Out of the Ordinary

Chapter 4

"This traffic is ridiculous." Lou mumbled, leaning forward from the backseat to look out the front window. I smiled to myself thinking back to my musings about One Direction driving around the city. Of course they were subjected to the same New York City traffic everyone else was.

"Okay, they're done." She was looking down at her phone, her thumbs tapping out a quick message.

"Done?" I managed. The full weight of where I was and what I was doing had been closing in on me, pressing on my chest so that it was difficult to breathe properly.

Lou looked up at me then, "With the interview. The reason Harry didn't make it this morning was because the team scheduled it pretty last minute."

I nodded once more, trying to wrap my mind around all of it. Too afraid to ask what would happen now - I supposed I knew the gist anyway - I stared out the window, simultaneously hoping the traffic would clear so that we could get to wherever he was faster, and that it wouldn't, so we'd be stuck here indefinitely.

"It happens more often than you'd think." Lou continued, turning to look at me. Maybe she saw the confusion in my eyes, because she clarified, "Last minute interviews, I mean. But the boys have always said they want to take advantage of every opportunity that comes their way. Even if it has them up before the sun and missing dates." She finished with a wink.

Dates. That word sent a sharp pang of something through me. Then the car jerked forward, coming to a screeching halt with the driver sitting on his horn and muttering a string of curses. None of it helped my nerves. Instead of responding to that, I turned to look out the window, watching as Manhattan carried on, spinning in its endless motion around us. Only yesterday, I was a part of its cycle, helping to keep it moving. Now, here I was, locked in traffic, plucked from the redundancy of my usual routine to meet a world famous pop star.

I pressed my forehead to the cool glass window and breathed in and out as quietly as I could.

"So, are you a fan?" Lou asked.

I was distracted, my hands clammy and head so light it felt like it might float away, so as stupid as my question was, I didn't care in the moment, "Fan of what?"

Lou stared for a second, then giggled, "Aerosmith." She paused, and I nervously smiled when I realized how dumb I probably sounded, "One Direction, of course."

"Right, um," I wasn't sure if there was a right answer to her question. If I said yes, would she write me off as a crazy fangirl? Or would that be a plus in my book? Because I doubted any of the boys would want be around someone who didn't like their music for an extended period of time. But honesty hadn't led me astray so far, "I'm not really, actually. I haven't been keeping up with them since their start, or anything. But I like the music I hear on the radio. Especially that new one, 'Story of My Life.' I really like that one."

Lou was watching me with interest, and I could almost see her mind filling with thoughts and opinions of me, so naturally, I kept talking, if only to distract myself, "It's not that I don't like them at all. I just - I guess maybe I was a little older than their aimed demographic when they first started, and all the mayhem surrounding them just kind of went right over my head. But like I said, I've liked the little bit from them that I've heard."

Lou looked amused, but nodded before looking back out the window. All she said was, "Cool."

Not knowing what that meant, and not sure I wanted to understand it, I pressed my forehead back against the window. We were moving quickly now, having escaped the gridlock in midtown, and heading downtown. But that was all I could process as the many sights and sounds of Manhattan flew by in a shapeless blur. My thoughts were solely on Harry, and what this whole thing would be like. It occurred to me that he may have done something like this before. What if I wasn't the first girl he'd arranged to meet? Then, I thought, of course I wasn't. Harry Styles had probably met loads of girls that he'd found on the street, or at a concert, or in a coffee shop. It was ludicrous to think that wasn't the case. And surprisingly, the realization made dealing with this whole thing a little easier. Harry wouldn't be taking it too seriously, and that meant I wouldn't have to either. It probably wouldn't go any farther than today - he was leaving for another state tomorrow, after all - so I had the freedom to take it for what it was, and enjoy every second with him.