It’s already mid-day when we leave the auto grill again the next day. It took us a bit to fall asleep yesterday and we slept in rather long. After eating ice cream for breakfast and getting dressed in the public restrooms, we finally got back into the van.

Harry is chewing on some pink bubble gum, hair tied into a messy bun, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of ‘Come as you are’.

He turns to look at me and smiles softly before concentrating on the road again. We planned to visit a small city on the way today before we’ll arrive at the amusement park tomorrow.

“Okay, I don’t know how much money exactly you have with you, but can we please go eat at a restaurant today?”, Harry says and pouts rather cutely what makes me smile, “Before eating another of those disgusting sandwiches, I’d rather starve.”

I laugh quietly. “Don’t want you starving. We’ll search for something cheap then, should we?”

He nods with a small smile and a dimple in his cheek and keeps humming along to the song. I’m just really happy in that moment about how everything turned out.

“Why you smiling like that?”, he asks and looks over at me with a grin.

“Just glad you’re not annoying me for once.”

He rolls his eyes and laughs. “I’m bored. Wanna play twenty-one questions?”

“Is this that game where you have to reveal really embarrassing stuff about yourself?”

“I mean, maybe, yes. Depending on what I ask you.”

I roll my eyes and put my feet on the headboard. “Okay. Then go ahead, ask. But you need to answer the question you asked as well.”

“Alright, um, what would you eat if you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life?”

“That’s a shit question, Harry. It’s super unrealistic, too. Why would I eat only one thing for the rest of my life?”

“Louis, you idiot. That is not the point of the game. Just answer it theoretically. Like, maybe the shops would close and you could only shop one thing anymore.”

“That makes absolutely no sense either. Why wouldn’t I just buy several stuff?”

Harry scoffs loudly and takes an exit after having a short look at the map on my phone. “You know what, it really is impossible to play games with you. We never played for more than two rounds because you turn everything into an unnecessary discussion.”

“You suck, I want to have unnecessary discussions. That’s so much more fun than answering cliché questions.”

He rolls his eyes and nods. “Okay. Let’s just not play games anymore.” I laugh at his annoyed face and turn on the music again, singing along to Artic Monkeys.

We arrive about an hour later and park the car a bit further from the city centre. We walk there slowly, strolling through the streets for a bit, looking at clothes and other things through the windows of the stores.

“Do you see that?”, Harry asks, grinning excitedly, pointing into the direction of a small store a bit further. “It’s a vinyl store. I need to go in, please.”

“Sure, we can go in.”

He smiles and looks like a little kid getting its ice cream. “Thank you.”

The store isn’t really big, but it’s stuffed with shelves filled with old and new vinyls.

“I absolutely love vinyls”, Harry says and it makes me happy, seeing his eyes glow like that.

“Got a player?”

“Yes. Was the first thing I bought when I moved out from home. Was a little too expensive but absolutely worth it. It feels so much better to listen to music on vinyls instead of on your phone for some reason. Sorry. I’ll stop talking now, things like this just get me very excited.”

I smile softly. “I don’t mind you talking.”

“Okay. Wanna help me search for a good vinyl? I probably don’t have the money but we can still look around a bit, right?”

“Yeah. Course we can.”

He smiles and then looks away to scan the shelves. We continue looking through the vinyls in silence, looking at each other every now and then and smiling.

I gasp when I see ‘AM’ by the Artic Monkeys and pull it out of the shelf. “Look, Harry, it’s Artic Monkeys. I love them.”

He smiles and takes the vinyl into his hand. “Twenty pounds isn’t that much either, it looks new. Want to buy it?”

I shake my head. “I mean, I would, but I don’t have a player.”

He chuckles but keeps the vinyl in his hand as we continue looking. “I’ve got an idea”, he says after a while, “I buy the vinyl because I quite enjoy their music as well and then you come and visit me once we’re back home and we listen to it together.”

I don’t know why that suggestion makes me so happy, but I’ve never thought about what would happen after this. In the beginning, I was absolutely sure I’d never want to see him again, but now we’ve known each other for more than a week already and somehow, he feels like a rather close friend already.

“Deal. But I’ll pay half of it. I want it to be mine as well.”
He grins and nods and I head to the checkout while he continues looking around for a bit. When I come back with the small bag in my hand, he smiles and we exit again.

