Labels || H.S. [#Wattys2020]

THIRTY-EIGHT

Reagan was a worrier. She was an anxious over-thinker who always had something to worry about. So of course she kept thinking about whether or not she would go on tour with the boys. On one hand, yeah, Kennedy was right. It would be a great experience. Working out in the real world, with a real band, getting hands-on experience would benefit her so much in the long run, even if she graduated late. But at the same time, she knew she was more inclined to take the jump and do it because she would get to spend more time with Harry. She was all for spending more time with him, as much as she hated to admit it, but what would happen when people found out what they were? Luckily, of course, Lydia was able to stop talk about her in the media. Then again, she would have to thank Louis for that since he distracted everyone from the fact that she and Harry had run down a street holding hands.

The fans of course spoke online of how they totally could be dating, but they doubted it since Harry's regular type was more model-y and ditsy. But what happened when news really broke, when there was concrete proof and evidence that they were together, that they were actually a thing? That's probably what scared her the most. Everyone would know who she was, just like they knew Sophia and Eleanor, just like they know almost every normal girl that dated one of the boys. Everyone would know her as Harry's girlfriend, as his current flame, or scarily enough, his ex when and if they every stopped seeing each other. She didn't know if she could deal with that. She wanted to make her own name, not be defined by someone else.

And perhaps the relief she felt at the fact that the news of Harry possibly having a new flame kind of just blew over didn't mean that she couldn't deal with the attention, it's that she didn't want to. And it wasn't because she didn't think Harry wasn't worth it, it was just that she kind of just valued herself more. She wanted to not only be Harry's new girlfriend, but a talented PR agent, an intelligent woman. She knew that there were so many other ways to define herself, but if she were to take this job and her cover was blown, no one would ever know that.

For one day though, she knew that she had to put all of this out of her mind. She watched quietly as Harry drove, his large hands gripping the steering wheel as he hummed along to some song on the radio. He had arrived to her house all chipper with his sunshiny smile and radiant personality and charmed the pants off her mother and sister, once again. Reagan of course attempted to look fed up with the love fest between her family and Harry, but she wasn't, she found it quite endearing.

Harry though had been rather quiet for being, well, Harry. He simply turned on the radio, sat back comfortably, and drove. Not what Reagan had expected at all.

"So..." She started, trying to initiate the conversation for once.

Harry though had been quiet for a completely understandable reason. See, when he was comfortable with someone he didn't feel the need to talk, to fill the silence. He was happy, perhaps even beyond that. He didn't have to talk, didn't feel the need to.

"Yes?" He said almost laughingly, knowing that he was bothering Reagan with his seemingly out of character silence.

"Nice scenery."

"Cows?"

"I like cows." She said as the drove past probably the fifth dairy farm. Why they had chosen the long route, she didn't know. She knew it was all just going to be cows and cows, but Harry couldn't be persuaded otherwise.

"I think everyone likes cows."

"I think you're thinking of milk."

He smirks, "What about people who are lactose intolerant?"

"Then they wouldn't like milk or cows much, would they?" Reagan says, watching the farm roll by her passenger window.

Harry chuckled before saying, "I like cows too."

Reagan rolled her eyes, smiling nonetheless. She still didn't realize that the silence didn't need to be filled, that it could just kind of exist between them. She thought that maybe she had done something wrong, that maybe Louis had already told Harry how apprehensive she was about going on tour with them. And that's when the panic set in. She was just so sure that this was Harry's way of punishing her. That he purposely wasn't talking to her because he was mad or disappointed, and it scared her. She really thought that she had to have done something wrong. Again, Reagan had never been in a relationship, she had never known a comfortable silence, especially from such a talkative guy like Harry. She thought that maybe she should just kind of feel out where she and Harry stood, and whether it was because of her apprehension towards leaving why he wasn't talking.

"So, one whole month before you go back on tour."

"Yeah, but we still have all those gigs before that."

"But at least you kind get to stay in one single place, no?"

"I guess, I mean, things like talk shows and filming are fun and all, but they don't let me talk much."

"I wonder why that is." She mumbled.

He turned to look at her sharply and then went back to look ahead at the road, "Anyway," He said pointedly, "You get a month off too."

"And here I am, starting it off still kind of stuck at my job."

"I'm a job?"

"You're certainly work."

"Does that mean I'm problematic?"

"A lot of the time."

"I'm the problematic one?" Harry said indignantly, "How could that even be."

"No, not in general, just towards me."

"Oh, that sounds correct, actually." He said with a smirk upon his face.

"At least after this month I'll be done dealing with the lot of you for a while." She said, testing out the waters. She knew that saying this would either incur one of two reactions. One: Harry would be confused, obviously expecting that Reagan would be coming on tour with them, therefore her statement made absolutely no sense. Or two: She wasn't actually expected to come on tour with the boys and Louis just misunderstood something Lydia said. Harry would just laugh it off and probably tell her how he'd facetime her or skype her everyday just so she could see how problematic he actually was. She was praying for the latter.

"After this month?" He started, "Don't you mean after the tour ends?"

Needless to say, Harry's reaction was not the latter. It was the first one, and fuck, Reagan had no idea how to respond to him now.