The Gambler

They had been walking down the boardwalk for three hours, stopping at whichever store intrigued them. For the most part, they were able to not draw attention to themselves. Elle attributed that to the fact that so many people on Venice Beach were too high on various things to really notice anyone around them, let alone celebrities. They had been stopped five times in the three hours, each encounter calm and went off without incident. They had posed for photos individually with each fan before they carried on.

They were now sitting on the beach, eating ice cream that Harry had bought them. Elle felt the sand between her toes and hummed happily for a moment. If she was honest, this had been one of the best days she had had in awhile. Despite being asked by Ryan Seacrest in the morning interview about the photos from last night, Harry had made the day with her amazing. Elle felt safe and carefree with him, like anything she wanted to do was possible. He also made her feel completely normal, despite both of their success and fame.

“Today has been wonderful.” She said happily, taking another lick of her ice cream before looking over at Harry.

He was trying to catch the drips that were falling from the cone. He noticed her looking at him and smiled at her before he opened his mouth, “Absolutely. Probably one of the last days off you’ll get for awhile, yeah?”

Elle nodded and let out a sigh, “I’ve got dance rehearsals everyday this week, more fittings, more meetings and I have to pick a setlist and pick out the songs I’ll cover.”

“I think you should play ‘Undiscovered’.” Harry suggested.

“What?” Elle asked with a look of amused curiosity.

Harry shrugged, “It was the first song I heard of yours, the night after we met. I went home and downloaded some of your songs.”

Elle stared at him as continued speaking, “I just liked it a lot. There was something so peaceful and calming about it. It made me feel like you were singing it to just me, right? There was also something so haunting about it. I loved it.”

He finished speaking and Elle noticed his tiny smile fade for a moment before he looked over at her. Elle blushed when his eyes met hers and she looked down briefly at her skirt before looking back at him, “How very charming of you, Harry. I’d ask if you used that line on all the girls, but I’m not sure if all of them have written songs before.”

Harry smiled cheekily over at her, “You’re the first, actually. Are you done your ice cream?”

“Yeah.” Elle said with a nod and began to stand up, “You feel like getting inked?”

Harry looked over at her in disbelief, “What?”

“Not real ink.” Elle said with a laugh before pointing back to the boardwalk, “There’s a place that does henna tattoos. Wanna go pretend to be badass?”

Harry laughed before he nodded his head, “What should we get?”

Elle shrugged and held her hands out him to help him stand, “Whatever we want.”

“Hmm,” Harry thought as he placed his hands in hers. She began to pull him up, but he had something else in mind. Rather than push himself off of the ground, he relaxed his body instantly becoming dead weight.

“What are you doing?!” Elle exclaimed with a laugh and staggered, trying to keep upright. Her giggles continued as she tried to pull him up only to have him close his eyes and pretend to be dead. She threw her head back in laughter and frustration, “HARRY!”

She carried out the ‘y’ at the end of his name and he opened his eyes and began to laugh at her obvious struggle. He began to stand up, but was suddenly laying face up on the sand. He blinked for a moment before he realized that she had pushed him down and was now running away from him, laughing. He jumped up, grabbing her bag that she had left behind and darted after her. Within seconds, he had reached her and he wrapped his arms around her waist. Elle let out a loud yell as he picked her up and spun her around.

He placed her on the ground a moment later after their laughter had died down and she turned to glare at him. He shook his head and pushed her lightly, “No, you don’t get to be made at me. You’re the one who pushed me in the sand!”

Elle’s glare turned into a smile then and she rolled her eyes before taking her bag back from him and pulling on his hand, “Let’s go get tatted up, bro.”

They walked over to the store, a middle aged woman sat in front of a group of boards that had henna designs on them. Three binders sat in front of her and Harry watched as Elle began to skim through the first binder.

“Matching?” The woman asked them and pointed between them, signaling to Harry that her English wasn’t excellent.

About to protest, Elle was cut off by Harry, “Yes.”

Elle sent him a shocked look and furrowed her eyebrows, “Really?”

“Easy, it’s not like they’re permanent.” Harry said with a shrug and began to flip through a book, “First one to find the tackiest tattoo wins.”

“You’re on.” Elle replied before skimming through the book quickly.

Exactly two minutes had passed when Elle let out a sound of victory, “I’ve found the tackiest one.”

