t leave her alone.
“Why didn’t you get any of the Raisin Bran?”
“Because it tastes gross,” she said.
“Then why d’you think I want it?”
“‘Cause you’re gross.”
She took a humongous bite out of my Froot Loops. She ate it with her mouth wide open, spewing radioactive rainbow all my way.
+++
Not only was it so dry out there that you had to slather chapstick over your entire face, about a tube a day, but I don’t know who decided to let Tabby drive, and we were probably all going to die because of it.
The AC broke, or else it just never worked, and the last banana at the continental breakfast had already been opened at the top and left sitting for hours or days.
“Y’think we could stop at the next place?” I asked. “Someplace with a drive-through.”
“We just had breakfast,” Tabby replied, swerving an imaginary pothole, throwing everyone against my side. And all of her hair.
Oh, gosh… Her hair was all over. All over my legs, all over the floor. It was in my mouth. It dripped onto the roof. It was in Liam’s hands because he likes giving her braids. Louis painted her toenails. She was all over me because “she can’t lay down sitting up” or something else that doesn’t make any sense. Her lips were flaky as she was, probably. Probably flakier.
Gross. I reapplied some chapstick.
“I didn’t have anything to eat,” I said.
Tabby laughed at me.
“Why didn’t you eat anything?” Liam asked. He took some more hair off my lap and started another braid.
“‘Cause I broke the Froot Loops,” she said, and she smacked Louis in the face with her blue foot when she did. It was some color you might call turquoise, I guess, but there was something too off about it to have a real name, really.
Liam laughed at me and Louis wiped nail polish off his face.
We did go through this one place that cracked me up, good thing. There was a total of about four signs in the entire town, and one of them was this Dairy Queen that stuck off about a mile high. It was at least twice as tall as all the rest of the signs in that place. I laughed four miles straight, decided the Dairy Queen was actually four miles high. No one else got it, as always. I’d like to think you probably would have.
By noontime, Tabby pulled over so Louis could have a wee. Liam went ahead and had a wee right next to him; Louis warned him not to cross the streams.
Tabby wasted more car battery by not turning off her music, she went off to smoke or something else unhealthy, and, inspired by her unhealthy habits, I had a bit of a jog. I tried to do that more, and anyway, it was really nice out by that side of the road: we parked right in the middle of a wheatfield that must’ve gone on for a hundred acres (we were stuck driving through it for half the year. Actually, an entire year because the seasons did cycle though four complete changes.)
It was windy like it always is out there. It had to be Idaho because it’s the flattest most vegetable-ridden place in the world. But the dirt was all red, so it could’ve been Arizona. The wind blew all the time, and with the windows down and it hitting your face, your skin goes all rough and almost flaky as your lips.
I stopped the jog for more chapstick.
It was windy like that in Texas. Then we get to some mountains in the distance, things go all green and flowing and smells like alfalfa and it rains, so it has to be Utah (not the salt flats parts; the green parts.)
Or it could just be a desert; that’s the pointy end of Nevada. Pointy places are often hot, we all know.
Tabby liked listening to gospel and Johnny Cash singing gospel, making the summer even hotter. She had a beer when she was driving, sometimes, and she’d always look at all the rest of us and say, “Now, this that I’m doing right now is something you probably shouldn’t do.”
Letting her drive was a better idea than Liam.
Liam drove us once. Right into the parking lot of a hospital.
“Oh,” he said. “Oh.”
“What?” she asked.
“I thought those big blue ‘H’ signs meant ‘Highways.’”
“Hospitals,” Tabby said.
“Hospitals, yeah.”
He spun the wheel and backed us out of the parking lot. There was a lot of graveyard right across the street, and she pointed that out:
“Nice,” she said. “Imagine being able to look right out your window and say ‘won’t be long now.’”
“Let’s get out,” Tabby suggested. “Have a walk.”
Liam always did what Tabby wanted, so he got us around to the graveyard so we could have a walk.
I didn’t mind a nice graveyard; I don’t think you’d think that was morbid. I don’t find them poetic, or anything, just that they have this quiet that you can’t find anywhere else.
This graveyard had quiet, but it was a quiet desolation, the type you have to be very careful with because it’s very depressing. I knew it before we even had that stupid walk, before we got out of the car. It had one of those chain link fences around the whole thing, and the new side was still all green with new flowers, the edge where the ground’s too soft for tombstones so they have wooden crosses.
