We found Taylor and Harry in the same place I had seen him fighting with Kendall on Tuesday. They were talking quietly with their heads close as we approached, Harry leaning against the wooden fence, Taylor facing him and playing with his hands. I was thankful when Louis cleared his throat to stop any intimate moment that might have happened in front of us. Taylor backed off and smiled awkwardly. As soon as Harry saw me he pushed himself off the fence and stepped toward me.

"I'm so sorry!" he said quietly gesturing to my damp hair and clothes. I had forgotten about it until now with all that had happened but, as soon as he reminded me I realised how cold I was and shivered. His eyes widened in response and he immediately took off his own jacket and pulled it around me, "It's my fault, I should have known that she would drag you into it if I ignored her." I could smell his sweet cologne as it enveloped me from the jacket and felt myself go a little bit light-headed before I remembered I was meant to be having a conversation.

"You couldn't have known, it's fine Harry, honestly," I said quietly. He nodded but he still looked guilty as he watched me shiver gently again. Looking at the other two, he spoke again.

"Right, so I'm completely done with today, who else is up for starting their weekend early?" I felt the blood drain from my face a little. He wanted to skip school? In all my academic career, had never once had a day off unless I was vomiting and even then, I did work at home. The other two nodded and he looked back at me, "You up for ending this shitty week now?"

"But we still have English Lit..." I said and then realised how geeky I must have sounded. They confirmed my suspicions when Harry gave me a bemused smile and I heard Louis and Taylor giggle. It was the first smile since before his stand-off with Kendall.

"Selena, have you never skipped school?" He asked gently. I shook my head, feeling my cheeks starting to flush red. He smiled again making me melt a little, "Well, there's a first for everything!" If he had smiled at me like that and asked me to throw myself from the Liver Buildings, I would have done it, no questions and no hesitations.

We walked toward the cars, deciding to all go in Harry's. After a little debate on where to go (with slight argument from me questioning if we should even go at all), we settled on the seaside because it would be quiet due to the cloudy weather.

I loved sitting in the back of his little Clio, mostly because it smelled of him so I didn't even need to sneak little sniffs of his jacket to satisfy my urges. I sat through the journey in silence just watching the world go by, daydreaming, as Louis picked music to play from the passenger side.

---

We had been at the beach for thirty minutes when I had had enough of watching Harry and Taylor flirting with one another. I had decided to be supportive but I still couldn't handle having to watch it all the time.

"I'm just going to go and find somewhere that sells food, I'm starving!" I said standing up from the sand dune we had been sitting on. Louis said he would come with me and I couldn't tell if it was because he was fed up as well or because he wanted to give them some time alone. Harry and Taylor smiled at us and said they would just stay there. It killed me inside to see how he was looking at her, but I returned their smile and told them we would be back soon.

Louis and I walked in silence for a few minutes before he spoke.

"If he knew, he wouldn't flaunt it in front of you so much, you know." his voice caught me off guard and I had no idea what he was talking about.

"What?" I asked as I turned to face him. Louis stopped to look at a chip shop menu and spoke again without facing me.

"Harry. If he knew how you felt-" I interupted him quickly.

"I don't know what you're implying here Louis!" I said quickly as my face begun to flush red, but he turned to face me with a sympathetic smile.

"I can see how much your struggling seeing them together, I get it, I've seen so many girls get like this over him," I tried to protest but he continued, " But he wouldn't want to hurt you or you're friendship with Taylor, so if it's too hard for you, you should say something." I was going to try and deny it but I could see in Louis's face that it would be pointless because he could already see through my façade. Besides, it felt nice to kind of get it off my chest since I couldn't tell Taylor.

"Is it that obvious?" I said, quietly looking at my feet.

"No." He replied, making me look up at him confused, "I've just seen it so many times that I can see it from a mile off... I think I knew before you did, to be honest!" He said with a gentle laugh which I reciprocated. We spoke about other things for a while as we looked for somewhere to get food and eventually deciding on a little café next door to an arcade.

We walked back with our fish finger sandwiches and I was surprised how much I enjoyed just talking to Louis, he was nicer than I had thought. When we got back to Harry and Taylor, she was sitting between his legs leaning against his chest with his arms wrapped around her. Louis reached out and squeezed the back of my elbow sympathetically as we approached.

