“What have you been doing all day?” Harry asked as he wrapped a towel around my shoulders. We had decided to come back inside a few minutes ago after chasing each other around a bit. As soon as we heard a clap of thunder, Harry thought it would be a good idea to get in the house before one of us got struck by lightning. Louis, Zayn, Liam and Niall were just retreating down the staircase when Harry was trying to get us all dried up.

“Mate, are you really going to ask me that when you’re stood in front of me looking like a wet puppy?” Louis fired back with a smirk. Niall was the first to make his way over, making a bee-line for the lounge. He hopped over the couch to snatch the remote, furiously pressing his finger on the power button.

“The power’s out Niall,” Zayn reminded him slowly. Niall whipped around on the couch to face his band mates. A look of serious concern was painted on his typically cheery face.

“Guys, what are we going to do for food?” He whispered. All of us burst in to laughter. Niall furrowed his eyebrows together, clearly not finding his question to be funny. “Stop it guys. I’m serious!”

“Niall, have you seen our cupboards? When Harry and Louis go shopping, we have enough food to last us three years!” Liam assured him, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

I tugged the corners of my towel further together in efforts to keep warm. The coldness of the rain was finally catching up to me standing here in this warm house. Next to me, I heard the soft noise of Harry’s teeth chattering together. When I looked up at him I noticed little shivers running through his body yet he acted as if they were no big deal. He must have felt me looking up at him because eventually his emeralds were staring deeply into my eyes.

“Hey, why don’t you change in to something a little less…wet.” He suggested. “I don’t thing I packed many warm sweaters for you, but you can go grab one of mine from the closet. I’ll be up in a minute.”

“NO!” Louis shouted causing everyone of us to jump and look at him in shock. A sheepish grin wiped across his face for a millisecond before being replaced by his usual grin. “I left my phone up there anyways, I’ll get you both clean clothes and leave them in the bathrooms. Follow me my dear.”

Louis turned on his heel, waving a hand over his shoulder. Harry looked extremely puzzled. Still, I followed, hoping to get out of these wet clothes. Another part of me was jumping for joy over wearing Harry’s sweater. His clothes were always massive on me. They were much comfier than anything I’d ever bought. What really got me was that they were always warm and smelled of a mixture between peppermint, ginger, and citrus. It made me feel like Harry was protecting me or keeping me close.

Louis dashed ahead to Harry’s room before gesturing me to wait for him in the bathroom near my room for the month. I obliged, not feeling in the mood to get into whatever mischief Louis was up to. I pushed the door to the bathroom open, hoisting myself up on the sink’s countertop while I waited for Louis to arrive. I desperately wanted a shower, but with the power out, I didn’t want to be the one to use up all of the hot water, not knowing when it was to come back on. Just as I was tying my wet hair into a messy bun, Louis appeared in the doorway.

“Your clothes Madame.” He said while offering a baby blue sweater from a pile of clothes in his arms. The rest must have been for Harry, who I bet was grumbling downstairs about how he could have easily just gotten them himself.

“Thanks Lou,” I replied. Louis tossed me a clever wink before heading back to the boys in the darkened house. As soon as he left the hall, tapped the door shut with my foot and shed my wet tank top. I looked down only to notice my bra had quite a bit of water damage too. My room was only in the next room over. I quickly threw on Harry’s sweater and collected the wet items I already took off in my hands.

When I peeked out the door, I could hear the boys all preoccupied with themselves, so I casually slipped from one room to the next, shutting the door lightly in the process. I dug through my suitcase to find a dry bra, switching it out for the wet one, and covering my body with Harry’s sweater once again. I shimmied out of my dripping shorts and kicked them to the side where my other clothes were before diving into my suitcase once more to see what Harry packed me for pants. Most of what he packed me were either jean shorts or my running spandex which I was highly grateful for. I slipped on my gray running shorts and tucked in just a little bit of the front of the sweater, just to prove to the boys I was actually wearing pants since it fell to my mid-thigh.

I was just about to rejoin the gang when I noticed a sliver of brown and turquoise poking out from the corner of my bag. When I reached down I noticed they were my Perry the Platypus slippers. Harry must have thrown them in when I wasn’t paying attention. I smiled to myself, cherishing the small act of kindness, before pushing my feet through them and walking confidently downstairs.

“Nice slippers,” Niall teased from the couch when he saw me enter. Liam and Zayn were playing an intense game of cards at the coffee table while Louis was on his phone in the massive chair. I made my way over to the couch and laid my legs on his lap so he could get a better view of my slippers. Louis glanced over quickly and snickered to himself. I propped my self up against the cushions a bit so I could get a better look at the intense game before me. It was actually quite funny. Liam kept wiggling his eyebrows to distract Zayn and every one in a while Zayn would send a massive kick into Liam’s shin to get him to cut it out.

My eyelids felt extremely heavy all of a sudden. I was just about to flutter them shut when the weight on the right side of the couch shifted downwards and two strong arms pulled my into their lap.

“He’s Perryyyyy, Perry the Platypus!” Harry sang quietly into my ear causing me to erupt in laughter. All of the boys turned my way with their eyebrows raised in amusement. I instantly clamped a hand over my mouth and could feel my cheeks getting warmer by the second. When all of the boys started chuckling to themselves I felt Harry’s lips press gently against my wet hair. He made everything so easy. With Harry, it was easy to laugh at myself. I didn’t feel so self conscious like I did back at home.

