Harry drove to where he was meeting his friend, Ed, who was in town for his tour. He arrived at a bar and walked through the door, searching for his ginger friend. A smile crept onto his face as he spotted Ed, sitting at the bar, his back towards Harry. Slowly, Harry walked towards him and right as Ed was taking a drink, Harry yells “Bang!” making Ed choke on his drink.
“You bastard!” Ed said as soon he stops choking.
Harry laughed hysterically as he sat down next to Ed. “Nice to see you, mate. How you been? You alright? How's the tour life treating you?”
“Yeah, yeah I'm good. The tour is fucking mind-blowing. The crowds are unbelievable so uh, yeah I'm doing alright. How have you been?”
“Not too bad, tour's over for me and the lads so we get a little relaxation time despite, you know, interviews, and everything. But all in all it's all good.”
“Why are you in Pennsylvania, anyway Harry?”
“I'm a visiting a friend,” Harry says as he tries to force down the smile that's threatening to show up on his face, but Ed sees through it.
“A friend?” Ed says mischievously, “Who's this friend, Harry?”
“Her name is Lori.”
“Wait, hold on. Is this that purple streaked hair girl I saw in a magazine? The one you told me about?”
“Yeah.”
“The one you really fancied?”
“Yeah,” Harry repeat.
“Well, tell me about her. How's it going between the two of you?”
Harry chuckled at his friend's curiousity. “She's very sweet, a little weird at times, but fun to be around. Her personality is wonderful, very determined, ambitous, she can take care of herself, and she's very loyal. She's also a very good friend and generous.”
“Enough about her personality. What does she look like?” Ed asked eagerly.
“Brown hair, sometimes it's straght, sometimes it's curly. There are purple streaks in it which I think are pretty cool. She has these amazing brown eyes-”
“Brown eyes?” Ed interrupts, “You've always been a green or blue eyes man.”
“I know, but hers are just incredible. They're like made out of pure chocolate. Her smile is really cute, kind of like one a shy girl would have. Not too big, not so small that you can't tell it's a smile, just right.”
Ed sat back in his chair and gave Harry a knowing look. “She sounds terrific. “You must be really head over heels for her, huh?”
***********************************
Lori sat cross legged on Christine's couch, wearing only Harry's shirt. Christine sat next to her and they were both eating nachos and watching The Ugly Truth.
“Lori?” Christine asked as she glanced in Lori's direction.
“Yeah?” Lori said, her eyes still on the TV.
“Tell me about Harry.”
This caught Lori's attention. She faced Christine and swallowed some melted cheese. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything. From his personality to how good he is in bed.”
Lori began to choke on a chip and by the time she had stopped gasping for breath Christine was still laughing. “We haven't slept together!” Lori said loudly. “Geez, Christine!”
Christine giggled. “Then what have you done?”
Lori's cheeks instantly turned red. “Just, um, kiss really.”
“What kind? Come on, Lori! Give me the dirty details.”
“Well, we, uh, we made out and he's, um, he's reached the upper region.”
“You let me get to second base?” Christine exclaimed excitedly. “Lori, ohmygod, you've finally gotten over your fear of cooties!”
“Shut up!” Lori said as the rest of her face became red.
It took awhile, but Christine finally stopped laughing. “In all seriousness though, how much do you like him?”
“A lot,” Lori said sheepishly, “He's just so normal, but different from other guys I've dated. He's different from a lot of guys actually. The thing is, I think he actually, really cares about me. Seeing him is just so relieving and it makes me, I dunno. I guess it's hard to explain how he makes me feel because I've never felt like this with anyone else before. There's just so many things he does that makes me at ease, like I don't have to worry about anything because if I'm with him I don't have to be scared, I don't have to worry about getting hurt. But then that's the thing, I feel like he won't hurt me and I don't want him to hurt me, but I'm scared that I'm wrong.”
“That's one of the risks of love.”
Lori looked at Christine with wide, surprised eyes. “Love?” Lori's voice squeaked.
Christine shrugged. “You make it sound like you love him.”
“You're the one who told me to describe him!” Lori said accusingly.
“Lori, calm down,” Christine said as she began to laugh, “I never said it was a bad thing, I'm just saying it sounds like you're describing somone you love.”
“I-I can't be in love with him...could I? We only met last month.”
“Love works in mysterious ways, Hon.”
“How am I supposed to know if I'm in love? I've never been in love before, I don't think I even know what love is.”
