A Moment in the Crowd

Chapter 2: Tim Horton's

Harry:

We sit together in the large black SUV after it finally breaks away from the screaming and crying crowd of fans.

I find myself fidgeting with my bandana, rubbing my thighs nervously, and averting her gaze every once and a while. She chats to me comfortably though, admitting that she's actually a huge fan, and she’d just come from our first show in North America last night.

She apologizes repeatedly for her appearance, explaining that she stayed downtown all night around the hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of me. I find myself only partially listening to her story.

Lily speak in a musical tone that keeps distracting me from the words escaping her lips. I notice all the details that come together to form this beautiful girl sitting beside me. Her light olive coloured skin and round face keeps animating itself with her tales of my own career. Her thick eyebrows and plump lips moved up and down as if in unison. She tells me of my X-Factor days, admitting that Liam had caught her eye back then. She even goes on to elaborate of her own adventures in Europe, and how she so desperately wants to return sometime soon.

I drift in and out of her stories, sometimes plunging into them head on and at other times stopping to admire her physique. She's wearing a tight rose patterned mini skirt and loose fitted cropped top, detailed with my butterfly tattoo. Instead of ballet flats, her feet sport another flower patterned sperry shoe, and my eyes admire how every concept of her outfit comes together.

Her bare legs are sitting cross legged not two inches away from my own, and I can’t help but take in the over-all appearance of this awe inspiring girl.

Admittedly, by now I would have gotten tired of talking to just another fan, but this girl doesn't feel like just another fan. Her long straight brown hair, and glowing smile, could never in my eyes be construed as boring.

Suddenly she asks me a familiar question, snapping me out of my appreciation for her figure.

“So you never really answered my question. Are you okay Mr. Harry Styles?” I smile, and look at her expecting dark green-brown eyes:

“I don’t think I’ve ever been better, Lily.” She smiles back at me, and looks down at the beige leather seats.

Her eyelashes, made more voluminous with the help of mascara, peak all the way to her eyebrows when she looks back up at me. For the second time today, our gazes seemed to lock, and this time she's the first to turn away. She looks out the window calmly, and I can imagine myself trailing my fingers down her back to brush the stray hairs onto her shoulder. Since when did a back become so - 

“Shit! I know you have so many better things to do. If you want to just let me out here I’ll be out of your way, I'm sorry!”

She scrambles to tell the driver to pull over, and instinctively I attempt to contradict her.

"No no, keep driving!" I yell at the driver once again. He doesn't seem to like me much because I get another inevitable grumble from him.

She looks at me with a wild and bewildered expression filling her face with confusion.

“You haven’t been wasting my time. In fact you’re from Toronto yeah? I need a guide of some sorts anyway. I haven’t even seen the city. That’s what I was going to do today.”

In hopes that she’ll bite at the opportunity to spend the day with me, I look down at her. She’s sitting there in complete shock, seemingly unable to answer for a good ten seconds. Then finally out of nowhere she says hesitantly:

“Are you fucking with me?”

I can't help but crack a smile and say with absolute assurance: “I am in no way fucking with you Lily, I promise.”

She laughs at my response, still looking unsure. Only now does she seem to show discrete and small signs of being nervous. I try to make her feel comfortable again by asking what we should do first.

She looks down at her shoes for a quick moment before looking back up to me, her eyes filling slowly with excitement:

“Have you ever had Tim Horton’s?”

When I answer with a curious, "No...?", her smile widens and she directs the driver confidently to our mysterious destination.