No Control • hs

nine

I slip on a life vest and hop on the tube next to Harry. "Have you ever tubed before?" Harry asks, squinting from the sun.

"I'm a pro." I say flipping my braids onto my back.  The boat pulls out and starts pulling forward. I then realized Lacy was not on the tube, but in the boat.

"Lacy told me that she though we would make good friends." Harry said as the boat pulls farther out, almost out of the docking area.

"Did she really-" I begin to say but the boat accelerates in speed and I let out a little yelp. Harry stifles a laugh and holds onto the straps of the tube tightly as the boat speeds throughout the lake.

Everything goes pretty smoothly until Jim, who was driving the boat, decided to turn so sharp to the right, the tube flew off the side of the boat's wake. I fly off the tube an into the water, nostrils burning from the lake water.

I hear the motor on the boat slow down and I find air above water. I gasp above water as I float, bobbing up and down in the water.

I break into a little laughter as I swim over to the tube. I get pulled back onto the tube by Harry, his hands rough, but soft at the same time.

Harry leaned in close to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I say nodding. I turn my head unaware of how close he was. His lips barely brush against mine. Before our lips reached each other, the boat accelerates and my head spins forward.

Harry obviously wasn't prepared as he slips from the tube and gets sucked into the water. I break into a little laughter as I hear the boat slow down. He swam to the back of the tube where I reached my hand out to pull him back on. Instead of getting himself back on, he pulled me down to get closer to him then rested a soft kiss on my lips.

I pull away and his face has on a hurt expression. Harry helps himself onto the tube and we get situated. "Liam and I are having a bonfire tonight, if you want to come."

I look over to Harry and smile. "Ya, that would be nice."

"Great." Harry says with a wide grin.

***

I walk over about two yards to Liam's house and see Harry sitting on a lawn chair. Louis sitting next to him. "Hi Louis!" I say smiling.

"Hey!" Louis says smiling. I look at Harry wearing a grey crewneck and black pants.

"Hey Peyton." He smirks at me. "I'm gonna go see what's holding Liam up." Harry says as he gets up from his chair. I sit down next to Harry's chair and look at the fire.

"Do you like him?"

"What?"

"Harry, do you like him?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do. You. Like. Harry. It's not that difficult love."

"Why do you think that?"

"You guys are always looking at each other smiling and it's kind of creepy." I look back down at the fire in hopes that Louis would be quiet. "You do, don't you?"

"No, we're just friends."

"So that kiss meant nothing?"

"You saw that?" Harry came back holding a package of hot dogs and marshmallows. He sets them on a table behind him.

"Okay, everyone gets one if these... things." Harry says handing me a rod to cook my hot dog on.

Harry hands me a hot dog. "Thank you, sir." He giggles at my formalness.

Liam emerges from the sliding glass door holding plates, napkins, graham crackers, chocolate, ketchup, and mustard all at once. "Have you guys ever tried throwing napkins in the fire?" I ask, the boys look at me, snickering.

"What's so funny?" I say holding my hot dog over the fire stifling a laugh.

"We did at a bonfire at Harry's dad's flat in England." Liam spoke up.

"Then the tree caught on fire." Harry says an my jaw drops.

"No! Are you serious?"

Louis nods, "It was quite terrifying actually." We finish eating our hot dogs whilst continuing conversation about old memories. Then, Liam takes some trash inside.

"Harry, come here... now." Harry furrows his brow and walks inside. I see Harry tightly hugging a girl through the sliding glass doors. Liam comes out from the house and sits back down.

"What's Harry doing?" Louis asks.

"Catching up with Gem." Liam says.

"Yeah, they haven't seen each other forever since they went their separate ways." Harry comes out of the glass doors and I grab my bag.

"I better get back."

"Where are you going? I have someone I want you to meet!" Harry walks over to me.

"No thanks, I'm not a fan of meeting people's ex girlfriends."

"Woah, wait." Harry interrupts.

"No, if you want to rekindle a relationship with someone else, I'm fine with that. I thought we had a really good thing going but I guess I was mistaken. Bye Harry."

With that, I walked to Lucky and Jim's without looking back. I didn't want Harry to see the weakness in my eyes as a tear escaped them and streamed down my face.