Clarity

“Where do you want to go?” Harry asks, looking over at me as he comes to a slow stop at a light. I shrug my shoulders and smile a bit.

“I…um, I’m fine with anything, doesn’t matter to me, it’s your pick, Harry,” I tell him with a smile.

He laughs a bit and opens his mouth to speak, “I asked you, you tell me, I’m the one driving here, love,” he finishes and laughs, his dimples showing as he smiled wide. He soon turns his eyes back to the road as the light turns green.

“Okay…um, some place where we can get a burger and fries? I don’t know, that’s what I really want, don’t laugh at me,” I tell him and push his shoulder lightly. He lets out a light chuckle from his mouth as he continues to drive.

“McDonalds it is, then,” he says in a joking tone.

“Not McDonalds, anything but…please, Harry,” I tell him with a laugh as I grab my purse from the back seat of his car and set it in my lap.

“Alright, alright, no McDonalds,” he replies jokingly, turning his gaze back to the road in front of him.

I was going to check my phone to see if I had gotten any text messages. I was sure I only had a few, probably one from Harry when he got to the school to watch me at practice and from one of my friends maybe. Sure enough, I was right; I had two messages. One of them was from my mum and the second was from one of my good friends, Cassidy.

I open up the message from Cassidy first but don’t reply right off. Hey girl! You up for hanging out Saturday? Miss you, lovely xx

After I read that, I go back to my message screen so I could see what my mum wanted. I open up the text conversation between me and my mum. She was just asking when I would be home and how my day went at school. When I look up, I notice we were in front of some burger place and the car wasn’t moving.

“This place is great, way better than the Golden Arches,” Harry says with a laugh and pulls his keys from the ignition after shutting the car off. “They make good milkshakes too,” he says as he goes to open the door. He stops what he’s doing and continues to stare out the window, his hand on the handle of the door. I look over at him, a bit confused with his actions.

As I reach for the door handle, I look over my shoulder to find Harry staring at me. “What?” I question looking at him.

“Paps are everywhere, we’ll need to make a run for it,” he says and looks at me.

“On three…” he trails off as I grab my purse from the back and put the strap over my head to rest on my shoulder.

Once Harry got to one, each of us got out of the car and made a run for it to the building. I managed to slam the door shut before I am making my way up to the front of the building, Harry holding the door open for me. Flashes from cameras were coming from every which way. I give him a smile and thank him for holding it as I walked inside.

This place didn’t seem very crowded with only a few tables occupied with people. We go get in the line that was occupied by only a few people that were waiting to order. I begin to look over the menu to decide what I want. After a few minutes, I decide I what I was going to get; a bacon cheeseburger, sweet potato fries and a chocolate shake.

Harry orders his, which was the same just like mine except he got a regular burger along with the shake and fries. Just as I pull out my money to pay for mine, Harry opens his mouth and offers to pay for mine. I give him a kind smile and tell him not to worry about it. When I try again, he insists and I finally give in with a sigh.

“You don’t have to, I mean, you picked me up after practice and brought me here,” I tell him as he pays the girl behind the counter for our food. He takes the receipt and we step over so we could wait for them to call out for our food.

“It’s no problem, love, don’t worry ‘bout it, I wanted to,” he gives me a smile, his dimples showing as he stared at me. I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head at him.

“Thanks,” I tell him and push his arm and laugh a bit.

“No problem,” he mutters with a smile and stuffs his hands in his jean pockets as we wait. They soon call out each of our numbers so we could get our food along with our shakes. We grab our food before we go find a place to sit so we could eat. Smelling this food made me even hungrier. I was so hungry. As soon as Harry and I sat down at a table, I began to chow down.

“Sorry,” I manage to mumble as I look across at him, my mouth full. “I’m starving,” I mumble and begin to chew the bite of my burger.

“None taken, love,” he replies with a smile as he reaches for his shake and takes a sip. I swallow before I take a drink of my chocolate shake. We talk as we eat our food and have a good time. At least we weren’t bothered by any photographers in here. It was kind of intimidating; especially since this is the first time I’ve been exposed to this famous life, ever.

