"Five minutes, boys," Paul says as we all step off the bus. My feet make contact with the ground and I raise my arms above my head, stretching the muscles in my body.
Niall comes off the bus last, running past the rest of us and into the shop, obviously in need of another snack after the long road trip. I follow Niall into the store, and by the time I find him, he has five different bags of chips in his hands.
"You gonna share?" Niall jumps at the sound of my voice and I don't bother to hide the smile on my face.
"Um... yeah, here," Niall says, tossing a bag of Cheetos my way.
"Thanks."
I leave Niall and begin wandering in between the other aisles, stopping when I find the one with the candy. My eyes peruse all the various choices of sweets and chocolate. I stop when I spot a Twix, and it's the last one in the box. I reach out to grab it, but another hand appears and grabs ahold of it at the same time.
"Sorry, you can have it," I say, and when I turn my head to meet a familiar pair of eyes that I thought I'd never see again, I nearly drop the candy bar. "(Y/N)?"
Her eyes lock with mine and my throat suddenly goes dry. I haven't seen (Y/N) since I was eighteen, and my head is suddenly crammed with a hundred different questions and emotions.
"Hi, Harry," she says quietly, letting go of the Twix bar that we're both still holding, but my grip isn't firm enough to keep holding it, so it falls to the floor. I'm still too in shock to pick it up.
"H-Hi," I stutter out, still trying to absorb the sight in front of me.
She smiles softly. "It's been a while."
"Three years," I say, looking down at the floor for a moment, thinking back to three years ago, about how we were so happy together, but when the band took off, it put a strain on our relationship. I'd be lying to myself if I said my feelings for her disappeared, and they're definitely resurfacing at the sight of her standing in front of me.
"I'm surprised to see you here," she says, and I return my gaze to her. "Are you in town for a show?"
"Three actually. We were just stopping for snacks before we check into the hotel."
"Harry," Niall's voice echoes from the next aisle over. "Harry?" Niall appears at the front of the aisle, and I'm glad that (Y/N) is facing away from him. "Paul says we need to go."
"I'll be right there," I tell him over (Y/N)'s shoulder before looking back at her. "So, I'm gonna be in town for a few days, and I was wondering if maybe you'd like to, um, grab some coffee? With me?"
She stares at me for a moment, her face unchanging, and I almost regret the question, but then a slow smile begins to form on her face. "Sure."
-
"Harry?" someone asks, but I'm too focused on my phone to care who's calling my name. "Harry?" the voice asks again when a foot reaches out and kicks me in the shin.
"Ow, what do you want?" I say, looking up to find Liam standing over me.
"We have to rehearse, so you'll have to put your phone down for more than five minutes."
"Alright," I huff, typing out one last text to (Y/N) before locking my phone and tucking it in my back pocket.
"Who are you texting all the time anyway?" Louis asks as we all file out of the room and towards the stage.
"No one."
"It doesn't seem like no one when you keep smiling at your phone like a complete idiot."