---

We all spent the rest of the night playing card games by candlelight. I didn’t know many games, but they explained each one before we played and caught on fairly quickly. I ended up teaching them how to play bullshit. I was pretty good at that game if I do say so myself. Louis was by far my biggest competition. He was sly. The boy had a massive poker face! Niall was the easiest to figure out if he was lying. His cheeks got bright red! Zayn would shrug and look away if he was lying, Liam spoke extremely quick, and Harry would smile. Every time he bluffed, Harry cracked the slightest smile. He would try to distract from it by shaking his hair out, but Louis and I were able to pick up on it right away.

I think it was around one in the morning that the boys began to slowly head to their rooms. Without the electricity, we all kind of lost track of time. Zayn had just headed upstairs, leaving Louis, Harry and I still in the lounge. Louis’ mischievous grin from earlier made its way back to its rightful place as soon as we were the only three left.

“You are freaking me out mate!” Harry finally said, running his fingers roughly through his hair. “What have you done to my room?” Louis stood slowly from the chair he occupied all night. He walked over, placing a kiss to the top of my head before ruffling Harry’s hair.

“I did absolutely nothing,” he replied sweetly, “Nighty night babes!”

As soon as Louis left the room Harry let out an exasperated sigh before chuckling a bit. I looked up to see his fingers running through his hair again and his eyes closed. His mouth was parted into a playful smile. He must have sensed me staring, because he looked down at me and stuck out his tongue.

“I don’t know if I should be afraid or excited to see what he did,” Harry said, pulling me further into his chest. As the night moved on, Harry and I spread out on the couch. His body was leaning up against the corner of the couch while his legs stretched to the opposite end. I was sitting directly on top of him with my arms wrapped around his waist. My head rested on his chest, tucking just below his chin.

“I’m feeling a little bit of both,” I confessed, pulling away to gage Harry’s expression. He glanced down with his eyebrows raised in amusement. “Whatever it is, he and the other boys worked all day on it.”

Harry nodded, sliding out from under me and offering me his hand. Together we made our way up to his room. Harry pause briefly in front of his door before grasping the handle. When he pushed open the door we were greeted by sheets everywhere. They weren’t just thrown in random places though. The boys transformed Harry’s room into a sheet fort! The sheets were draped from the bed posts, the dressers, the closet doors, and the window sill, either meeting up with one another at the fan, or connecting in random places. Harry’s puffy duvet was sprawled across the floor along with several pillows, a laptop, and a few movies.

Harry turned to me, smiling broadly. His fingers laced with mine at my sides. I didn’t realize how big I was smiling. It was so pretty and child-like at the same time. I remember making forts like this when I was little at my grandparents house. To be sharing a memory like this with Harry felt even better.

“Stay.” He whispered, gesturing to the room. Rather than responding, I simply lead him over to the duvet. I leaned back on the pillows resting on the frame of his bed, Harry graciously following suit. He quickly logged on to his Netflix account before passing me the laptop to choose our poison.

I instantly knew what I was going to pick. I adjusted the laptop so it rested on Harry’s knees where I could see it. As the opening to the movie started, Harry looked at me questioningly.

“When I stepped out…into the bright sunlight…from the darkness of the movie house…”

“The Outsiders?” Harry said pulling me further into his side. I rested my head on his chest, just below his shoulder smiling to myself. Just then, Ponyboy appeared on the screen with Dal and Johnny.

“You look like him,” I mumbled into Harry. I could feel him glance down out me slightly before looking back to the screen. He leaned in closer, scrunching his nose and squinting his eyes to get a better look at Ponyboy talking to Cherry.

“You think so?” He wondered.

“Sometimes…but for the most part…yes.” I admitted.

“Well, in that case, I’m a good looking kid.” I looked up to meet Harry’s playful eyes and menacing smile. He tossed me a wink before kissing my nose and settling back in for the movie.

---

As the credits rolled down the screen Harry and I let out a huge sigh. He moved the laptop from his knees and shut it lightly beside him before turning to me.

“So if I’m Ponyboy, who are you?” Harry asked with a slight laugh.

“I’ll be Cherry.” I said confidently. Harry looked at me with his eyebrows raised.

“They don’t end up together though.” He replied, his eyes searching mine for whatever I was trying to get at.

“I know, I know, but I think she cares about him just as much as he cares about her.” I answered. “It’s almost like us. They really aren’t supposed to be together with him being a Greaser and her being a Soc. You are so important and I am so normal. People don’t think we should be together.”

Harry looked at me longingly. His hand reached up to cup my cheek lightly, almost like he felt would break at his touch. I knew Cherry and Ponyboy really didn’t love each other, but I’d like to think they do. I watched Harry’s emerald eyes grow a deeper shade. The corners of his lips twitched into a smile.

“I would have said we are more of a Noah and Ally,” Harry said, causing me to smile at his Notebook reference, “But if you are Cherry, then I will be your Ponyboy and beat up every guy who doesn’t treat you right.”

I crinkled my nose for a split second, smiling at the words flowing from his lips. I was about to speak again, but Harry slid his hand farther back to the back of my head, tangling into my hair.

“Don’t you ever say that you are not important. If others don’t see it, then they are absolutely and utterly stupid. You are the most important person to me; to my life. I can’t even remember what my life was like before you, as cheesy as that sounds. If that doesn’t scream important from the top of the tallest mountain, then I don’t know what does.”

Before anything else could be said, his gentle lips were moving softly against mine.

Notes

Happy Friday:)
Has anyone seen The Outsiders? I highly recommend it!
Leave suggestions for next chapter!
Love youuu!
-Carlie Xx..