A Single Daffodil

“WADE THROWS IT UP TO JAMES! THE CHICAGO BULLS WILL NOT FOUL. FINAL SECONDS! AND HE SCORES! WHAT A FINISH! THE MIAMI HEAT WIN THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE FOURTH TIME! BACK TO BACK TITLES FOR THE HEAT!”

The crowd goes wild.

Everything happened so fast. One minute, I’m watching Lebron James do the most incredible slam dunk, then before I know it, the buzzer signaled the game was over and confetti started to pour out into the arena. The celebratory music was booming, the thumping from the crowds surrounding the court were deafening, all the players were jumping for joy, the Chicago Bulls were stalking off the court in a huff, and I can’t even imagine what was happening on the streets of Miami right now.

“This is amazing!” I heard Jayden cry out excitedly as we went onto the court to congratulate the players. “This is the best night ever!”

“We’re gonna party all night, mi amores!” Sophia announced, throwing up her arms in dance. “I am so excited!”

While Sophia and Jayden ran over to Norris Cole to congratulate him, I spotted Dwayne Wade and my dad hugging and talking animatedly to one another. I started to bee line towards them, wanting to congratulate both of them until I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned around to see two dimples, a smile and a twinkle in Harry’s eyes. Confetti was still cascading from the ceiling, and there was so much commotion going on around us, but none of that distracted me from how incredibly good-looking Harry looked tonight. I could feel my heart trying to jump out of my chest with excitement.

There was so much adrenaline and feverishness running through my veins that I wrapped my arms around Harry’s neck and hugged him tightly. “We won!”

Harry’s body vibrated against me as he laughed at my reaction. He pulled away and looked down at me. “We’ll definitely be celebrating tonight, then?”

I tried to read his expression, wondering if that question held a double meaning (as in, we’ll definitely be making out tonight) or if he was just saying it casually. While I interpreted his question, I realized my hands were still hooked around his neck, and his hands had moved around my waist.

“I-”

A six foot eight, Lebron James shadow, suddenly towered over us, cutting me off completely. “Excuse me, we need to keep things PG-Rated when on the basketball court, please!”

Lebron pulled me away from Harry, standing in between us. I immediately protested. “Hey, wait! Lebro-”

“Not now, Vita. I have something to say to this young man.” Lebron easily kept me at bay, his hand pushing against my forehead while I tried to fight him off. “I think he needs to know that if he does anything to hurt you, that he’ll have a whole NBA basketball team to answer to.”

My face felt hot with embarrassment. “Dude!”

Lebron ignored me, keeping his eyes narrowed towards Harry, full of suspicion. Harry looked berated for a couple of seconds, maybe even a little alarmed by Lebron James’s stature. But then he smiled up at Lebron, his infamous charm ablaze. “I’ll take good care of her.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear, my man.” Lebron reached out and gave Harry that international man-greeting, where the slap hands like a high-five, but then turn it into a weird man-hug thing. I stopped fighting against Lebron’s hand and watched in awe. When Lebron saw my face, he laughed. “Don’t get yourself so worked up, kiddo. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a trophy to collect! Stay out of trouble!”

And with that, he jogged over to where my dad and Dwayne were standing.

“I am so sorry.” I immediately started. “He’s an idiot, don’t listen to him. He is the epitome of a meddler.”

“I can’t believe Lebron James just threatened me.” Harry stated. “I think I’m sweating.”

“What’s up, guys?” Sophia interrupted our conversation, with Jayden and the two other One Directioners in tow. “Just got word that the after party is up and running.”

“Oh, great.” I replied.

“Liam told me Harry drove his car, so we decided you’ll ride with them to the party, and I’ll go with Jayden!” Sophia replied happily. I noticed Niall was staring at her with complete awe as she spoke. “Are you guys ready?”

Like always, I had no say in anything when it came to Harry. Nonetheless, I wasn’t entirely set against the idea of going with Harry, so I agreed with no reluctance. “We should probably leave now then, before everyone else in this arena decides to back up the whole city.”