The older side had all the dead grass, and the oldest side had nothing but dirt. Not red dirt; pale orange. It was windy, always chapstick weather, very hot, but it felt like fall in the afternoon. I hated it and I wanted to leave.
We heard some kids in nice black clothes playing on all the headstones when we walked through, commenting on who died too young. There was a kid’s grave who was twenty-one, except he’d been in the ground for close to two years. His headstone had some broken pinwheels, some of those Mardi Gras beads, some of those fabric flowers with most of the petals gone and mostly just plastic stems leftover.
She had some change, and his headstone was the type that lay flat in the ground. She put down two dimes with a penny. Tabby was drinking another beer.
There was a funeral there, over on the new side; that’s where all the nicely-dressed kids came from, at a respectful distance. The kid had been in his late teens. You could tell because there were about a million people all around, and all their cars were over on the other side parked in a line down the chain link fence. He was a football player, and he’d been away at college on a full-ride scholarship. When he died, they brought him back to this place to put him in the ground.
I kept wondering if everyone standing around and mourning kept looking at the old ratty side and thinking about when this kid’s gravesite would look like that. The other boy had no more than two years, probably less.
Tabby left her empty bottle on someone else dead. She went to the football kid’s funeral.
I believed the entire town to be there. Most of them were finished crying from the slideshow that’d been too short. I didn’t want to go, but I ended up standing next to this blonde, blue-eyed kid off by himself. Because I was trying to keep off by myself, not belonging to this funeral, and this kid was trying to keep off by himself, too.
He was scrawny in hand-me-downs, too old to bawl his eyes out, too young to cry without feeling weak. You could tell how bad he wanted to cry, but he wouldn’t do it.
I ended up standing next to her by the end.
So we never let Liam drive.
+++
There were a lot of broken playgrounds you could see from every part of highway. I guess the people never had kids of their own.
Liam drank his Coke through an apple sour straw from the millionth gas station we’d been through. I bought some chapstick and some scrunchies; the windows down always made me want to shave my head, so I just started pulling it back instead.
Liam didn’t get carsick, so he read a lot of gas station novels when we drove. That he could read surprised me. That he could read in the backseat was weird.
Tabby drove, and she was back in the front seat with her feet up on the dash. Her not-so-turquoise nail polish chipped real fast because she never wore shoes anywhere. I wished Louis would paint over it again, just because it was that annoying, but he was sleeping.
All over me, so even if I wanted to do some cartime activity, I couldn’t.
It was hard to look out the window when I kept looking at her chipped nail polish.
The car growled. Tabby looked at the dash, and she removed her feet from the passenger side.
I put my hand on the side of Louis’s head, Liam stopped slurping, and we all waited. Tabby kept driving while she waited, even when the power steering cut off.
She’s the one who posed the question, “Should you stop?”
“We might not start,” Tabby said.
“Might not—”
The car lurched before I could finish what I didn’t even know I was about to say, and you could already tell it’d died, but we still wheeled on for a bit before coming to an absolute, silent halt in the middle of another heatwave. We were the silent part; the heatwave was riddled with droning bees.
We all just sat, because as you know, that takes a little while to sink in. There were locusts, a scanty breeze, a lot of stillness from us. Tabby couldn’t believe it, and she peeled sticky hands off the steering wheel.
“Fuck me sideways,” she declared.
Liam looked too thoughtful about that. He had a lollipop that he unwrapped and stuck in his mouth. All the better to stare at the car roof, fabric pulling off and full of tears.
Louis woke up, blinked and got off my lap that had gone so far to sleep it’d probably be numb forever.
In the midst of everything, I found myself staring at her. She found herself staring back at me, and it was an accident on both accounts. We were in the middle of a calamity, is all, so we looked naturally to the nearest living calamity.
“Get out and push,” Louis told me.
“Get out and push,” Tabby told him.
Tabby steered us down a straight road; me and her and Liam and Louis all pushed the back.
He threw his head back with enough hair for a Diet Coke commercial. Wet enough, too.
Louis peered around towards the front of the car. “With the gummy bears, the Oreos and the Turtle Magical Shell that magically freezes in seconds?”
“Yes, Louis, yes!”
