Smile for the Camera (Harry Styles x OC)

The Morning After

     "What was Smiles's 'water thing'?" I ask.

     It took us over an hour to finally get back into Hailey's car when the concert ended. Hailey was upset she didn't get to meet Smiles as he was exiting the building, but that's what you get for sitting front row. We had to wait for all the other rows to clear before we could walk the food and drink strewn carpeted floor to the exit. By the time we made it through the doors, he was long gone. And I wasn't mad about it. It had been a long night, an enjoyable one, but a long and loud one all the same. My feet hurt, my hands stung from the remnants of the final applause, my ears were ringing, and the hairspray had just started to wear off. I was ready to go back to Hailey's apartment, but Hailey wasn't. If Smiles had asked her to a hypothetical afterparty, she'd go happily and have enough energy to party until the wee hours of the morning. And if I weren't so vehement that we needed to go back to her apartment, I think she might have enough energy to comb the streets all night until she found him.

     But now that we're finally in the car, all I can think of is what Smiles's water thing was. I had gotten so distracted with the flowers towards the end that I had missed almost all of what he did up on stage.

     Hailey picks her head up off the steering wheel where she had placed it immediately after entering the car. "Weren't you watching?"

     I look at her streaky face, eyes red and puffy, and lips pouted prettily. She had managed to lose one of her four glowsticks, but her hair is mostly intact. I shake my head ever so slightly. "I got distracted."

     She chuckles and shakes her head back at me. "Only you would go to a Harry Styles concert and not watch Harry Styles." I shrug. "That last song, Kiwi, he spits a spray of water at the very end. It's like his signature sign off."

     I laugh. Of course it is, why wouldn't you spit water at the end of your concert? Hailey sits back and lays her head on the headrest.

     "That was amazing." Her voice has a dreamy quality to it, the product of a dream come true, and I smile at her joy. I can tell she's not just talking about the water spray thing and she's not just talking about seeing her idol. It was the whole experience, the whole concert. And I was a part of it.

     "Thanks for dragging me across the ocean for this." I turn and smile at Hailey. As much as I dreaded leaving work and traveling to another country all for a concert, I had a good time and I'm glad I came.

     Hailey glances away from the road for a second to look at me. "Really?"

     She tears up again and I put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't cry again! You're driving and I never know what to do when you cry."

     We laugh and she blinks the tears away quickly. "Thanks for coming. This means more than you know." Maybe not, but I'm starting to understand. "Do you want to listen to some music?"

     I'm pretty sure we're only a couple minutes from her apartment, but what the hell. "Is it Harry's music?"

     Hailey's laugh rings through the car like a melodious bell. "I don't listen to anything else!"

     She turns on the stereo, already loaded with a CD, and a song starts playing. I recognise this one! It's that watermelon song from the concert. Hailey sings loud and proud while I hum along, laughing until my stomach hurts.

     Hailey pulls into her spot and we nearly fall out of the car, both exhausted from all the excitement. I did sleep most recently, so I'm slightly more awake than Hailey as she leans on me in the elevator. I manage to half-carry her all the way to her apartment and get her inside before she falls onto the couch with her eyes closed. I smile and hang up our handbags by the door before locking it with Hailey's advanced four-part locking system: deadbolt, chain lock, regular doorknob lock, and a sliding hatch. I turn and see Hailey dead to the world and thank my lucky stars she made it through driving home awake. I can't just leave her here though.