Christine gets up and picks up both of the empty bowls. “Sounds like you've go it down to me,” she said with a wink as she walked towards her kitchen sink.
After the movie was over Christine went to bed, but Lori couldn't sleep. Her mind was stuck on what Christine had said. I can't love Harry, I've only known him for a little while. Love wasn't something Lori knew well. She remembered back in the beginning of highschool how everyone found it so easy to love their boyfriend or girlfriend and she just didn't understand, she had even made a list as to why love never worked out for her. 1) she was scared of it, 2) she didn't know how to be a girlfriend, 3) she thought a lot of guys were annoying, 4) she didn't trust anyone, and 5) she wasn't used to it. Christine must've had at least forty boyfriends and whenever Lori was there with them at a party or somewhere she'd watch how they'd act and try to understand how love worked. It wasn't until later on that Lori realized whatever it was between Christine and her boyfriends wasn't love. All the songs and all the movies that talked about loving someone never helped Lori out. None of her boyfriends made her fall in love. Sometimes she felt like a freak because she hadn't loved anybody by the age of sixteen, she felt like an emotionless robot. Stuff like this wasn't something that came easy to her, but ever since she met Harry she had felt different. A part of her hoped it was love and that he was the guy to finally make her love somebody. Another part of her hoped it wasn't because she was afraid of her first heartbreak. While Lori was in deep thought her phone began to ring and she quickly picked it up so Christine wouldn't wake up.
“Hello?”
“Did I wake you?” Harry asked through the phone.
“No, I've been up. Can't sleep I guess. So, um, why'd you call?”
“Don't know really.” Harry began to chuckle as he realized how ridiculous that sounded. “I guess I just wanted to talk to you.
So that's what they did all night. Questiosns were asked and answers were given. Sometimes they'd just talk about the most random things and end up laughing about having an entire debate about how coffee tastes. Harry would listen to Lori and her crazy theories or silly stories or just her rambling about something small and how she'd make it sound big. Lori would listen to Harry and his traveling adventures or his friends and family or his crazy stories. Eventually they both got tired and said goodnight. It was nice to have each other's voice be the last thing they heard before going to sleep.
Lori woke up before Christine even though she went to bed later. After making herself some breakfast Lori made Christine breakfast, then she go dressed and left to find the nearest bus stop. There was one about a mile from Christine's building so Lori looked at the schedule and waited for the bus that stopped closest to her house. It took about fifteen minutes before Lori was on the bus home. She didn't mind the walk to her house, the silence of it was actually relaxing and she thought of Harry for the majority of the time; the other time it was her worrying if her parents were home. As she stepped in front of her door she listened to see if there was any yelling. No screaming so Lori took a deep breath and opened the door to find her empty house. A sigh of relief slipped past her lips and she walked inside. Lori took a quick shower, letting the water wipe away everything that had happened the other night. After she dried off she got dressed and laid on her somewhat destroyed bed. Ideas of what to do that day floated aimlessly around in her head. It had been awhile since she had visited Martha, but Sunday was a day Lori always left alone; she wanted Martha to spend her Sundays with Bill. Christine wasn't an option because she had just spent the night there and Aaron was probably busy with school so Lori didn't want to bother him. No matter how much Lori tried to block out the idea of visiting Harry one last time it always made it's way to the front of her brain. Finally giving in, Lori grabbed her phone and dialed his number.
“Hello?”
“Hi, it's me.”
“Hey Lori, you alright?”
“I'm good, how about you?”
“Not too bad.”
“So how were you planning on spending your last day in America?”
“Well I was hoping with you. Want to meet up?”
“Sounds like a plan. Since it's your last day, what do you want to do?”
“Well a friend of mine is having a concert tonight. Think you'd be willing to go?”
“Who's concert?” Lori asked curiously as she rolled onto her back.
“Ed Sheeran. You know him right?”
Lori could sense the cheekiness in his voice and smile. “Nope, sorry never heard of him,” Lori said obliviously.
Harry laughed through the phone. “Well you'd like him. You want to go?”
“Yeah that sounds fun.”
“Okay I'll pick you up in about thirty minutes. Are you still at Christine's flat?”
“No, I'm home now.”
“Okay, see you later.”
As soon as the call ended Lori sprang from her bed to get ready. She changed her clothes from sweats to a better outfit for a concert and added a little makeup. Just as she was tying her shoes she heard a knock at the door. The smile on her face quickly disappeared when she opened the door and saw it wasn't Harry.
“Is this the Cross residence?” A young police officer asked.