“Ya know, I loved watching you run earlier, Brooklyn, you’re proper fast, babe,” he laughs a bit and grabs a French fry from his tray, bringing it up to his mouth.

“You did now? Jealous, I see?” I joke with a smile and laugh a bit as I take a small bite of my burger and set the almost demolished food back on the semi-empty tray as I reach over to try and grab a fry or two of his. He had ordered regular while I got the sweet potato fries.

“Not one bit, I’d love to run with you sometime,” he tells me and smiles as I take a few of his fries. He doesn’t even pester me about it.

“Might take you up on that, Harry,” I reply and wipe my mouth with a napkin.

“It’s on, babe,” he smiles. “Name the time and place,”

I take this opportunity to pull out my phone so I could reply back to those messages from earlier since I didn’t when I got them. Pressing the home button on my iPhone to see if I had any new ones, I noticed there were two new ones from my mum. I roll my eyes and type my passcode in so I could read them in full.

“Something wrong, love?” Harry asks, a small hint of smile on his face as he looks over at me. I notice him pick up his phone that was lying on the table in front of him and press a few buttons, just like I was doing.

“Uh, no, just my mum, she worries a lot,” I mumble and turn back to my phone so I could read the messages. I was sure she was just asking if everything was alright since I hadn’t responded to the one earlier. She’s always been like that, one to worry.

I open up my conversation with her so I could read them. Sure enough, she was asking where I was. I decide to reply this time. I’m fine, mum. With a friend. Be home in a bit. x

Alright, darling. See you soon xo.

After I send that message, I go back to the one I got from Cassidy. I tell her I’d love to and that I’ve missed her lovely face. It’s been a while since I last saw her, I mean, I see her at school all the time but we don’t have a class together and I hardly got to see her. It would be nice since it’s been a few months since I got to spend time with her.

A few more minutes go by and we are just going on about random stuff. He tells me his best mates, also his band mates want to meet me. I laugh nervously and tell him maybe soon. We were friends, Harry and I, and I was really starting to like him. He’s quite a cool lad, funny too and cheeky. Have I mentioned his dimples? I’m glad I went to that party with my sister and met him.

“You ready to go, love? Have an early morning tomorrow with the lads, need as much rest as I can get,” he finishes with a smile as he looks up from his phone and sets it on the table in front of him.

We had cleared the table a while ago and had the remnants of our shakes setting on the table in their respectable plastic take-away cups. I nod and sit up from my spot. Harry and I finish off our remaining shakes and toss them in the trash bin before we prepare ourselves to go outside. As soon as we walk out the doors, cameras are flashing and we are being swarmed by photographers and other press people, you name it. I clutch tighter to my purse that had most of my important things in there like my phone and a few other things.

“C’mon, love,” Harry grabs me by the waist and pulls me toward his car, keeping me safe against his side. They were asking a bunch of questions mostly toward Harry about who I was and stuff like that. “Ignore it, love,” he tells me softly in the ear as he leads me to the passenger side of his Range Rover. After pulling his keys out, he presses a button. A noise sounds off and he swiftly pulls the door open for me, carefully helping me inside.

I smile a bit and tell him a “thanks” and let out a nervous sigh once he closed the door. I drop my purse in my lap and fasten my safety belt across my chest. Harry soon gets in and buckles up before we are zooming out of there. Music was playing quietly from the speakers as we drove.

“Sorry ‘bout that, Brooklyn, they can get quite crazy, still gettin’ used to it m’self,” he mutters with a hint of a smile as he stares at me from the corner of his eye. He keeps his eyes on the road as he drives.

“’Tis alright, don’t worry ‘bout it,” I tell him and stare ahead of me.

We go on about plenty of different things. He asked for directions to get to my house since he was bringing me home. Home… I think to myself. In about fifteen minutes, I will be standing in front of my house with a friend…a guy at that, someone I was kind of starting to fancy a bit. I mean, I’ve mentioned Harry to her once before a few days after we met but haven’t really spoken about it since. And that was a few weeks ago.

