Before you go... //h.s

Fall for you

It's nearly Harry's birthday. He's on tour and I'm not there with him.

It doesn't matter that I'm seeing him in a week to celebrate it together late, it doesn't matter that I know he's spending the day with his band who he truly loves, and it doesn't matter that I've called him, I just feel so guilty that I'm not going to be there to celebrate it with him.

But from what I've seen from his texts and phone calls and videos online, he's having an amazing time on tour and I can attest that he is performing as incredibly as usual, captivating the whole the audience with barely any effort. He was born to perform.

But he was coming to New York in two weeks' time and you'd best believe I was already excited for it and already planning and organising what we were going to do, especially this more, I wanted it to be perfect because it was his birthday. His 26th birthday, two years older than my 24.

As it was a Sunday, me and my friends were all off work, so we were going out. Where we were going, we hadn't decided but we were meeting at Split Bean and then going to figure it out. And I'm not going to lie, the lack of planning was stressing me out.

Not being able to organise and look at the menu in advance gave me severe stress. If we were even going to a restaurant that is, there was every chance we would also just spend the day wandering the streets.

It sounds strange, but just ambling around the streets and watching what's going on is absolutely fascinating. There's never a dull moment in New York and so walking around streets, the huge variety of things that you see is enough to interest anyone. On one side of the street you might see a dog walker, struggling to pass people as 10 dogs strained at their leads. Or you might see one of the elite, stepping out of a limo in their perfectly pressed outfits and staggeringly expensive heels on their way to their penthouse on the Upper East side.

I dressed in cream wide legged trousers and pulled a brown sweatshirt with an LA slogan over the top. I put some classic large hoops in my ears and pulled on my slim yellow bracelet for good luck. Really only lucky because of my yellow beliefs. Then I grabbed my puffer as I shouted to Maya we needed to go, checking on Stanley before opening the door.

I was kinda nervous for this meet up, only because I hadn't seen Ollie since he'd drunkenly kissed me and I wasn't sure whether he remembered...or if he did, what he'd thought.

'Uh- Iris calm down honestly we have hours,' Maya exaggerates the last word to prove her point of how I was yet again being over-the-top on time and organised.

But despite her protests, we still left the door in a timely manner much to my satisfaction. Walking to Split Bean on a Sunday was strange, it was like going to work which just felt wrong. But as we wandered through Central park, taking our time because we sure as hell weren't late, me and Maya caught up.

What with my work and Maya constantly being 'busy' doing god knows what, we hadn't really spent much time together at all this week. So, as I caught her up on Harry and Ash and each of the annoying, rude customers, she nodded, and laughed as I explained my week but didn't utter many words. When she opened her mouth to tell me about her week, she hesitated for a second. The slight nerves in her deep brown eyes left me slightly nervous as she delayed her sentence before telling me.

'I um...I'm seeing someone,' she muttered, as though embarrassed. But I knew her too well, she wasn't embarrassed, she was just scared about telling me because nearly every relationship she'd told me about had ended soon after.

'I mean...it's not like you and Harry or anything...' she laughs, 'but I really like him and spending time with him is just so much fun,' she says quietly, and I look at her in excitement. I can see the hope of this new relationship blossoming in her face as she smiles back at me.