ELIZABETH
Monday, August 29th 2017
By nine a.m, I've reached the middle of my shift and I feel like an absolute zombie. Why did I put myself through this? I live at home, I've got enough money saved in the bank to go without a job for probably a good two years—that is, if I continue to live at home. So, why was I doing this to myself? Margot was smiling down at a customer, popping her gum with her hand on her hip. She looked so cute and lively, and I'm sure he'd give her a great tip for it. I feel like I resemble death in some way, hence zombie. As the bell on the door chimes, I turn to see what bastard has just come to ruin my morning a little bit more, but I almost smile when I see that it's my favorite bastard. He sits down in a booth in my section and waves to me. Margot's eyes are already taking him in, as they always do. She's got some weird thing for him, that hasn't ever bothered me before, but now I feel...almost territorial? I must be incredibly grumpy. I trudge over to him and he grins up at me. "Good morning, sunshine."
"I blame you for my exhaustion."
"I accept the blame." He says, "I had a lovely night's sleep." I simply glare at him, whilst contemplating strangulation.
"Hi Harry." Margot says, cheerfully, from behind me. "You look good."
"Why, thank you, Margot." He responds, charmingly. "As do you."
"I got highlights in my hair, that might be why." She purrs. Jesus. I blatantly roll my eyes at their chit-chat. "Or this new bra that I bought. It makes me look quite...endowed." Harry's smiling like the boy that he is and I stare down at my notebook.
"I think it makes them look saggy." I deadpan and then turn back to Harry. "What do you want to eat?" He's clearly trying not to burst into laughter.
"What the hell crawled up your arse this morning, El?" She asks me, sounding slightly hurt, before walking away. I only feel a small sliver of guilt.
"May I have some buttermilk pancakes please?"
"What else?"
"Sausage, please." He chirps.
"Coffee?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Coming right up." I walk away from him and hear him chuckling lowly. Again, I almost smile. My mind wanders to my outburst at my good friend. Why did I feel so irritated by their harmless flirtation? She always bats her eyelashes and sticks her chest out further around him, this wasn't anything new. I quickly shush my mind, blaming it on my fatigue and grouchiness. I take a deep breath, down a mug of coffee and get back to work.
Saturday, April 12th 2003
Donald, one of Harry's friends has just pulled down his pants and mooned a passing car. I'm two years younger than the rambunctious ten year olds, but I'm certainly more mature. Truth or Dare was such a scary game though, especially for an eight year old girl playing with a bunch of boys. "I dare Elizabeth to pull her jumper up." Tristan, another boy says to me. Harry jumps to my defense quicker than a Venus Fly Trap swallowing down a fly.
"No! You can't give her dares like that!" He bellows.
"Fine, Harry, but if she doesn't do that, she has to kiss you." My little heart immediately races at the thought of kissing him. Harry is quiet. Is he contemplating this? Is he disgusted by it?
"You can't dare her to do anything she doesn't want to do."
"I'll kiss him, but I'm not pulling my jumper up. That's bad." I say to them. Harry gulps before leaning forward. The suspense is killer, and I feel like the whole circle of boys can hear my heart pounding. Our lips meet in the quickest of pecks and we both pull away. I feel so different. Harry doesn't seem to be too disturbed by it, but I lose myself in my crush on the boy who has been my very best friend since day one. The rest of the game goes by in a blur. They dare me to do silly things. Dance in a circle. Go cross-eyed for fifteen seconds...say a bad word. When Harry and I finally walk back towards his house, he looks over at me.
"We can pretend we didn't kiss, okay?" I nod, unsure of what to respond with. I don't want to pretend it didn't happen. "Are you mad at me?" He asks.
"No, why?"
"Cause we kissed?"
"I'm not mad. It was okay."
"You're still my best friend in the whole world, but we shouldn't do that again."
"Yeah." I say, a little bit heartbroken. "I don't want to either." Mum always taught me not to ever lie, but I was embarrassed. I told myself that it was okay, just this once.
HARRY
She walks into my house at twelve-fifteen and she's already yawning. "Hi, sleepyhead." I ruffle her hair, messing the already disheveled bun up.
"Is it possible to be teetering on the edge of death, but still be, like, barely a shell of a human being?"
"Probably." I say, after falling back onto the couch. She follows my actions and cozies up into her favorite corner. "Movie?"
"Mhm...but you can pick, I don't think I'll make it through five minutes." She says, while yawning again. I stand up and skim through our movie cabinet. I choose Hook with Robin Williams, one of our favorites. Elizabeth lasts about fifteen minutes, ten minutes longer than she had anticipated.
"M'not really a fan of Julia Robert as Tinker Bell...I mean, she smashes every other role she plays, but I just don't like her in this." I say, before looking over at her. I smile as I watch her sleep soundly. I know I gave her a bit of a hard time, and I was a tease...but I really do admire her for working as hard as she does. Hell, I certainly couldn't handle waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to go and work. I suddenly felt a pang of guilt roll over me. I'd consistently ridden her about moving to London, going to school, growing up...when she was working herself, practically to death. It dawned on me that I had been far too hard on her. She didn't deserve my constant nagging.