“And I think we’re here…” Harry says with a smile as the car slows to a stop.

I turn to glance out the window to see we were in fact in front of the place I currently resided in along with my younger sister, Bridget, and our parents. Becca is already off at University studying to be a nurse practitioner in her second year and has been out of the house for almost two years now. I undo my safety belt and reach for the handle so I could open the door.

“I’ll um, hope you don’t mind if I walk you up, love,” Harry says with a smile and puts the car into park. I just smile a bit and nod, telling him it was fine with me. He climbs out and comes around to my side, pulling the door open for me like a gentleman. I couldn’t help but smile at his actions, he was so sweet. I grab hold of his hand as he helps me out. I stood beside him and shut the door, mumbling a ‘thanks’ to him.

Harry leads me up to the front door and we stand a little ways from the door. He smiles a bit as he looks at me. “Had a great time with you, Brooklyn, I’d love to see you again,” he says and leans forward to press a kiss to my cheek. I smile and was about to reply when the door swings open. I let out a sigh from my mouth as I look over to see my mum standing there in the doorway.

“Hi there sweetie, noticed you uh…just got home. Who’s this?” she asks with a smile and gestures to Harry who stood beside me.

“This…uh…mum, this is Harry, that one friend I was telling you about…” I trail off and try to get her to go away.

“Hello um…” Harry mumbles looking at her, a bit of a nervous smile on his lips. He doesn’t seem like the type to get nervous, since he’s in the spotlight. “Mrs. Hawthorne?” he mumbles nervously. I can’t help but smile a bit, he was adorable.

“None of that…you can call me Leanne, love,” she tells him sweetly and leans against the doorframe. He nods and smiles a bit.

“Harry, how ‘bout you come on in, yeah? Just put in some fresh cookies, you’re free to stay if you’d like,” she tells him and pushes the door open a bit more. I could smell the amazing smell of the cookies in the oven from all the way in the house.

“I guess I could come in for a bit, it’s cold out here,” he says with a smile and stuffs his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

“Alright, come on inside, lovelies,” she motions for us to come inside. I turn to make my way inside while Harry just stands there.

“You comin’ inside?” I ask smiling a bit as I look at him.

He seemed to be staring off into space for a minute or two before he looks up and blinks. “Yeah, just let me go shut off my car and I’ll be right there,” he replies and begins to rummage through his pockets for something, his keys, except they were already in the ignition.

“Alright, I’ll um, be waiting here for you, I guess,” I tell him with a smile. He soon begins to make his way over to his car and opens the door. The engine soon shuts off along with the head lights. He is soon making his way back up to where I stood waiting for him.

“You a bit nervous or something, yeah?” I question with a slight laugh as we walk inside. After we walk inside and I shut the door behind us, I am attacked by my sister running forward hugging me tightly. I smile and press a kiss to each of her cheeks.

“Hi there, Bridget,” I smile at my sister and set her back on her feet.

“Hi Brooklyn, who’s your friend? He’s pretty,” she motions to Harry who stood beside me. I smile and let a laugh fall from my lips. Harry lets out a laugh as well and I notice him smile wide.

“He’s a friend of mine, that’s all,” I tell her with a smile. “You’re a goof, you know that, love,” I tell her and begin to tickle the seven year old.

“I’ve seen him before, I think, I know I have, Brooke,” she says. I can’t help but laugh at how big she talks.

“Where’s that, Brie?” I ask with a laugh.

“On TV, that um, singing thing,” she exclaims with a smile.

“The X Factor, love? My mates and I got third on that show,” he tells the small girl and leans down to her level, a smile on each of their faces.

“Yeah, that one I think!” she says happily and grabs my hand in her small one and reaches for Harry’s. The both of us laugh as she pulls us toward the kitchen.

“C’mon, mummy’s making cookies!” she exclaims a wide smile on her face. I could smell the cookies baking in the oven, the scent overtaking my nose. I smile and continue on to the kitchen, Harry on the other side of my little sister.