Candles

16 | A D M I R A T I O N

I HAD BEEN SITTING OUTSIDE of a random house for the past fifteen minutes. My car was the only one in the driveway and I was beginning to think I was at the wrong house, yet again. My GPS had glitched multiple times and it took me to three different houses. All of them were on the same street, though. I was waiting for it to glitch again because the house sitting in front of me made me feel insecure about the small home I was currently living in. The house I was currently staring out looked like a mansion compared to my home. It was not really a mansion but it was obvious it had more than one floor. Any house with more than one floor was a mansion to me.

The house was white but the simplicity of it made it absolutely beautiful. The front door had an oval shaped window on it and I was able to see inside of the house. I was only able to see the foyer, though, and it was completely empty. Two small trees sat on the front porch, one on either side of the front door in an individual pot. A dark brown mat sat on the porch in front of the door and there were a couple of wind chimes hanging about. I wanted to hear them when the wind blew. There was a pebble path leading to the front door and it was also connected to the driveway. I turned my phone on to check the time and sighed. Harry wanted me to be at his house before everyone else. He even said he would wait on his front porch for me. Unfortunately, I had no idea if this was his house. My GPS was on its last amount of juice.

I looked at myself in the rear view mirror and frowned slightly. A part of me wanted to go home and change clothes. I went out and bought a bathing suit when I realized I did not own one. I wore my shorts and a tee—that was a little bit too big on me—with sandals covering my feet. My hair was pinned up into a ponytail and it was extremely frizzy. There was nothing I could do about it and if anyone had a problem with how my hair looked, they had issues. Fruit salad sat on the passenger's seat beside me. I did not want to come without anything and I did not really know what to bring. When I saw a random customer pick up a thing of fruit, I copied her and thought I made a really good decision.

Did Harry's friends even like fruit?

I ran a hand down my face and smiled at how I was overthinking. Fruit was delicious. If they did not like it, I was not going to become upset over it. I would just take it home with me and enjoy it myself. The strawberries were probably going to be the best part. I looked around my car and my smile widened. After I bought my bathing suit, I rushed to the car wash and vacuumed the inside of my car until I was convinced it was fully cleaned. If any of Harry's friends decided to have a peek in my car, they were going to be very satisfied with what they saw.

Time was ticking and Harry was nowhere to be found. I believed I was at the wrong house and I stared at the house one more time. What if I went to go knock? I unbuckled my seat belt and opened my car door before grabbing the fruit salad. I shut the car door back with my foot and made sure I locked all of the doors. The car made a quick beeping noise and I made my way toward the front porch. I looked through the glass on the front door and I saw a staircase leading to the second floor. The stairs were covered with beige carpet and the railings were made of wood.

I rang the doorbell and waited patiently for someone to come answer. If this house did not belong to Harry, I was just going to go back home and lay in bed with this nice bowl of fruit. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do just that. I stared down at the fruit and wondered if I even had enough. I had no idea how many friends Harry actually had and the thought of a lot of people coming over made my chest ache.

When no one answered, I rang the doorbell again and sighed. I was going to toss my GPS without any regrets. It was officially a plan. I heard movement in the house and when I looked through the glass, I saw Harry speed walking toward the door. He wore a bright smile and he looked excited to see me. I smiled back and he opened the door, stepping to the side to allow me to enter. I walked inside of the house and I immediately smelled food.