The Mysterious Guy

I look out the car window and a nice view of green trees and old houses look back at me. The music in my ears stops me from hearing my parents in the front seat, I turned it on when their first fight broke loose. Right after we got of the flight they somehow got into a fight about the weather. After that they have been unusually calm but you never know so I keep the music on, loud and clear, it is almost as I don’t hear when dad screams that we’re here. But just almost, I open the door and for the first time in hours I turn of the music and step outside in the free. We have stopped outside a small motel right beside a nice little café. Cheshire is just like I imagined it, small and cozy with beautiful nature, a little too chilly air for me though. I grab my bags while just enjoying the birds sing and the chilly air biting on my cheeks. I walk passed mom and dad into the small motel. When I get inside a brown leather coach and wooden walls stare back at me. Everything is so different from home I think as I explore the little shop filled with homemade marmalade and jam, nice pillows with animal design and huge quilts.

“Excuse me, can I help you with anything?” A small old lady turns up from nowhere and asks me. It almost feels like her small blue eyes is digging into me and I have to look away.

“No, I am cool”, I say and smile, or at least it’s supposed to be a smile, I am not sure what it turned out to be.

“You are not from here”, she says almost immediately and her blue eyes seems to almost stare even more, if that is possible.

“Nope, I am from New York.”, I say and start walking towards the exit. I have always heard that British people are polite and nice so this is not at all what I expected. The old lady keeps staring at me and I start walking backwards out the door.

“Goodb…”, I start saying but suddenly I bump into something and fall headlong against the floor except right before I hit it a strong arm catches me and the smell of cookies embrace me.

“You saved me”, I whisper before everything turns black.

“Can you hear me?” I hear someone say far, far away and when I open my eyes a pair of green stare right back at me.

“It is very unusual to have green eyes, you know that, right?” I say and continue to stare right into them. They are sparkling like two diamonds and black long lashes are surrounding them. He laughs and helps me up. Then I remember what just happened.

“Oh my god, this is so embarrassing, I have no idea why I just fainted. Did I break anything? I’ll pay for it I swear…” I babble until the old lady that now doesn’t look frightening at all gives me a smile.

“Calm down, lady, you didn’t break anything. But you are lucky Harry was there to help you otherwise this wouldn’t have had a happy ending”, she says and I turn around to say thank you to the green-eyed man who just rescued my life. But just as I open my mouth I realize who it is.

“You?” I say and before he has opened his mouth because he doesn’t seem to recognize me.

“You are the one who didn’t want to show me where the store was home in New York. God I don’t understand, I seriously thought you British people were nice but you are even worse than Americans”, I say and turn around to walk out. But then Harry grabs my arm.

“I am sorry about that I thought you were another f…another…” he stops himself in the middle of the sentence and look down on his feet. “Never mind, I was just having a bad day.”

“And I thought you were a robber, I am really sorry, but this isn’t my shop. I work at the bakery right beside this one and I guess I just didn’t want anything to happen while it was under my watch”, the old lady tells me but she isn’t looking at me, her eyes is glued on Harry like she is wondering what the hell he is doing. But Harry just ignores it.

“Let me make it up to you by buying you a coffee, okay?” he says and I smile, to be honest this guy is just as hot as Louis, the one in Ash’s picture, and that he wants to by me a coffee makes me wonder if I am about to faint again.

“Let me just get these bag to the motel room, my mom and dad are outside”, I say and run my hand through my hair. Then it hits me, I must look really bad after that long car ride. God damn it, I think.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll help you. Go and have fun, and Harry?” The old lady says and now Harry turns around to look at her. “You have the rest of the day of if you promise to see me before you go home”, she tells him and he smiles.

“Yes of course, Barbara. See you later, then”, he says before he gives her a kiss on her cheek and points for me to walk out the door first.