"Guys, you've been gone for so long we thought the seagulls had eaten you for your chips," Harry said once we sat back down.

"We just found a nice little café next to an arcade-" Louis and Harry jumped as Taylor squealed interrupting me.

"It's been forever since I've been to an arcade! Can we go? Please?" I forced a laugh that I hope sounded carefree as she turned to face Harry, who smiled back at her, planted a soft kiss on her cheek and nodded. She jumped up and held a hand out to me excitedly. I grabbed it and she pulled me up, linking her arm through mine and pulling me forward so we had a headstart on them.

"So, you and Louis were gone a while," she said with a smirk once we were far enough infront of them, "He's kind of cute and seems really nice if you were maybe think-" I cut her off.

"Not at all, we're just friends!" I said quickly, "Not my type." she squeezed my arm between hers and rolled her eyes playfully.

"Ooh, you have a type now? Who is your type then?" she laughed.

Your soon-to-be-boyfried.

"I haven't met him yet!" I lied, and she laughed again.

"Oh well, I'm sure you will, sometimes things happen when you least expect them to from the weirdest of circumstances." She smiled dreamily and glanced back at Harry. I could hear him belly-laughing at something that Louis had said without even looking. I didn't need to see. I knew exactly how perfect he would look without seeing it for myself, I didn't need to torture myself unnecessarily anymore with his smile.

We got to the arcade and waited for the boys to catch up talking about nothing in particular. Once we were inside, Louis left to go on the penny drop machines while Taylor dragged Harry off to go on the racing games. They asked me to come but I said I wanted to see whatelse was around and they seemed satisfied and left me standing alone.

I wandered around the machines, trailing my fingers over the class cases deciding what I wanted to go on. Whatever was furthest away from Harry and Taylor would be ideal, I thought. I realised that meant going in the opposite direction so I turned around and walked head first into someone's arm, causing them to drop the cup of coins that they had in their hand.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" I gasped as I dropped to my knees and began gathering up the coins for him.

"It's fine, honestly," he chuckled as he knelt down in front of me, placing the now empty cup in between us, to do the same.

"I think that's all of them, I can give you some of mine if you think you've lost any!" I said apologetically lifting my head to look at his face for the first time.

"Nah, my sister is only nine, she won't notice. Honestly, don't worry!" He said with another deep laugh and looked up. His hazel eyes widened as they met mine and lingered for a few seconds longer than they should have.

"So, yeah, I'm uhm sorry..." I stuttered as I broke eye contact and stood up, embarrassed. He looked just as embarrassed as he stood up, but then once he was standing straight he looked at me with a bemused smile and started laughing again. It was infectious and I found myself chuckling too.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked, biting my lip to stop my own giggles.

"You're so small, I get how I might have walked into you, but how did you manage to miss me?" He said in between laughs, and he was right. I couldn't even see his face while I was looking straight ahead.

"How do you know it's me who's tiny and not just you who's a giant?" I said cheekily with a smile as I looked up at him, "How tall are you?"

"Ok, ok, I admit, I am a giant at 6ft 4 but you are definitely smaller than most people!" He retorted with a wink at me and I found myself blushing and looking away. Was I trying to flirt with him... and was he actually flirting back?

"I'm 5ft 5, which I think you'll find makes me avarage."

"Hm, you don't seem very avarage to me... I'm Jared by the way." He said flashing me another smile. I felt myself blushing again as I told him my name, "Pretty." He grinned and looked like he was about to say something else when a little brunette girl I presumed to be his sister came running up to him, trying to drag him away to a machine on the other side of the arcade. He hesitated, "So, I guess I'll be seeing you Selena..." he smiled and started to walk away.

My own smile faded ever so slightly, realising how easy it had been to talk to him and that I would most likely never speak to him again. Then he suddenly spun around and walked back to me swiftly with his eyes closed, as though he was trying to talk himself into doing something.

"I wouldn't usually do this, but can I have your number?" he blurted out quickly with a nervous smile. I felt a grin spread from ear to ear as I took his phone, punched in the digits and pressed call so that I would have his number as well. He smiled at me one last time before mumbling a sheepish goodbye and following after his little sister. I was still watching after him when Louis seemed to appear from nowhere next to me.

"Who was that?" He asked casually.

"Something unexpected from a wierd circumstance." I smiled.

Notes

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it! <3

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Lola xo