Night Changes: One Direction

Harry

I had changed my outfit roughly twelve times before settling on leggings, warm socks to match my sweater, and my white coat and gloves. I couldn't help but feel that Harry probably wasn't putting this much thought into his outfit selection as I was. He had a way of always looking perfectly, flawless without trying. I was jealous of that ability to be honest. I walked the streets alone, he had hand written me a letter left upon my doorstep this morning saying: to meet him at the ice skating rink at eight o'clock sharp, to dress warm and be prepared for a night to remember. Signed with a small doodled heart and H. I knew well enough by now that Harry was quite the romantic but this had to top the cake.

I walked quickly, watching my breath in the cold night air, purposely taking larger breaths to see the winter illusion. I stood outside the skate renting building for a moment, debating whether I should go inside or wait, I was early but it worried me that I hadn't seen Harry anywhere. What if the letter was some kind of cruel joke. I turned to face the rink, searching through faces trying to examine each face to see if he had skipped a step ahead of me.

I had to admit that I was not only nervous because of the fact that I hadn't spotted Harry but I was also nervous about the idea of ice skating in general. I had only been twice before in my lifetime and I was definitely not the best at it by any means. My mind flashed through various falls on the ice, thankfully none of them were too bad. I hoped that Harry would opt for less ice skating and more hot chocolate by the lighted Christmas tree. I was alarmed when I felt two warm, soft hands over top of my eyes, a warm, deep voice whispering in my ear, "Guess who?"

I pulled a cheeky grin before I replied, "Santa?"

"Try again!" he whispered in my ear before letting out a loud, happy laugh.

"Would it perhaps be Harry?" I laughed turning to face him. A large smile appeared across his face as he pulled it into a warm embrace, Harry by far was the best hugger in the world.

"It's me!" he shouted letting me go before grabbing hold of my hand and pulling me toward the skate rental building, heading inside.

I was right, Harry had managed to look flawless, yet I knew he probably hadn't spent much time focusing on what he was wearing. We walked toward the mens section, quickly Harry pulled out a set of skates, as if he had known exactly where they would be. Then we headed toward the womens. "What size, love?" he said turning toward me, handing me his skates to hold as he looked for mine.

"A five please," I replied trying to carefully hold Harry's skates without dropping them.

"White or black?" he asked, I looked down at his black pair tempted to say black to match. "White," he said without waiting any longer for a reply, "It will match your coat and gloves!" he laughed pulling the skates off of the shelf and holding them out to me as if to say 'Are these ok?' I nodded and we headed to the front desk. Harry quickly paid the man before I could even object. He was a gentleman indeed.

Heading outside into the cold air again, I let out a deep breath watching my breath float to the sky. Harry sat at bench tying up his skates as if he had done it a thousand times. I sat with the skates in my lap, I had never tied ice skates before, Harry looked over confused.

"Whatcha waitin for?" he laughed.

"Ummm, well I kind of don't know how and I am also slightly terrified," I replied looking down at the skates.

"You're terrified of shoe laces?" he said with a straight face before kneeling down and sliding my skates on, lacing them up. "Ya see, it's not to bad, the shoe laces don't bite too hard." I couldn't help but laugh at his lame jokes, Harry looked up as he tied the last skate, smiling back at me.

"Thank you," I smiled trying to stand, but feeling somewhat unstable.

"It will be easier to skate than to walk," he said laughing at me before taking my hand and dragging me onto the ice, toward the center of the rink. Fear set in but something about being with Harry made everything seem easier. I watched as he skated away for a moment, skating in circles. He turned back to smile at me as he skated off in circles and throwing in the occasional figure eight. I skated slowly to keep up with him but it was easy to see that he had much experience ice skating.

"Are you impressed yet?" he turned and laughed before spinning in circles and attempting to do tricks on the ice. "What about now?"

"Oh yes very!" I laughed, I had gained a bit more confidence on the ice, I knew Harry wouldn't let me fall.

"Good I have been practicing with socks on, sliding around on the kitchen tiles for weeks, in order to impress you!" he laughed, but I was unsure if he was kidding or was being serious. Probably serious.

"Practice makes perfect!" I laughed as we skated together around the perimeter of the rink. Harry jokingly skating away but always coming back. We had made it back by the bench where we had left our shoes and I was hoping that this would be our stop but Harry's warm, grip on my hand made it clear that we weren't leaving the ice anytime soon.

"Look at that!" Harry said pointing to a couple in the dead center of the rink, clearly they were professional or close to it. The tricks they were doing were things I had only seen on TV before.

"Wow," I said, I was stunned. Harry skated a bit closer trying to get a better view of the action.

"We should do that!" Harry said turning and pointing back forth between him and I.

"Yeah right, very funny Mr. Styles, good joke," I laughed.

"I'm serious! We can totally do it!" his voice was full of confidence and excitement but I hoped he was only kidding. Harry skated further away from me before turning to face me again. "Ready?"

"No!" I yelled over to him, he had better be kidding.

 "One, two, three," he yelled over, pausing for only a second before skating straight at me. "Catch me!"

The next thing I knew I was tumbling to the ground, I opened my eyes to see Harry on the ice next to me grabbing his elbow. "Shit!" he yelled. I grabbed my ankle, I could feel the pain almost instantly but I tried to not let it show. "Are you ok?" Harry mumbled through clenched teeth. "I thought we totally had that!"

"Definitely not!" I yelled back through the pain. Part of me was pissed that he would even try to attempt a trick that he knew we wouldn't be able to do, but the other part of me was concerned that he was injured badly. With the pain radiating through my ankle and leg, I was brought back to reality.

"Don't move! We called an ambulance!" a young women yelled from the edge of the rink. Only moments later we heard sirens blaring through the night. 

I'm not sure if I blacked out, or if I mentally repressed the memories to follow but the next thing I knew the paramedics were carrying Harry and I toward the ambulance. A man ripping off my skate and sock as he tightly wrapped and adjusted my ankle. I looked down only for a moment, at the final wrap job on my fractured ankle, wishing I had painted my toe nails before I left the house. Looking up at Harry, his arm in a sling, looking adorably pitiful. He slowly mouthed, 'I'm sorry' as the paramedic continued to take his vitals.

Moments later, we were sat in an ambulance being taken to the local hospital for us both to receive casts. We sat silently as we journeyed away from the ice skating rink. I couldn't help but think about how lovely the night would have been if we would have sat by the Christmas tree drinking hot chocolate.

"Well what do ya think of the date, ya know besides this part right now?" Harry said quietly avoiding looking at me.

"Well it was definitely something I won't forget," I laughed looking up as Harry's face lit up with a smile.

"Ya hear that?" he yelled up to the drivers, "She said it was something that she won't forget!"