“Want to go thrifting?”, I ask and point to a second-hand shop across the street, “I don’t know if you’re into buying second hand clothes, but you can really find the weirdest things in there.”

“Of course, I want to go”, Harry says and smiles.
I smile back and look ahead of us again, opening the door of the store for the both of us before we enter.

“Beautiful”, Harry says and pulls out a bright pink dress, reaching nearly to the floor. He holds it to his body and proceeds to try and do a pirouette.

“Wonderful”, I agree and he chuckles quietly before putting the dress back into place. We stroll around for a bit, not actually looking for clothing we’ll like, but rather pointing out the ugliest or craziest pieces of clothing. Harry wrapped a coloured feather boa around his neck and is now wearing too big sunglasses as well and I try really hard to take him seriously like that.

“Okay”, Harry says and I press my lips together to not laugh when looking at him again, “I’ve got an idea. We both search for outfits and the other has to wear it for the rest of the day.”

“Do we actually make an effort for them to look good or do we pick the ugliest stuff on purpose?”, I ask and Harry rolls his eyes as a response.

“Let’s just be nice for once. Pick something you actually think will suit me.”

“You can wear everything and it’ll look good on you. That’s the ridiculous thing about it. Every weird piece of clothing has looked as if it actually suited you, except for those weird trunks, maybe.”

Harry laughs and rolls his eyes. “All about confidence, love. If you just walk around like a model on the runway, everyone will buy what you wear. It automatically makes you attractive.”

It does. “Okay, Mister Fashion. Let’s start, then. Let’s give it fifteen minutes.”

He nods and then walks off into one of the aisles, his boa waving through the air behind him. I laugh quietly and turn away to look through the first clothing rack.

I don’t really know too much about Harry’s style of clothing, except for the fact that he wears pretty much everything.

I find a white button-down shirt with a weird, black pattern on it that I could imagine to look good on him, as well as black skinny jeans. I’m not too sure about his size but it looks like it’d be too long on me, so I take it with me.

When continuing to walk, I also find a bandana and a necklace. It has a silver cross on it and I don’t think Harry is very religious, but I feel like it’d match the outfit.

After about ten minutes, I start looking for Harry. Once we spotted each other, he waves at me from across the store and comes walking over to me.

“Okay. We’ll pay and I’ll ask the cashier if we can use the changing rooms again afterwards. Don’t show me what you picked yet.”

I nod and we both pay before walking back into the store to get changes into the new outfits.

I open the plastic bag and have a first look into it. There’s a black turtleneck shirt, a-for my taste-a little too tight jeans and a blue denim jacket in it. On the bottom, there’s a small paper bag with two rings in it.

I raise an eyebrow. This is definitely not what I’d usually wear, I usually am more the sweatpants or tank tops type, but I can’t say no to it anymore now.

Once I’m dressed, I slip on the rings and it feels extremely weird on my fingers, but I try to get used to it while slipping into my shoes again.

I walk out of the room and wait for Harry while chatting with Zayn a bit. He apparently is hanging with Liam and needs advice on how to make a move with him.

Before I can help him with anything, Harry is done and opens the curtain and steps out with a smile on his lips.

He looks at me for way too long and it’s a little uncomfortable to stay still and try not to blush out of embarrassment.

“I like it”, he says and smiles, “Looks good.”

“Thanks. The rings do feel pretty weird though.”

He nods. “You’ll get used to it eventually.”

I take my time to look at him properly for the first time and of course, he looks attractive in the outfit. The bandana in his hair makes his eyes look even greener than usually, the shirt is opened a few buttons so you can see a few of the tattoos on his chest, as well as the necklace.

I clear my throat and nod with a smile. “Suits you. As everything, probably.”

He smiles. “Thank you. It’s really comfortable. Something I would’ve picked out myself, probably.”

I tear my gaze away from the little cross on his skin and nod. “Lets go search for something to eat, shall we? It’s already way too late.”

He nods and we walk out of the store together, the two plastic bags filled with our old clothes in our hands. 

We find a nice restaurant at the corner of a street and sit down, ordering after just a bit.

“No Milkshake today?”, I ask and he shakes his head with a small smile on his lips.

“Feeling more like the tap water type today.”

