⎯⎯ 𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟖

" 𝕱ucking hell, I'm gonna die here", Darlene groans furiously tapping on the steering wheel.

Today she's taking Harry shopping because apparently, the brunet only has a select collection of normal clothes and most of it is his merch.

See, this is why she says that he's uncultured as fuck.

"I'm not calling the police, just so you know", Harry mumbles from the passenger seat staring down at his phone.

"Huh?", she frowns side glancing at him.

He exhales dramatically, "If you die, someone's gonna have to call the police. I'm saying it won't be me that does it because I'll be too busy saving my ass since I will obviously become the first suspect".

Darlene laughs rolling her eyes.

"So you finally took my advice and became a crime podcast listener", she observes earning a shrug.

Her phone begins ringing and she momentarily takes her eyes off the car packed road and answers the call bringing the phone to her ear.

"Yeah?".

"Dar, honey. I have a favour to ask".

She narrows her eyes at her mother's words and inhales, "What is it?".

"Can you please babysit Bear and Joe on Friday? I have this really important promotional dinner to attend".

Babysitting her brothers is always fun, mostly because they're pretty well behaved and think of Darlene as a literal goddess — it's probably due to the amount of gifts she always gets them and the fact that while her mother can be a little hot headed sometimes, Darlene is always ready to listen and casually brush off their mistakes.

"What makes you think I'm not busy on Friday?", she chuckles quietly.

That earns a small laugh from Kate.

"Well, are you?".

At this, her gaze turns to Harry who has already returned back to his phone.

He glances away from the screen upon sensing her gaze and arches a brow in her direction.

She assesses his expression, eyes silently roaming over his face while his brows pull together forming a small furrow between them.

Finally, she sighs.

"No. I'll be there".

"Oh, thank you so much, sweets. I promise you won't have to stay too long", Kate breathes out gratefully.

Darlene purses her lips nodding even though her mum can't see her.

"Right, I gotta go now. Bye, mum. Love you".

"Love you more, my little nugget".

Hanging up, Darlene remains quiet which only fuels Harry's curiosity.

"Everything okay?", he tries to sound nonchalant.

"Yeah, yeah . . . . are you free next week?".

"I . . . . am. Why?", he squints his eyes as a smile plays on the corner of her lips.

"Do you wanna go to Brighton with me?", she grins turning to face him when the traffic continues to stay firmly still.

Harry is, in simple words, shocked out of his mind.

It'd be safe to assume that his mind right now resembles the multiple question mark reply which people usually send when they're so confused that everything feels unreal.

?????

"Why . . . .?", he slowly manages to form the question.

"I need to go there for this modeling gig, it's only for a day but I'm gonna stay for three days. So why not? It'd be nice to have some company", she casually shrugs as if this is no greater than asking him to get ice cream.

Does he enjoy her company? Yes.

Is he absolutely infatuated with the idea of her? Yes.

Does he miss her when she doesn't text him for a day? Yes.

Is he willing to go on a trip with her even though he has absolutely no fucking clue what he'll do there?

Yes.

"Sure. Sounds fun", he attempts to keep his smile any less than moderately excited.

But he ends up grinning instead.

"Great. Oh, and we're taking a train", she points out with a little smile on her face.

He raises a brow at this.

"A train?".

"Yeah, you don't like trains? I find them very . . . . novel-esque".

"Oh, we're in a novel then?".

"I mean, at least we could pretend to be. It's more fun that way", she grins.

Smiling, he looks out the window.

"Alright".

***
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