A Moment in the Crowd

Chapter 16: Morning

I wake to the bright streaks of sunshine that flow through the cracks in my drapes. The white curtains don't keep out enough sunlight for the room to remain even remotely dark. I roll over, noting that I'm still wearing my clothes from last night, including my shoes, and look at the time on the clock next to my bed. It reads 1:30 and I'm not surprised by how much I slept in. 

I hear the frustrated shouts of my younger brother from the next room, as he battles a video game on his computer. I quickly remove my shoes and swap my club attire for the most comfortable work-out shorts I can find, and pull a plain grey sweatshirt over my mess of hair. When I glance at myself in the mirror hanging on the wall, I notice the smudged makeup that still clings under my eyes. I look like a panda, or a racoon, I can't be sure.

I make my way to the bathroom and scrub at the makeup that has stubbornly remained overnight. It doesn't help, so I resort to using the last bit of makeup remover I have left. When I can claim that my face is about as makeup free as it'll ever get, I splash water onto my eyes to wake me up. The water causes some of the left over mascara to run, and I sigh while using the towels that hang in the bathroom to remove more of the dark mess.

It isn't until I'm halfway down the stairs that I remember what happened yesterday. Every memory comes flooding its way into my mind, the car, the CN Tower, Tim Horton's, the concert, the club, the kiss. I look down at my knee and sure enough a scab of blood can be seen, proving that my mind isn't just playing a trick on me. I think to myself that if I hadn't gotten cut from the glass at the club, I probably would have put the events of yesterday down to a dream. 

But it wasn't a dream.

I run back up the stairs and close the door to my room, panting as I lean against the door. My mind is rushing and I have to sit on my bed to go through yesterday again and again until I can repeat it without thinking. Harry really did kiss me last night. And I'm sure he said something like see you again or see you soon, right? Doesn't that mean he plans on seeing me again? It must mean that, otherwise he wouldn't have said it.

Too disoriented by my own thoughts, I stand to look at the girl in the mirror again. She looks fresh faced, and completely awake, but what I notice most about the girl in the mirror, is that she looks happy. Her face can't stop smiling and her eyes have never shone brighter than they do now. Could this really be the same girl that I stood to look in the mirror all those times in the past year, with a growing frown and terribly sad eyes?

It has to be, and as if to prove that we are the same, she jumps into the air with me. I run my fingers through the messy bun that I just put my long hair into, and pace back and forth in the small space that is my room.

I suddenly remember what I need to do and reach for my phone completely ignoring the millions of notifications I know to pop up on the lock screen. I go straight to my text messages and read through everything that Paola has sent me. She's been freaking out ever since my last explanation, trying to figure out how any of it possible. She's cursed me out about a million times, telling me that I need to answer her right away.

I begin tapping at the screen of my iPhone and my fingers can't stop until I've explained every detail of the story I repeated to myself just a few minutes ago.

I send the longest text message I have ever seen to one of my closest friends and wait in anticipation until she responds. She finally does after a short two minutes and she begins asking more and more questions, telling me to send her the pictures I got with the other boys. She curses me out for not getting a video of Louis saying hi to her, and I curse myself out for not thinking of it. How could the thought have slipped my mind?

I feel more guilty than I probably should at the fact that I completely spaced on the video. Paola is the biggest Louis girl I've ever met and she would have gotten me a Harry video in a second had this happened to her. The guilt is slowly building and I can't stop apologizing to her for my idiocy. She types her "hahas" and tells me not to worry about it, but that she'll kill me if I don't get one and I see him again.