ELIZABETH
The music, thankfully, was soft enough that we didn't need to be shouting over one another. My eyes scanned the room as Harry and I walked into the dimly lit pub. I couldn't see Zayn over the crowd of people, but we kept moving on towards the bar. "Liz!" I hear my name and I turn to see him bobbing in and out of the bodies.
"Liz?" Harry quietly questions, but I don't answer him. I'm too engrossed in the beautiful man who's making his way to meet me. Zayn's smile is so enchanting, I can barely stand it.
"Hi babe." He says as he pulls me into his arms.
"Hi." I smile up at him just before his lips overtake mine. I'm completely lost in him, momentarily forgetting about my best friend standing behind us. He tastes like a freshly smoked cigarette, which isn't ideal, but as he kisses me, I find myself falling further into him. His thumb and forefinger keep my jaw in place, and I almost can't hear Harry clearing his throat behind us. Zayn pulls away first and his eyes move to my best friend.
"Hey mate...m'Zayn." Harry looks from me to him and then reluctantly shakes his outstretched hand.
"Harry." He says, "Her best friend." The testosterone is heavy in the air as they eye one another and I lace my fingers through Zayn's.
"Come on, let's get some drinks." Harry follows behind us and I flash him a warning glance. Don't be mean, I mouth. In turn, he rolls his eyes, dramatically.
"How was work?" Zayn asks as we leans against the bar top, waiting for service.
"It sucked." I sigh, "But I slept when I got home."
"Yeah, she didn't make it through even half of our movie." Zayn's smile was forced as he looked from me to Harry.
"What'd you guys watch?" His tone is clipped, like he's trying to be calm and collected.
"Hook." The bartender came up to us just as he said this, "Can I get a Guinness, mate?" My eyes dart to my friend.
"I thought you weren't drinking?"
"It's only five, Elizabeth."
"Right, but you're driving to London tonight!" He rolls his eyes again and turns back to the man behind the bar.
"Alright, never mind...can I just grab a pale ale? Lightest that you've got on tap?" Punk, I think to myself.
"I'll have a Guinness and a glass of...Cabernet?" Zayn asks both me and the bartender. I nod, bashfully; happy that he remembered. "So, Harry..." Zayn begins, "Liz told me you're at University in London?"
"I am, yeah."
"Cool, mate. What're you studying?"
"I've got my Associate's Degree in Business and now I'm going for my Bachelor's in Finance."
"Ah, nice. What do you wanna do?"
"Erm...probably either Investment Finance or Financial Advising."
"Sick...I've heard those are, like, really great career tracks." Harry nods, but I can tell that he's disinterested in the conversation.
"Well, I sure hope so." I quickly change the subject.
"So, what did you do today?" I ask him, whilst leaning closer against his side.
"I had to get my guitar restrung...then I went to the market for groceries. That's pretty much it—it was an uneventful day."
"So, is that all you do? You're a musician?"
"Harry!" I scold his bold rudeness.
"S'just a question, I don't mean any offense by it." Zayn shakes his head and gives my arm a squeeze.
"No, no...it's fine. I get that question a lot, actually." I'm still bothered by the way he asked it. "But yeah. Right now, we're doing alright...well enough for me to make rent every month and, like, provide for myself."
"You get a lot of gigs then?"
"We do. Right now, we're playing about...five to six shows a week, so it's definitely not bad. But I've got a job with my uncle lined up, just in case things don't pan out."
"That's probably smart, yeah."
"We've actually got a gig two weeks from now in London..."
"Oh, do you? Where at?"
"The Green Dragon in Camden Town."
"I haven't heard of it..."
"You should check us out, mate. Pints on me." I got a warm feeling at the thought of that...Harry and Zayn having drinks together.
"Hey, I might just take you up on that." Drinks always—well, usually lead to friendship...right? The rest of the night passed by in a blur. I didn't drink too much, but we had a good enough time together, that I didn't want it to end, nor did I want Harry to go back to London. But alas...at nine o'clock, he stood up off the barstool and reached out to shake Zayn's hand. "Let me know the details about when you're in town, mate."
"Will do, Harry. It was nice meeting you, mate."
"You too, Zayn." Zayn stands up now.
"We'll walk you out." The three of us make our way out and over to Harry's car. He turns to me after opening the driver's side door.
"I'll text you when I get to my place." His arms snake around my waist and mine around his toned torso.
"Drive safe, please."
"Always."
"And let me know how your date goes!"
"You'll be the first to know."
"Thank you."
"See you, Zayn." They smile at one another. "Bye Beth."
"Bye Har." I let go of him and he slides into his car. I'm reminded again of why I hate that he's in London. I hate being away from him, and I hate watching him leave. I always have to watch him leave.
"You want to grab another drink, love?" I nod, trying not to seem as somber as I feel.
"Yeah." He pulls me in and I find myself smiling up at him.
"Is it weird or like...clingy to say that I missed you?" My fingers grip his sweater.
"Not at all...I kind of missed you too."