August 2008
“Harry! That’s illegal and you can get in trouble for it!” I exclaimed.
He kissed me. “You’re so good, Annaleise. But live a little bit. There’s nothing wrong with doing this every one in a while. Just try it.”
He held out the white thing that closely resembled a cigarette but it smelled different. Hesitantly I took it from him. “How do I do it?”
He took it back from me. “Watch me.” He inhaled deeply and held the smoke in for a few seconds before exhaling it.
I mimicked his action once he handed me the rolled up thing.
I coughed once the smoke hit my lungs and spluttered, exhaling it with my coughs.
Harry laughed and rubbed my back, soothing me as I recovered. “Interesting,” I said, feeling funny all of a sudden.
“Do you feel anything?” He asked. Most people don’t feel it the first few times.
“Um, sort of? What am I supposed to feel like?”
“You know cotton wool? I kind of feel like my brain is covered in cotton wool, once I’ve smoked. My body gets a bit light too. It’s different for everyone, though.”
I nodded. My body felt light and my stomach turned.
“Annaleise? You look really pale,” he held my chin in his hand, looking into my eyes.
“Harry? I don’t feel so –“ I didn’t have time to finish my sentence before I turned and emptied to contents of my stomach on the ground next to us.
“I’m so sorry!” I cried, covering my mouth.
He tried to hide the repulsed look on his face. “It’s okay, sometimes that happens. Um, let’s get you a drink and something to eat.”
I followed him as we left the park. We stopped at a corner shop and he bought me a fizzy water and some crisps and we headed back to the park where we sat in silence as I munched away.
“These taste really good today,” I commented, shoveling a handful of the crisps in my mouth.
He laughed. “Maybe you are a bit high. You seem to have the munchies.”
“Munchies?” I asked, crisps falling out of my mouth. I wiped the crumbs away and took a long sip of the fizzy water. “My mouth is so dry.”
“You definitely are a bit high with the cotton mouth.”
“I don’t think I like it. Why did I throw up then?”
He thought for a minute, taking a sip of his own drink. “It’s different for everyone. Sometimes the drug doesn’t agree with people the first few times they do. Sometimes they don’t get the feeling. Sometimes they do feel it.”
“Hmm, weird.”
“Very weird,” he admitted. “Let’s get you home before your parents begin to worry where you are.”
I stood up and we left the park, walking down the familiar path until we reached the neighborhood we lived in.
I passed him back the joint and nodded. “Are you referring to me throwing up practically on you?”
He laughed. “I forgot about that part. That was cute.”
“Gross!” I splashed some water on him and he held the joint above him.
“Careful. This is precious cargo.” Harry took another hit of the joint then passed it back to me. I took another puff of it before telling him I was finished with it.
“You always were a bad influence on me.” I teased.
He feigned hurt, holding his hand over his heart once he stubbed the joint out in the soap dish.
“Me? Not I?” He pulled me over next to him so I sat nearly on his lap, in between his legs. The water shifted, sloshing around and I was glad we were in a tub big enough for the both of us. “Okay, maybe once in a while, I was.”
I smirked. I enjoyed lying with my back against his chest, feeling his heart beat and his slow breathing.
“So what’s next?” I asked.
“What do you mean? I thought we could finish up in here and don some of those fluffy white robes I saw hanging in the bedroom and possibly order some room service before falling asleep, hopefully before the birds wake up.”
“No,” I laughed at his cute plan for the rest of the night. “I mean with us.”
“I thought we discussed this the other night?” He asked. He moved me to face him so he could search my face. “You’re not having regrets are you?”
“No, Harry. I’m not.”
“Annaleise, I’m sorry I can’t be here for you this week. I can try to sort something out but it’s hard with practices and the shows every few days, plus travel.”
“It’s not that I’m wondering, it’s where are we going to when you’re done touring. When are you done, exactly?”
“I think it’s the 5th of October that’s our last date.”
“I hear Iceland is nice. And very quiet.”
