Wanderlust

My feet honestly couldn’t have moved me any faster.
Granted, I could have broken into an all out sprint, but - with the cameras right on my back as they were - something told me my speed walk was more than suitable.

The curiosity as to why London’s paparazzi were so alive at nearly ten on a lousy and wet Tuesday night was in my mind, but as I had previously discovered – they seemed rougher when the sun went down.

“Lucy! Lucy, where ya’ off to? Off to a friend’s, yeah? Who you meetin’ up with?”

The flashes continued almost mercilessly, blinding me horrifically as I struggled to keep my composure against the onslaught, as well as the rain which was building up by the minute. I could practically feel their breath on my neck – thankfully I was quite bundled up, due to the below zero weather.

I tugged my beanie down further, shuffling it so it covered a good portion of my forehead, and yanked my sweatshirt’s hood back up over my head after it had fallen from the bustle of the media.
Suddenly, it occurred to me. I could very hardly keep my destination low key when I had no other option than to knock on the front door. Just as I thought this, my cell phone vibrated from the depths of my sweatshirt’s pocket, lighting up and revealing the letters H and S.

“Hi.”

“Where are you?” He dragged out the last word, earning a smile from myself and further question from the middle aged men on my tail.
“You’re on the street? Why the hell didn’t you bring ya’ car? Are you okay?”

I laughed awkwardly, feeling as though we had about ten eavesdroppers – which we pretty much did.
“What? I’m fine, I’m two minutes away. Will’s got the car. It’s okay – they’re kind of backing off now.”
And they were, which felt like a gift from above as I noticed them lagging behind a tad rather than nearly stepping on my heels.
“I think they’ve given up. They’ve been with me for ages.”

“You walked from your house?!” He belted, stammering in pieces at the thought of me taking the journey on foot.

“Of course not, I got a taxi and got out around the corner. I don’t know why I thought that’d be smarter...”

In hind sight, it probably wasn’t the best idea to exit the vehicle with plans to walk the last fifteen minutes. My initial hope was to draw less attention to myself – or rather ‘Lucy Callaghan seen entering Harry Styles’ apartment’ – is what I was hoping to avoid, but it seemed my plan had backfired brutally.

“Well, just hurry up, yeah? Or I’ll eat all the popcorn.”

“Harry Styles, you wouldn’t!”

All I heard was his deep chuckling before the line went dead and within the next few steps I was outside his apartment complex. The photographers were still a few yards away but I could tell they were perking back up at the sight of the building.

I quickly rushed in, past the doorman just as I heard “seeing Harry Styles tonight, Lucy?” and sighed deeply as my boot clad feet scuffed against the burgundy carpet.

Steering myself toward the elevator and soon pushing the button for Harry’s floor, I attempted to catch my breath. Kara was going to absolutely kill me for this one. Not to mention Will, who would taunt and tease and probably take his jokes too far about how I was visiting Harry so late.

Exiting the elevator and stomping my way toward my intended flat, I lifted my hand, ready to knock, only to have the white door swing open before I could.

“Lucy! I didn’t know you were coming over.”

I smiled at Eleanor’s bright face, walking past after she offered for me to enter. “Starting to regret it, to be quite honest.” I answered, “Absolutely mental out there.”

“The weather, you mean?” She inquired as she looped a scarf around her neck.

I laughed, “Yeah, that. You going out?”

Louis soon traipsed our way carrying with him a duffle bag and a large jacket. “Staying at El’s tonight.” He answered for her, placing the jacket over her shoulders before leaning over to kiss my cheek. “See you later.”

“Oh, see you. Have a goodnight!” I called, hearing Eleanor call out something about calling me later.

“About time! I was about to start a movie without you, I was. What took you?”

I spun around to catch glances with the brown haired boy who had decided to invite me over so late in the night. “Shut up,” I laughed, reaching down to pull my left boot off to reveal my sock. “This country, I swear. Cameras on every corner or something?”

Harry smiled, almost cheekily, before strolling over and bending down in attempt to pull my other shoe off for me. “Yeah, something like that.”

I leaned my hand on his dark t-shirt covered shoulder to try and balance myself while I stood on one foot. He tossed the shoes aside quickly before standing back up and hastily grabbing me by my waist and roughly carrying me to the large couch residing in the living room.

I embarrassingly squealed at the action and laughed along with him as he continued to carry me. “You know, I’m actually a really capable walker, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Oh, I have,” He stated lightly, before dropping me into the cushions. “But you’ve already done so much walking tonight.”

“Oi,” I defended, a smile still on my face. “It seemed like a good idea at the time!”

All Harry did was laugh as he dropped himself beside me, our arms firmly resting against each others’ and our legs nearly on top of the other.

“And it wasn’t my idea to hang out this late. What are you, nocturnal?”

Harry pulled a face at me, his green eyes enlarging and his tongue poking out from his pink lips. “Yeah, well, haven’t seen each other for a bit, have we?”

I directed my gaze to the television, which displayed the menu for ‘The Hunger Games.’

Harry and I hadn’t seen each other since we briefly kissed, which was rounding off to a solid three weeks. Realistically, it wasn’t that long, but it really had felt like a year or two.

“No, we haven’t.” I was unsure of what to add to that, so I stayed silent for a bit while Harry leant toward the coffee table to retrieve the large bowl and television remote that were resting on it. He leaned back and placed the glass bowl holding an enormous amount of popcorn onto my lap and pressed the play button for the movie to begin its opening credits.

He abruptly stood up, making me jump as he quickly ran over to flick the lights off, enveloping us into a darkness only interrupted by the television’s light. Bounding back over on those long legs of his, he fell back down into his previous position, though this time he let one of his arms fall down to rest on my shoulders.

“I’ve missed you a bit.” He said quietly.

I looked up to find he hadn’t taken his eyes off the screen, his features being shadowed by the poor lighting and illuminating every crease and crevice. I had never had such an urge to kiss him before, but I didn’t.

I sunk further down into the couch and even closer into his warm body, feeling his arm tighten around me as I quietly replied, “I’ve missed you a bit, too.”