I was looking everywhere but Harry’s face. I was still so embarrassed and flustered by his affectionate reaction to the kiss cam. Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it. Like, at all. I had already day dreamed about kissing him ever since our first date, but I didn’t quite imagine it happening in front of 18,000 people.

We left the arena right before the Miami Heat were given their trophy and made their speeches to the crowd. Mark, the security guard, happily escorted the six of us out of the arena and easily fended off any prying reporters and cameras that caught us leaving.

“Wow, I didn’t realize how crazy Miami was for this team.” Harry commented when we stepped out into the VIP parking lot. There were distant sounds of crowds cheering a couple of blocks away from the arena. I could only imagine all the bars and sports restaurants filled to the brim with partying die-hard fans.

“You have no idea.” I replied, smiling at the view of Miami. Nothing made me happier knowing my dad and his team created such a sense of exhilaration and enthusiasm around the city.

“So...your friend Sophia.” Niall immediately started the minute we got into Harry’s Range Rover. I was voted shot gun since I was ‘giving them directions’, even though we were following Jayden’s Lexus out of the parking lot. Niall leaned around my seat, his head now peaking over the middle console. “Is she, by any chance, single?”

“She is single and ready to eat Pringles, my friend.” I answered. “Go for it. She’s obsessed with you.”

“Aooooo’riiiiiggghhhh’” I caught the tail-end of his victory high-five with Liam.

Niall and Liam were everything I expected them to be, and more. They were hyper, incredibly cheeky, and apparently got a real kick out of embarrassing Harry. On the way to Jessica Franklin’s house, they kept sharing embarrassing stories about Harry on tour. I swear, there were tears in my eyes when they told the one about them locking a naked Harry out in the hotel hallway for a good thirty minutes.

“I knew this was a bad idea.” Harry shook his head and threw it back against the headrest in defeat.

“Speaking of great ideas!” Liam added. “Just got a text from Louis. He’s thinking about joining in on our festivities tonight too!”

“Yeah, Zayn texted me the same thing.” Niall said, the sound of an incoming text rang out from his phone. “It’s going to be a rowdy one, tonight lads! And girl!”

I noticed we were pulling into Jessica’s neighborhood, now we were only minutes away from her house. “I should probably warn you guys about what we’re about to get ourselves into.”

“Yeah, Vita, give us the low-down.” Niall was leaning into the middle console again.

I maneuvered myself beneath my seatbelt enough to be almost completely facing the back. “Alright so, Jessica Franklin? There ain’t no fucking around when it comes to her parties. She means business. I’m talking big, fellas. I’m thinking tonight is gonna be like The Great Gatsby meets Project X.”

“Damn!” Liam and Niall exclaimed at the same time.

“Oh yeah.” I continued, animatedly throwing my hands around for emphasis. “Tons of girls, tons of beer, hard liquor, drinking games, there’s almost always fireworks, bonfires, a pool so big it could be considered the eighth sea of the world. I mean there’s no end!”

“I’m drooling.” Niall sighed dramatically.

“Hey, no drooling on the leather! This is a rental.” Harry sat up straight to give Niall a look in the rear view mirror.

“I should also probably address the elephant in the car, too. You guys aren’t exactly of the...typical folk that attend her parties.” I hummed, not quite sure how to break the news about the girls at this party tonight, Jessica included, will be hysterical over One Direction coming to her party. “We need a safe word. Tonight’s going to get out of hand.”

“Vita, please.” Liam held up a hand. “This ain’t our first Rodeo.”

“He’s right.” Niall jerked a thumb in Liam’s direction and nodded. “We’ve been to quite a few shindigs.”

“But you’ve never been to a Jessica Franklin shindig.” I said. “The safe word is coconuts, alright?”

“Look at her, getting all worried about us.” Liam nudged Niall. “You’re adorable, Vita!”

