It was late when we found a small parking lot at the side of a road in the middle of nowhere to stay at yesterday. We were both extremely tired and fell asleep immediately.

When I wake up the next morning, it’s still rather early, but there’s a really annoying bird that keeps squawking loudly.

I yawn and rub my eyes before trying to open them carefully. There’s way too much sunlight already and for some reason, it seems to shine right into my eyes.

I look over at Harry first. He’s still asleep, eyes squeezed shut, frowning slightly in his sleep. His curls are falling into his forehead messily.

I smile and reach for my phone. Zayn sent me a drunken selfie of him pressing a kiss to Liam’s cheek in some club and I smile before checking a message from mum, asking if everything is going to plan.

I didn’t tell my parents about Harry, obviously, because they’d for sure lecture me on how they told me from a young age on that you don’t take strangers with you or go with them. I just send back a thumbs up emoji because I don’t want to make up stories and lie to her, but I won’t worry her by telling the truth either.

I know how stupid and naive the whole thing was. In the beginning, it was meant to be a two-hour drive. I don’t really know what exactly had gotten into me when I asked him to do the whole trip with me that day. It’s not like I regret it though, not at all.

Harry starts moving next to me, opening his eyes with a small pout on his lips, smiling at me softly with just on eye opened slightly.

“Morning”, he whispers, voice horse, “Think I was really tired last night.”

“Good morning”, I say, trying to contain my smile, “Think so too. It’s ten by now. Ever slept that long in your whole life?”

He nods and completely opens his eyes now, sitting up slowly. “Yeah. After new years eve, probably.”

I laugh and he chuckles quietly before taking the hair tie from his wrist to tie his hair up in a rather messy bun.

“So, scary rollercoasters and sticky cotton candy today?”

I laugh and nod. “Exactly what I was planning to do, yes.”

Harry leans over a bit to open the door of the van slightly and sighs when there’s some fresh but cold air streaming inside. “Alright, if you insist.”

He takes two chocolate bars out of the side of his bag and hands me one before opening the other for himself. We don’t eat real breakfast everyday, it’s way too much effort to get all the things from the back and having to clean the plates and bowls afterwards.

Harry packed ridiculously many energy and chocolate bars, I suppose he planned surviving mostly on those during this trip, so that’s what we now eat most of the mornings.

“I used to hate rollercoasters”, Harry says and slips a hoodie over his pyjama shirt, “Until I was like sixteen, I was so afraid on going onto one. Then my friends basically forced me with them and surprisingly, it was fun.”

I laugh and crumble up the wrapping paper of the bar and stuff it into the pocket of a jacket that’s laying on the floor. It’s so messy in the van already, I’m not sure how were supposed to survive another two weeks in this chaos.

As if Harry read my thoughts, he points to the floor on which we collected trash, unfinished apples, clothes and books.

“This looks extremely bad. For the little space we have, we already managed to make the biggest mess possible. Can we please clean up a little before we continue driving?”

I nod and we both kneel down on the floor and start stuffing most of the things into a trash bag we’ll need to get rid of once we’re back to civilization.

Once we’re done cleaning and Harry placed both his bag and his backpack he never opened so far in a corner, we head outside to brush our teeth, spitting the toothpaste into the grass.

“I hope it’s not poisonous for animals. Maybe a bird will eat it and just die”, Harry says and rinses his face with a bit of water from a bottle.

I roll my eyes. “I don’t think it’ll be that bad. And stop using all of the water, it’s our last bottle, idiot.”

“We’ll go grocery shopping today, chill out. It’s not like we’re in some apocalypse, having to survive on a few litres per week.”

I try to style my hair with a bit of water and gel but I don’t have a mirror so I have to turn to Harry for advice. He just shrugs and nods, so I suppose it’ll do.

Once we’re all done, we head back to the van, stuff out sleeping bags into the trunk and sit down in the front. It’s my turn with driving today and Harry looks for the right spot in the map before turning on some music.

“Okay, perfect”, I say and adjust the rear-view mirror, “Let’s start, then.”

Harry nods and tugs a loose strand of hair back into his bun while I get the engine started.

It will take us about two hours before we’ll arrive at our destination, but judging from Harry’s look, he’s already bored now.

“We could-“, he starts but I immediately interrupt him.

“We won’t play a game, Styles, I’m over that.”

He smiles softly and quickly turns his head to look out of the window. I wait for a response but it doesn’t come, so I continue humming along to a song by the Killers.

“But I’m bored”, he whines quietly after some minutes, turning to face me again, “I’ve got a really good game, I promise.”

I sigh heavily and nod slightly. “Yeah, okay, go ahead then.”

“It’s called top three. I say food, for example and then you say-“

“Pizza, Chips, Chocolate.”

“Exactly”, he says and smiles contently, “You got it.”

I grin about his excitement and nod. “Okay, tell me your top three days.”