Louis started jogging; we all had to push harder to catch up.
“I smell a lemon hazelnut mint up there,” he called. “Covered in hot fudge and mm’s. Also, a maraschino cherry, or a dozen, dripping off the top, eh.”
I was about to tell them both to knock it off, how it was bad enough with all of us melting, but then I took a good look around the front of Tabby’s car and discovered they were both absolutely right about Ice Cream Mountain.
“Slow down, Louis!” she yelled over the wheedling axels. “The rest of us can’t keep up!”
Louis started to push the car without us. He left us in the dust, actually, and I stopped and stared at the Ice Cream Mountain, Mount Vesuvius herself, that he and Tabby went hurtling towards. The base was mostly lemon, because everyone knows the color yellow is always best for bases, with the vanillas and chocolates near the middle. Rocky Road lived on the top because, scientifically, marshmallows are mostly air.
It took us a fair while to catch up to Louis and Tabby down the road. When we finally did, they’d made it to the nearest home and talked to another boy in a white t-shirt, blue jeans and bare feet.
Louis had some blueberry, birthday cake and coffee shavings from the Ice Cream Mountain, all of it covered with some crackly bits. He wouldn’t share with anyone.
When the three of us finally made it, dusty and with blisters, Tabby said, “Zayn’s a mechanic and he can fix our car.”
“I’d say more ‘machinist’ than mechanic,” Zayn laughed. Zayn laughed everything he ever said. He had a permanent smile, one where his eyes were always squinty at the very corners. He thought everything was funny, our situation, especially.
“What’s wrong with it?” she asked.
I hate to say that me and her were probably the only two who weren’t so trusting of Zayn.
It turned out Zayn already had us beat.
“Serpentine belt,” he laughed. “S’gone all crooked. Gotta restring one.”
“That doesn’t sound like it’ll take long,” I said.
“It won’t! Supper’ll take longer, so y’all won’t be out of here ‘til morning.”
Zayn led us up the driveway. The house he lived at was very saggy because it had to hold up the red sky, or because Zayn had thirteen younger brothers and sisters that stomped on all the floors. I think all of them might’ve been there, but I can’t count that fast and they were always in and out and everywhere so I probably counted them up wrong.
Zayn had the car already in the barn. He fixed the serpentine belt in eight minutes. Tabby watched him with both breasts propped up on the side way, and that probably added on six minutes when Zayn could’ve been done in two. He looked over and laughed. He had a single pin-up in his barn, some redhead; me and Liam went over to check.
Liam went back to stare at Tabby and her breasts with Zayn.
She was off looking at one of Liam’s books. She was looking because she didn’t read anything; she never read anything. She thought everything was boring, me especially, and she looked me over just like she looked over Liam’s book he got for fifty cents in a gas station.
I don’t think there were many more things that’ll make you feel worse than that.
Zayn was busy laughing at Tabby’s antics when we all got called to eat supper. When we left, he said it was hard to live in a town this small because everyone might be his cousin.
Up on the hill, there were five tables all pushed together and a kids’ table by itself off to the side. We used plastic trays. Everyone fought over a single blue one the color of her nail polish, and we ate catfish. One catfish, I think; it was just whale-sized. Zayn’s dad used the bathtub to fry it.
When it started to rain, we had a waterfight right next to the creek where Zayn lived. Me and her were on the same team, and we worked to fill one thousand water grenades.
(She couldn’t tie balloons very well, so she did the filling and I did the tying.)
Our team huddled up. We came up with a terrific plan. She looked at me, I looked at her, and we knew we were both of the same mind: Liam had to pay, and Louis was going to lose.
I climbed a tree for the best vantage and she stayed nearby to cover the rear ground. No one and nothing would get past us. It was so perfect that the rain didn’t even get past us; it was all stuck on their side, and the creek kept rising.
A perfect water grenade arced out of my hand and burst over her head.
She looked up in my tree, glared, screamed, “We’re on the same team!”
I laughed too hard that I fell out of the tree, and probably should have died, as it was very tall. But it was so tall that the clouds cushioned on the way down on what would have been a fatal impact.
“Where’s Tabby?” Liam asked after the waterfight.
“Where’s Zayn?” she retorted.
Where were Tabby’s glasses?
