Stephanie’s P.O.V.
I never understood why I took Harry’s hand that time; I guess I just liked the feeling of it and knowing he cares about me. Honestly, I didn’t want our time spent together to end. But as we neared the house, I dropped his hand so the guys wouldn’t see anything (even if we’re not together, I still didn’t want anyone to notice). We entered inside to the loud noise of warm laughter in the family room.
I kicked off my shoes but kept my jacket on, since we were supposed to be leaving in a few minutes. Harry did the same and we walked into the room.
“What’s up, guys?” I asked first.
“Louis was just showing us his random sock collection,” Rachel answered, trying so hard not to laugh.
“You have a sock collection?” I blurted out, my eyebrows raising in surprise.
“Yes, I do, and it’s very interesting,” Louis defended. I snorted and Rachel burst out laughing.
“As interesting as this is, are we still going bowling?” Harry questioned from behind me.
“Oh, that’s right!” Zayn pointed out.
“Of course we are! Let’s go!” Elijah declared, standing up. The rest of the group followed and they slipped on their shoes and jackets. Harry and I put on our shoes again and that’s when we realized: how are we getting there?
“Well, I can drive,” Louis said.
“So can I,” Elijah repeated.
“But the only cars that are here are Anne’s and Gemma’s,” Liam brought up.
“I’ll ask them if we can borrow them,” Harry delivered, and left the small hallway in search of his family.
A few minutes later, he returned with the keys to both vehicles, a sign that Gemma and Anne were alright with Louis and Elijah driving. We split up and divided ourselves among the two vehicles: Niall, Rachel, Harry, and I in one with Elijah as the driver and Liam and Zayn in the other with Louis driving. Elijah pulled out first followed by Louis, as he knew where the bowling alley was.
About 15 minutes later, we reached the building and my mouth dropped open. I guess my mind didn’t really think about which bowling alley we would be going to, but this was the closest one to our homes, so of course we went to the one that I had my 6th birthday party in.
“You remember?” Harry nodded at me as he helped me out of the car.
“Yeah! This is where we went to for my 6th birthday party,” I answered.
“I honestly haven’t been here since then. Because you left, I couldn’t even go near this building because of what happened that day,” Harry honestly responded.
“What?” I asked, looking at him.
“Don’t you remember what happened?” he questioned.
“Somewhat. I don’t remember all of the details, though,” I replied. “But that’s not why I’m surprised. You haven’t gone here since I left?”
“This reminded me of you, all the time. I couldn’t bring myself to go inside,” Harry revealed, leading me to the building.
“Really?” I asked again, still amazed.
“I’ve already answered that twice, yes,” Harry responded.
We headed inside and Elijah went up to the desk to figure out what lanes we would have, since he called in for reservations before. As he was dealing with that, the rest of us tried on shoes and picked out our bowling balls. Elijah figured out what lanes we were on and we set our bowling balls on the rack.
“So, who’s on who’s team?” Liam asked, tying his shoes.
“I’m with Harry,” I announced.
“Figures,” Louis teased me.
“Rachel’s with me,” Niall declared.
“Also figures,” Zayn nudged Louis, chuckling.
“So you four can be on one team, then, and the rest of us, me, Louis, Liam, and Zayn, can be on the other,” Elijah calculated.
“Sweet!” I shouted, high-fiving Harry.
Rachel punched in our names on the screen while Liam did for his team and then, we battled. Harry went first for our team, knocking down only 3 pins.
“Oh, come on, Styles, you can do better!” Niall yelled.
“Shut up, I just got started, geez,” Harry replied, rolling his eyes.
“Be nice,” Rachel asserted, playfully hitting his shoulder. He just laughed it off.
Harry picked up his ball again and rolled it down the lane, hitting the last 7 pins and making it a spare.
“Oh, look at that, Horan. Spare!” Harry hollered, throwing his hands into the air.
“Steph, your turn,” Rachel said. I stood up from my chair and approached the rack, picking up the blue ball. The machine down the lane reset the pins and I took my spot by the small circles on the floor. Taking a deep breath, I bent down, focused, and swung my arm back, stepping forward and letting the ball race down the slippery slope. I watched as it slammed into the pins, causing 8 of them to fall over.
“Yes!” I cheered, turning around and giving Harry the cheekiest smile ever. He returned it and I laughed. I focused back on the game and attempted to knock down the last 2 pins, but I only hit one. Oh, well, at least I got one.
Rachel went next, basically getting the same thing I did, and then Niall finished off the round with a spare. The next couple of rounds weren’t any better, and suddenly I started feeling a little under the weather. I brushed it off and thought it was just a little issue, something I could solve when we get back to the house. But it was my turn to go on the 7th round and I could hardly stand. My head was getting dizzy and my stomach was churning, uneasy with everything going on. The loud music pounded through my head and my palms began sweating. Harry looked at me and decided to bowl for me, getting me a strike. When he returned, his eyes were wide with fear.
“Steph, you’re really pale,” he said, his voice sounding fuzzy in my ears. “Guys! Someone get some water!”
Slowly, everyone came to my side but still gave me enough space so I wouldn’t feel even worse. A glass of water was placed on the table next to me and Harry helped me drink some of it. The cool liquid ran inside my body and cooled me off, making me feel a little better.
“Are you okay now?” he asked gently. I shook my head “no” as I still was feeling uneasy.
“We need to get her home, or at least out of here,” Liam suggested.
“Can you stand?” Harry questioned me. Again I shook my head “no” in fear I would hurl if I moved. “Keep drinking this water, hopefully you’ll feel better in a few minutes. Go back to your games, we’ll decide what to do soon.”
Our group dispersed from around me and focused back on their games. That made me feel less claustrophobic, a good thing.
