This Is Life [h.s.]

i. beginnings

And so it begins on a summer night in June on the dark streets of Manchester. She's with her friend Matt and she crashes into his life without him really knowing it. She's drunk and happy and holding onto Matt for dear life and he's not quite sure how she does it, but he's pretty sure he's already half in love with her.

Harry wasn't looking for Quinn, and that's what makes their beginning so special. He was working the late-night shift at the tattoo parlor and he was waiting until the clock struck midnight so he could close up and walk back to his flat, but then she walks in and he's frozen in place. She asks for a moon, small and trivial and simple to procure, and he tries to ask her questions but she's about as closed off as anyone he's ever met before.

She drunkenly tells him that it's her favorite time of the day, when the night is dark as the ink he's drawing on her skin and he just hums along, never wanting her to stop talking. He thinks she's that type of beautiful that is intimidating and endearing all wrapped in one, and she can't take her eyes off of the hard lines on his face and his bright eyes that just scream "let me in."

It's over before he wants it to be, and she admires the little drawing on the back of her arm above her elbow. They both don't realize that this is their first beginning, and that fateful night in June would begin the tale of Harry and Quinn, a story of love and heartbreak and falling and finding home.