I found them off on one of the tables; she never sees straight when she does that stuff. I handed them off to Liam for safekeeping.
It was still raining when we returned to the barn to sleep (no sign of Zayn or Tabby.) Louis and Liam climbed up into the hayloft and fell asleep.
I stayed on the ground with her, just in case Tabby thought it’d be all right to slink in like we wouldn’t see her, or something.
“Tabby could’ve asked me along,” she grumbled.
“S’long as I got to go, too,” I said.
“‘Stead I was getting beaned over the head with a water balloon.”
“It was better that what you missed out on.”
She snorted.
I scratched the back of my head.
She laughed.
I looked at her.
She raised an eyebrow and crawled over to me. On the way, she seduced me with her crawl, and then she shoved me back up against the wall. The seduction hazed me, I’m pretty sure, because she made me kiss her first. She grabbed handfuls of my very wet shirt and pulled it up right over the collar. She just left her hands there clinging on the entire while. That’s what I thought about the most.
Also that she overreacted again, but that wasn’t any of my business.
+++
We all waited outside the barn in the morning. Louis brushed all the hay off from his hair, and Zayn and Tabby giggled out from the woods near the hill near his house. Zayn had his hands behind his neck and stumbled, and Tabby went up to Liam, who handed off her glasses without saying anything.
It rained nearly forty days and forty nights, and we could only drive the highest hills. Everywhere you looked was an alligator-filled swamp, cattails to the horizon so you felt in the middle of an ocean, treading water until you drowned.
(At Zayn’s place, the creek flooded up, and all Zayn’s chickens (the eighteen of them) floated up to the house on the hill, bobbing like ducks. The dogs all made it on a raft made of barrels, and the shoats found safety on the roof, best place for rain. He wrote all that to Tabby in a postcard.)
A lot of it was fast, stuff you missed and couldn’t look out the window to catch. Sometimes it took a thousand years to get through a hundred-mile stretch where nothing grew, or a hundred-mile stretch where everything grew: farms, with all their sprinklers.
It got to be a really long time when Liam and Louis started bickering, just stupid stuff about who has their leg in Liam’s space, or that Louis sleeps too much and snores too loud and never even offers to drive, even though Tabby does all the driving. Zayn kept sending her postcards that smiled. They’d fly right in through the window, even if Liam tried to shove them back before she saw. There were twenty all along the dash of the car; she always had to show off like that.
Sometimes I ended up thinking about her, and that wasn’t good. I shouldn’t have thrown the grenade, is what I thought most of the time. Most of the rest of the time I thought, sadly, that it should be disgusting.
The rest of the time leftover that I thought, I think I liked it.
Then I got back to thinking about how you shouldn’t attack your own teammates.
Then I thought it wasn’t that disgusting. Sadly.
I thought if she hadn’t broken the Froot Loop dispenser, this wouldn’t have happened.
She kept smirking at me. She always sat in the front seat, just so she could turn around to do it, and it was more annoying that way. I glared back. She laughed at me. She always laughed at me.
Liam would get pissy and start complaining about Louis sleeping on his lap, and Louis would pretend to be asleep. And the thing kept repeating, and the rows of cotton kept repeating, and the only thing I wanted a repeat was barn night when she kissed me up against the wall.
+++
We drove for too long, when it feels like you might end up just falling asleep forever instead. It’s when it’s time to go back home, when the air tastes recycled and your eyes are burned. There was that part where you think you wanted to go back home, always right when you started. Then it would go away in a few days, and stay gone.
But when it came back and made you feel tired and your throat feel sore, then it really was time to go home.
And it was always when you were farthest from home that you realized you wanted to be back at it the most.
Louis was talking about his hammock when we went out to see the Ground Squirrel Paradise. Ground Squirrel Paradise is a bit of dirt surrounded by a brick wall, three feet high, and our shadows stretched out so far that it looked like Mars.
She paid the quarter for ten-minutes of binoculars.
“Come look,” she said, and everyone else could even tell it was directed towards me.
That was really something, because Louis tried to blow bubbles out of the pink bubblegum and Liam tore in half more of those postcards he found and Tabby cleaned her glasses.
I went to the binoculars.
“Put your hands on my shoulders,” she said.
I did. Standing up on the little metal steps, she was taller than me.
“Nice?” she asked.
“Yes.”