“Doubtful,” Harry said with a grin before turning the binder page in his hands towards her, “I think this takes the cake.”

He watched her features study the design before she burst out into loud laughter, “You really want that tattooed on your body?”

“I believe the question is, do you want it tattooed on yours?” Harry countered and sent her a challenging expression.

Elle bit her lip and glared at him before she took the binder from his hands. She handed it over to the woman and pointed to the design, “This one.”

The woman looked at the design before she looked up at Elle and then to Harry. She studied them for a few seconds before shrugging, “Ok. Boy, first.”

Forty minutes later, they were walking down the boardwalk towards Elle’s truck laughing wildly at each other as they went over what they had just done. Harry shook his head and pressed light against his left rib where the fake tattoo was wrapped, “I can’t believe we just did that.”

“My manager is going to kill me.” Elle said with a loud laugh, “Especially when he sees what the tattoo is of.”

They were now both inked on the left side of their ribs, directly underneath their chests with a henna tattoo of two yellow pigs engaging in a rather sexual activity with text above them that read, ‘Makin’ Bacon’.

“I still think you should have gone for the tramp stamp.” Harry said with a laugh and shook his head, “We have to take a picture when we get back to your place.”

“Back to my place?” Elle asked with a faux seductive look, “Who says you’re invited to my place?”

Harry blushed, “I just thought that we could go there to hangout a bit more. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, I ju-”

“Harry, it’s fine. I was totally kidding.” Elle said with a throaty laugh as she hopped into the driver’s side of the truck. She waited until he was in the truck too before continuing, “Shall we just get something on the way home at McDonald’s?”

Harry nodded and they began to drive back from where they came. The drive home was rowdy, both of them barely stopping to breathe as they recounted all of the hilarious things they had seen on their trip. Their conversation stopped only for a moment while she ordered their food and the minute they pulled out of the drive thru, it picked back up again.

As they approached the house, Elle spotted the familiar cars lined along the street and let out a loud groan in protest, “The paparazzi are waiting.”

“Suppose they had to find you eventually.” Harry said with a sigh before looking over at her, “Want me to duck down? Hide?”

Elle shrugged, “It’s up to you.”

Deciding against it, he instead busied himself with his phone and slid the beanie further over his head. He could hear their distant calls as Elle turned into the driveway. She punched in the code for the gate before she pulled through it, leaving the men with cameras behind.

“Do you think they saw me?” Harry asked as looked back through the side mirror.

Elle laughed, “Harry, they started taking even more pictures when they realized you were sitting beside me. Oh well, nothing like a good ol’ rumor to get the buzz going about our tours.”

“True.” Harry replied as they pulled into the garage. When they were completely hidden from view by the door, they slid out of the truck and Harry followed her as she opened the door connected to the large house.

Mocha, Snoop and Dunk greeted them at the door and as Elle took off her shoes, Harry leaned down to pet each dog as they wagged happily and sniffed at them. Harry followed Elle down the hall into the kitchen where she began to pull out the ketchup.

As Harry watched her begin to unpack the meals, he felt a strange sense of dread coming over him. It was the same kind of dread that washed over him when he realized he had to leave his family and friends for tour, yet this kind of dread felt like more of a panic. He had such a great time today that he had barely realized that time was going to creep up on him and his new found friend. Soon enough, texts and FaceTime chats would be the only things to connect them.

“Y’okay there, Harry?” Elle’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he realized that she was staring at him with a tilt of her head.

Harry nodded and was silent for a moment before he spoke, “Do you think you’d want to come see me on tour?”

Her eyes snapped up to meet his and she put the fry that she was about to eat back down in the carton.

“Not just me, but the lads.” Harry explained and scratched the back of his neck, “If you don’t want to, I understa-”

“Do you want me to come visit you?” Elle asked and stared at him, a serious expression coming over her face.

Harry nodded and sighed, “Yeah, I do. A lot actually.”

Elle remained quiet and the pair stared at each other for a few moments before she nodded her head and popped the fry back into her mouth, “I’ll visit you as long as you visit me, deal?”

“Deal.” Harry said with a genuine smile and before he knew it, they were back to joking around. They ate their dinner in the living room in front of the large TV, watching whatever random program caught their interest.

It wasn’t until later, much later when their conversation had grown quiet. Mocha was curled up on Harry’s lap, her head leaning against his chest like a large, furry baby. Elle was covered by Snoop and Dunk both snoring rather loudly. They were watching a re-run of Friends, the one where Phoebe calls Rachel and Ross lobsters and both were at peace.

