No Regrets

Harry and I took the streetcar down to a small bar on St. Charles Avenue where I knew we could grab a few drinks before we went back to my place for the night. I had already decided not to go to school tomorrow so that I could spend as much time with Harry without having to worry about doing homework for tomorrow or getting up early. That was one of my benefits of living alone- I could decide when I wanted to go to school or not, and no one could make me.

“So, Harry, what time are you meeting them at the airport tomorrow?” I asked him as we prepared to get off at our stop.

“Plane flies out at about 3:00, and I told the lads I’d meet up with them around 1:30. So, we can have a late morning.” He said with a wink.

“Awesome.” I said in reply before I pulled the signal for the streetcar driver to stop. Harry and I hopped off, and the bar was literally right there across the street. Harry held the door open for me, and we went and sat down at a table. That’s when I remembered that Harry and I were still technically under-aged, and as far as I knew, he didn’t have a fake i.d.

“So, how about I go get us a couple of drinks?” I said as I stood back up and slid out my fake.

“What would I do without you?” Harry said as he laughed and took the i.d. from my hand to examine it.

“Well, you’d go sober for the rest of the night without me. That’s what.” I jokingly said as I took it back and went up to the bar. I ordered Harry a beer and got some cranberry and vodka for myself. The bartender promised to keep refills coming to our table, since they weren’t exactly busy on a Monday night. When I got back, Harry was looking at pictures on my phone.

“Excuse me, what is that you’ve got there?” I asked as he looked up and took the beer from my hand.

“Are you trying to hide something from me, Braddison?” He asked as he held the phone out of my reach.

“Nothing but embarrassing selfies!” I said as he handed it back to me. He was only looking at the picture of us from the tattoo place, which reminded me, “are you okay with me putting this on instagram?” I asked him, wanting to make sure I wasn’t doing something that management would get mad at.

“Of course! I actually want to send them to Zayn, so would you mind sending them to me, too?” He smiled as he reached up and rubbed where his fresh tattoo was hidden under bandages. I quickly sent them to him, which caused him to pull out his phone, but I didn’t mind because I was on mine too, going through filters and thinking of a caption for the picture of us. Finally I thought of the perfect caption- I posted my picture and tagged Harry even though he wasn’t following me yet.

“Okay, it’s up. Go like it.” I told him. “I tagged you so that you could find it.”

“Love, I don’t mean to sound conceited, but do you know how many people tag me in pictures? How about you tell me your name so I can follow you and tag you in the picture I’m about to put up.” He awkwardly explained.

“Oh shit. I’m dumb,” I said with a laugh, “my name’s LizBraddison, with a capital B on Braddison.”

“Okay, I tagged you and followed you.” He said as he put his phone up. I could tell he didn’t like to be on instagram for more than what was necessary. I went to check my mentions, and sure enough, I had a follow from a @HarryStyles, and a caption mention. I clicked on his picture, which was a collage of the three pictures I took of Harry and Tom (twice) and me and Harry as the biggest picture. I read his caption and almost spit out my drink.

“Harry?” I said laughing.

“What Liz?”

“Did you read my caption before you posted your picture?” I asked him, “be honest.”

“No I honestly didn’t, why what’s wrong?” He seemed somewhat concerned.

“Oh nothing’s wrong! It’s just that we put the same caption.” I explained.

“Are you kidding?” He asked, laughing. “You put, ‘The Dream Team’?”

“I literally put the exact same thing, nothing else, just tagged you. Exactly like you just tagged me.”

“Well what can I say,” he said, still laughing as he took a sip of his beer, “we’re perfect for each other.” I leaned over the very small table and gave him a quick kiss. After that, Harry and I spent a few hours in the bar really just talking about random things and slowly getting drunker and drunker. We ended up staying until the bar closed at 3:00, but before asking us to leave, the bartender came over and embarrassedly asked Harry for a picture with him for his daughter. I practically peed on myself when he asked because I started laughing so hard. Harry happily obliged, and once again the bartender offered to cover our tab for us, but Harry left money in the tip jar regardless. The streetcars had stopped running by this hour, so Harry and I were forced to begin the eight block walk back to my apartment building. We were walking hand-in-hand when Harry started talking.

“Youknowwhat?” He slurred, “you should just come on tour with me. We would have so much fun and have great sex and you could come to my shows and it would all be fucking sick.”

“Trust me, I really would if I could, but I just need to get accepted to college first!” I explained to him, exasperated.

“No, no. Not just college.” He corrected me.

“What?” I asked, confused by his correction.

“College in London! You HAVE to go there!” He explained.

“But getting into an international college is hard! You wouldn’t know- you’re living this fantasy life!” I was jealous.

“Well, how about you join my fantasy life?” He said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

“How would I do that, Styles?” I asked, wanting to know the secret.

“Come on tour with me!” He cried out. It made me laugh, we literally made a full circle in our conversation.

“You know what?” I asked him as he looked at me inquiringly, “how about we just focus on getting HOME first, before we focus on embarking on some world tour.”

“I don’t ever want to focus on this tour…” He said quietly after a moment.

“Why? What’s wrong?” I asked him, concerned.

“Well, working and touring means no Lizzie for Harry.” He said in a childish voice, even though he was being really sincere, his drunken words made me laugh.

“Okay, you’re about to make me puke you’re being so cheesy.” I laughed as I pulled away from him, but he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me right back.

“Ohh,” he whispered in my neck as we kept walking like that, “I can’t wait until we’re back at your place…”

“And why is that, Harry?” I asked mischievously, even though I knew why.

“I think you know the answer to that question,” he said as he stopped and turned me around. I turned my face away, but he lifted my chin up to look at him. “I really am going to miss you when I leave in the morning.” He said before he crashed his lips onto mine. Like a reflex, my hands automatically went and wrapped around his neck and into his hair. It took me a moment before I remembered we were in public.

“I don’t want to talk about that right now. I just want to be in private.. with you.. so let’s keep it movin’, Styles.” I said as I took his hand in mine and we walked the final two blocks to my apartment.

Notes