It was so nice that I put my hands on her waist instead, and she didn’t mind. She had a really nice waist. I liked the way my hands fit over it.
Her foot scratched off in the dust and we sailed; she was the lookout because she had the binoculars. I steered wherever she told us to go.
“Wanna see?” she asked. She angled the binoculars down so I could take a look.
I saw Liam get his foot stuck in a Ground Squirrel burrow, and Tabby had to help him remove it. There was a herd of antelope, or some aliens, in the very distance in front of the moon.
I swung the binoculars out left and found a crumbling amusement park with a rollercoaster made all of wood, and Louis went climbing up the side to slide down the biggest drop.
I gave her back the binoculars so she could see, too.
When the four of us rallied at the bottom of the roller coaster, Louis roller-skated down the big hill, flipped off the next hill, and landed far enough that he found a ragged sheet of cardboard near the bagatelle. We all climbed to the very top to slide down on the cardboard. It was so high up there that we sledded through some snow, and the ice over the tracks made us slide even faster.
Louis clung onto Tabby who clung onto Liam who clung onto her who clung onto me, and aside from being about to die, it was completely wonderful.
There was a snowdrift at the very bottom that saved all of our lives. I think some of the marshmallows from Liam’s Ice Cream Mountain fell all the way down with us, because the snow tasted very nice.
Or she crashed into me at the bottom, and that might’ve been it. Also, I might’ve kissed her. In the hair, on accident, unnoticed, because of the natural draw of calamity or because we didn’t die at the bottom.
+++
There was one other time you should’ve been there (we missed you the most, and you should’ve been there for all of it.)
It started just like any other of those middle-of-the-desert-floods you’ve heard so much about, with a purple sky, smell of hot asphalt and a dozen raindrops. It looked like Zayn’s rain finally caught up to us; I suspected the postcards left a trail easy to follow.
Tabby kept going. Liam sat in the front seat with his ankle wrapped; he had to keep it elevated. Louis kept me and her on our own sides in the backseat, and I looked out the window. It was another cornfield, eight feet high and pure gold. Also, I think we might’ve been lost, and when it started to rain, we all had to roll up the windows.
The first rain cleared all the locusts off the windshield. Tabby kept driving into it, and it kept getting worse until not just the locusts were going but the moths and butterflies and the rest of the car’s paint, too.
Tabby had to pull off to the side of the road because you couldn’t see anything anymore. Liam turned on the heater, and we all just sat and waited. Louis laid down and played tic-tac-toe by himself on my leg. It was cold, even with the heater on, but none of us had coats because it was summer.
“I think I forgot something,” she said, and opened her door.
She got out of the car, pulled all her hair out of her eyes, and walked away into the cornfield.
We all watched her go, waiting for the storm to pass. Except it got very itchy.
“Be back,” I said.
When I did step out, the water came up to my knees. I waded through everything, past the postcards, swirling broken pinwheels and cheap beads. I used an uprooted “H” sign as a raft, the plastic stem from a fabric flower as an oar. I saved any of the Ground Squirrels that I found and had forty-eight the last time I counted.
Last of all were the Froot Loops, and I had to sift through them to clear a path through the cornfield to find her.
I docked the sign where her place was that she waited. It was the calmest there because she was the eye of the storm, but it was something else, too.
I don’t know what else, just that everything about it was going backwards and she was the only thing going forwards; I think you’d know what I was talking about. The rain quit falling down and went back up into the sky. All the husks and silk and tassels all over the ground, I watched them swirl up, right back to the stalks. The corn wrapped itself away, pretty and neat, and the stalks all turned from gold to green, grew down and disappeared beneath the soil.
They were all throbbing, and I was, too. I was the most. And with everything floating away, I thought I would, too, and I grabbed onto her so at least we’d fly away to the same place.
But I was backwards as everything else, so when I went to grab her, I started to float away just like the rain, and she had to grab onto me. She grabbed onto me with both hands, and I grabbed onto her wrists just in case she decided to let me go, in case she was still mad about the water grenade because we were on the same team.
She still had the mark, and her hair was still wet, too.
Soon as the thought occurred to me, I put on some more chapstick.
“Take your hair down!” she said.
I did still have it up because the windows were always down, I remembered. When I took it down, it was almost as long as hers, but not too close. I showed her my tattoo; she had one that matched that I never knew about.
