Loved You First

“Will you go on a date with me?” Harry asked as he pulled up in front of my sister’s and my flat, cutting the engine.

“Of course,” I giggled. “Have you got something in mind?” I leaned over the console and took one of his hands in both of mine, absently playing with his fingers.

“Of course,” he repeated, grinning at me. “But that’s for me to know.” Harry leaned over and kissed me once before leaning back and opening his door. “C’mon, then, let’s get this over with.”

“Don’t sound so excited,” I teased, rolling my eyes at him as I opened my own door and followed him up the driveway.

“They’re going to be so fucking smug,” he groaned, lacing one of his hands with mine and tossing my backpack over his shoulder.

Sure enough, the second we opened the door, both of our sisters were jumping up from the couch, Cynthia cackling while Gemma threw her hands up and groaned.

“You owe me ten quid, bitch!” Cynthia laughed, grinning wickedly at her best friend.

“You bet against us, Gem?” I asked, amused and a little offended. Gemma sighed as she pulled her wallet out of her bag.

“I didn’t bet against you, Ari, I bet against this twat,” she pointed at Harry. “I didn’t think he’d actually get his shit together to ask you out, honestly.”

“Oi!” Harry cried. “That’s proper offensive! You’re my sister, you’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Just because you’re related to me doesn’t mean I have to like you, H,” Gemma pointed out, handing the money to my sister.
Harry stuck out his bottom lip and I leaned over and kissed the pout off his lips, just because I could. Our sisters made gagging noise behind us. Harry and I both flipped them off.

****

School was strange the next day. I was nervous all day, half expecting random fangirls to walk up to me and yell about Harry and I, even though we hadn’t gone public. I felt a bit like it was written on my forehead, like anyone would know just by looking at me. Honestly, I was a bit terrified. I’d never had something I wanted to protect as much as I wanted to protect this new relationship with Harry.

“Alright, Ariela?” A voice asked and I looked over to find Amelie Austin falling into step beside me as I walked toward my locker.

“You look distracted.” Her eyes were a different green than Harry’s, lighter, sort of silvery in the harsh fluorescent lights of the school hallway.

“Yeah,” I shook my head and smiled at her. “I’m fine. Just tired. How are you? I feel like I never see you around.”

“I’m brilliant,” she grinned. “And I know! What’s up with that?”

“Probably because you’ve always got footie practice now,” I opened my locker. “Look, there’s Fenna, probably looking for you, now.” I nodded to where my best friend was standing in her practice uniform.

“Amelie! Coach wants us on the pitch in five!” Fenna called, blowing a kiss at me and giving Amelie a pointed look as she pointed at her wrist, where a watch would be if she had one.

“Better go get dressed, then,” Amelie said, giggling at Fenna’s glare. “You’ll be at the match Saturday?” She began walking backwards toward Fenna, still looking at me.

“’Course! Now get to practice, Austin!” I yelled at her. She stuck her tongue out at me but turned to jog to Fenna across the hall.

Fenna opened the door and playfully pushed Amelie into the gym. I rolled my eyes fondly at them as I pulled books out of my locker.

Oli walked up and leaned against the locker opposite mine, arms crossed over his chest and pouting. He heaved a dramatic sigh and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again. Closing my locker, I faced him and mirrored his position, leaning against my own locker.

“¿Qué te pasa, mi amor? Lo que está mal?” I cooed. What's the matter, my love? What's wrong? Oliver scowled at me.

“I don’t know what you’re saying but I don’t like that tone, Ariela Diana Garcia!” He huffed.

“Oi, full name, really?” I scowled. “For real, though, what’s up?”

“There’s a really really really fit lad who just moved into my gym class and I can’t tell if he’s gay,” Oli whined.

“Oh, woe is Oliver,” I mocked, touching the back of my hand to my forehead.

“You’re a proper shit friend,” Oli said blandly.

“Oli,” I reached out to intertwine both of my hands with his. “Don’t stress about this guy, alright? You’re cute and charming as all hell. He’d be a fool not to love you.”

“Oh, you’re just kissin’ ass ‘cause I’m mad at you,” Oliver teased, grinning at me.

“I am not!” I protested, scrunching up my nose at him. He bopped me on the nose and I clacked my teeth at his finger like I was going to bite him.

My phone vibrated in my hand just as I was nodding toward the door. Oli and I started walking toward it, backpacks on our shoulders when I unlocked my phone and read the notification.

