Captured Soul

I was engulfed by his gaze, those perfectly emerald-green orbs that pause time and everything around me. The eyes that I can’t deny access into my heart and soul. His stare is one tha-
My thoughts were cut off by a loud horn and bright lights plummeting toward our vehicle.
Harry’s head snapped toward the road and my eyes darted at the headlights coming straight at us. Somehow, we ended up on the opposite side of the road. Harry swerved the car with a jerk of his arms and the car spun, drifting off the road. Harry tried to regain control of the car to prevent it landing in the nearby pond. He tightly grasped the steering wheel and forcefully turned it to the right. The tires screeched on the sidewalk as we skidded across. When Harry repossessed the car, we were landing on a patch of grass surrounded by trees.
“Run, baby, run. Don’t ever look back. They’ll tear us apart if you give them the chance,” I sang part of the song as it was still playing on the radio, amplifying the music and filling the silence. Harry and I burst into extreme laughter. Harry looked at me practically suffocating because I was laughing so hard. He put his arm on my shoulder and continued laughing. He turned the radio off.
“A-are you o-ok?” he asked, still chuckling.
“Yeah. I’m fine, are you ok?” My laughter started to fade.
“Yeah, I’m good. We should probably get out of here before the police come,” he said and shifted the car’s gear. We began moving and pulled onto the road. “Your beauty is quite distracting, you know.”
I scoffed. “Yeah. I’m sure it is,” I said sarcastically.
“I’m serious,” he smirked.
“Yeah. I’m sure you are,” I again said sarcastically.
“I don’t understand why girls can never accept a compliment,” he mumbled.
“I’m sorry?” I asked, with a raised eyebrow.
He turned to me with that smirk of his. “I said, I don’t understand why girls can never accept a compliment!” He yelled.
“Well I don’t understand why boys can never be sincere with what they say!” I yelled back.
“Well I don’t understand why girls don’t understand when they are beautiful!” he yelled at me.
“Well I don’t understand why boys don’t understand that girls will never think they’re beautiful! I hate to break it to you, but insecurity is a bitch!” I yelled, a little bit too harshly.
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” He apologized, and I started to feel bad about what I said.
“I’m sorry. But it is true, you know. Insecurity is an incurable disease that every single teenage girl catches the second they find something they don’t like about themselves,” I say quietly.
“Well, you’re beautiful to me,” he said with a small smile. I almost got sucked in by his perfect eyes, but I didn’t want to recreate the situation we had a few moments ago.
“Exactly. Those words you just spoke to me are so overused. Every girl hears them, but will never believe them. That’s the sucky thing about being a hormonal teenage girl; you can’t believe everything you hear. Boys fall in love with a girl by the way she looks and girls fall in love with a boy by the way he talks to her. That’s why girls wear makeup and starve themselves and boys lie. It’s simple science, actually,” I say, a hint of annoyance in my voice. The words linger for a few minutes.
“It’s true. Girls get guys’ attention by the way they look, but boys fall in love with the personality behind the pretty face,” Harry said quietly.
A tear unexpectedly streamed down my left cheek. Then another tear streamed down my right cheek. I looked up to see Harry studying my face intently. His large hand reached for my chin, but I turned my face away.
“It’s okay to cry. It’s a painful emotion, but that’s the thing about pain; it demands to be felt.” Did Harry Styles just recite The Fault in Our Stars?
“You are such a geek,” I said playfully.
“I know,” he smirks. Silence filled the air once again. “I didn’t mean to objectify you when I helped you move the box. I really didn’t. I don’t know why I said what I did, but I am very sorry.”
“It’s all right. I’m kinda used to it. You know, high school douche bags,” I told him.
“No, it’s not all right. I was rude and sexist and that is not all right,” Harry said, sounding sincere.
“Okay,” I say, putting my hands up in surrender.
We pulled into a parking space, but I couldn’t tell where we were.
“Ready, Miss Phillips?” he asks me.
“Ready.” Harry got out of the car and jogged to the passenger door. He opened it and offered me his hand, which I gladly took. After I hopped out of the car, I recognized where we were.
“Ice skating,” I said with a huge smile.
“You ever been?” Harry asked me. I turn to him, smile still on my face.
“More than once,” I tell him. “Actually, a lot more than once.”
We walked over to the rental booth and asked for the sizes we needed. Harry took my hand as we walked to the benches. I sat and leaned down to put my skates on, but Harry beat me to it. He knelt in front of me and removed my red high heels. He then slipped the white ice skates onto my cold feet. He laced them up and then began to put his own skates on. After we both had our shoes on, Harry led me to the entrance. There weren’t many other people around, probably because it was dark and cold. The stadium lights suddenly flashed on, giving us better light to see.
The moment my feet touched the ice, I felt a familiar rush flow throughout my body. I began to skate. It felt good to be back. I began to perform my national routine. When I skate, I feel at peace with my mind. Like there’s not a care in the world. For a few moments, I can forget about my problems and my insecurities and my past. It’s like something takes over my body and I can’t stop it.
I kicked my leg out and crossed my arms and began to turn. And turn. And turn. I could feel my skirt spinning with me (thank the Lord I put on shorts). Whenever skating got to be too much, the thing that calmed me down was turning. I don’t know what it is about spinning, but it sooths me. When my coach’s pressure and my parents’ expectations all get to be too much, turning sends me into another world.
I finally planted my toe-pick in the ice to stop spinning to see Harry leaning against the rink’s wall, grinning. I skated back over to where he was standing and imitated his exact stance: one elbow leaning on the wall with legs crossed. My back was to his face as we stood.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were an ice skater?” He asked, while we watched the other skaters.
“You didn’t ask,” I said back.
“You look wonderful when you skate. I don’t mean your body or anything, but the skating. Wonderful.”
“Thanks. After fifteen years of hard training, I would hope I’d be decent,” I replied.
“Fifteen years!?!”
“Fifteen years.” I nodded. “Fifteen years spent on ice. Fifteen years not knowing of any other joy or world besides skating. Fifteen years in the dark.”
He skated in front of me to face me. “Well, it’s time to see the light then!” Harry grabbed my hand and pulled me to the center of the ice. We began to skate while holding hands. After a few minutes, I slipped my hand away from his and began to skate away. Harry chased after me and we played a little game of ‘Capture the Stella’. When I felt Harry catching up to me, I sped up even more, but my skate gave way and I fell on my back. Harry was so close that he tripped over me and fell next to me. We didn’t stand up immediately. We just… laid there. Staring up at the stars. Harry rose first and gave me his hand to help me up.
After our little ‘accident’, we both thought it would be best to exit the rink due to our pained butts. We unlaced our skates and put on our shoes. Just as I was putting my right heel on, rain started sprinkling down from the clouds. Harry took my hand and we ran to his car. He opened the passenger door and I jumped in without hesitation. He ran to his door and got in quickly. We briefly shivered before Harry turned on the car and we began to drive off into the night.

Notes

This chapter may or may not have been lightly (not-so-lightly) based on the Night Changes music video ^-^