Anchored : A Harry Styles fanfic

Chapter 3

Aria
I woke up the next morning still on my beloved windowsill. I looked out my window towards the beach, seeing that the sun had still not risen for the day. Swinging my feet off the ledge, I stretched out my stiff limbs letting out a quiet groan as my joints protested my sleeping arrangements.

I quickly threw on my swimsuit, packed a bag with a towel and water bottle before heading on my bike into the sweet morning air. Upon arriving at the beach I stowed my belongings in a secret cave that I had found a few summers ago before walking out past the surf and plunging myself into the water.

The water coursed its way through my long waves, tangling them as I pulled myself along the sandy bottom. The salt made may my legs tingle and I could feel my body acclimate to the cold waters as they caressed every curve. Rising to the surface, I took a deep breath and searched the shores knowing what I would find. Even from the distance I was at, I could see a mop of unruly curls bobbing along the sand as Harry ran his morning ritual on the empty beach. For as long as I had come out here to swim in the mornings, he had been running here too. Knowing he was there was always comforting to me, like it was our thing to do together, although he had no idea that I had joined him for all these years. He could never know what I was, I was a secret for a reason.

As I gazed longingly at his athletic form, Harry suddenly caught his foot on a hidden piece of driftwood and gracelessly fell into the sand landing on his hands and knees. Before I could catch myself I let out a small giggle, covering my mouth a little too late. His head whipped around searching for the source of the sounds, I caught that his eyes were in my direction when I took a silent breath and sunk beneath the waves and fluttered off back to my cove.

Harry

Umph! I hit the sand hard, sending its tiny particles in every direction as my hands and face went sputtering into it. A small sound made it to my ears, was that a giggle? I looked around quickly to see who witnessed such an embarrassing moment. The beach was empty though, unsurprisingly expected for what time I came out here for my morning runs. I gazed out to sea, seeing nothing but a flash of scales probably from a school of fish out running a larger one. Shaking my head to free my hair from the sand and the feeling that I was being watched, I stand and dust off my clothes to the best of my ability before continuing to walk along the beach.

At least I got my clumsiness out for the day, maybe I'll be less of a dork for my dinner tonight with Aria.

Aria. Gosh, even thinking of her gave me goosebumps. How did she have this effect on me? We had spoken, what, like ten words to each other? I rested my hands on top of my head, staring at the sun starting to peak over the horizon. Maybe if she agrees to a second date I could bring her to watch this with me, she seems like the kind of girl that would enjoy something like that. Taking in one long last look at the sunrise I head back up the beach where I parked my Range Rover, definitely needing to shower off all this sand before work.

---

I idly twirled my pen around thumb as I sat perched on top of an tall, rickety stool. The air conditioning had finally kicked the bucket leaving me and my boss, old and sweet Miss Mary, turning to at least a dozen fans around the old tiny library to keep us sane. I had started working there in the summer when I was in high school but had fallen in love with all the history that was held in between these walls. It wasn't a looker that was for sure, but this old little town library was the oldest standing building and housed all the historical documents from birth and death records to old ship logs from when ships used to frequent here. We were never really busy, an occasional university student would come needing to make a copy of something or a throng of tourists would come in for a quick walk around before just as quickly walking back out into the summer heat. Miss Mary never asked for much, but I always tried to be the most help I could. Replacing broken shelves, dusting all the books down each day and every Sunday I would load up a box of books into her old Cadillac  for her to read over the course of the week.

"I plan on reading this entire library." She would tell me, "Keeps the mind sharp!" I would just nod my head and place the box in her back seat as she had asked.

We never had deep conversations but she always asked how my days off were, what I did and what I learned. Today I told her about my date with Aria and she immediately perked up, blinking her gray eyes up at me behind small gold-rimmed glasses.

"This is the first time I've heard about a young lady!" Her hands slightly shaking as she completed her crochet.

I put the pen I was twirling down and looked down at her in her wooden rocking chair, "This is the first one worth telling you about."

"Well, if she really turns out to be special enough for you, you should bring her by the shop sometime. I would love to meet her." Her eyes crinkled almost closed as she smiled up at me.

"I can do that, Miss Mary." I smiled back.

"Why are you sitting around here for? Go! Shoo!" Flickering her hands at me.

Ruffling my hair with one hand, I stand up backing away from the little old lady I had grown so fond of.

"If you're going to impress this young lady you're going to need to change that shirt."

I opened my mouth to protest but she beat me to it, "I said shoo! I can take care of the shop, go on now!" She turned back to her crochet, obviously ending the discussion. Chuckling to myself I placed a small kiss on the top of her head and headed out the door.

---

Miss Mary's words made me nervous so I had changed my shirt about three times before deciding on my yellow swim trunks, a black tank top and a dark green sweater for when the sun dropped and it got cold. I was throwing random things into the cooler, peanut butter and jelly to turkey and Swiss, two kinds of bread, half a thing of grapes, bananas and just about every cookie and candy item I could find in my pantry. On the way to the car I grabbed a few towels, a big Mexican blanket, a case of water and my small radio.

I got to the beach about 5:30 and began setting up in earnest, making sure the fire was not too big, too small or too close to the blanket that I had set out as a seating area. I laid out the sandwich stuff along with all the other random stuff I had stupidly grabbed.

What kind of idiot doesn't go shopping for a picnic date? I chastised myself, holding my chin in my hand looking over my handiwork.

"Harry?" A voice sweeter than any song I had heard rang out from behind me. I spun around and found myself staring at the most beautiful human being I could have imagined.

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-crash {--|-