Before I could retort, Harry cut in. “I think we’re here?”

I turned back around to the front to see we pulled up onto the empty patch of grass, right behind Jayden’s Lexus. Both sides of the road were completely lined up with cars and people, carrying cases and cases of alcohol. Jessica Franklin’s house shone brightly all the way at the end of the street. When we all climbed out of Harry’s car, the bass of whatever song was playing was muffled and loud from where we were standing.

“MIAMI HEAT, BABY!” An unidentifiable man our age, clad in only a speed-o and a painted Miami Heat logo on his chest, ran past us and right towards Jessica’s house. He earned himself a couple of cheers and high fives from other party-goers heading towards the party too.

“Yep, we’re definitely at a Jessica Franklin party.” Jayden was already out of his car too, now standing next to me as we watched the man twirl around drunkenly in the middle of the street.

When we walked through the front door of the house, I let out a huge, loud sigh.

It was much, much worse than I had imagined.

The house was absolutely littered with groups of horny girls, wearing nothing but bikinis and hot pants with the zippers pulled all the down. I was mortified, however, not surprised. This was Miami, afterall. Everything and everyone that lived in Miami was just plain filthy.

Hypnotize by Biggie was blasting throughout the whole house, but echoed extra loudly in the main high-ceilinged foyer. There were two staircases opposite each other that curved around and met at the main banister that you could barely even see, due to it being completely occupied by both drunk men and women. There were already at least six, half-naked girls standing on top of the table in the middle of the foyer, twerking on each other. I watched in absolute disgust.

“I am speechless.” Liam was the first one to re-act to the scene unfolding in front of us. Niall and Harry were clearly still in shock at what they were looking at, since they were still frozen at the front door.

“Come on.” I tugged on Harry’s arm, dragging him further inside the house and pulling him past a girl, who was decidedly meowing loudly (high?). “It’s less traumatic in the kitchen. This is just all for show.”

Sophia and Niall were already pushing ahead of us, and Jayden was introducing Liam to one of his friends he spotted, so I took this as an opportunity to make sure Harry gets out of this alive.

As we made our way through the busy house, I started to detect the questionable and feverish attention Harry was rapidly getting from the girls we were passing. I guess it kinda rubbed me wrong, because without thinking, I slid my hand down from his forearm and hooked his hand tightly in mine. As much as I hated to admit it, it was totally a territorial move and I know anyone with a vagina in here, noticed it.

Of course, Harry wasn’t about to let me off the hook either.

“That’s awfully forward of you, Vita.” Harry cheekily leaned in close to my ear. He squeezed my hand for emphasis.

I rolled my eyes. “Alright, don’t get too excited. I’m just making sure you get out of this sea of AIDS alive.”

The kitchen was less packed with people (and half-naked girls) and a lot easier to maneuver around. Niall and Sophia already had red cups in their hands, giggling and whispering in each other’s ears. I honestly have no idea how Sophia did it. Flirting and seducing men was like a sixth sense, and don’t even get me started on how fool-proof her confidence was.

I led Harry over to the assortment of alcohols that cluttered all of the countertops. “Pick your poison, sir.” I announced, grabbing two red cups and handing one to him. “The only advice I have is stay away from any bottles labelled ‘Billy’s Sizzurp’. One sip of that venom, and you’ll find yourself naked in a field in Georgia, tomorrow morning.”

“Stay away from Billy’s Sizzurp.” Harry confirmed, immediately picking up a can of coke and bottle of Jack Daniels at the same time. “Got it.”

I grinned, grabbing the jug of pineapple juice and Malibu Rum. I had zero intentions of getting black out drunk tonight, but I definitely needed to feel that nice, warm, fuzzy buzz if I was going to survive tonight.

While Harry and I were mixing up our individual concoctions, I caught Harry grinning in my direction, like he found my entire presence humorous.

“What is up with you, Smiley Styles?” I bumped my hip into his, making him laugh. I would do anything to hear that laugh more.