“I could do Iceland,” he said. “Wherever you want to go, Annaleise, I’m there.”
I kissed him softly before pulling away and looking deep into his eyes. “I love you.”
He pulled me to him. “I love you too.”
We sat in the tub for a while longer until the water turned cold and we were all wrinkled like prunes. Harry handed me a fluffy white robe he had grabbed from the closet and we dried off before settling on the king-sized bed and putting on some television.
I snuggled up to Harry, before falling asleep on him. I thought of how even though the future seemed very uncertain at this moment, I still felt hopeful for it that everything would work out, despite all the emotions I had been through the last couple of days.
I awoke the next morning still wrapped in Harry’s arms. My hair was slightly damp still and I smelled like vanilla and almond. I checked the time and saw it was 8:30.
“Harry,” I whispered, shaking him awake.
“Huh?” He barely opened his eyes before resettling himself and falling back asleep.
“Harry!” I shook him again and his eyes flew open.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, sleepily.
“Nothing, its just 8:30 in the morning. We only have two hours until you have to be back.” I grinned at him mischeiviously before kissing him. “I know how I want to spend one of them.”
My hand slipped under his robe and slid up his thigh, my fingers brushing his hard on. His eyes widened and he grinned, before rolling over and pinning me on the bed. He undid his robe and threw it on the ground before undoing my own. He lifted me up and slid it off of me before pinning me on the bed again. “I should have done that first,” he laughed.
I smiled up at him before he placed a demanding kiss on my lips, parting them with his tongue and pressing his body against mine. I moaned instinctively and arched my hips against his. He kissed his way down my chin, my neck before stopping at my chest.
“I love these piercings.” He admitted before taking one of my nipples in his mouth and tugging lightly with his teeth.
“Mmmm, me too.”
He continued to tease me before he settled himself in between my legs. He softly kissed my inner thigh before separating my folds with his tongue and slowly but meticulously licking me with his tongue. I arched against his mouth and my fingers wound in his hair.
He pulled away, grabbed his jeans and fumbled around for a condom before sliding it on and entering me. I gasped at the feeling of him inside me and he moved slowly at first. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my hands on his shoulders, holding him close to me.
I clenched, feeling my release come quickly which was then followed by his own. He remained on top of me for a minute before he rolled off and stood up, throwing the used condom in the trash. He flopped back down on the bed.
“I missed that,” he said. His head rested on my stomach and he held my hand in his.
“Sex?”
“Sex with you. You’re like a fine wine, you seem to get better with age.”
“You seem to get sillier and sillier as you age. That was so cheesy.”
“But you love it, nonetheless.”
“That I do.” I glanced at the clock. It was nine. “I’m going to shower. Care to join me?” I asked.
His eyes lit up. “Of course, what kind of question is that?”
I padded into the bathroom and turned on the shower. “This is going to be fun,” I called. “There’s like six different ways the water comes out in here.”
“I’ll be in, in a second,” he called. “Just need to check my phone.”
“Don’t leave me alone too long,” I called playfully before stepping into the shower.
Harry’s POV
I pulled my phone out of my jean pocket and of course had a plethora of missed calls and texts. I scrolled through the message and found that they were nothing important that I couldn’t get deal with when I got back to the hotel.
I put the phone back in my pocket and stepped on a piece of paper. It seemed like a recipt and I went to throw it in the trash before I noticed it had ‘Archer’ written on it.
Curiosity killed the cat is a very famous expression. And curiousity sometimes gets the best of me. I opened the note quickly and glanced over it. It appeared to be some sort of handwritten letter, I wasn’t sure who it was from until I scanned the bottom. It was signed Cost. I read the letter again.
“Harry?” I heard Annaleise call from the shower. “Are you okay?”
“Uh, yeah, I’ll be right in, sorry. Stupid Liam sent a few dozen texts messages. He’s such a mum.”
“Okay!” She resumed humming and I folded the note back up before putting it in her jean pocket.
Fucking hell. Dude had killed himself because he had been gay.