lifeguard ● harry styles au

six- overthink

six- overthink

song for this chapter: "endlessly" by The Cab

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I'll see you later.

The sentence, for whatever reason, kept spinning in my mind.

"I'll see you later." I mumbled while sprawled out on my mattress.

What did Harry mean by it?

Was it 'I'll see you later' as a casual form of good bye? Or was it 'I'll see you later' as in he will literally be seeing me later? Will he try to see me? Or maybe he just thought he would, since we live in the same town? Maybe he doesn't even want to.

My head was suddenly submerged by a thick, fluffy pillow and I tore it away from my face to poke Zayn very hard in the stomach.

"Zayn! What the heck was that for?"

"I'm trying to sleep." His voice was deep and croaky as we were currently in the early hours of the morning - for a teenager, and even more so for Zayn.

"And?"

He groaned and rolled over to face me.

Yes, we do sleep in the same bed for sleepovers. No, we certainly do not mean anything by it.

"You do realise you have been talking out loud for the past two fucking hours, right?"

"Oops." I giggled and he rolled his eyes.

"So...since you know my current situation, what's your opinion on it all? I mean what could he have meant by it?" I asked, stumbling into a cross legged position to face Zayn - who was still lying flat on his stomach with his face turned out wards.

"In my opinion," he started "you are reading far too much into it."

"What do you mean?"

"People say 'see ya later' all the time. I don't get why you're thinking about it so much. He probably just meant 'I'm leaving now and I'll probably see you soon as we live down the road from each other."

"But does that mean he would prefer to see me or not?"

"Jesus, Ivy. I don't know! Why do you care so much? Do you like him or something?"

"What? No! Don't be silly, I've barely known the man two minutes." I objected, my cheeks tinging crimson.

"Someone's blushing." He chuckled and I slapped his arm.

"Shut up, Malik."

"Just saying."

"Right, let's go eat breakfast yeah?" I asked, feeling the need to change the subject.

"You're hungry now?"

"Yeah." I said quietly, hoping he would see through my lie. My appetite was not fully back yet, but he would worry too much it if told him, which is not what I want. He looked at my skeptically but soon jumped out of bed and slipped on his trackies and a black Nirvana tee.

"Race you to the table!" Zayn yelled, quickly sprinting to the door and down the stairs.

I let out a loud laugh at his childishness - although just as I was about to chase after him, and play his game, I realised what he had tried to do; distract me. From the corner of my eye, I noticed the sea from my window. I sharply took in a breath and found myself gripping onto the window sill tightly.

It's happened again.

The wind was so strong. It whipping the waves up and made the trees sway onto a tilt, making the world seem on it's side.

A rather large lump grew on my throat and my knees began to shake at the sight as I attempted to ignore my memories.

There were people everywhere. On the beach, surfing the high waves, paddling by the shallow waters, on sun beds, by the cafe - everywhere you look.

They were all stupid.

Did they not learn?

As I somehow found the strength in my legs to sprint down the stairs, I seemed to have left my rational mind in my bedroom - along with a pair of shoes and ordinary clothes.

So pushing past Zayn, I ran onto the beach in my sleeping shorts and tee, and began to yell as loud as I could.

"Go home!! Now! While you can!" I screamed, burning the lump in my throat with my loud voice.

"Why are you sitting there? GO HOME! It isn't safe! You're all in danger!"

A few couples at the café gave me a sideways glance, pretending I wasn't there screaming.

Why was nobody fucking listening to me?!

"What the hell are you doing, are you stupid?" I shouted with frustration in the face of Louis as I spotted him with his ankles in the water.

"Get out of there! ALL OF YOU!"

I sounded crazy. Maybe I was. But they needed to get out.

"Ivy!?" Louis asked, jumping out the water to pull me on for a hug, but I pushed him back with his shoulders.

"Get off me! Just stay away from the water!" Tears began to rush shamelessly down my cheeks and I pushed my fingers through my hair in distress.

"JUST GET OUT -"

"Hey, hey. Ivy!"

I turned around and saw Harry rush towards me. He put both his arms around me immediately, encasing me into his chest. I struggled for a few moments to get away, but when he tensed his muscles there was nothing I could do. I collapsed into him, sobbing against his skin.

"Shh." He whispered into my ear and I kept crying, trying to somehow control my heavy breathing and rapid heart beat.

"Come on, let's get you inside."

"But there are people in the water and the wind -"

"Don't worry about them. We have two life guards looking out for people, let's just concentrate on getting you inside."

I huffed through my tears but nodded my head.

From the corner of my eye I could see Zayn and Louis following us down the beach, Zayn explaining what happened to louis in concern, but I think Harry soon nodded them off as they called good bye and turned around.

"Where are we even going?" I sniffed, not able to tear my eyes away from the reckless people in the stupid water.

"My house."

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my dedication goes to @caitlynca because your comment on my first chapter was so kind and made my daaay :]

I don't know how that featured list thing works, but I somehow made it to #159 in FanFiction which was a little crazy and I have no idea how it got there but omg thank you for helping it be there, means so much!!

I am trying to find somebody who fits the role of Ivy, so that you guys can kinda picture her as someone. At the start I thought Annasophia Robb but as I continued to write I started to imagine her as Blake Lively (GG FTW). Buuuut if you picture Ivy as anybody else in particular please comment/inbox me suggestions of who and we can find someone perfect! Lots of love xx