Heat - Harry Styles

fifteen

It was an unusually cool morning for the summer. The wind rolled smoothly across the blue waves of the Charleston harbor, it even made me shiver a bit in my thin cotton shirt. After spending my whole life here, I knew that even at 6:32 AM it wasn't normal for the air to be this crisp in the middle of May. There was surely a storm blowing in off the water.

I closed my eyes as I curled my legs up under myself. I inhaled deeply, letting the scent of the morning air and coffee steam fill my nose. I was sitting on one of the several wooden benches that were peppered across the battery. They had been here for years-for as long as I could remember. This particular bench had always been my favorite, probably due to the fact that it sat on the very point of the peninsula. On the left, you could see the famous Ravenel Bridge, to the right the glittering waves and distant wetlands, and straight ahead you could see Fort Sumter.

If I dropped my hand down to my right side, I could find the spot where I'd carved my initials into the wood. It was like muscle memory. Charlotte and I had vandalized these old benches many years ago, drunk on white wine spritzers and the invincible feeling of youth. I'd spent many early mornings and late nights on this bench. There had been first kisses and first heartbreaks here. I wasn't sure what made this place so special, but things always just seemed to happen here.

"Hey, Bee," I hear a voice call from behind me.

I craned my neck to see a sleepy looking Harry making his way across the grass. Hearing my childhood nickname fall from his lips made my heart flutter just a bit. It seemed to me that Harry always looked at least a bit disheveled. Today he was wearing a pair of navy shorts and a regular white tee, but when my eyes raked down his body I saw one white sock and one red sock peeping out from the top of each of his Gucci sneakers. I decided I wouldn't say anything about it. After all, it was very early.

For the past several days I had been all but forcing Harry to wake up early to come have morning coffee on this bench with me. It was one of the elusive times that the two of us could be alone in public. If it weren't for the fact that the sun was not yet completely risen, we could almost forget that we weren't just a normal couple.

Couple.

Even after the conversation at Charlotte's party, Harry and I had yet to completely define what the two of us were – a fact that I knew drove him crazy. There was something I liked about being undefined. There were no rules or expectations other than understanding that whatever we were, we were exclusive. I think that I found solace in the undefined because it meant I wasn't really keeping anything from my parents. How could anyone expect me to explain to them what I couldn't even explain to myself?

"S'cold," Harry stated as he made himself comfortable, casually draping his arm over my shoulder. I instinctively snuggled in closer to his body before handing him the coffee I'd brought for him. He muttered a thanks and brought the warm mug up to his face. He swore up and down that he loved tea, but his coffee cup was always emptied very quickly. "How are you on this lovely morning?" He questioned, stressing the word 'lovely' as a reminder to our first meeting.

"I'm fine," I breathed, enjoying having Harry so close to me. "Brooks got home three hours past his curfew last night and didn't call my mom. She was up worried sick, the poor thing. When he finally walked in the house, he had a few hickeys. Lord, she was the angriest I've ever seen her. I don't think he'll ever hear the end of that one."

Harry chuckled and shook his head before taking another sip of his coffee. "Brooks sounds like he's always getting into some kind of trouble."

"Oh, he is," I confirmed, "but he's the only boy and the high school's football star. The golden child hasn't seen a lot of punishment in his life. The girls at school love him and my mom lets him get away with way more than I ever did". I took a long sip of my coffee before continuing. "It's all gone to his head if you ask me," I joked, "that child thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow."