Chasing the Clouds || H.S. [ONGOING]

Fifty-Seven

"I can see us lost in the memory.
August slipped away into a moment in time.
'Cause it was never mine.
And I can see us twisted in bed sheets.
August slipped away like a bottle of wine.
'Cause you were never mine."

Song: August — Taylor Swift

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𝓢𝓮𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓶𝓫𝓮𝓻 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟏

It was the first day of senior year of high school at a brand new school. Andie should have been nervous, but she wasn't at all. She thought of all the amazing friends she made over the summer.

Louis with his rowdy behavior and nonstop jokes, who always, without fail, made sure no one felt left out, no matter what. Janessa with her free-spirit and undying love for her friends, especially Louis. Niall's sweet temperament and unflinching cheerfulness. Caitlyn's spontaneous nature and quick wit. Liam with his big heart and fierce loyalty to his friends. And Harry.

Harry with his unruly wild curls and brilliant green eyes; a boy who could disarm her completely with one look; a boy who she spent the summer falling in love with. He was sweet and funny and patient and kind. Her feelings for him couldn't have been helped. His charm and his wit and his irresistible kisses and enchanting rhetoric.

They'd spent so much time with each other, it was almost like they'd developed an esoteric language that sometimes didn't even need words for them to understand. He was everything. But he was also heart-wrenchingly emotionally unavailable.

As soon as she turned the corner to find her new locker, she was bombarded with the sight of him. The golden boy who held her heart. But a moment later her eyes caught another sight and it felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She couldn't breathe.

Her mind was spiraling back years. Back to the last time she was in New Jersey. Back to that night at camp — the night she lost her virginity to the beautiful boy under the stars.

He stood on the outside edge of her friends as they gathered by a bank of lockers chatting before first period. He was talking and laughing with Louis, words she was too far away to hear. But she heard his laugh and it shot an electrical current up her spine, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Zayn Malik — the boy she gave herself to for the first time in one amazing, ephemeral night two summers before.

She was too entirely freaked out to find her locker. And she couldn't face her friends in the state she was in. She didn't have the nerve to walk over there, to have him see her. Would he even remember her? She knew she could never forget him.

She immediately spun on her heels and darted into the nearest girl's bathroom, shuttering herself into the farthest stall, nearly shaking with panic.

She never thought she'd see him again. Not in this lifetime. Her time at camp was so long ago. And her time with him was a distant memory — almost like it wasn't real. But it was. She knew it was. She couldn't deny it. She couldn't deny the way he made her feel that night.