New Messages from: Harry :)
I’m outside
We’re going on a date
Surprise!

After that, there was one that was full of monkey emojis and one full of multicolored hearts.

“Hey, where’s Alex?” Oli asked as I typed out a reply to Harry, consisting mostly of surprised emojis and question marks.

“No se,” I said absently, barely even registering that I wasn’t speaking English.

“Harry’s picking you up, isn’t he?” Oli asked when we’d walked outside.

“Yeah, how did you-oh,” I looked up and saw the familiar Audi R8 Coupe on the curb, fifteen odd secondary school girls crowded around the driver’s side window. “Way to be discreet, Haz.”

I shooed a few girls away from the passenger’s side door and climbed in, tossing my backpack to the floor of the car and turning to Harry once the door was shut. He was leaning out of his window, posing for selfies with the girls.

“One second,” Harry told the girls, flashing them a dimpled grin. They all but swooned, nodding enthusiastically at him and giggling. He turned toward me and handed me a Starbucks cup from the cup holder. “For you, m’lady,” he pointed to a Starbucks bag on the center console. “There’s an iced lemon pound cake in the bag, too.”

“Oh, my God,” I squealed, taking the cup from him and reaching for the bag with my free hand. “You’re the best!” I leaned over to kiss him, but remembered the crowd at the last second and turned my head to kiss his cheek, right over his dimple.

I coughed and leaned away from him and he leaned back out the window to talk to the girls. I tried to focus on my cake and coffee and hoped my face didn’t look as flushed as it felt. As Harry continued talking to the fans, he stretched one long arm behind him and placed a hand on my thigh, tapping something out on my knee.

I knew it was Morse code, the same phrase tapped out again and again, but as much as I’d tried to learn it when Harry had, I didn’t understand what it meant.

Girls had gathered around my side of the car again and they were knocking on my window. I looked out the rearview mirror and saw that there was a car behind us trying to leave.

“Harry,” I tugged on the arm that was reaching toward me. “Vamanos!” Let’s go!

“I’ve got to go, now,” Harry told the fans, who all frowned but nodded at him. “Don’t want to hold up the line.” He gestured toward the car behind us.

“You’re so fucking sweet,” one of the girls said. He blushed.

“Is Ariela your girlfriend?” Another asked.

“Ariela is my best friend,” Harry asked, deflecting her question more than answering it.

“Haz, we gotta go before the paps get wind that you’re here,” I reminded him.

“Thank you for meeting us!” One of them called, starting to back up.

“It’s my pleasure,” Harry smiled at her. “Can you do me a favor and make sure everyone clears away from the car? I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“Of course!” She beamed. Harry left his window down as the girl yelled, “Move away, he’s leaving!”

The girls that had heard Harry’s request helped her guide the rest of the crowd away from the car and onto the sidewalk. Harry called a ‘thanks!’ to them and they chirped back their own, ‘thank you’s and ‘I love you’s back at him.

“They were nice,” I noted, munching happily on my lemon cake.

“Most of them are, it’s just when there’re loads of ‘em, it gets a bit mad,” Harry said absently as he pulled out of the school parking lot and rolled his window up.

“So, where are we going on this mysterious date?” I asked.

“You really think I’m gonna tell you?” Harry chuckled, taking one hand off the wheel to lace my fingers with his on the center console.

“You’re the worst,” I stuck my tongue out at him. “Are you at least gonna let me go home and change, or…?”

“You said I was the best less than ten minutes ago, make up your mind! And what you’re wearing is fine,” He said, giving me a once over out of the corner of his eye.

“I take it I’m not being wined and dined, then?” I tugged self-consciously on the hem of my sweatshirt.

“You’re not even old enough to be ‘wined,’” he pointed out, running his thumb soothingly over my hand. “Seriously, though, don’t worry about your clothes. You always look gorgeous, alright?”

“You fucking sap,” I ducked my head to hide my blush, but I knew from the grin I saw Harry sporting out of the corner of my eye that he had seen.

Harry drove us further into the center of the city, almost like he was driving toward my sister’s and my flat. School was on the outer edges of London, as were all of the lads’ houses.

I didn’t bother to ask him where we were going. I knew he’d tell me if I pestered him enough, but I also knew Harry loved surprises and he’d be disappointed if I ruined it, so I kept my mouth shut.

After a bit, Harry pulled up to a large building I was familiar with.