I laugh and take a sip from my lemonade I ordered, hoping he didn’t pick up on it. “You stick to your lemonade though, don’t you?”

I nod and smile when I see his eyes sparkling with amusement. I look down to the table again and draw a small circle onto the table with a drop of water.

“Plan for tomorrow?”, Harry asks when the waiter just brought our food.

“Thought about going to an amusement park. It’s supposed to be rather cheap. If you feel like doing something else though, you can tell me.”

“Since when do you- “, he starts but I interrupt him by bumping my fist into his shoulder.

“I take back everything I said. We go to that amusement park tomorrow and you either stay in the van or come with me. End of discussion.”

He laughs and nods before taking a bite from his burger. “Okay. I’m in.”

I smile at him shortly and continue eating as well. There’s something so happy about today, it makes me rather excited for those next few days. Harry turned out to be quite different than I thought he’d be, but I like it.

“Okay, hear me out”, he says, “You always eat the burger before the chips. It’s totally stupid to eat the chips first because in case you don’t finish all of your food, you don’t have to leave the good burger.”

“That theory only works when you prefer the burger over chips”, I say.

“Burgers are better than chips”, he says and as if to prove his point, he takes another bite.

I roll my eyes and shake my head. “No. In my opinion, they should make smaller burgers and bring more chips with them.”

“Totally stupid”, he argues and rolls his eyes, “Then just order chips only.”

“I do like the burger. I just like the chips better.”

He shakes his head with a small smile on his lip and dips a chip into the ketchup. I watch a strand of hair fall into his forehead before he wipes it away with his hand again.

“Huh?”, he makes and raises and eyebrow, “You, okay? Full already?”

“Um, no”, I say and quickly continue eating, staring at my plate instead.

When we both finished our food and paid, we leave the restaurant again. “I swear”, Harry says and chuckles, “That waiter tried to make a move on you.”

I raise an eyebrow. “It’s not like I’m good with flirting skills, but I’m pretty sure he was just being friendly.”

Harry shakes his head and laughs, brushing through his hair with his hand once. “Nah, love, the way he smirked definitely wasn’t friendly. I guess it’s my good choice of clothes.”

“You should become my personal designer.”

He nods. “I will happily do that.” He then proceeds to open his eyes very widely and smiles happily while pointing to an ice cream parlour. “Louis, can we please get ice cream? I’m really craving some ice cream right now, can we?” He pouts rather cutely and shakes my shoulder softly once. “Please?”

I laugh and roll my eyes before nodding. “Yeah, chill out. We’ll get some ice cream. Are you pregnant or what’s with the sudden craving?”

“Not that I am aware of”, he says and looks down to his belly as if he really wanted to check. “I wish I could get pregnant. That’d be so cool, wouldn’t it? I really love children. I mean, I love ice cream a little more, but babies are pretty cute.”

I laugh and shake my head in disbelief about how weirdly adorable he is. “Okay, yes. Before you try to get pregnant, we get our ice cream.”

He nods excitedly and starts searching for some coins in his pocket while walking to the store. “I want two scoops”, he determines.

We enter and order, Harry strawberry and vanilla while I go for chocolate and cookies what he thinks is boring. I tell him that strawberry and vanilla is the most basic combination ever but he ignores that and pays.

“How much was it?”, I ask when he presses the cone into my hand.

“Yeah, no, you’re not paying for that. Is on me.”

I smile and thank him with a small nod. We eat the ice cream while strolling though the city, the sun slowly going down, the streetlights letting the small paths light up warmly.

It feels like a perfect summer day when we sit down on one of the benches in the centre and watch a few children run around laughing.

“Sometimes I think children would be cute”, I say, “When they’re peaceful like that. But then, a second later, one of those little beasts starts crying and I decide against it again.”

Harry shrugs and takes the last bite of his cone. “I don’t know. Every human has its bad moments, no matter if adult or child. I think they’re a blessing. Just imagine having one of those cute little creatures for yourself.”

I smile up at him softly, taking in the happiness and green of his eyes for a second and when I turn to watch one of the kids helping up another that fell, while feeling Harry’s shoulder press into mine in a comforting manner, I feel a wave of happiness washing over me.

~~~

i know this was very long but i didn't know when to split it

more long chapters or rather shorter ones like the ones before?

hope you liked it <3