Snoop let out a rather loud snore that made both Elle and Harry snicker and she turned to look at him, a sense of adoration in her eyes before she spoke, “Y’know, Mocha doesn’t usually like people. She barked at Demi Lovato for ten minutes straight before she would calm down. And even then she didn’t go near her for the night.”

Harry smiled and scratched the dog between the ears lovingly, “I guess I’m special then.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Elle’s voice trailed off as she stared at the way he was handling Mocha. Truth be told, she agreed with Harry wholeheartedly about him being special. He, along with the other members of the band, was the first boy she had let into her life since her dad had passed away. Of course she had a few friends that were boys and there were the various celebrities she met, but he was the first one that she could feel herself beginning to trust. There was something about him that was different, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“I should probably get going. Paul’s been texting me all night asking me where I’ve been. He’s on his way over now.” Harry said with a small pout, “I don’t want to leave.”

Elle chuckled quietly, “You’re more than welcome to come back whenever you’d like.”

“Am I?” Harry asked with a grin.

Elle nodded and blushed lightly, “Of course.”

A silence washed over them as they stared at each other before Harry rubbed his hands together, “Shall we take our matching tattoo photos before he comes then?”

Elle laughed and nodded, lightly nudging the two dogs off her lap, “Yes!”

Harry scooted out from under Mocha as carefully as he could and stood up. Elle began to walk down the hall and he followed her with curiosity. She turned to look at him with a small smile, “I have a huge mirror in my room where we can take the picture.”

Harry nodded and tried to fight back the feeling of being excited at the prospect of going to her bedroom. She opened a door to the left and he followed her in as she turned the light on. It was a large spacious room and Harry tried to take in every detail he could. Elle walked over to the mirror across the room near a break in the wall and looked at him in the reflection, “Well, come on then!”

Harry laughed and walked over to her. He swallowed the lump in his throat that rose as he watched her take off her jean jacket and pull the hem of her shirt up. He watched as the fabric rose and rose until just above her bra, the lacy black material becoming visible to him for the second time today.

Elle sent him a reassuring smile and he quickly took off his shirt. Unaware of how to stand now, he looked at her reflection, “How should we do this?”

Elle laughed, “It’s not rocket science, Haz. Just come stand behind me, get in close so I can get both of us in.

With moments, Harry was standing directly behind her and she pulled out her phone, ready to snap away some pictures. Harry did the same and he began to let loose, allowing himself to be goofy as they posed. Laughter was loud between them yet again and as Elle lowered her shirt back down after what had to be the 20th picture they had taken, they heard the sound of the front door ringing. Harry had texted Paul the code to enter the gates.

They began to walk down the stairs together and Harry felt the sense of panic rush back to him. He opened the door first and slid on his shoes that, to his pleasant surprise, Mocha had brought him from the back.

Paul waved to him and made his way back to the car while Harry turned to face Elle. Her bottom lip was pulled in by her teeth and her arms were crossed over his chest. It was the same pose his past girlfriends had given him when he was about to leave them for awhile. Harry let out a deep sigh and pulled at the beanie on his head, “So...”

“So...” Elle repeated.

Harry was about to speak, when Elle’s arms were suddenly wrapped around his waist, her face buried in his chest. His arms instinctively wrapped around her shoulders, his lips resting on the top of her head. They stood like that for a few moments before Elle pulled away.

Her movement had been quick, though Harry had seen it. Her left hand had wiped at her eyes so quickly, he was positive if he had blinked, he would have missed it. She was crying because he was about to leave. He frowned lightly, “You ok?”

“Yeah.” She replied before coughing and nodding her head, “I always get emotional during goodbyes. I was just thinking that I probably won’t see you again while you’re here. I’m super busy.”

Harry nodded, “Okay. Well, we promised we’d visit, right?”

“Right.” Elle replied with a small smile, “Have fun on tour.”

“You too.” Harry replied and sensing the end of their day together he spoke in a rush, “Don’t be a stranger, ok? I’ll text you everyday.”

Elle laughed, “Harry, it’s not like we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. Text me when you’re free. I’m sure I’ll see you soon.”

Harry nodded and hugged her one last time before he turned to leave, “Bye Elle.”

“Bye Harry.” Her small voice replied before he began to walk away.