“The Main Event?” I read the sign. “Are we going bowling?”

“Nope. You’ll see,” he gave me a dimpled smile as he opened his door and ran around the car to open mine. I ran through the list of things you could do at Main Event in my head.

“Laser tag?”

“You’ll see.”

“Gravity Ropes?”

“I’m not gonna tell you.”

“Uh, rock climbing?”

“Seriously, Ela, I’m not answering.”

“Mini golf?”

“Just get inside,” Harry laughed, holding the door open for me and nudging me inside. We walked to the front counter, his hand resting on the small of my back, and he leaned over to talk to the cashier, a teenage boy in a purple polo shirt, while I read a list of activities.

Bowling
Laser Tag
Billiards
Arcade
Rock Climbing
Mini Golf
Gravity Ropes
Karaoke
Bocce Ball

“Are we doin’ karaoke? Because that’s giving you a really unfair advantage,” I looked up at Harry, but he just rolled his eyes at me and held his free hand out to the cashier, who wrapped a purple bracelet around his wrist. I held out mine and he did the same to me.

The bracelet was one of those paper ones that would be basically indestructible and impossible to remove, and it had, ‘RC’ scrawled on it in permanent marker.

Harry kept his hand on my back as the bored looking teen led us to the door to the rock climbing area. He opened it and waved us inside, where we found the room to be void of people, save for a handful of workers in matching purple polo’s.

Harry walked me over to them and two guys began strapping us into harnesses as one of their female coworkers explained the safety aspect of the climb.

“One of those two big strong dudes will be holding on to each of your lines, so even if you let go or lose your footing, you won’t actually fall,” the girl, who couldn’t have been much older than me, explained, rubbing her hands together and pointing to two burly men standing by the rock wall. “We’re gonna start you off on this beginner wall, as per Harry’s request.”

“There are buzzers at the top, if you want to race,” the guy hooking my harness onto a line told us.

“Yeah,” the other guy snorted, tugging on Harry’s line to make sure it was secure. “Last one to the top pays for dinner.”

“This is really unfair, you know, I’m a lot shorter than you!” I huffed, struggling to stretch for a plastic rock to hold onto while Harry’s long limbs found holds easily.

“It’s really not,” Harry argued, leaning over to pull my wrist up until I could grab onto the red rock I was reaching for. “Given my coordination, or lack thereof, you’ve got the advantage here.”

We spent the next ten or so minutes scaling the wall in silence, save for the occasional laugh or curse.

“Did you really-shit,” I lost my grip and my right hand slipped off the small purple rock, scrambling to find a new hold. Harry reached a hand over and placed it on the small of back to steady me. “Did you really pay to rent out this whole room?”

“It was the only way I could think of that we’d get any privacy. We agreed to keep it away from the fans for now, so…” Harry trailed off, shrugging. The motion caused him to lose the grip his right hand had had on the rock above his head, his left hand curling on the back of my shirt as he fell away from the wall. He only fell a few inches before the rope caught him, and he hung there for a few seconds, looking at me with wide eyes.

“Jesus Christ,” he panted. “I didn’t think this would be that terrifying.” He moved his body away from mine a little bit, returning both hands to the wall to hold onto two rocks next to my shoulders.

“It’ll definitely be a first date to remember,” I giggled.

Harry leaned his head toward me and kissed me. “Here’s to many more, yeah?”

“Probably shouldn’t do that here,” I whispered, our faces curtained by my hair and Harry’s. “One of the upstairs game rooms has got a window that looks into this room, if I remember correctly.”

“D’ya think they’d be able to tell it was me from that far away?” He asked incredulously.

“Haz, seriously, they could probably recognize you by the way you breathe.”

I gave Harry another kiss to distract him then abruptly pulled away and scurried up the last ten or so feet to the top, punching a fist against the buzzer and grinning when it announced me the winner.

Harry pouted at me as we propelled back down. I blew kisses at him.

****

@1Dupdates: Harry and Ariela at The Main Event in London today! pic.twitter.com/safoho4ir2

@1Dupdates: Harry at Ariela’s college in London today! pic.twitter.com/f23fjoisads

@harryhoran: holy fuck is this fuckin real

@angiestyles: iTS HAPPENING HARIELA IS REAL FUCK

@hazsmile: ITS THE APOCALYPSE

@CynthiaNallely: “The jig is up! Ruuuuuun!!”

@Arielalala: Oh, fuck.