serenity | h.s | ON HOLD

twelve.

Harry.

"Come on man, don't tell me you're afraid of heights!" Joel teases from a few feet away from me.

Before I had fallen asleep last night, Joel rang my line and begged me to come watch the sunrise with him today. He had been telling me how much he wanted for me to experience one, but we kept getting caught up in other things. For me, I was avoiding it by sleeping in as much as possible, not being an early riser at all. I almost bailed on him this morning too, but he was already one step ahead of me and was pounding on the front door of my house until someone woke up. I was thankful for Juliette being the heavy sleeper that she is because she would've definitely had my head if she was awoken at that ungodly hour.

"Fuck off mate, I am not afraid of heights. Why would I agree to hiking a mountain if I had a fear of heights?" I breathe out a chuckle, now following right behind him along the trail.

"Probably just to impress me." he shrugs from in front of me, earning another chuckle from me.

"You've caught me, however will I keep my love for you a secret now?" I tease right back.

Joel has so easily become one of my best friends in this short period of time that we've known each other. I found myself talking to him more than I did Juliette on most days, who was spending her time with Ayla anyway so it wasn't like I was ditching her or anything.

It had been so long since I had a guy friend in my life, the ones from before had shown their only true intentions of speaking to me were because I had Juliette around. Now with Joel, Maël, Danny and Zayn around, there was no way I was letting friends like them go. They were supportive, so full of life and adventure. They were everything that I had so desperately needed... people who truly cared for each other.

By the time Joel and I had reached the top of the mountain and to the little seating area that he has self proclaimed as his own, the time on our phones read at five o'clock exactly, the sunrise being just about twenty minutes away. We made ourselves comfortable, looking off into the distance as we waited for the sky to change.

"Go on now, take it all in, " Joel encourages with a small shove to my shoulder, "I'll even play you my sunrise playlist to really set the tone."

And he did just that, bringing us to a comfortable silence with just the sounds of the music playing lightly from the speaker on his phone. Sucking in a deep breath, I close my eyes tightly before I exhale and open my eyes to make contact with the view in front of me.

Without the sun being present just yet, the sky was a darker blue, threatening colors like pale pink and yellow at the very edges of the grounds. It was truly breathtaking already, I couldn't believe that the best was yet to come. The way that the mountains were so perfectly scattered all around beneath us, it was no surprise after all why Joel loved being up here so much.

"Beautiful, huh? Just wait till the sun rises, then you'll really be speechless." Joel states, almost as if he could hear exactly what was going through my head.

We continue to sit in silence as the minutes go by and the sky begins to change colors quickly. Before we know it, the sun makes its grand entrance and just as presumed, I am left with no words, completely enamored by the sight in front of my very eyes.