3 days of soup, sex and sun salutations [H.S]

4. Sparks

At check-out time, 11 o clock, Harry, Lizzie and Tom are all packed up and ready to go. Lizzie is wearing a long, flowy skirt and a cropped t-shirt, together with a pair of sandals. Tom is, beside his signature hat, dressed in stripy trousers and a white button-down. Harry's finally got the chance to wear his mint green, high waisted trousers inspired by Mick Jagger, the singer of the Rolling Stones. With them, he's wearing a white tee and his scarf around his neck. This is gonna be a good day, Harry thinks to himself when they leave the hotel and step out into the sun.

They stock up on canned soup, canned ravioli and crisps from a local supermarket. Lizzie buys a big bag of nuts ("it's good energy, alright?" She snaps when Harry and Tom laugh at her) and Tom and Harry both buy some weird American sweets. They all come out feeling satisfied in the end, anyway.

It's Thursday, and New York is slowly filling up with tourists for the weekend, at the same time as it's emptying of business men. Harry also notices more and more people in the same type of clothes as them on the streets. Maybe Lizzie was right when she said there was gonna be hundreds of thousands of people.

At one, the three young brits are sitting on their suitcases and bags outside of the Metropole. Harry is actually feeling a bit nervous, what if they don't show up? At five past one, Harry's leg is jiggling. Tom and Lizzie also look nervous, Lizzie braiding and unbraiding her hair over and over with shaky fingers. Maybe this wasn't a good idea.

At ten past one, they see a big Volkswagen van roll up on the street. Before it has time to stop, the door opens to the back and they see Linda's head.

"Jump in, dear Britons!" She shouts, her long hair flowing in the wind from the car speed. "We've got a festival to attend!"

Harry, Lizzie and Tom jump up, almost tripping over each other and their luggage on their way to the van, which has now stopped inconveniently on the pavement outside of the hotel. They quickly toss all their things into the back of the van and they barely have time to close the door behind them before the van is moving again.

"God, I hate driving in New York", they hear Brian mutter from the driver's seat, annoyed with the traffic as he slides in behind a cab.

"Good thing we love you so much for doing it, then", Mary says and kisses Brian's cheek, turning him a bit pink.

"Yeah, seriously, thanks a lot for the ride, mate", Harry says, but Brian waves him away.

"Don't worry about it, the more the merrier!"

The van is a classic wagon with a big seat in the middle and a big seat in the back. Harry and Linda are in the back as Tom and Lizzie go in the middle. The seats are beige leather and there's lots of space for the legs, which Harry appreciates a lot as he stretches his legs in front of him.

"It's my dad's van", Linda says as she puts her bare feet up on the seat. "He's had it since forever, it feels like a second home now." She looks out the window and Harry can see her disappearing in thoughts before she turns to him again.

"Cool pants."

Harry panics for a millisecond before remembering that 'pants' in American is the word for trousers, not for underwear. He smiles back to her, eyeing her up and down before answering.

"Y're not so bad yourself." She's wearing another flowy, flowery dress but has her hair up around a headscarf today, only making a few lengths of her hair fly free.

During the trip, they listen to music, singing along with the tunes of Janis and Creedence Clearwater Revival, not really talking much. Lizzie eats some nuts and ends up giving some to Tom as well, before he settles for a nap on her shoulder. Harry sees her sigh before putting an arm around him, gently stroking him over the back. It's not unusual in their group to show affection physically, but Harry still raises his eyebrows a little at the sight of them not fighting for once.