Buses & Bunk Beds (Zarry)

Chapter 66

Time seemed to stretch out as I tried to process what was happening. Harry was actually kissing me - more like full on making out really - in front of everyone, right out in the open. It was like the first time he'd kissed me in front of Niall, but times a thousand - times a million, times infinity. The crowd fell silent as they realized what was happening, and then they roared. Screams so piercing that I could hear them over the impossibly loud rushing in my ears. Instinct led me to close my eyes and grasp his face, though I was barely able to focus enough to kiss him back. Barely able to stand when he finally pulled away, the ground feeling unsteady under my feet. My heart was pounding and my legs were wobbling and my hands were shaking, and I wasn't sure if it was out of fear or relief or what.

The other boys swarmed around Harry and me as we left the stage, practically holding me up while we rushed backstage. They stopped at our dressing room, but Harry pulled me farther down the hallway, his arm wrapped firmly around me as we hurried along, jogging more than walking. I turned back to see the lads waving goodbye with big smiles on their faces, seemingly unfazed by the spectacle that we'd just put on. Harry and I didn't slow down until we were outside. Paddy was waiting there by the open door of an SUV that Harry pushed me into before climbing in himself. The next thing I knew Paddy was driving us out of the arena and into the night. 

Less than five minutes had passed since Harry had kissed me onstage, yet I felt like everything had changed. He hadn't said a word to me, and as I looked over at him, biting his lip and fidgeting nervously in his seat, his cheeks flushed an obscene shade of pink and his eyes more alive than ever, I didn't know whether to snog him or throttle him. I went for a combination of the two, wrapping my hands around his neck as I brought him in for a kiss.

"Are you alright? I've never seen you look this pale," he fretted over me after a brief kiss, looking concerned as he ran his thumbs along my cheeks. I wasn't surprised to hear that I looked bad. I was freezing, and it felt like my blood had been replaced by ice water. And not in the stone cold killer with nerves of steel kind of way. No, I felt more like I was about to melt into a puddle and disappear. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been this overwhelmed, the events of the last few minutes seeming too surreal to possibly have happened.

"What the fuck were you thinking, Harry?" I asked in bewilderment, a desperate laugh bubbling out of me and making it sound like I was choking. 

"Don't be mad," he leaned in to breathe against my lips, holding onto me just as tightly as I was him. "I just wanted us to be out in the open, on our own terms. That's what you wanted too, right?"

"Yeah, but...you mean Modest didn't know you were gonna do that? What about Simon?"

"No," he admitted, unable to hold back his glee over this fact. "I've been planning this for weeks, but hardly anybody knew."

I couldn't help but stare at him in awe. "But...what did you plan? And where are we going?"

"I've got it all sorted. I booked us a private plane; that's where we're headed now. I packed our bags earlier - they're in the back - and I told Paul right before the show that I needed a car ready and waiting for us. He had a lot of questions but I told him it was best that he didn't know anything for now. Plausible deniability and all that."

"But where are we flying to? And why are we leaving?"

"We're going to a private island in Ibiza. I just figured now might be a good time to get away from it all. Somewhere we can turn our phones off and pretend that we're the only two people in the world. My mum was the only person I told the whole plan to. I gave her the landline there and I asked her to give it to your mum as soon as everything went down, but we'll be unreachable to everyone else. No paparazzi, no internet, no handlers. Just you and me."