Dates & Polaroids

chapter 5

Harry pulls me down a short block and through an alley. We make a left and see a ton of people walking around this colorful wall. The floor was made from bricks and slightly uneven, there were posters for bands and podcast shows all over the place. Apparently Perl jam has another album out, I am going to have to tell my brother about that. There is a poster for some guy named Dave who loves movies and has a podcast on it. The street is fillied with littered cigarettes,  and crumpled papers. there are pipes running on the wall to my left. High above my head and between the two buildings I can see the clear blue sky. the alley itself is grimy and gross, but I love it.

"Welcome to the gum wall!" Harry says enthusiastic about his announcement.

"Gum wall?" I ask. I take a few steps toward the colorful wall I was paying no attention to,  as the name suggest the entire wall is covered in tons of gum. pink bubble gum to bright gream spearmint. some of them have pennies put in them, others have notes. there are even some hanging from the top of a door frame, pulled on by their owner to make a statement. there is one huge blue smiley face on one of the pipes running along the wall.

"This is so cool, and disgusting all at the same time." I tell him stepping back to where he is.

"Yeah there used to be a bar through there," he gestures to the only opening in the wall, "and the owners got mad at people leaving their gum on the floor in the bar so they told them that if they had gum, before they came in they would have to put it on the wall. it sort of became a tradition for everyone who passed to add a piece,  or a few to the wall."

He pulls out two sticks of five gum from his jacket holding them out. I take one and unwrap it, tossing the fruity gum into my mouth. I start to chew as Harry takes the other piece of gum.

"what about us?" April says motioning to her and Autumn who stand against the wall parallel to the one we are facing. Harry rolls his eyes and hands them a piece of gum as well.

we all find a place to put our gum together but firts Harry takes a polaroid selfie of the four of us. he presses it against the gum already on the wall and we all place a piece on each edge of the picture holding in place.

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"That was fun." I say to Harry as April and Autmn leave to go to sone bar. They offered for me to come with them but I declined.  A bar doesn't sound like the best idea on my first night. Not that I won't be going any other time. I will.

"Yeah, it was. What should we do next time?"

He looks at me kinda skeptical as we lean against the hood of his car.

"next time?" I tease him.

"Yeah well I was hoping there would be one. I need a new lady in my life. April and Autumn get to be a bit much every now and then.

"Who says I want to hang out with you, Styles?" I say nudging him with my shoulder.

"Please, I can cook. Everyone wants to hang out with the chef."

just as he mentions food my mind remembers that I haven't had any and my stomach growls. Harry notices and laughs.

"Is that a challenge?" He jokes.

"Feed me something good and we can be friends." I hold out my hand for him to shake and he stares me dead in the eye as we close our deal.

"Your house or mine?" he asks starting the car once we are in.

"Well mine doesn't currently have anything edible because I havent went shopping so yours." I tell him. He nods pulling out of the parking lot and taking a quick left without paying attention, earning a honk from a black Honda behind us.

"I thought I heard that Seattle had bad drivers." I say laughing

"You have no idea how bad I can be, love." He cheekily replies with a wink. his dimple showing up at the smile my shock awards him.