“So how comes it that you are here in Cheshire?” he asks when we sit inside the small café with two lattes in front of us. The café looks kind of like I thought it would with white walls and small round tables. It’s not swarming with people like in New York it’s really calm and quiet with only four other visitors than us.

“It’s a long story”, I say while I stare into those beautiful green eyes. I could stare in those eyes for the rest of my life, I think as I take a zip from the coffee.

“I have time”, he says and I suddenly I feel how a giggle bubbles up from my stomach.

“What?” he asks and a smile take place on his sweet lips. I wonder how it would be like to kiss those lips, I think but I hurry to push the thought away.

“It’s just most people would understand that when someone says it’s a long story that someone clearly doesn’t want to talk about it”, I tell him and force myself to stop staring into his green diamonds.

“Well first of all I am not most people and second of all sometimes it can be good to talk to people about things”, he says and I don’t know if it is the tiredness after the trip or the fact that I am sitting here with the hottest guy on this planet but I start telling him.

“Well it all started two years ago. My brother, my parents and I were going to a dinner, it was one of those rainy nights when you barely can see the road. I don’t remember much”, I start even though that is not the truth I remember every single thing. I stop for a moment to take a deep breath before i continue.

“All I remember is that one moment we were laughing in the car and the next I felt the water embrace me. I thought I was going to die that night, but I didn’t. But only because my brother risked his life for mine, he died that night and ever since nothing has been the same", I stop again to swallow since the tears are just right around the corner.

"My parents, they pretend that everything is okay but I know this destroyed them and I know they are blaming me. Well I don’t blame them for blaming me, I blame myself too. It’s just isn’t parents supposed to support their kid through everything?” I stop again because now I feel how the tears are starting to pour out my eyes. The tears I have pushed away every since suddenly can’t be pushed away anymore. Harry just sits there and hugs my arm and for the first time in years I feel safe.

“The reason we are here is because my parents need to get away from the New York. They say it’s because they need to work on their marriage and if they don’t find their love again they are getting a divorce. First I thought like why would I care? but now I just… I can’t lose them too”, I finish when the tears seem to be controllable. For a long time we just sit there in silence with his hand on my arm squeezing it, with the tears that I have pushed away for two years now pouring out my eyes. But it’s not an uncomfortable silence it’s just… nice.

“I can’t tell you I understand how it feels because I don’t but I am here if you ever want to talk, or just sit, or just hang out. I know we just met but sometimes it is even better to talk to a stranger because that person cannot judge you”, he says after a while and I know he means what he says, that’s what makes me like him. He is not like everyone else who runs away when you start to cry and says that they’re there for you when you are happy. He is real and I don’t know if that’s the reason or if it’s because of something else but suddenly it feels like a huge stone lifts from my stomach.

“Thank you, I will keep that in mind”, I say and pick up my phone to see if I have any messages from my mom. 12 missed phone calls it says and I feel the panic in my stomach. That is never good.

“What is it?” Harry asks when he sees my face and just when I am about to tell him I realize that I don’t want to. I mean this is the first time in a year that I have felt safe. I deserve this I think as I turn my phone of and give him the most real smile I have given anyone in a year.

“Nothing”, I say and Harry doesn’t seem to buy it. But still he doesn’t say anything either so to me it really doesn’t matter.

“What do you say about getting out of here?” He asks and I smile. That is exactly what I want to do. But inside the guilt is digging inside of me. What if mom and dad think something have happened to me too?

“I’d love to but I think I should get back home, my mom and dad are probably worried”, I say as I get up on my feet and he nods understanding.

“I’ll see you around”, he says before he kisses me on the cheek and disappears behind the desk. Soon he has made it into the staff room but I can’t bring myself to start walking. It’s like my feet are glued to the ground and I still feel the heat from where he kissed me. Before I realize what I have done I start wiping my hand against the place where he kisses me. But then I realize that everyone is staring so I grab my phone and hurry out the door. On my way back to the motel I feel like I am standing on huge pink clouds.

Notes