runaways || h.s

one;

     Word count: 2, 299

     The noise died down as the people left the restaurant one-by-one – the heavy mahogany door muffling their obnoxious voices that she could do without hearing every day. But, having the late shift almost every night of the week wasn't all that bad as everyone else made it seem when she first got it; their condolences for a work shift she thought was completely unnecessary.

     Locking the door behind the last person to leave, she turned and leaned against it, beginning to sing along to the song on the radio. Her voice boomed through the empty place.

     She stepped up onto the small stage and pulled a chair underneath her, sitting on it backwards; facing the empty tables and chairs. She was singing her pretty little heart out, and he was watching and listening from beside the bar – his mossy green eyes on her the whole time.

     When she finished and opened her eyes, she jumped back a little; startled to see him standing there.

     He wiped his hands on a white towel and discarded it on top of his apron that sat on the bar counter before saying, "I didn't mean to scare you, I was cleaning the kitchen and I heard singing, I thought I'd come out and see who it was." She nodded, stepping down from the stage. "You're amazing, by the way."

     "Actually, I'm Lola," she teased, a smirk pulling at her lips. "But thank you, I usually don't sing in front of people. I didn't think anyone else was here."

     "I'm here most nights, and this probably sounds really creepy, but I hear you singing every time we have late shift together but I never came out and said I was here because I was afraid I wouldn't get to hear you sing again. It's sort of become a soundtrack to my work," he laughed awkwardly, hoping she wouldn't be freaked out by him being there.

     "I never knew someone else had late shift, no one's told me."

     "Well, it's my last day, actually, and that's why I wanted to tell you how great you were." He paused to see her reaction and she smiled. "Oh, and I'm Harry."

     "Harry," she repeated. "It fits you. Must be something about those green eyes that just scream Harry," she laughed and so did he.

     "Oh, I'm sure," he joked.

     "You said it was your last day?" She said, now sitting across from him at the table farthest from the door but closest to the bar and entrance to the kitchen.

     Harry nodded, "I'm off to Londontomorrow morning."

      Without thinking, she quickly said, "Can I come with you?"

     Harry laughed, not thinking she was serious but he noticed the look on her face and decided she most definitely was and said, "I guess so, I could use the company."

     Lola wasn't thinking about the fact that when she got there she would have nowhere to go and that she had no money - due to the bills she was already late on - but what she would do when she got there, all of things she would see, all the people she would meet. Londonwas somewhere she's always wanted to visit and she surely wouldn't pass up the opportunity now. She smiled.

     "You're just going to pack up and leave?" Harry asked and she nodded. "Just like that? Are you going to at least tell your parents where you're going before we go?"

     "They don't even know where I am now," she said.

     Harry, being very confused, raised his brow and his mouth formed and 'o' shape.

     She continued, "I ran away onto seventeenth birthday, not that they even noticed me when I was home. I mean, they never came looking for me. Haven't talked to or seen them since." It didn't seem like she cared very much, but somewhere deep down, very deep down, she was broken over it.