And What If I Were You

Chapter 2 - Part 30

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Seaview Breeze Hotel

Pandanus Island

5.35pm. In bed, disorientated...

Harry wakes with that horrible sensation of falling, eyes flying open and arms flinging out to brace his fall as he's prone to do. His heart is beating wildly against his ribcage and it takes him a few moments to realise where he is.

Pandanus Island.

Louis.

He feels around on the bedside shelf for his phone and then remembers he'd just stripped off his jeans and dumped them on the floor with his phone still inside the pocket. Groaning, he hauls himself to the side of the bed and leans over, managing to snag one of the legs with his fingertips and drags them over until he can pat around on the pockets to find his phone.

He's somewhat surprised to find that he's been asleep for over five hours, although it probably shouldn't be that much of a shock given how fucking exhausted he was. Still, he's slept away most of the day and he needs to get his shit together and go and see Louis before it gets any later.

A shower and a fresh set of clothes do wonders for his lethargy and he feels almost human by the time he heads out. He's opted for more weather-appropriate clothing than he'd travelled in; a thin, mint-green coloured t-shirt, a pair of black cotton draw-string shorts, and white Vans on his feet.

The sun still has some bite in it, even this late in the afternoon, and he definitely needs his sunglasses to stave off a jet lag induced headache. He's never been too badly affected by jet lag, particularly now that he can afford to fly in classes that allow for more comfortable sleeping options, but he's not entirely immune either.

He pulls out his phone and checks the map. There's really only one road on the island, so it's simply a matter of left or right and then the actual distance. The Pandanus Palms Retreat is on the other side of the airport, so he takes off in the same direction Gideon had brought him.

People pass him on bicycles and scooters, but there are no cars, which is a welcome change. Nobody pays him any mind and it's freeing, in a way, blending into the landscape as just another person going about their business.

It doesn't take him long to double-back and soon he's walking past the airport, which is a hive of activity, but not for any reason he could have imagined. Instead of planes and passengers, he finds that the tarmac has been converted into a soccer field at one end and a cricket pitch at the other.

He slows his steps to take in the bizarre scene, but he's not watching where he's going and catches his toe on something, bringing him to an abrupt halt. When he looks down, he sees little round yellow plastic circles embedded into the tarred road, like the ones you'd find at a tube station to assist visually impaired people to judge where the end of the platform is or where the stairs start. As he raises his gaze he notes that they stretch out as far as he can see, marking the edge of the roadway and he wonders what purpose they can possibly serve here on the island.

The soccer match is in full-swing and he'd love to stay and watch for a while, but his desire to see Louis easily overrides that, so he continues on.

He's thought a lot about what to say to Louis when he sees him. A month of spinning on a merry-go-round of emotions; anger and sadness, confusion and doubt, elation at having found him, and trepidation about finally hearing why he left. He has so many questions and feels that he's deserving of answers.

Louis' note had shocked him to the core. He truly hadn't seen it coming. Sure, things were hard, that was to be expected given everything that had happened, but Harry had thought they were working through it together like partners are supposed to. He may not have always been able to be there physically, with his work taking him away from home more than he would've liked, and Louis understood that. He'd said as much numerous times, but maybe he wasn't being entirely truthful.