“Like, ever? Oh, that’s hard. Um, I suppose my last birthday, the Christmas two years ago and a day at the beach last summer.”

“Sounds good”, I say, “I need an explanation for each of them, though. I’m noisy.”

“Okay. Last birthday because my friends threw me a surprise party and we played party games the whole evening, ordered pizza and watched the Notebook. Christmas two years ago because we celebrated it all together and day at the beach because it was that perfect summer day, you know?”

I smile and decide not to pay too much attention to the sadness in his voice when he mentioned the Christmas they celebrated ‘all together’.

“My turn”, Harry says and lays his feet on the headboard, “Top three holidays you had.”

“That’s not easy”, I say and drum my fingers on the steering wheel, “One vacation I remember from when I was about sixteen, maybe. Was a really nice one with the whole family. And then last Christmas, felt good to come back home. And my favourite one is this road trip, obviously.”

We both chuckle quietly, but the more I think about it, the less it feels like a joke.

“Finally”, Harry whines once we enter the amusement park, “I wanna go on a rollercoaster first really badly.”

I nod. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”
We walk there together, looking at all the happy kids and people with their arms thrown into the air while riding the roller coasters.

We get in line for one of the not too scary rollercoasters and don’t have too wait for too long before we’re able to get in.

“Okay, I hope I won’t throw up on you”, Harry says once we lowered the safety bars, “I do get a little dizzy and nauseous when there’s a lot of steep hills.”

I laugh a bit scared and nod before the rollercoaster starts by driving up a hill slowly. It’s not too bad at first, but we drive downward way too quickly without being able to prepare ourselves, so we both end up screaming very embarrassingly.

Harry looks at me when we slow down after the next steep hill and grins amused. “I thought I was the one who hated rollercoasters.”

“You hated them”, I shout and cling to the safety bar so hard, my knuckles turn white, “I still hate them with a burning passion.”

I nearly don’t get to finish my sentence because we’re going down a hill again. Harry just turns to face me and laughs quietly before he goes pale and stares in front of him again.
We exit the roller coaster once we’re back at the start, my legs feeling a little bit like jelly. Harry looks at me and laughs, what makes me chuckle quietly as well.

“Yeah, maybe they part where I said that ever since that experience in my youth, I liked rollercoasters, was slightly wrong”, Harrys says and sighs heavily, “I’d like to stick to roundabouts and cotton candy now.”

I laugh and nod. “We can do that, love. Wanna go with that one?” I ask, grinning as I point to a roundabout with different animals, children sitting on it, smiling happily and waving at their parents, “I’ll pay it for you.”

“You actually would pay?”

I nod.

“Then I’ll go.”

He holds his hand out and motions for me to put money into it. I raise an eyebrow as if I wanted to question if he was really about to do that and he nods. “I’ll do it.”

I shake my head and disbelief but press a few coins into his hand and watch him walk away.
He really is one of the weirdest human beings I’ve ever met.

I watch as he sits down on a big elephant, smiling as if it wasn’t the most embarrassing thing ever, waving at me with a grin.

It feels like the ride takes forever, much longer than the one before. Every time Harry passes me, he waves and grins and I try not to just run away, screaming with embarrassment.

It’s finally over after a few minutes and he jumps of the roundabout, walking up to me with a big smile on his face. “Haven’t done that in ages. And I definitely think it was more embarrassing for you than it was for me.”

“Certainly”, I mumble and look down to the ground what makes him laugh loudly. I smile softly and he points to a small booth where cotton candy is sold a bit further. “I really want some cotton candy right now”, he says and smiles that childish smile that wants me to hug him and protect him from that sadness rolling over his face once in a while.

“Then let’s get some.”
He nods happily and brushes through his hair with his hand before we make our way through the masses of people.

“I want the pink one”, Harry says when we’re in line, “It looks like a cloud at sunset.”

I nod. “Yeah, of course you can’t just take the normal, white one everyone takes, right? Always a special extra for Mister Milkshake-Yoga-Notebook.”

He rolls his eyes but grins before ordering one pink, one white cotton candy for us. He pays for both of us and I don’t complain but take the way too big and sweet lump of sugar out if his hand.

“You remind me of cotton candy”, I say when we’re walking back, searching for a place to sit down at.

“Okay”, he says, “Is that good or bad?”

I shrug. “I have a hate-love relationship with cotton candy.”

He laughs. “I knew you loved me. From day one on, when you asked me to come with me so charmingly and refused to turn your stupid music down.”

“You know what, I take that back. You remind me of blue cotton candy. I really hate that one.”

He laughs and takes a bite from his cotton candy, scrunching his nose when he gets sticky sugar all over his face. “Why do remind you of cotton candy?”

