rain. |h.s|

26

I throw a variety of sweatshirts, leather jackets, and dresses behind me on my bed that have gathered into a huge pile of clothes.

Lingerie, t-shirts with buffalos printed on them, even a bunny ear headband, but no bikini. This closet has the most absurd pieces of clothing, but not a single bikini for a nice swim.

"Noelle, c'mon! The water will get cold!" Harlow yells at me from the other room.

Harlow and I recently discovered the boys never mentioned we had a rooftop with a bar and a hot tub. So we decided we can all go for a late night dip. I never really have an issue with these kinds of things, like revealing that much skin, but the most coverage I can find for the hot tub is lingerie. That just won't do. I'm not wearing fucking laced lingerie, which I don't even know who belongs to, to the pool.

A sense of relief washes over me when I find a plain white one piece swimsuit underneath a pair of jeans. This is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

"Noelle!" Harlow hollers again.

"One second!" I give back an agitated response.

I kick my door closed and start removing my current clothes. I pat down the swimsuit once I feel it's secure onto my body, checking for any air pockets I need to fill. I jog over to my bathroom mirror really quick to observe myself before leaving. I tuck my lips inside my mouth, grazing my fluffed up braids. I've had these in for a hot minute, but they'll do. I remember my first ever swimsuit that I bought looked just like this. Except it had a unicorn flying over a rainbow on it with blue and pink sparkles. I was 3. Mom took so many pictures of me in it. I think she loved it more than I did. I pat down the edges one more time, spinning on my heel as I grab the first towel I see and jogging back towards the door. I pick a random sweatshirt to wear over my bathing suit and practically run down to the living room. I can hear Harlow say my name in the distance.

I step inside the elevator, tossing my towel over my shoulder. I can't exactly remember which button Niall told me to push in the elevator to come up to the roof. I furrow my eyebrows, convincing myself that this isn't that complex. It then hits me, that the rooftop button is actually the call button because the roof is also meant to be an escape route in case of an emergency. Which leads me to wonder, what would someone do if they get stuck in the elevator and really do need the call button? That's an issue for another day.

I reach the rooftop, inhaling a mixture of pot and whiskey. I don't intend to get super drunk tonight. In two days I start attending an Ivy League. I don't want to smell like bad news for the next two days and spread it around campus.

"El! Finally you're here, you took forever." Harlow is already out of her cover up, walking towards me with a glass of whiskey with a toothy smile spread across her lips. Niall and Harry are already in the hot tub, staring at the two of us converse.

I follow Harlow to the tub, chewing on my lip as she leads me to the hot tub. Everyone's pretty quiet, so I just cut the bullshit and grab the bottom edges of my sweatshirt and lift them up. The sweatshirt quickly comes off of me thankfully, I thought it would get stuck midway and make this twenty times awkwarder. I dip one of my toes in the hot tub, recoiling for a moment. I didn't think it would be that hot, but it feels so perfect after a few moments in room temperature.

I finally get situated inside and bring both of my braids to rest on my shoulders. I take a short sip of my whiskey and set it behind me. I was never really a heavy drinker, I don't know why Harlow gave me this.

"Hi." I chirp through the silence. Nobody else moves. Niall continues staring at the bubbles, Harlow keeps sipping on her whiskey, and Harry looks up at me for a brief millisecond.