"Another snowy day. I hate snow. I hate winters in Chicago, I used to love them, but now I hate them. Lots of people, lots of traffic, commute to work is unbearable. Everything turns into chaos when it snows. Is nothing like the movies.
I want to get out of here, maybe to be a famous Broadway singer because there is where you can dance, sing, and be someone or at least, be with someone. But now I haven't accomplished any of those things.
Not even having again meaningless sex in a bathroom with a hot model that I met at one of my auditions for a play. And this was more than a couple of months ago. God, I miss sex, I miss being with someone.
Lately, it's been so difficult to be here among hordes of people who just don't care," Harry wrote in his journal while sitting on a crowded subway when he noticed a guy was staring at him. He glanced at the guy and he smiled, Harry ignored him and kept writing. He was so into it that he missed his stop.
"Damn it!" Harry said standing up and walking through all the people by the wagon door. He waited for the next stop and got out.
He continued walking and cursing while he was trying to cover his body from the harsh weather with his coat and scarf as he was getting out the station.
He has two jobs now, one at the Chicago Public Library Gift Shop and the second one at the Christmas market near Millenium Park. And every now and then he has some gigs that give him more cash. Living in the city is expensive and he has to pay the bills.
He got to his shift at the library, cursing and trying to find his journal in his backpack.
"Damn it! It can't be! Where the fuck is it?!" Harry said out loud.
"Hey man! Morning!!" The security guard said smiling at him.
"It's not Ben! It's been an awful morning, the subway was jammed, I missed my stop, the cold is insufferable and on top of that, it seems that I've lost my journal! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Harry cursed out loud and a couple of kids were watching him scared and their mom just glanced at Harry and walked away.
"Oh, man... you certainly got up on the wrong side of the bed today," he said and Harry kept cursing.
************
Zayn was looking at this guy so intently. He was so gorgeous, with rosy skin, brown long curly hair, and beautiful red lips.
"Shit! He's looking at me. He doesn't seem happy," he thought, but he smiled at him anyways when he glanced looking up from his notebook. "He has beautiful eyes too," he whispered to himself, then he realized that he had to get off at the next stop.
The long hair guy stood up, cursing all the time. Zayn was exactly right behind him but he didn't notice.
He got off the wagon and Zayn too, he followed him with his eyes until he disappeared within the sea of people.
The subway platform was empty now, waiting for the next train to arrive and slowly people began gathering to hop on, that's when Zayn saw a brown notebook on the floor next to a trash can.
"Oh..." he said picking it up and remembering the curly guy was writing in a similar one moments ago. "It couldn't be...," Zayn said surprised.
"Zayn! I'm here man!" Nathan shouted and hugged Zayn.
"Oh hi man, good, good!" Zayn said smiling.
"What's that?" Nathan asked watching the journal in Zayn's hands.
"Oh, nothing, let's go," Zayn said putting the notebook into his messenger bag.
Nathan was his long-time friend from
Nashville and he was visiting his brothers Caleb and Jared for the holidays in the city.
Zayn works as a photographer in a leisure magazine but he's looking to get into the Chicago Tribune or maybe the Times in New York or LA someday.
"So, how are your brothers?" Zayn asked Nathan.
"Good, their bar is doing great, you should come this weekend," he said.
"Sure, I'd try," Zayn said. He knew that he wasn't going to but he didn't say it. He isn't fond of crowds.
"So, what do you want to do first?" Zayn asked.
"Mmh we are near the Public Library, aren't we? I've heard it's a beautiful building here," Nathan said and Zayn nodded guiding the way.
After walking several blocks, they got to the place and came inside. Zayn began taking pictures and Nathan too, he was so excited about it and at the end, he wanted some souvenirs for his folks and his girlfriend in Nashville.
"There's the gift shop, I need some cute things to buy. Come in with me?" Nathan said.
"Sure, let's go," Zayn said and in that moment he received a phone call from the office and he motioned to Nathan to go inside without him.
Harry was inside the store in the middle of his shift sulking about his diary, the notebook was a gift from his grandmother who passed away the year before.
"29.99 please," he said.
"Here, erm, are you a local right? What do you do during the holidays here?" Nathan asked Harry.
"Erm... yeah, mmh ice skating... Christmas markets," he answered uninterestedly.
"I see, any recommendations?" I'm from the south and I'm visiting, y'know?" Nathan said smiling at the guy.
Harry remembered when he first came to the city from his small town in Wisconsin, he was so excited to be here too.
"Erm... Millennium Park has an ice rink and a market. It's cute," Harry said with a fake smile.
"Thanks! See ya!" Nathan said exiting the gift shop and Zayn was sitting waiting for him outside.
"Done?" He asked.
"Yes, let's go. The employee told me about some Christmas markets, maybe we can go later? It has an ice rink," Nathan said excitedly.
"Sure," Zayn said.
They walked around the city for the rest of the day, they went to the classic touristy spots and the skyscrapers.
"It's late now... we walked a lot today man," Nathan said.
"I know, it's normal in here. Erm...I gotta go home, I need to work on something," Zayn said.
"Sure man, let's go to that market tomorrow, yeah?!" Nathan said excitedly.
"Of course, let's do that," Zayn said sighing and hugging his friend.
He walked towards the subway to go home, he lives by himself in a modest studio that's above a Chinese restaurant. Therefore most of the weeknights, like this, he picks up some noodles and rice for dinner.
He arrived at his place and he remember the curly boy from the subway and... the little book that he found.
He sat comfortably in his dining area, with the takeout on a little service table beside his bed, or better said his mattress, and took it out of his bag.
He examined the object, it was tattered and visibly worn out, he could distinguish some random words on the cover and some initials on the spine H.S., Zayn wasn't sure the diary belonged to the boy he was staring at on the subway, he was hoping it was though. He opened the journal and it had a full name on it: Property of Harry Edward Styles.
"Harry Styles," Zayn said and smiled.