“I don’t know. Everyone likes it and it’s fluffy and sweet but at the same time, it’s very annoying and sticky and you can’t get it off once it’s sticking to your hands and face. It bugs you most of the time.”

Harry giggles and it makes me smile a little. “Lets just ignore the last part and concentrate on you calling me sweet. Was that a compliment, Lewis?”
I hum. “Yeah, guess what. I can be nice, if the people I’m with aren’t annoying most of the time.”

We both can’t stop grinning, maybe it’s the sugar of the cotton candy or the sun shining down on us, maybe it’s the way Harry laughed when he rode the roundabout, but something about all of this makes my stomach flutter with happiness and nothing really feels annoying anymore at all.

We stay at that bench for a little longer before we both decide that it’s time to search for a toilet where we can wash our faces at before we want to continue driving and searching for a spot for the night.

“See, that’s where my hate-love relationship comes from. My stomach feels like it’s just a big lump of sugar anymore and my whole face and hands are sticky.”

Harry nods. “I could really fancy some salad for dinner. Would make me feel a little less unhealthy. Mind stopping at a supermarket somewhere to buy some?”

I shake my head and hold the door to the bathrooms open for us. “No, we can definitely do that. I think my stomach couldn’t take anything else anymore today anyways.”

Harry nods and laughs before walking over to the sinks, splashing water all over his face first. I wash my hands and face as well, laughing because he got his whole shirt wet. He glares at me and splashes some water at me, wetting my trousers as well as my shirt.

“Oh, fuck off”, I shout and form a bowl with my hands so I can get even more water in it. Right when I pour the whole of it over his head and he squeals loudly, and elderly man comes walking into the bathroom. He raises an eyebrow questioningly and we both burst into laughter what makes him smile slightly.

“Behave”, Harry whispers and dries his hands with a paper towel before trying to fix his hair by putting it into a bun.

“I think we need to take a shower”, I say, pointing to my hair that looks like it could use a bit of styling.

Harry laughs and nods. “Did you plan on stopping at a camping site soon?”

I shake my head as we exit again, walking towards the exit of the amusement park. “Not really. I suggest we just wash our hair in the sinks of some public restroom.”

Harry raises and eyebrow a bit questioning of that idea but nods. “So, get salad, wash hair in some bathroom, search a parking lot and sleep?”

I nod. “Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?”

We end up at some parking lot next to a rather big road. We’re definitely aware that this could be illegal or dangerous but considering there’s so many people around, we’re confident to not get killed or kidnapped.

We walk over to the restrooms after having eaten our salads, shower gel and toothbrushes with us. Harry smiles over at me softly and I can’t help but smile back, realizing how much at peace I’ve been feeling the whole day.

Once inside of the bathroom, Harry takes of his shirt to wash properly and I can’t help but stare at his muscles on his back flexing when taking it off.

I decide to rather concentrate on myself trying to get clean as soon as possible because it’d be rather awkward to have someone walking in on us both half naked in the middle of some public rest room.

We’re lucky because no one enters before we both put on our shirts. “So, how do I do this?”, Harry asks and awkwardly points to the sinks what makes me chuckle.

“Just put your head under the tap. I’ll turn the water on once you’re under it.”

Harry laughs and nods, bending down so his head fits under the tap. I press it once so the water starts rinsing. “Wait”, I say and carefully push a bit of his hair forward so it gets all wet.

“Um”, he says, “If I get up now my whole shirt will get wet. Can you maybe?” He hands me the shampoo bottle and I nod, grinning because of this weird situation. I put some shampoo into his hair, spreading it, trying not to think about how close he is and how nice my hands in his hair feel.

Once done, I rinse his hair with water and he wraps a towel around his head before getting up again, smiling. “Thanks. Feels so much fresher already.”

I grin and nod. “My turn.”

He doesn’t question it but starts shampooing my hair with his shampoo that smells like green apple and Harry. It smells like Harry and it’s Harry’s hands in my hair and his fingers massaging my scalp carefully and rinsing out the shampoo while brushing through my hair carefully. It’s Harry, Harry, Harry and it’s my heartbeat getting faster, faster, faster.

Once he’s done, I get up and smile at him, cleaning my throat and quickly looking away to get my towel and dry my hair.

It must look funny, both of our shirts half wet, despite the effort, a towel wrapped around Harry’s head, one around my neck, toothbrushes in our hands as we cross the whole rest area.

We change our shirts again and lay the wet ones down on the front seats so they can dry again before climbing into bed, both of our hair still wet.

“Night”, Harry mumbles, turning to his side to smile at me, “Hope you sleep well.”

I’m not sure why my face feels so hot in that moment even though I’m pretty cold because of my wet hair, but it almost feels as if I was blushing.

“Night”, I mumble and turn around so I’m facing the wall, “You too, Harry.”

~~~

how'd you like this one?

too long? should I split the next one again?

any wishes for the next chapters/ expectations?

<3