Constant // Harry Styles

Chapter Three: "Just to talk."

When I say that Cameron and I (and I suppose Harry, too) all grew up together, I don't mean traditionally where we all lived in the same houses in the same small town and had secret hide-outs at the park down the street from year one to year twenty. Like I said before, we were military people, constantly moving from place to place and oftentimes not staying in one place longer than two years. Oddly enough, each time that my mother, father, and I moved to a new state or even country, Cameron's family (and Harry's family) would move as well. There was only a single year of my entire life where I was away from Cameron - when we moved to Okinawa, Japan - and even then, he and I were constantly talking on the phone and writing letters to one another.

Our fathers were all in the Marine Corps Infantry, dealing with fighting on the ground when it came to times of war. Many people hear about our lifestyles and the tedious packing, excruciating car rides and plane flights to different states and countries, and adjusting that we had to do for each move, and they would apologize. There was no need for that, though. I was used to it. I didn't know anything different. Since our parents were all stationed on the coast of Virginia in a city called Norfolk when Harry, Cameron, and I graduated high school, Cameron and I decided to stick close to our parents and go to school at Holbrooke University only two hours away. I suppose Cameron talked to Harry about it and convinced him to come with us as well.

That was the first time in my life when I was deciding where I wanted to move to. I wasn't being forced to follow my parents to a new temporary home. I was under no obligation to stay near my parents. Frankly, I could have moved across the country from them to go to school. The number of options I had overwhelmed and confused me, but I had Cameron Walker to help steer me in the right direction. He helped me calm down and discover Holbrooke, and the rest is history.

Similar to that time, I was very overwhelmed and confused when Harry picked me up for lunch - excuse me - brunch later that Sunday. Unfortunately for me, I had no Cameron Walker to help me calm down and figure out what was going on as I rode in the passenger seat of Harry's sleek, black BMW. Instinctively, I picked up my phone to text Cameron, but remembered how hungover he was this morning and decided against it. His head was probably still spinning too hard for him to text me back, let alone read my text.

"How's Cam?" I asked Harry over the music of the radio.

"Ask me another question," Harry said, staring straight ahead.

What a weirdo. "How did you come to afford this car?"

Harry raised an eyebrow at me. It was a valid question. I knew our parents didn't exactly make a fortune with their work. "How do you know it wasn't given to me?"

I shrugged and ran my hand over the leather seat. "Was it?"

Harry shook his head. "I worked three jobs in high school. Decided I wanted a BMW so I worked hard and saved up for one."

Maybe that's why I never really saw Harry outside of school all those years. The reason Cameron never hung out with the two of us at the same time was because Harry was working. The two of us sat in silence for the rest of the ride, listening to the obnoxious radio hosts going on and on about celebrity gossip and their own lives as if they were truly celebrities themselves. We finally arrived at Joey's Pancake House, a popular diner in the Holbrooke area.

Once Harry and I were finally seated and had ordered our meals, Harry shrugged off his black jacket and scratched his scalp under his bun with a single finger. He chewed his lip and stared at me with a completely deadpan expression until I asked, "What?"

"What 'what'?" Harry asked.

"Are you going to tell me why we're here?" I asked, glancing around at the groups of people enjoying Sunday afternoon brunch.