“Nothing.” He sipped his coke & jack, looking down at me over the brim of his red cup. When he lowered it, he looked down at me with a genuine smile. “I just-I forgot to mention how gorge-”

“Well, well, well!” I’d know that high-pitched, exceedingly girlish voice from anywhere. It was Jessica Franklin, in all her glory. “What do we have here?”

“Hi, Jess.” My voice was dirty with annoyance. She just ruined whatever kind of moment Harry and I were about to have (and it didn’t help that she was only in a bikini with her huge boobs pushed up and out --they were easily about to take out Harry’s left eye). “Great party. You never disappoint.”

She waved me off like she’s heard it before. “I gave it my all tonight, girl, in hopes that you’d bring me a couple of Heat players since it is an after party.” She turned her attention to Harry, eyeing him up like he was a huge, juice piece of bacon. My eyes immediately narrowed. “But I guess an international boy band will have to do. Hi, I’m Jessica Franklin. Welcome to my humble abode.”

While Harry politely shook her hand and introduced himself, I peered past Jessica’s huge head of black hair, and noticed her little posse of floozies standing behind her, giggling and batting their eyelashes in Harry’s direction. I was beginning to think it was a really bad idea to bring him here.

“What is that you’re drinking? Jack and Coke!?” Jessica yanked the cup right out of Harry’s hand and threw it in the sink. She batted her eyes seductively at him, apparently unaware that I was no longer standing next to him. I was about to take a knife to her fake tits, honestly. “That won’t do! My friends and I want to do shots with you!”

“Oh, I-”

“-I don’t think that will be necessary, Jessica, thank you.” I intervened, making sure to give a pointed look at her posse behind her. I could feel my territorial and jealous traits start to flare up when I caught Jessica’s wing woman, Tanya, winking at Harry. I never liked Tanya.

She pouted at me like an annoying little child. “Don’t be a party-pooper, Spoelstra! Just one shot with your friend here. I’ll bring him back in five minutes.”

I didn’t even have a chance to fight her on it, because she was already yanking Harry away from me and leading him over to the dining room. While he was being dragged by Jessica and her giggling friends, he twisted around to give me an undisputed look of terror.

I was about to march right after them to be his knight in goddamn shining armor, until Jayden and Liam cut my path off completely.

“Oh my GOD, this party is out of control! Vita, you weren’t kidding!” Liam exclaimed excitedly, taking his surroundings in. “Zayn and Louis just got here and they were already drafted into drinking teams!”

“Okay, so get this.” Jayden said, pointing his bottle of Budweiser at me. “We caught little fifteen year olds trying to twerk to a Rihanna song in the living room. Actual tweet prostitutes! Prostit-tots.”

“Prostit-tots!” Liam howled with laughter, clapping his hands. “That is actually amazing!”

Jayden laughed along at his own joke. I could sense a new bromance shaping between these two. When Jayden finished enjoying his own joke, he nodded back at me. “What’s the word? Where is everyone?”

“Well Harry was literally stolen from me by Jessica Franktard.” I stood on my tippy-toes, to see if I could see Harry’s curly top amongst the crowd. Alas, there was no luck. “I don’t even know where Sophia and Niall are. I lost them the minute we got here.”

I excused myself from Liam and Jayden to track down Harry so I could save him from his new herd of desperate groupies. I started in the dining room, hoping to spot his mess of British curls, but he was no where to be seen. I let out an aggravated sigh and navigated my way through the throngs of drunk people. Every couple of feet, I was stopped by random people to be congratulated by the big win tonight. Some of the people who stopped me, I knew from high school, but the majority of them didn’t look familiar. Being recognized as my dad’s daughter by complete strangers was something I’d never get used to.

“Damn mama, you fine.” Some random tall guy in a Lebron James jersey addressed me with a smack of the lips when I arrived in the great living room. “You wanna fool around?”

I gagged. “Literally walk away right now before I throw up on your fake Air Jordans.”

