By the end of the evening last night, Taylor got two dolls from Krizzle and Mae Ann, one Magic 8-ball from Timmy, a pair of trainers from Lendon, a hoodie from Brandon, a duffel bag from her father and a rather thick coat from her mother. I reckon they're getting her prepared for the whole two-month trip she had that goes from January to sometime after February. After midnight, I left her apartment and headed to my place where I rested.
The next day, I still wasn't in the proper mood to open my shop so I went to central NYC where another toy shop resides. I've got no problem with competition, it's not that much of a deal and besides, I am fascinated by the creativity of how their shops look. Sometimes I want to put in as much effort as they do but once I actually start, I lose the knack unless I have someone with me.
Sometime around Wednesday afternoon, Taylor came by with her usual treat of coffee and sunshine personality that really clears the air of the snowy scenery.
She removed her green beanie once she's inside and shook her head to remove the bits of snow that stuck in her curly hair.
"Aftie," she greeted and smiled.
"Afternoon."
Taylor placed the coffee right in front of me then went back near the entrance to hang her coat on the rack and placed her bag on my counter. "Got the schedule," she announced.
"What schedule?"
"My two-month European expedition?" She asked as if she mentioned a European expedition when I could recall a world expedition. "Got it and well, started from the 29th of December to sometime March. There's a place there that has an excellent New Year so, we have to go."
I didn't like that. I didn't like that she'd be gone for months. I didn't say it though.
"That's a rather long time," I said.
"Well, yeah. You should've seen me in my Asian expedition, that one lasted six months."
"I can't really come with you?" I asked.
She shook her head, "No."
"Keep me updated where you are, trust me, I'll find a way." I took a cup of coffee and thanked her for it, I know it's black anyways.
"Harry, I'm not asking you to," she reminded in a gentle voice.
I took a quick sip, "And I'm not asking your permission. Tell me where you are, every time, kay? Should you encounter trouble, call me, I'll come running."
"That's very sweet, babe. I'll try to remember that."
She stayed around even until past midnight when she's ordered another batch of coffee and took my dad's journals to my room. She didn't read them, she just took them to my room and then kept on asking me where I got which toys and such.
She had a certain mood today as she let her phone play through those lovely classical songs. She's actually quite adorable that way.
My room was quite dark, there was barely a light on, all the rest of the illumination was from my phone, hers and the moonlight with my windows open as we were both seated in front of a table, in front of each other as if we're trying to interrogate each other when in reality, it's simply just a question game. As of now, the category was, things we can do that is slightly out of the ordinary, or things we did that was not that normal.
By the time midnight rolled in, my eyes started getting rather tired though I kept pushing the thought aside.
"I once slept through 24 hours straight," she said and started laughing, the moonlight shining over a part of her face, making her eyes glimmer.
"No. Not possible." I took a sip from my coffee that had already gone cold. "Definitely not possible."
"It's true!" She defended herself. "You can totally ask Lendon we were roomies until we were like, nine. I was eight by the way and my parents were really worried. Your turn."
I took one moment to think, "I once. . . binge watched the Harry Potter movies, straight, all of them."
"Now, that is not possible!" She laughed again. "So not possible."
"Keep your voice down, you'll wake my neighbours," I said.
Her nose wrinkled a bit as she was still smiling, "Okay, I'll accept that. Okay. I can — fly a hot air balloon."
Not that I was questioning that, and that might be just out of the ordinary as not everyone can fly a hot air balloon but I did ask, "Wasn't that easy?"
"No!" She laughed and shook her head. "Are you kidding me? It's go wherever the wind takes you and that's not even —" she groaned. "Okay, that's definitely hard to explain. Can you just go with your turn?" She stirred her coffee using her spoon.
"I spent three nights in a row at the rooftop," I said. "During winter."
She blinked just a few times, "Y-You what?" She asked softly, the look of horror seen easily in her eyes. "Harry, you could have gotten sick. Oh my God, don't you dare do that while I'm—"
"Taylor, it's been done," I reminded her calmly, in the same tone she's using on me. "I did have a fever but luckily it didn't turn out to be anything else."
"Never do that again," she said softly. "Why would you even do that?"
"Heartbreaks kill," I answered. She of all people would understand that. Right then, I could feel the drowsiness taking over although I tried to push it aside as much as I could.
"You're not suicidal, are you?" She asked.
I shook my head, "No."
"Good." She shut her eyes, the music changed to the next. "Heartbreaks — Heartbreaks k-kill," she repeated, staring into nothing. "Can I ask you something?"
I paid into full attention as she stirred her coffee.
"Do you have any marshmallows?" She asked and I sniggered, I was expecting a serious question.
I broke into a fit of light chuckles, "Thought you were going to say something serious."
"It is serious," she said.
"Alright." I made my way to the fridge and the slice of light from it ran across the room to her, the light from it and from the moon illuminated her face completely and was it a beautiful sight. I was relieved that I got an excuse to stay awake, move around even for a bit but I have a feeling that my sleepiness isn't going to pass just like that.