“Here, let’s take your sweatshirt off,” Harry advised, pulling my sweatshirt off of me. The cool air of the bowling alley created chills on my skin, but again, it made me feel better.
“Thanks,” I managed to speak, taking another sip of the water. “Why did this suddenly happen?”
“Probably jet lag,” Harry answered.
“But I’ve been feeling okay ever since we got here,” I said, confused.
“Jet lag takes a day or two to set in, plus you’ve been reminiscing on your entire past and having so many secrets revealed to you. It’s okay, it shouldn’t get any worse. You’ll be fine. We’re having a movie night after this, so you can just relax when we get home,” Harry explained.
“Harry, your turn,” Rachel called out.
“Be right back, after I bowl for you again, too,” Harry added, smiling at me. Standing up, he walked to the rack, picked up his bowling ball, and got a strike for himself. He bowled a spare for me in which he jumped up and down in excitement before kneeling down by me again.
“Are you feeling any better?” he asked me.
“Not really,” I replied.
“We’re going home after this game. We only have 2 more rounds, hang in there, love,” he responded.
Butterflies attacked my stomach when I heard the word “love” come out of his mouth to refer to me as. They were good butterflies, so I didn’t feel nauseous. My face broke out into a huge smile after he said that and I could tell he started blushing by my reaction. I giggled and he began laughing, causing me to laugh harder.
The last 2 rounds went by fast and soon, we were out the door heading back to Harry’s house. I was feeling all right to stand up and walk, which made it easier on everyone. I made it to the car without any problems and we reached the house with no issues. I still felt a little uneasy when we got back, but Anne gave me some medicine to help.
All of us clambered inside of the cottage to figure out what we were going to do. It was a pizza and movie night, so we had to decide what kind of pizza to order and what movies to watch. I wasn’t hungry and the thought of pizza churned my stomach, so I went into the other room with Rachel until they were done talking about the food. I hoped this medicine would help me by the time the pizza was delivered, otherwise bye-bye movie night.
“So, what movies are we watching?” I asked, sitting down on the couch next to Harry.
“Let’s see, we have Soul Surfer, The Hangover, Dear John, Percy Jackson, She’s Out of My League, How to Train Your Dragon, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Last Song, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Karate Kid…jump in anytime, guys,” Harry listed.
“Soul Surfer! I love that movie!” Rachel suggested.
“Hot Tub Time Machine, that’s supposed to be really funny!” Louis shouted.
“How to Train Your Dragon, that one’s so cute!” Liam pointed out.
“I like How to Train Your Dragon,” Niall said.
“We have 2 votes for Dragon, anyone else?” Harry asked.
“I say Dragon,” I voted.
“I’ll watch How to Train Your Dragon,” Rachel agreed.
“Yeah, let’s watch that one,” Zayn offered.
“Aw, you poopheads,” Louis pouted.
“We can watch a funny one afterwards,” Elijah spoke up.
“Alright, everyone get comfortable, we’re watching How to Train Your Dragon,” Harry announced, clicking on the movie with the remote. He settled into the couch and put his arm around me, cuddling me close. I saw a blanket on the floor and threw it over us, enjoying his company.
Halfway into the movie, the pizza arrived, causing everyone to yelp and scream and get crazy. The medicine actually helped because I didn’t feel like hurling at the sight or smell of it, but I wasn’t hungry to eat it.
Harry quickly finished eating 3 slices before snuggling back with me. I have to admit; I was enjoying this a lot more than I should have been. Harry was just so cute and cuddly and he was there for me when I felt sick before and he took me to the park where we used to have so much fun and he told me that he hasn’t been in that bowling alley since I had my 6th birthday party and we’ve been holding hands a lot lately and…oh, my God.
The pieces just all came together in my head. He didn’t just miss me; he liked me. I finally understood why he had been acting so weird around me since we got here. When we were messaging each other, it was all just fun and games, like we were our old selves. But now he had been acting so mature and grown up, like he wanted to impress me basically.
A smile played on my lips as I figured it out. But wait: did I like him back? That’s not even a question to pause at; of course I did! I was ecstatic when we began messaging and reconnecting and now that I was finally here with him, my heart hasn’t stopped fluttering at the sight of him. But what should I do?
I did the only thing I could think of and was appropriate for the time being; I leaned over and kissed his cheek. His face immediately went into surprise mode and he slowly turned his head towards me. I blushed so hard that I could feel my face burning with flames of embarrassment, so I hid my face in the blankets. Harry didn’t do anything for the next few seconds, so I lifted my head up and his gaze was still on me, but he was grinning and chuckling a little bit. I raised my head even more, not breaking his eye contact.
He motioned with his finger for me to come closer and I cautiously did.
“You missed,” he whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. I looked at him confused.
The next thing I know, his eyes closed and he was coming nearer to me. I knew what was happening but my emotions couldn’t contain it. My heart was beating so fast I swear everyone in the room could hear. My eyes naturally closed, too, and a second later, I felt his soft lips on mine. Never in my life have I felt so sure of myself that this was the right thing to do, that this was so real. Our lips were moving in sync as the sound of the movie played in the background. Luckily we were sitting on the couch farthest away from the TV so everyone else was in front of us. But even if they did see us, I wouldn’t care. All I cared about were my feelings for this boy and his feelings for me, completely obvious to both of us, but I wanted to know more. Every single detail.

Notes

So sorry it's been 2 weeks since I posted! Because of that, I wrote a longer chapter :)

EEEPP! I love this chapter so much! I was getting butterflies writing it!

Rachel and Stephanie :)