The tall stranger licked his lips. “Damn. You’re lucky I like ‘em feisty.”

“I will use your own ratchet dreads to choke you to death. Bye.”

I continued to push my way through the crowded living room. I was in no mood to humor some horny drunk Riff Raff wannabe. I was frustrated and annoyed that I was in a middle of a witch hunt, the witch being Jessica Franklin. That dumb ass trollop was playing games and hiding Harry from me, and I was not about it.

I could feel myself losing patience by the time I walked through every single room on the bottom floor. There wasn’t a Harry or Jessica in sight. I wasn’t even about to attempt to go upstairs, knowing there was probably about a hundred orgies going on up there.

Instead, I headed towards the balcony that was connected to the kitchen, picking up a discarded hoodie sitting on one of the couches (it wasn’t even mine but it was all fair game at this point, right?). There was a good chance Harry was dragged out to the bonfire pit on the beach.

I pushed the sliding glass door open and moved out onto the balcony, ignoring the severe waft of weed hitting my face and the potheads sitting there. Wind whipped at my hair the minute my feet touched the sand, the air abruptly tasting like a mixture of salt and burnt wood.

When Sophia would drag me and Jayden to these stupid parties, we always found ourselves sitting by the huge bonfire pit that sat right on the beach behind Jessica’s house. We didn’t really care much for socializing with people who found more joy in taking ecstasy than having a conversation about the latest Breaking Bad episode, so we would separate ourselves from the crazies and have “real talk” by the scalding hot pit of burning wood.

Tonight, the winds must of been extra pushy, because the fire in the pit was magnificent and bright. The heat radiating off the burning wood, could be felt from twenty feet away, which could probably explain why there weren’t that many people out here, save for three or four couples, making out in the sand. Thankfully, none of them were Harry and Jessica.

I let out an aggravated sigh as I tread through the sand, purposely kicking it away from me every time I passed a couple on the ground (“Hey! Watch it!”). With my hands shoved inside the pockets of my new hoodie, I stopped right in front of the shore, and stared out at the black ocean.

I didn’t know what I was expecting to happen between me and Harry tonight. Just thinking about the brief kiss back at the arena made every muscle in my body taut. That happening alone, was enough to make me crazy. Actually, certifiably insane.

It didn’t take me long to realize that I was sufficiently wooed by Harry. His flirty British accent had victoriously made my insides curl in on themselves; I felt like I was dying the longest, most tortuous death in the history of the world. Is that too theatrical of me to say? Maybe. But I knew I struggled to breath when I was around him, and found myself daydreaming about how soft his lips were (which, obviously, I found to be very soft) when he wasn’t around.

It was getting a bit ridiculous.

But now that he’s been snatched by the South Beach tarts, there was probably no hope for a second kiss tonight. I refused to lose this battle against those idiots. I mean, I saw him first, right? This was totally stupid.

My internal prep talk was enough to make me charge back through the sand and up the stairs to Jessica’s house. If possible, the crowd inside almost tripled since leaving ten minutes ago. When I walked back into the kitchen, I immediately spotted Liam with Jayden and a couple of his dirt-biker friends. I waved to get Liam’s attention, and when I finally did, I lifted both of my hands and mouthed the word ‘Harry?’. Liam shook his head and shrugged, clearly having no idea where he was. I nodded and waved, continuing through the hordes of loud people.

Just as I reached the main foyer of the house, I somehow managed to spot Jessica’s huge head of hair walking down one of the staircases. I practically climbed over the indecently dressed girls to get to her.

“Five minutes my ass, Franklin.” I started on her just as she was coming down the last two steps. “Where is he?”

“Who?” She giggled, pretending to draw a blank. It took her a whole ten seconds to realize I was talking about Harry. It took me a whole two seconds to reconsider punching her right in the face. “Oh! Harry! Hehe. He’s upstairs with Tanya.”

