Strong [h.s]

Black Box and a Question

I s i s

A few short months ago, I never would've though that I'd be here right now. If anyone would have come up to me and told me that I'd be living with Aiden's cousin and falling in love again, I would've called them crazy and turned the other way. Yet here I am, sitting across from Harry in an Outback restaurant, laughing at his crazy stories from his teenage years.

"We were stuck until around one in the morning, when the Hessons' finally found the three of us naked in their tree. Needless to say, we had a lot of explaining to do." Harry laughs along with me and runs a hand through his hair.

"Well when I was in sixth grade, my friends--Raina and Sadie--and I used to spy on the guy next door."

Harry chuckles, lifting his drink to his lips. "Isis Sparrow, I never would've pegged you as a stalker."

"I wasn't a stalker!" I defend, fighting off a grin. "We were just. . . Curious. We had binoculars and everything, it was ridiculously professional. Then there was that one time. . ." I trail off, not sure if I want to continue the embarrassing story.

Harry leans in closer, eyebrows raised in intrigue. "What time?"

I groan and sigh deeply. "The time Moses McCoy came out of his bathroom after a shower without even a towel on to cover himself."

Harry clamps a hand over his mouth and begins to laugh, "Did he see you guys? Please tell me he saw you."

I feel my cheeks heat up as I lower my eyes to my plate. "Not until he got his pants on. God, the horror on all of our faces when he turned around and saw us staring at him." Harry's nearly wheezing now from laughter, while I'm nearly dying of embarrassment. "He came to our lunch table the next day and we made a deal that he wouldn't tell anyone about our. . . encounter. . . if we stopped spying on him."

"Was it worth it, at least? I mean, did ya' get what you were looking for?" He asks with a coy grin.

"I swear, Styles, if you were closer to me I would smack you." I can't help but crack a smile, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of my adolescence.

After dinner, Harry ushers me outside and helps me into the car. He runs around to his side and gets in, pushing his hair back and obviously trying not to look too excited.

"You gonna' tell me where we're going now?" I ask, turning the heat up on my side of the vehicle.

Harry grins. "Nope." And with that, we pull out onto the main road to the sound of Aerosmith playing around us. "You gonna' tell me any more embarrassing stories?"

"Nope." I smile out the window as small, delicate flakes of ice begin to fall from the sky. They stick to the glass and roll down it, and the blurred city lights can be seen through the streaks of water left behind. "So how did you and Niall meet?" I ask, suddenly finding myself missing Aideen.

"Well, I was in Ireland on a photography trip, and I was actually at his family's orchard taking pictures. He was out working that day, so when he saw me, he came over and introduced himself. We talked for a little while and he ended up showing me some of Ireland's hidden gems. Then when I left, we stayed in contact and we visit each other a few times a year."

"Sounds like a romance novel," I laugh, earning a nod from Harry in response.

He chuckles, "Yeah, I guess it does, doesn't it?"

"And you lived happily ever after," I say in a wondrous tone, finishing the story.

Harry turns and pulls into the snow-covered grass of a park surrounded by cars. I can hear the bass coming from the lit-up gazebo where a band plays, and looking to the left, I see an ice skating rink. Kids wobble on the ice to the music while teenagers and adults glide smoothly across, laughing and dancing.