Illicit [Harry Styles]

Chaper 74

Our little getaway was one of the most amazing weeks of my life. I had such a good holiday spending time with Harry. We went all over the place; the Empire State building, Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, the zoo. We ate a lot of good food and experienced a lot of new things, enjoying just being together in general, whether it be out and about in the big apple or cuddled up in the king sized bed watching mindless American television in the mornings.

It was so nice to forget about everything for seven days and just be happy. It was rare for us to be together for so long and not bicker or get a bit sick of each other, but we never got on the wrong side of each other once. I felt so genuinely content — I didn't have family or school or anything that had been stressing me out on my mind; I could just be free and have a nice time in the States with Harry, who was in a great mood the entire time.

I was so sad when we eventually had to leave, I sat on the floor of the beautiful hotel room in my pyjamas sulking about how I didn't want to go. Harry found it funny at first, but after a while he got a bit peeved off and physically hauled me up and forced me to get ready and pack to go to the airport. I had tears in my eyes as we checked out and loaded our bags into the taxi, so much so that Harry noticed and playfully teased me about it.

I really didn't want to go back to boring old England where the weather was plain and miserable and a hundred and one responsibilities that I'd been pushing to the back of my mind would come flying at me as soon as I got off the plane. I didn't want to go back to my little house and sleep alone, I didn't want to go back to doing homework and continuing the uni process and worrying about how much things were going to change.

But that was life unfortunately, as awful as it sounds.

Once we finally got to the airport we went through all the motions of checking in, handing over our baggage, declaring all the crāp we'd bought. We had an hour to kill so got a bite to eat after traipsing round the duty free once again, and eventually our gate was announced so we headed over and boarded the plane shortly afterwards.

The flight home was long and depressing. On the way there we didn't mind sitting for hours trying to find ways to amuse ourselves because we knew in the end we'd land in New York and it'd all be worth it, but now we were tired and felt a bit slobbish and we knew we had to sit through it all just to get home. The food was kind of gross, the seats were kind of uncomfortable and I was ultimately dying of boredom by the time we touched down in London.

When we'd collected our bags and gone through security and so on it was late — almost midnight, and jet lag was already setting in. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in a taxi for another two hours, but there was nothing that could be done, at the end of the day we needed to get home. We were greeted at arrivals by the same driver that'd brought us up here a week ago so there was plenty to talk about on the way back, since he was interested to hear how it was and what we got up to. Harry, although sleepy and slightly grumpy, was willing to talk to the man whilst I sat there like the moody, fed up teenager I was.

It was almost three in the morning by the time we were getting into bed. I was relieved when I climbed into the cosy fortress and got comfy for the night. I felt a bit weird being home and not knowing what the hell the time was and whether I was supposed to be asleep or awake, but I knew I was tired and was probably going to sleep well. Harry was spending one final night with me since it would be a hassle for him to go back to his own house at that hour, so I found great pleasure in snuggling up to him and basking in having someone to sleep with one last time. We'd hardly spoken since we left the hotel in New York in all honesty, but neither of us minded — we just wanted to sleep and feel like human beings again after all the travelling.

In the morning we lazed around for a while until my mum was knocking on the door asking to hear all about our trip. She invited herself into my room and perched on the bed, probably making Harry feel uncomfortable considering he had to hide under the duvet so that he didn't show off too much skin. We chatted for a while, telling her what we got up to and what we enjoyed most, and she sat there completely involved, gasping and grinning. I handed her a little Empire State building snow globe I'd brought back as a gift and she completely fell in love, hugging me tight. Little things please little minds.