“What?” I felt my heart fall into the pit of my stomach. There was no way he would be dumb or cruel enough to even--I didn’t want to say it, or assume the worst. I glared at Jessica before pushing past her and running upstairs.

I wasn’t entirely sure what my mission was, but I was walking down one of the hallways like I had one. If Harry was getting up to what I think he was getting up to, I was seriously about to rip him a new one.

“Come on Harry, it’s not a crime.” I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard Tanya’s whiney voice echo through the slightly cracked door to the bathroom.

“No, thank you.” Harry’s voice croaked back weakly. “I don’t want to do anything with you.”

I backtracked a couple of steps and swung the door all the way open to reveal Harry leaning against the wall, who was apparently being held up by a topless Tanya.

My jaw dropped to the floor.

“What the hell is going on in here?” I demanded.

Harry jumped at the sound of my voice, while Tanya looked annoyed at my newfound presence. When Harry slowly looked up at me, the goofiest smile appeared on his lips. It was then that I noticed his eyes were bloodshot and his hair was a complete mess

“None of your business.” Tanya snapped.

“Alright.” I stomped my foot down and whistled, jerking my thumb in the direction behind me. “Beat it, Toots.”

“Excuse me?” Tanya moved away from Harry and glared up at me.

“You heard me.” I barked. “Why don’t you go fondle a drunk somebody your own size, pipsqueak?”

Tanya gasped, leaning down to grab her discarded top on the floor before shoving her way past me in the doorway.

I turned to watch her walk away, making sure she caught sight of my antagonistic glare. When she disappeared, I huffed and turned back to Harry. I didn’t even have enough time to react to his drunken state because right when I turned to him, he was falling, head first, towards the sink.

“Holy shit, Harry!” I gasped, catching him by the shoulders. I carefully pushed him up against the wall. This didn’t seem to help at all, since his knees buckled beneath him, causing him to slide down the wall and onto the floor. I bent down in front of him, my heart quickening when I realized how messed up he was. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Vita!” His goofy grin was back, except his eyes weren’t focused on my face at all. “Where did you go? I lost you.”

“Is this how you normally react to copious amounts of alcohol?” I asked, closing the bathroom door shut to give up privacy. “How many shots did you have? I need to know.”

“Uhm...wait. Vita. I have a serious inquiry.” He attempted to lift his hands but they flopped back onto his lap. “Why are we...when did we arrive at the Queen’s castle?”

“Oh my God.” Now I was really panicking. The kid has officially lost it. I immediately reached up to the bathroom counter and grabbed the nearest facecloth. I placed it under the tap and quickly ran it under cold water.

“Don’t be mad at me, Vita.” Harry moaned as I sat on my knees in front of him, attentively lifting his chin so I could dab his cheeks with the cool damp cloth. “I think I had some of that...Jessica told me to do it...”

There were three hard knocks on the bathroom door, and the sound of muffled voices coming from behind it.

“Ocupado, assholes!” I yelled loudly for the intruders to hear. I turned back to Harry. “What did you have?” Watching him struggle to come up with the words made my eyes widen. I knew I shouldn’t have let that dumb bitch Jessica to take him. I was already plotting on setting her hair on fire before I left tonight.

“Zzz...zzzzz.”

“Oh! Sizzurp!?” A sense of relief washed over me, my tense shoulders falling slack. He was acting this way because of the Sizzurp. That stuff was strong enough to make you lose your mind for hours.

“Yes, Vita! Even though you told me not to.” He pouted, his head lolling back to rest against the wall. “Why are you laughing!?”

“I’m sorry!” I couldn’t help letting a couple of giggles escape my lips as I continued to delicately dab his face with the cloth. “It’s just...you’re going to be a little crazy for the next couple of hours because you drank that.”

“Where are we?” Harry squinted, looking up and around the bathroom. “I think I’m dying. Is this Heaven? Are you an Angel? You’re so pretty.”

“Alright.” I dropped the damp clothe on the floor. “I think it’s time to take you home.”