“Did you know?” I asked.
“I had an idea, yeah.”
The rain stopped.
“You shouldn’t have hit me,” she said. “We were on the same team.”
I held out my hand so she could take it, if she wanted. I was more nervous than I was when she kissed me in the barn.
“Everyone else is a few miles back,” I said. “I had to row a boat to get here.”
She made us some rainhats out of cornhusks. Cornhusks slough water very well.
And she made me wait a hundred years before she grabbed my hand. The rain washed away almost everything on the way back, but it made all the little green buds grow back, too, and by the time we made it back to the car, everything was so tall I had to hold all the whippy crawlers out of the way and she had to hack through the rest of it with a machete.
Consequently, we were forced to let go hands, and in her own typically selfish way, she kept little bits and pieces that I felt were missing like big, gaping caverns housing bats and echoes. She smirked at me every time, too and kept her hand in a fist that she waved like she kept telling me “hello.”
She was just bragging.
I held back the last creeper for her before we made it out to the road. We took off the cornhusk rainhats and she handed Tabby some corn whiskey. Tabby handed her beer off to Liam, who kept the bottle to use as a vase for flowers.
Louis had gone to sleep out in the middle of the road, basking in the evening orange sun.
When she grabbed my hand, I felt those all those little cavernous bits and pieces fitting back in, and I could breathe again. I never realized how easy it was to do everything one-handed until someone held my other one.
“Back?” Tabby sighed.
“Where are we?” Louis moaned.
“Good point.”
Tabby laid out next to him. Liam hobbled over, one-footed, and did the same.
“M’all sticky,” Louis said.
It was very hot.
Me and her sat down with the other three. Highways look a lot bigger when you’re sitting out on them. I couldn’t even see the edges, and the stripes were tall as me. It was very hot on the pavement. The mist steamed over us all like a batch of dumplings, and Liam did have some, thankfully, because we were all very hungry.
Like that movie you liked (that I really didn’t) we should’ve driven off into the sunset, and for you, I guess, that’s as good an ending as any.
It ended up with us not really going anywhere at all. We stayed on the highway all night. The rain had just moved the cornfield up into the sky over us, all out of stars. Me and her were glad it hadn’t been washed away, and we explained to Liam and Tabby and Louis that that’s where the cornfield had all gone. You could hear the keys ring even from the ground, like campanelli, like every star was a little to drink.
Tabby fell asleep; whiskey will do that. The rest of us were reluctant to let Liam take the wheel, so we stayed out for several years’ worth of nights until Tabby could sleep it off.
Louis slept with his head on my leg. Her hair flew out in the night breeze, and I put my head on her. She held our hands curled over her chest with the pinkies hooked.
I realized I felt very happy.
You take someone not going anywhere, and it was still a very disruptive thing to turn the one letter “m” upside-down. A “me” into “we.” But I liked it, and I didn’t miss anyone.
halloween at the james-oakley memorial hospital was an event that provided a sense of cheer to everyone. starting eleven years ago, the doctors had come up with the idea to have the younger patients go trick-or-treating through designated areas of the hospital. for the older and younger patients, there was a costume contest, and at the end of the night, a movie was aired in the cafeteria. this holiday was what the hospital was known and continuously praised for. it provided the families with a sense of comfort, giving the patients a chance to feel normal, not like they were patients living in a trauma one hospital.
clarke travers was a firm advocate of these festivities. halloween was her favorite holiday and fall was her favorite season. starting september twenty-third, her fall playlist on spotify was the only music she would listen to until december twenty-second. she was a firm believer in not mixing one season with another. her closet was organized by spring clothes, summer clothes, fall clothes, and winter clothes. she never mixed her seasonal clothes, and while most people thought this was absurd, it was just a thing that clarke had been doing since she was twelve.
a twenty-six year old resident, clarke had enough credits to graduate high school at the end of her junior year. she graduated from the university of california, los angeles at twenty and completed stanford’s medical school by the time she was twenty-four. now, a second year resident at the most prestigious hospital in california, clarke was working alongside some of the best doctors in the country. it was stressful, exhausting, and made her want to jump off a bridge from time to time, but once she earned her title as an orthopedic surgeon, it would all be worth it.
