Carolina [h.s]

chapter three

south carolina
june 1990

***

Vada
//

Juliet drives us to the beach and seashore is packed. The air smells like salt, and sunblock, and the humidity is suffocating in the best way. We were already almost a month into summer vacation, and I never wanted it to end.

The last few weeks were spent front row at the band's concerts, next to my best friend as we were always the ones cheering loudest. It became a regular occurrence that wherever the four rockstars were, Li and I weren't too far behind.

The beach party was gathered with teens and young adults, music was playing loudly and people were enjoying the hot summer day.

Zayn and Louis are standing in front of Juliet and I as we set our towels down and kick off our flip flops.

"Where is everyone?" Juliet asks, taking her tank top off and pulling her shorts down her legs.

"I don't know, kinda everywhere I guess." Louis shrugs, opening up the blue cooler and taking a sweating beer bottle out of it.

I spot curls down by the water right away because he's hard to miss, and we haven't spoken since he drove me home, and secretly crashed at the motel. The situation was never brought up again, and I didn't dwell on it for too long because it was only a one time thing anyway.

He wasn't really around when I would hang out with the band. He seemed to be busy doing his own thing, and because no one ever brought up his absence, I didn't question it either.

If he was around, we never spoke only a few glances here and there but that's it. I didn't mind though, I wasn't worried about not having some sort of friendship after all of that.

I knew what kind of person he was, I knew he was troubled and I knew I should stay away. I was too smart for things like that to completely ruin my life, and I knew Harry Styles would do just that.

He wasn't safe, no matter how much he made me feel when he was around.

And just as I look up, the mop of brown curls comes into view. Harry walks over to us now, but he's not alone. Walking next to him, is a tall, skinny, and not to mention beautiful, raven haired girl. The two walk over laughing at something, looking like the perfect pair.

"Hey mate, where've you been?" Zayn asks.

All eyes on him, the troubled misfit shrugs carelessly and I notice how good he looks.

No shirt and just blue swim trunks, his torso shows off his tan, smooth skin with tattoos covering spots on his chest and down his arms. His long hair is messy, and his eyes are covered with black sunglasses. I specifically notice his butterfly tattoo in the middle of his chest, and wonder what it means.