She licked her lips with a smile, "You keep marshmallows in your refrigerator?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Chilled marshmallows relieves sore throats." I took a small pack of marshmallows from it and closed the whole fridge.
"Can't you leave it open?"
"I'm worried about my electric bill," I told her and she laughed.
"Okay, then."
I handed her the whole pack of marshmallows. She opened them immediately and poured out some of the contents in her coffee then started stirring.
We sat in silence for a moment, paying more attention in our coffees and such, but it was nothing but comfortable.
"Your fireplace, downstairs, does it work?" She asked.
"It used to, now it's simply for style," I answered and I have a feeling we've already talked about this before, I just wasn't sure when. My eyelids started going down but I tried not to let the drowsiness overcome me. Even while drinking coffee, I still felt sleepy.
It was silent once more but I could tell she didn't like to settle for it so she said, "Hmm. I once got involved in crime, have I told you that? I was said to be an accomplice but all I did was ask where the shirt came from. Awful." She yawned and I almost did. . . well, I did.
I only gave her a sleepy smile as a response as I know she had told that experience before. I let her have her fun either way as I barely have anything to say. That and I'm already feeling quite drowsy.
I took a sip from my coffee and rubbed my eyes in a gentle manner. I've removed my contacts ages ago and I've decided not to wear my glasses as we wouldn't be doing any reading and all of those stuff. I laid my head on my arms on the table, closing my eyes but certain of the fact that I won't be able to sleep just yet.
The next song played from her phone and she sighed sleepily. "I love this song."
I've never heard of that song before.
"Can we get all-cliché and dance for a moment?" She asked and I laughed quietly so I faced her.
"We'll do a lot of dancing sometime later. Not now. I'm sleepy, don't you have plans on going to sleep?" I asked because this seemed like a reversed situation wherein she's the one who is purely awake whereas I am the one who badly wants to go to sleep.
"Do you really want to go to sleep?" She asked in her dreamy voice so here I am, feeling her drowsy spell casted on me again. "Okay. Goodnight."
I groggily made my way to my bed, feeling a bit heavier than usual. Maybe I really was tired but I haven't really noticed that much earlier, now I do. I sunk on my bed, never bothering to take my shirt off or made any changes, I just want to go to sleep.
I looked at Taylor who was smiling sleepily at me.
"Lie with me," I mumbled. She nodded and lied with me. I put the blankets over us then I wrapped my arms around her waist.
I already had my eyes shut but I was not asleep yet. I felt her turn around to face me.
"Harry," she whispered.
"Hmm?" Without opening my eyes, I responded to let her know I was listening and ready to answer.
"Earlier you told me you'll come running whenever I needed you for the whole European travel, right?" She asked.
"Mhmm."
"So if I do come to Great Britain this reunion time, if I call for you, would you come?" She asked. I opened my eyes, knowing what I said and what she said. . . well. . .
Checkmate.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
When it comes to family gatherings, I am one known to be anxious. The flight was torture, my head is completely flying away from me. I couldn't breathe, not when I remember the times when I was the youngest Styles. By other people, I was never treated indifferently, though sometimes I'd see people glancing and some people whispering, my father once told me not to mind them. He said, 'You're my youngest, you're a Styles. Nothing on earth would change that.' It would have been such a relief he were really there all the time but he never was.
Taylor was right beside me, reading my dad's journal from when he was twenty-two years old. "Stay calm," she said and held my hand without having her gaze leave the book. Then she looked at me. "You're going to be fine. It's not like they'll murder you anyways."
It's a strange fact that her parents allowed to her to take this trip with me. If I were her parents, or even one of her brothers, I wouldn't have done that. I couldn't even stand the fact of letting her out of my sight although I reminded myself not to think that way as she'll be having two months or more for her travel.
"I can't believe you talked me through this," I muttered. "You didn't tell anyone, did you?"
"Only —" she sighed and looked back on the journal. "William."
"Are you sure?"
"Franco probably already knows."
I groaned out loud and I could hear her chuckling quietly. She flipped to the next page, still reading intently and then said, "What are you so worried about? They're your family." Again with her gentle, calming tone that's lulling me to sleep.
"Truth is, I've never spent much occasions with them," I said, my eyes getting a bit heavy unlike the first time we boarded a plane together when I really couldn't sleep.
"Calm your nerves and sleep," she whispered softly. "Things will be better when you wake up."
"And you're not planning —" she yawned and rubbed her eyes in the midst of my sentence, still, I didn't stop "—to sleep, at all?" I almost had the urge to yawn myself, luckily, it was a false alarm.
"Just one more — one more day."
"My father writes a thousand words per day."
"Just one more," she whispered. "Why? Can't you sleep with the light on?"
"Just a bit more comfortable with the lights off," I answered.
"Hang on, last paragraph," she said and I've spent too much time with her these past few weeks. Every single time she said that, it takes her minutes before she actually puts the books down.
In result, I used a blindfold which sort of helped. I still got a long flight ahead.