Bucket List - [ H . S ]

Chapter Ten

There is an audio clip in the middle of the chapter, indicated by a *. The song is added for effect. I do not own this sound, so full credit to the owner.

Quinn Parker

It had been almost two days since the coffee incident and Harry hadn't bothered to text me or even speak to me during the rest of our time in Portland. It made nerves bubble in the pit of my stomach. I knew making such a big and bold gesture towards him would probably result in something like this, but I at least expected some form of interaction. What I didn't expect was radio silence on his end.

It was our last night here in Portland, it was nearly 4pm which means the boys would be arriving for rehearsal before the big show tonight. Sam asked us all to be at the arena tonight just in case they needed help loading the equipment back onto the tour bus which meant I had a little time to look around the large arena.

Since Harry didn't need any help or rather didn't want to see me, I was helping wherever I could. My job right now was to help Sam with the unpacking and folding of merch that would be sold out front at tonight's concert.

I laid out the folded clothes neatly, trying my best to make it look presentable despite knowing I would be completely useless at this. The t-shirt colours ranged from black to bright pink, the designs either printed with their names, the band name or their faces.

I wondered what that would feel like for them. I know I was only unpacking a handful of the t-shirts right now but given that they have hundreds of not thousands of these boxes in the tour bus, I couldn't even imagine how many of these had already been sold. I wondered what it would feel like to have your face or your name printed on a t shirt that was being worn by someone else. Maybe they're used to it by now? Could you ever actually get used to that?

I reached into the pocket of my jean dungarees and pushed the volume button on my phone, the song flowing from my earphones only growing louder. I had the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours on repeat today.

"If I could, baby, I'd give you my world..." I sang quietly, humming along to the words as I busied myself with folding. I picked up a baby blue t-shirt with Harry's face on it. I narrowed my eyes at it and stuck my tongue out, almost like he could see me doing it before going back to folding it neatly.

"How can I when you won't take it from me?" I didn't have much left, reaching down into the box Sam had given me for the last packet of shirts to fold before I was finished. I tore open the plastic and laid them out, beginning to fold them away neatly. My feet tapped against the floor, "you can go your own way...".

Once I was finished, I looked down at the table proudly, placing both of my hands on my hips. I ran my tongue over my bottom lip before reaching into my pocket to up the volume just a little more, "go your own way, you can call it another lonely day..."

I began to sway side to side along to the song, humming the tune before moving my hips slightly. I lifted my hands up like I was holding a guitar and pretended to play along to the tune, closing my eyes for just a moment becoming completely immersed and lost in the song.

I laughed quietly to myself, for the first time in months feeling some sort of...peace. It felt good to sing and dance along to a song especially given no one could see me. As quickly as the realisation washed over me that I was feeling that way, my eyes shot open and I shook my head. I tugged one ear phone out and looked at the empty wall ahead of me, breathing heavily.

"Don't stop now, seemed like you were really enjoying it." My eyes widened and my head snapped in the direction of the voice.

"Zayn..." I breathed out, a hand lifting up to my chest immediately to steady myself. "You guys love to sneak up on people, I didn't think I was such a jumpy person until working here." I laughed, moving my hand to tug the other headphone out of my ear.