Haven • H.S.

30. Taste Your Words

Haven- 30

"...the crowds in my heart, they've been calling out your name. now we just don't feel the same..."

Ella.

"Who do you wanna be for Halloween, baby?"

The question startled me, bringing me from my mild thoughts. I speared a cold hand through my hair, trying to tame it against the windy weather and zoned back into the moment. Harry was beside me as we navigated the campus and to the lunch room. It sounded weird to me to think of a college having a lunch room (it felt too much like high school to me), but I didn't complain. It was food; I was hungry. And despite Harry's earlier oppressive mood toward the idea that still remains unbeknownst to me, he was acting fine now. After his warm shower of course.

"I saw something online the other day about couples planning on doing dynamic duos. Like Lucy and Ricky from 'I Love Lucy' or Batman and Catwoman." I laughed. "They looked really cool, but it'd probably be hard to do."

Immediately, his eyes lightened. "You want to do something together like that?" he asked, grinning.

I shoved my shoulder into his. "Well, we are a couple," I snickered.

"I know, angel," he said affectionately. "It sounds fun."

I nodded, smiling back. "We could do something badass like Bonnie and Clyde."

Hell, now that I knew how to fire a gun thanks to Harry, it was the perfect idea. I began thinking of how our costumes could be designed in my head, growing more excited at the prospect of spending the day being someone else entirely. I had always known that that was the appeal about the holiday. For one day, you were allowed to be someone else. God knows I'd needed that certain power too many times in my life. Halloween was one of my favorite holidays as a kid, yet recently in the past few years it hadn't been my biggest ploy for happiness. I was hoping to get that same free-willed excitement back. I had a feeling that being with Harry would do just that.

"Holy shit, yes! We should even go trick-or-treating around my mom's neighborhood. As a kid, I got the best candy from the old ladies." He winked. "They thought I was charming."

I snorted. "You still are as far as I'm concerned."

"Damn right," he replied cockily.

"Is that the cafeteria?" I asked, gesturing to the rather large building a few hundred feet ahead of us.

Harry nodded from beside me, squeezing my hand just that much tighter. If I hadn't been paying attention, I wouldn't have noticed. Again, I was left suspicious of his increasingly strange and borderline furious attitude toward anything that had to do with his best friend.

We'd had a great morning. Fuck, we had the best morning. I'd awakened to Harry's eyes already on mine, effectively setting my insides on fire and rousing me by default faster than I'd ever woken. Then, he'd preceded to capturing that fire, and adding the best kind of explosives to set me off in that aching, familiar way I'd experienced last night. My needs were proving to come before his in every aspect, in every devastingly beautiful form of generosity I knew Harry acquired. Harry Styles was a man of the rare form that gave and gave, uncaring whether he took and took. And I was ridiculously over my head with the adoration I held for him.

So, while he remained in this unapproachable bubble that covered him every time Niall was mentioned, I couldn't help but let it affect me just slightly, too.

"Do you know what they're serving today?" I asked as we rounded the small corner and up the walkway.

"Smells like tacos," he murmured.