“travers!” her mentor, doctor louis tomlinson, called from down the hall. “a word, please!”
scurrying to join him, clarke fixed her dark hair and smoothed out the imaginary wrinkles on her lab coat. “yes?”
“what are you going to be for halloween?” really? this was the question he was going to ask? she had been expecting an invitation on a wicked surgery, not this.
she tapped her finger to her chin, pondering the question. she hadn’t given it much thought even though halloween was two days away. she was more of a last minute kind of girl, and probably wouldn’t have a costume until halloween morning.
“hmm, i don’t know. maybe a doctor.” she deadpanned, “no, i’m just kidding. maybe i’ll go as hermione granger or harry potter or something like that. why?”
louis cleared his throat, straightening his posture. “well, i was thinking that because you’re my intern, we could do matching costumes. the kids would love it.”
contemplating his proposition, clarke slowly nodded. “alright, sounds good. any ideas?”
“how do you feel about princess peach and mario?” louis offered.
clarke shook her head almost immediately. “fuck no, i used to play mario kart when i was younger, and got too competitive. i threw the controller at the tv, and that was the end of my video game career.”
louis chuckled under his breath. he, too, was a competitive person, but not to clarke’s extent. he’d known the girl for two years, and understood that she did not loose. “what about a prince charming and sleeping beauty?”
“do you know how stereotypical that is?” she rolled her eyes, “literally everyone does that. and, don’t even get me started on how that further promotes gender stereotypes.”
“bonnie and clyde?”
“i’ll keep that in mind, but hit me with a few more.” clarke answered, mentally filing that one in the back of her brain.
“members of the raiders?”
“i’m from new orleans, remember.” she reminded, throwing her hands above her head, “saints until i die!”
“what about harry and hermione?” louis asked, raising an eyebrow. “you said earlier that you wanted to be her or him, actually.”
her face lit up instantly, “louis, that is a fantastic idea. i knew this was why you were my favorite doctor!” she would have hugged him, but the chief of staff walked by mid-exclamation and gave her a suspicious raise of his eyebrows.
“not because of my ravishing looks?” he teased, a fake pout toying at his lips. “well, clarke, i’m very disappointed.”
well, his looks were a seventy-five percent of the reason that he was her favorite. she could spend hours watching him from across the cafeteria, laughing with doctor malik (head of plastic surgery) and doctor horan (head of pediatrics). the other twenty-five percent was that he in charge of her favorite department and his quick wit.
rolling her eyes, clarke couldn’t help but grin. “sorry doctor t.” she felt her pager buzz in her jacket pocket and looked down to see if she was needed. “as great as this conversation has been, doctor payne needs me in OR one.”
“clarke!” he called after her, “meet me at flight once your shift is over. we have some costume planning to discuss!”
she held her hand up in a peace sign, because yes, she still did those. “see you there tommo!”
flight was a pub just a few blocks away from the hospital. all the doctors normally ventured there following their shifts. it provided a sense of calm, which was just what everyone needed after a long day treating patients.
speed-walking through the hallway, she opened the door to the operation room, and went to wash her hands. five minutes later, she was gloved and ready to go. “what do we have?” clarke asked, standing beside dr payne.
“motorcycle crash. broken ribs and a shattered pelvis.” he informed her, “ready dr. travers?”
“absolutely.”
her shift finished at eleven that night. after consulting multiple patients and operating on four, clarke was exhausted. she wanted a hot shower and to go to bed, but she still had to go meet louis for drinks.
“ordered you fries.” he greeted happily, beer in hand. “what do you want to drink?”
popping a fry in my mouth, i relished at the savory crunch. “rum and coke, but i can pay for myself.”
“don’t worry about it.” he brushed her offer off with a wave of his hand. “i’m sure you’ll find a way to repay me.”
“i’m not fucking you.” even though she wanted to, she wouldn’t. clarke wasn’t going to be the girl who screwed the head of orthopedics, and then had all the other residents talk about how she was only doing it for favoritism.
“never said you had to.” he quipped with a charming grin.
