Stay

I tried not to avoid Amy because I thought that would be a little unfair but I think she understood that I didn’t want to talk about what had happened. She always tried to keep conversation going to keep my mind off it all, which I appreciated.

One day while Amy was at a uni lecture I decided to go for a little walk round to the shops. It was relaxing and the breeze was nice. I decided to make a stop at the convenience store.
The buzzer went off as I entered the store and went straight for the confectionery aisle. I wandered along looking at the sweets and deciding on a large block of chocolate and a bag of sherbet lemons. Grabbing off the shelf I walked back down the aisle and began to weave in between the other aisles. This was a bad idea on my part for I didn’t realise until I was halfway down that I was walking through the magazine aisle.

On close to every front page there was a picture of Harry with a slogan similar to “Harry Styles breaks it off with his long-time girlfriend” or “Harry Styles moving on”. I couldn’t believe how fast these stories were being printed and it hadn’t even been a week yet.

I picked one of them up and flicked through until I reached the page. I began to skim read the article. Both Harry’s and my name came up a lot along with the words “break-up”, “date”, “model” and “Rebecca” who was of course the model in question.

I knew I’d made a mistake reading the article. I don’t know why I looked at it in the first place. I slammed the magazine shut and stuffed it back in the stand in frustration before going up to the counter and slamming my purchase down a little too hard. Once I’d paid I stomped out of the store and down the road.

As I passed each shop they had the headlines in each window. It was like I couldn’t escape the reality of it all. Why did they always try so hard to spread everything as far and wide as possible? I wish there was some way that it could all just go away.

I tried to avert my eyes as best as I could as I walked past but sometimes I couldn’t help but take a glance. It was relief when I’d passed that particular block of shops and came to a little park with a duck pond.

I turned into it and walked slowly towards the bridge that went over the pond where the ducks were swimming. No one was around and to tell the truth, I was actually relieved. I needed a bit of alone time.

I walked over the bridge until I reached the middle where I leaned on the rail and watched the ducks swim, my bag of sweets in my hand.

I noticed a few baby ducks. The mother seemed to be teaching them to swim as two were waiting at the edge of the pond, shivering a little while another little one was trying its legs in the water. The mother then swan to the side, got out and gently nudged a second duckling into the water and it too began to swim. I watched as this all happened and smiled a little at the caring nature of the mother duck as she began to lead her ducklings around the pond.

“I wish I brought you fellas something,” I said quietly to the ducks, knowing full well that they couldn’t understand. “Maybe some bread. I only have these sweets but you guys can’t eat them.”

I sighed as I began to walk over the other half off the bridge and down the path to a park bench. I lowered myself onto it and placed my bag of sweets on my lap and pulled out the block of chocolate. I opened it up and broke of two rows and shoved them in my mouth.

It didn’t take me long to finish the whole block before I started on the sherbet lemons. They had to be my favourite sweet. One of the similarities I had with Dumbledore as well as my love for raspberry jam. You’ll only get that if you’ve read the books.

As I placed my seventh one in my mouth my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and checked it to see it was a text from Harry.

From: Harry
Hey, babe, I’m free tonight come over for a sleepover maybe? :) xx

I read this through a few times before texting back.

To: Harry
Are you sure its ok?

He answered almost immediately.

From: Harry
Yeah, babe. I’ll let you in the secret gate. Can’t wait to see you (:

To: Harry
Ok I’ll be around at six-ish. Looking forward to it xoxo

I was literally so excited to see Harry. I know it had only been about four days but, I apologize for the cliché, it had felt like such a long time.

Notes