𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐚 𝟐𝟓𝟖 [𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧]

𝟎𝟗. 𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐈 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐥𝐲

"Come, I'll take you to a place."

I walked beside him and we both still didn't speak, exactly like in the car.

I wondered why my haste in responding to the older and if I should have insisted that he could take two single rooms. But I really didn't see why I would, it was true I didn't mind it. More than anything maybe I had seemed a bit too enthusiastic and probably now Louis thought I was dying to sleep with him or something and that wasn't true at all! Because it wasn't, right?

I saw him go over a fence in a large field and after some hesitation I followed him. I saw him start picking apples from trees planted in what looked like an apple orchard.

"Hey Lou, what are you doing?"

"I'll get us breakfast, right? Indeed you could help me!"

"But isn't it illegal to steal apples?"

He turned and gave me a sly smile.

"It's not illegal if you don't take them off the property! Come on, go get some apples and follow me."

I did as he told me and he took me to a nearby barn. He put my apples and his into a bag he had brought and started climbing up the hay bales to the top. I followed him hesitantly. Once I got up I realised that it was really a great place. We were high enough, we could check if anyone was coming but no one could see us because we were hidden by a layer of hay. We also had a splendid view of the apple orchard and the surrounding countryside. I noticed Lou had laid down in the straw so I followed his example.

"It's beautiful here," I said.

"Yeah, right? I always pop in here when I'm in town." He did pause before adding, "You're the first person I've taken."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I'm honoured then." And I really was, I couldn't believe that I was the only person he had brought to that place. The only one. Me.

"Come on, take an apple curly" he said, perhaps not to make his previous sentence weigh too much. I did as he told me and for a while we were silent eating the apples, but then I couldn't resist and had to ask him.

"Lou?"

"Yes Harry?"

"Are we friends?"

"Pffff... friends..." He grinned between exasperation and amusement. "I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say we're friends."

"Mmm... okay." I tried not to look too disappointed but I'm not sure I managed well. He probably noticed it, got up on one elbow and looked down on me. Our faces were two inches apart; that closeness took my breath away and I felt my heart beat faster.

"Why do you want to be my friend so much, Harry Styles?" I was not able to give him an answer because first of all I didn't know it myself and then because I couldn't think clearly. It was probably the closeness, but was it normal to want to kiss him? Yes yes, it must certainly be an effect of the short distance. I stood motionless, losing myself in his eyes, unable to answer him. After a while, even if it seemed like an eternity to me, I saw him smile, shake his head and calmly lie down next to me again biting into another apple. I managed to recover for a moment, to regulate my breathing and to stabilise my heart beats. More or less...

"You know Lou, I was thinking... I know practically nothing about you." I saw him roll his eyes.

"And what would you like to know?"

"Dunno, something... Your family?"

"I hate my family and my family hates me, is that enough?"

"Oh... and why?" Maybe I should've been more delicate, but the curiosity was eating me up.