Chapter thirty-six
The beach was empty and lying in the warm sand was so soothing that at some point in the afternoon, I’d fallen asleep. I don’t know how long I’d been unconscious but all of a sudden I was aware of Harry calling out to me from the water.

“Babe!”

I stirred lighting, the sunlight burning my eyes.

“What?” I asked, still lazy with sleep, as I searched for Harry. I spotted him in the water, about neck deep, and playing with a beach ball that had seemed to have materialized.



“Come play!” He called again, and I readily agreed. I stood up and felt the grains of sand implanted into my back. I entered the warm water, wiggling my toes in the mushy sand as I waded in. Harry started to swim over, his hands up and ready to splash.

“Don’t…” I warned him, a smile spreading across my features.

“What are you going to do about it?” He asked cheekily, edging closer and closer to me. I started to back up, but the water made me unsteady and I felt myself trip, letting Harry reach me before I could get away. His wet, icy skin pressed against my side. I gasped, and immediately pushed him away, diving into the water to get the cold sensation over with. Once in, the water was lovely, and I welcomed Harry into my arms. He swam over, his hands pulling me into him so that I could wrap my legs around his waist and my arms about his neck as he waded around in the water. I leaned my head back, letting my hair flow out behind me, and closed my eyes.

“This is perfect,” I sighed I content. Harry pressed his lips to my collarbone where he placed a gentle kiss.

“Mhmm,” he breathed against my skin.

--

The air was fresh and crisp; comfortably cool with the promise of intense heat approaching. I opened my eyes to reveal that I was sprawled across Harry’s chest. I ran my fingers gently over his chest and allowed my eyes to drift close again. At my touch, I heard him stir, stretching out his taunt muscles as we lay in the sand. He sighed once more and then began tracing circles on my shoulder absentmindedly.

“Isn’t the sunrise beautiful?” He asked.

“Mhmm,” I mumbled in blissful agreement, snuggling in closer to him. Then, my eyes shot open.

“Sunrise?!” I gasped, shooting up and gathering our things. “Oh my God, Harry, we spent the night! We have to get back for your show and there’s a four hour drive!” Soon Harry jumped up from our sandy paradise and began throwing things in the bag he’d brought.

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Leave it, leave it,” I told him as he tried to shove a towel into our already crammed bag. He looked at it and then back at me before throwing it to the ground, taking my hand, and sprinting back towards the car. Our drowsiness and the poor early morning light did little to help us make our way through the wooden path, although this time we both managed to remain upright, our adrenaline pushing us forward. Eventually, we were back at the car. Without hesitating, I hopped into the driver seat, throwing my bag behind me.

“What are you doing?” Harry asked, clearly a bit stressed.

“Getting us back,” I said hurriedly, we didn’t have the time to argue. “We can’t afford for anther joy ride.”

He seemed to immediately agree, climbing into the car without another word. Throwing the car into first gear, I nearly burned rubber as I sped us out of the parking lot, away from the beach, and eventually down the freeway. Weaving in and out of cars and going nearly a hundred miles an hour, I felt constantly on the verge of being stopped by the police. The only thing was, they would take one look at my passenger and probably give me an escort, alarms and all. Harry, meanwhile, was gripping onto his seat with all his might, knuckles white and tense.

“You always were the more aggressive driver,” he laughed tensely.

I laughed loudly in return.

“Harry, babe, I’ve always been more aggressive period.” I smiled, turning to look at him.

“Eyes on the road!” He teased me; I simply rolled them in response.

--

We made it back just in time for the boys’ sound check to begin. I parked the car in a rush.

“Get out,” I told Harry, “I’ll be right there!”

He nodded, but didn’t listen, instead waiting for me and dragging me in tow behind him into the arena. We burst through the doors, still in our swimwear, and were met by the shocked, confused and stressed faces of Lou and Paul.

“Where the bloody hell have you been?” Paul angrily charged at Harry.

“I’m so sorry, Paul, literally we fell asleep and it was already tomorrow, which I guess is today, but
it didn’t feel like it and–”

“Cut the shit, Harry, and get in this chair, your hair’s a disaster and we’ve got fifteen minutes!” Lou yelled suddenly, smacking his ass with the backside of a hairbrush.

“Sorry, Lou,” he mutter, doing as she said.

“You’re going to be if you don’t sit down and shut up!” Paul began again. “You’re on tour, not a fucking vacation!”

“Paul, I know you're angry, but this isn’t helping,” I said, “in fact, it’s just wasting time.”

He looked at me with fury in his eyes.

“You shouldn’t even be here, let alone telling me what to do!” He bellowed and I flinched at his words.

“Paul!” Harry said, beyond cross. “I get that you’re pissed, but I swear to God if you raise your voice at her one more time, I will walk out of this arena and you won’t see me for the rest of the tour!”

Paul looked like he wanted to retaliate, his cheeks flaring and turning bright crimson. But instead, he stormed off, his agitation evident in every move he made.

“Sarah, I’m so sorry about him,” Harry said, reaching for my hand.

I placed a hand over his.

“It’s fine, he’s right,” I told him, forcing a smile.

“Sarah–”

“You’re done, go!” Lou interrupted. She practically threw him down from the chair and he was then coerced onto the stage. I watched him go, falling back onto the red couch. Lou turned at looked me up and down.

“Nice outfit,” she finally managed. I looked down; still wearing the swimsuit Harry had bought me.

“Didn’t exactly have a lot of time to change,” I sighed.

Lou continued to scrutinize me and I began to feel self-conscious under her gaze.

“What?” I asked.

She shook her head, still appearing to be wrapped up in her thoughts.

“You’re just so tiny,” she shook her head as if she didn’t understand how that could be. I immediately looked down to my flat stomach before looking back to her. She shook her head once more, before shrugging as if to dismiss the errant thought. I could not easily do the same. What did she mean I was tiny? What was she referring to? Was I not supposed to me tiny by this point? I honestly didn’t know.

Notes

Here's a really short filler chapter. This one and the next chapter are both really short so I wanted to post them close together. If I get four comments I'll post the next one today and then have another new one for Monday's update :) Please rate/comment/subscribe my lovelies xoxo