* * *
after a long discussion on our costumes, clarke ended up wearing a black gryffindor robe over her scrubs with a wand in hand. hermione’s costume was simple enough for her just to have to the robe and wand; the only other thing she had to do was curl my hair.
louis’s costume wasn’t too much different, other than that he drew a lightening bolt scar on his forehead and replaced his contacts for glasses.
it was four o’clock in the evening, and all the young children participating in the trick-or-treating extravaganza were bunched in the library. there were about twenty kids and had been sectioned into groups of five. there was one doctor and one resident assigned to this group; conveniently, louis and clarke were paired together.
“alright, kiddos, here we go!” louis clapped his hands together, “we’ll hit the east wing first and then loop back around. sounds good, yeah?”
they all cheered happily, following his lead. clarke brought up the rear, making sure none of the kids fell behind. they were all adorable in their little costumes. one of the little girls, amelia, walked beside her, dressed like a witch.
she was six and the cutest child that clarke had ever seen. she had leukemia, but was on the road to recovery. she looked healthier than ever, and her hair had grown back to a short bob that fell just below her ears.
“dr. clarke, do you think dr. louis is cute? because i sure do. he’s nice, funny, and always makes jokes.” amelia babbled mindlessly, swinging her bucket full of candy in back and forth.
clarke laughed softly, “i do think he’s cute. but you know who I think is really cute? justin bieber.”
this steered amelia away from the topic of louis, and she was chattering about how much she loved the biebs and how she wished his hair was longer.
the event went off without a hitch, and everyone regrouped in the lobby for the costume contest. there was an array of costumes; most of the kids were fairies, witches, firefighters, or superheroes. the older patients, though, had come up with some clever ideas. clarke’s favorite was ronnie, the ten year old gingerbread man. he had flaming red hair and a baguette in hand; it was amazing.
“um, excuse me,” dr. styles, a neurologist, tapped his finger against the microphone, sending a screeching noise through the lobby. “oh, whoops. i’d just like to thank everyone for participating in this. it means a lot to the hospital, and now the time has come to announce the winners of the costume contest. if you don’t win a prize, please don’t feel bad. everyone’s costume was fantastic.”
harry’s slow voice droned through the winners, handing each kid who came on stage a second bag of candy. her gingerbread man won, as did amelia. surprisingly enough, clarke and louis won the best staff duo costume, much to the protest of zayn and liam who had gone as mermaid man and barnacle boy.
the movie was frankenweenie, and was funnier than clarke had expected it to be. she sat closer to the back of the cafeteria along with most of the doctors in case anything were to happen and they were needed to operate or consult incoming patients.
halfway through the movie, louis leaned his head close to hers. “so, since we both have gift certificates to flight, how would you like to go once this is over?”
clarke contemplated his offer, and decided that maybe a date with louis wouldn’t be that bad. he was attractive and funny, so she agreed. “sure,” she whispered back, “sounds great.”
their shifts were finished, so there louis and clarke were, sitting in flight sharing a pan of nachos. there weren’t many options other than bar food, so they had to settle for nachos, alcohol, and buffalo wings. it wasn’t an ideal dinner, but it was better than the ramen noodles that she settled on most nights.
“so,” he asked, “what made you want to become a doctor, more so, an orthopedic surgeon?”
“umm, i don’t really know.” she admitted, “i’ve always loved science, so it just felt natural to become a doctor. i want to be an orthopedic surgeon because the way bones work fascinates me. that’s why i have a degree in biomedical engineering.”
louis nodded before slapping his hand against the table, eyes wide. “oh my god, clarke.”
“what?” her first thought was that it was something embarrassing, sending her into a panic mode.
“you know what we should have gone as?” he said, a smirk tugging at his lips, “lewis and clark.”
clarke had never thought of that. she had never put their names together in that way, but that costume would have been hilarious. “next year for sure.”
they spent another hour at flight, laughing and drinking. talking to louis was like talking to a friend, not her superior. he was relaxed, speaking as though he didn’t have a care in the world. clarke was a little curious how he managed to stay so composed. this was probably why he was such a great doctor; he was never stressed.
louis drove her back to her building, even being chivalrous enough to walk her to her apartment.
“this was fun,” she grinned, “and thank you for paying for my dinner, again.”
“like i said before, i’m sure you’ll find a way to pay me back.” he teased, dragging a hand through his sandy brown hair.
clarke felt her cheeks redden, “i’m still not fucking you.”
before she could say another word, louis kissed her. it was the type of kiss that left her senseless, and she swore that she could write lines of poetry about it.
