The Boy Across The Road

04 ~ I Get A Passion For Gardening

I woke up on a Thursday morning to the sound of somebody mowing the lawn. I looked up into my mirror and saw my bed hair and cushion face, still tired and weary from a restless night’s sleep. All this week I tried to ‘accidently’ bump into Harry again but I always seemed to miss him. I was already half-way through my summer break and I’d felt like I’d achieved nothing. In another three weeks, I’d see kids returning to school, adults returning to work and I, would be off to London to study.

I could hear shouting coming from my brothers room – he was probably getting too enthusiastic with the PlayStation. I put my ugg boots on and tied my hair into a messy bun. Still in my loose t-shirt and mini short pyjamas, I walked into the front yard to see who had woken me up. Biggest mistake I ever made.

There, in a tank top and shorts was Harry, Mowing his mother’s front lawn. He looked up at me, then down again but took a double-take. “Maddie! Uh… did I wake you up?” he asked innocently. I looked down and realised that I was standing in front of Harry Styles in my pyjamas. I was about to die of embarrassment but then I had the happy thought that at least I wasn’t wearing my fluffy pink polka-dot robe.

“You did actually. I thought that you were having a break, why aren’t you sleeping in?” I asked crossing my arms. If I was going to pester him in my pyjamas, I would at least be sassy about it. He took off his sunglasses and I saw his bright green eyes shining in the sunlight. He walked towards me and smiled at me cheekily. “I did have the intention to sleep but when I arrived and saw my mother’s lawn, I couldn’t possibly leave it to grow into a jungle.” I thought that it was a bit of an exaggeration but I couldn’t concentrate with his hair blowing with the calm breeze. “You should consider your neighbours sleeping patterns then,” I said awkwardly. He laughed his adorable laugh. “I’m sorry. But maybe next time you should give me your number so that I can let you know when I’ll be starting the gardening.”

And then I giggled like an idiot. “I only live next door, why would you need my number when you could just ring the doorbell?” I asked with a smirk. He nodded considering the fact. “Well,” he was speaking with his beautiful, slow voice. “Why don’t you help me with the gardening then? I could really use the extra help and you look like you have the talent for it. I glanced over at my own flower bed in our family’s lawn. The remaining flowers were all dead or in the process of dying. I had gotten bored after a month of caring for the rose bed.

“Yeah sure, as you can tell by the fabulous specimen’s right over there,” I said pointing at the flower bed. He raised his eye brows at me. I doubted that he was ever turned down the opportunity to spend time with a girl and I felt like an idiot doing it, but I had to meet up with Roisin today. “I promise that one day, I shall take you up on your offer, but today, I have plans.” I smiled at him then started to retreat back to my house. “Well, can I at least have your number so that maybe, we could make plans of our own?” I would be absolutely crazy to turn down this opportunity. So I did what any normal person does when their crush asks for their number. I gave it to him, went back inside, shut my bedroom door and did a happy dance.

After several tiring minutes of a victory dance, I got out my laptop and logged onto Facebook. Nothing new – just more depressing statuses about love. It was 9:30 now and Roisin was coming over at 1. She had been in London for the past five days doing who knows what. My room was a complete mess with clothes hanging off the edge of my bed blankets and teddy bears sprawled all over the floor, having fallen off of my bed. I sighed as I determined that I would spend my morning cleaning my room. I decided that I would eat first then clean so I ran downstairs and opened the pantry to look for cereal. All I seemed to find was some out of date corn flakes so I decided to make myself a fruit cup instead.

I turned on the radio as I began to cut up fruit and tuned it to my favourite station. As I cut the leaves off the straw berries, I heard some interesting news about none other than One Direction. “Yes, next we’ll be playing One Direction’s first single ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ but first, some gossip on the young Boy Band. Irish member Niall Horan has been spotted around London with a beautiful blonde. Our reporters tried to reach Niall for information but all they got out of him was that she was a ‘new friend’. So who is this mystery girl, breaking many teenage hearts? Listeners, keep on the look-out for her.” I heard the familiar cow-bells of the song and couldn’t help but sing along.

Mystery blonde hey? Well, Roisin wouldn’t be happy. I knew that she fancied Niall most out of all members of One Direction. I finished cutting up my fruit and couldn’t help but pretend that Harry was singing his solo in What Makes You Beautiful to me. As I chewed on my fruit I looked outside to see a beautiful sight. In the very rare heat of this beautiful morning, Harry had taken off his shirt and was laying out some soil in the garden. His body looked as if it had been carved by the gods. How was it possible for him to have such an amazing physique when he was so busy? I realised that I was gawking at him with my mouth open.

My mother walked into the room and saw what I was looking at. “You should clean your room before Roisin gets here. And you should try to not be so obvious.” She said, refraining from laughing. I put my bowl and cutlery into the dishwasher and walked up-stairs. I collected all my clothes into a pile and sorted out the clean and dirty ones to be put into the wash. I made my bed, vacuumed the floor and even cleaned the windows. “Clean enough mum?” I muttered to myself. I looked at the time and saw that it was 11:30. I still had time to paint my nails and have a shower.

After precisely applying many layers of red nail polish, I finished up and got ready to have a shower. The weather was hot and humid, something not typical for English weather. I grabbed a pair of shorts and a loose blouse. The weather was so hot that I decided to have a cold shower, but by the end of it, I had goose bumps and was shivering. I got dressed and as I left the bathroom, I saw my brother in his room, violently shaking the controller at the screen. I sat on my bed and waited for Roisin to come. I couldn’t wait to tell her about the exciting events of this morning.

I heard the doorbell ring and put on my pear of TOM’s and walked downstairs. I opened the door and saw Roisin standing there, wearing a tank top and shorts with her hair plaited to the side. I said hi and hugged her whilst at the same time, checking to see if Harry was still outside but he was gone. We walked upstairs and sat on my bed. I looked at her and I could tell there was something she had to tell me. “I had a great but interesting time in London,” she said cheekily. “What did you do?” I asked, curious. “Well, I saw all the landmarks and went to all the great pubs. And I… I hung out with Niall Horan.”