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eighteen

"You look cute", Harry said as I had gotten into his car. I had decided on a middle ground outfit that was something different than what I usually where but still comfortable for me. Knowing that Harry thought I looked cute made all the stresses of thinking of an outfit worth it.

"I'm not overdressed?", I asked and he laughed.

"The girls who really care about these kind of parties come in the most provocative outfits. This is you and I like that."

This was one of the things I loved about Harry. I never had to be a different type of girl to him, he never had an expectation of what I was suppose to be, or put his ideal vision on to me. I was just endlessly myself with him and he liked it. He went along with all of my antics and matched me on all of my weird habits and quirks. It felt like him and I were the same person a lot of the time and that was a nice feeling to have.

Harry pulled up the restaurant, a place fancier than I had expected, and he looked excited. This date was something unlike anything else we had done. The place had dark walls and dark decor, almost a romantic, dim lighting and vibe was surrounding the place. I never imagined being in a place as nice as this. Places that you had to make a reservation for were never places that I thought I would be good enough for.

"You like it here?", Harry asked and I nodded, " Good. I've never been here but I wanted to try it with you-"

Harry's words were cut off with the ringing of his phone, he is usually the one to ignore these kind of things with me but he looked at the caller id and stepped away to take it immediately. He couldn't have been gone for more than five minutes when he came back to the table with a smile on his face.

"Everything okay?", I asked and the smile dropped, almost as if he was just keeping up the look of being okay just for me. I moved my chair so that I could be next to him and rested my head on his shoulder.

"Dad's not doing well, just wanted to keep me posted. My sister has been calling me and giving me updates all day. I wish she would just stop though, I wanted to have a good day with you."

"It's gonna be alright, H. We can still have a good time and hopefully we can still have fun and I can keep your mind off of things", he smiled and kissed my forehead.

A waiter came over to our table and began to ask us about drinks and food and the conversation began to change to things a lot more lighthearted. I wanted to talk to Harry all about his feelings and his dad but I knew that wasn't what he wanted right now and I wasn't going to push it. If he wanted to have a fun and romantic, exciting night with me to keep his mind of his dad's health issues then that was my mission. 

"So Bigfoot, yes or no?", I asked Harry once the waiter had dropped off our food and he began to eat.

"This is our dinner time topic? Conspiracy theories and urban legends?", he smiled at me and gave me a look that says "This woman is crazy."

"My favorite dinner time topic actually."

"Well my answer is yes", he finally said and I nodded in excitement, " A lot of the evidence isn't that believable but I want Bigfoot to be real. If I saw Bigfoot, I could die a happy man."

"I completely agree", I added, "But aliens?"

"Oh of course."

"Not to be that person that brings up their ex, but he didn't believe in aliens."

"So, he is a shit person, he hurt my baby angel, and he does not believe in aliens?", I nodded, "Oh yeah, I can't hate this guy anymore than I already do. How do you not believe in aliens?"

"Exactly! I believe it is so selfish to think we are the only living beings in the world. Aliens have to be real."

These were the conversations that I lived for in life. I was eating an insanely good meal, talking about the most goofy things, and sitting across from a boy who I admired and could see myself being with for a really long time. I felt like I was right where I was meant to be and even if there was more talking than eating happening at our table, this was the dream. He made me feel like nothing could get better in moments like this. No one else mattered in the world as long as had Harry by my side. 

"Thank god we both believe in all this stuff", he began to say before his phone started to ring, "It's my sister."

"Do you want to answer it?", I asked and he nodded, "Answer it, it's okay."

"I'm just gonna shoot her a text I don't want to deal with it right now, don't want to kill the mood."

I watched him text sister with a frown across his face. I know he loved his father but the pressure he put on him was a lot and all of this worry on his health made it even harder on him. Harry wanted to be the perfect son, even if that wasn't going to happen for him, he was always thinking about it.

"So Illuminati?", I asked, "Are you just a "Bigfoot and aliens" kind of guy or do you dip your toes into conspiracies too?"

"Sometimes, I used to do it a lot when I was younger, I just stay up all night and make myself so scared to go asleep. Just thinking like , " The government knows so much about me and they are watching my every move", it is really amazing. I love living in fear", he said sarcastically and the both of us started laughing. 

"I'm the exact same way."

He grabbed my hand from across the table and rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand in the most soothing, loving manner. It was a simple yet romantic gesture that I couldn't get enough of. We could have been here for hours but the time him and I spent together just being completely ourselves was insane.