Holiday Hell

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Harry just couldn't seem to figure out what on god's earth was wrong with him. He had made mistakes in life, so had many people, but he wondered how tremendously he could have f****d up to deserve all of this. His relationship with Abigail could never have lasted forever. He had had to end it for both of their sakes. Why did she have to punish him like this just for being brutally honest and cutting the ties that were strangling them both? It made no sense to him as to why he deserved this treatment. All it did was enhance his anxiety which was already at critically high levels. He found himself going to the waiting room in the receptionist lounge and burying his face in his hands. He didn't want to do anything. He didn't want to go anywhere, other than home, and his flight was in a matter of three long days. He could not cope being here any longer. Existence was nothing but painful for him.He should have never come here alone, he knew it would be a complete mistake. There was no escaping from his problems. He would constantly be bound by the errors of his ways and the burdens of his horrible past. There was no such thing as moving on so long as Abigail was constantly in his shadow. He deserved that humiliation for ending things so suddenly with her. But she was the one who messed them up... He sighed. He couldn't justify any of it to himself.

"Why the long face?" asked a little voice from in front of him. He emerged from the safe haven of the palms of his hands to face the receptionist. Daisy looked even more beautiful than usual today but he could not put his finger on why. Maybe he just hadn't really looked at her before, not properly. He was smacked in the face by her beauty, a cruel reminder that she was somehting that he would never be able to reach for. Her smile was wide and welcoming. In the sunlight, the freckles on her nose were so radiant and cute. He wanted to kiss every single one of them individually. He shook away his fantasy and gave her something of a smile. It was a sad, pitiful smile, really. He scorned his patheticness. He ciuldn't even fake happy right now.

"You OK dude?" she asked him though she of course knew the answer. "I know. It's tough going on holiday alone. You don't realise that all your baggage of the life you're trying to escape... it all kind of follows you here."

He scoffed. She had no f*****g clue. he was bliffgully unaware of her complete irony.

"Hey, tell you what? I've got something to cheer you up."

"If it's one of those brouchures that contain mostly couples activities, you can shove it up your arse."he teased.

She laughed at him. "No. I'm hitting a club tonight. Do you want to come wth?"

Before he even managed to think this through, he responded with a sudden, unexpected yes.

***

Harry arrived a the front desk at the fashionably early time for 5:45. He knew they were meeting at six but he thought punctuality was an attractive quality in a man therefore she would end up liking him a whole lot more. In truth, he had no idea what on earth he was doing. He had spent the past hour trying to figure out what to wear, not being too formal or too casual. It had been so many years since he last went to a club and he didn't know what kids these days were wearing to fit in. Regardless, he finally settled on a nice button up shirt and a nice pair of jeans, brand new, bought especially for this holiday. He could not help but feel self-conscious, no matter what he was wearing. He had also spent way too long trying to make his hair look cool. Unfortunately, cool just was not in his nature. No matter how much he messed around with it, it always never seemed to do as he told it too. It was a pain but it was something he had to live with.

He stood waiting, trying to figure out what on earth this was. Was this just a night out with a friend or was it an actual date? What kind of date would bring them to a club? It made little sense to him but he hoped it was the later. It made slightly more sense as they were not actually friends.

The second he lay eyes on her, he felt his heart physically stop. Never before in his life had his heart actually done that pon thw sight of a girl before. He was beyond a crush at this. She slinked her way down the corridor toward him dressed in the sparkliest outfit he had ever lay eyes on. It was practically blinding. Her shirt was short sleeved and a gorgous black which contrasted with her skirt which was a little bit too short on her which was a dazzling gold. Her hair was curled and natural, it created a gorgegous finish. Her makeup was absolutely stunning though he knew that she was perfect with or without it. He realised that she had been standing in front of him for a solid few minutes and he hadn't said anything at all. His mouth was agape, open like a fish and he looked like a bumbling i***t. Norhing new there, he thought to himself. He shook himself away from his perfect daydream.

"So, what do you think?" questioned Daisy, anxiety plain in her eyes. She genuinely cared about what he thought and wanted his honest opinion.

Harry searched his brain for the sufficient compliment. He wanted to be honest, truthful, but of course he did not want to come on to strong. After a battle with his tongue, he uttered the words: "Good. You look good."

He could tell there was some disappointment in her eyes so he continued: "No!" he blurted out. "You look better than good, so much better than good! You look stunning, amazing, perfect, a-- a goddess!"

He wanted the ground to suck him in. Why had he had to go so overboard? It was so humiliating. They had practically just met and now he was flooding her with compliments, overwhelming her. So much for not coming on too strong. He had completely blown it and he knew it. He might as well just sulk off right there and then. Why did he have to do this to himself? Why did he have to ruin everything?

To his complete and utter surprise, she did not respond negatively. She did not arch an eyebrow or make a snide comment about how eager he was to get into her pants. Instead, her cheeks had flushed red and she let out a little girlish giggle. It was the perfect combination of innnocence and adorableness that he felt his heart swwon.. He could not believe his luck. How had he got it in with a girl like this? He was truly blessed to make a girl like her feel like that. It was an honour he felt he would never experience again.

"Should we get going then, Prince Charming?" she said and she extended her hand towards him. Her nails were long, her fingers narrow and delicate. As he held her hand, he felt like he was being guided by an angel in one of his lonely dreams. He could not quite believe it was real.

***

The club was nothing special. In fact, he was barely stimulated for excitement by it at all. The music was hits from about a decade ago and nobody really seemed to be having a good time. It wasn't as packed as the places that he used to go and there were dispersed conversations going on all around, frustrated by the thumping bass of the music and trying to get their voices heard over it. Nobody seemed to be having a good time,really. There was a fight going on by the toilets but nobody seemed fazed by it. It seemed like that sort of thing happened all the time here so nobody would ever bat an eyelid. Everyone was drowning their sorrows in their endless strings of drinks they had. He had to remind himself it was a Wednesday night which was perhaps the saddest night for clubs but this was something else entirely. All the bums of the place would come here to drink and not even know what a good time was. It was quite sad really.

"Is this it?" he found himself asking. He didn't mean for it to come out quite as rude as it did.

He hadn't even looked at Daisy, bu when he did he was met with a surprise. Her face lit up the entire room. Her face was painted with genuine excitement, lust of the night they had ahead of them. It was quite wonderful really.

"What do you mean 'is this it?'?" she screamed in delight. "Yes,this is it! Isn't it incredible?"

Incredible wasn't quite the word he was looking for. Underwhelming seemed to fit more. But the utter excitement on her face seemed to convince him that the night would not be much of a disaster after all. So long as she was willing to have a good tim, that changed everything. Her happiness changed soething inside hi. It seemed to switch off the cyncicall nature that was innate to him. It seemed to change his perspective on things and convince him that he was capable of having a good time despite the state of the place. He was alosy certain that these were the rose tinted glasses he wore once he found himself falling in love. He didn't even want to admit that was what was happening at all but deep inside him, he knew that was what it was. He was helpless to stop it.All he was capable of doing was let the night determine what happened to this possibly blooming relationship. That was enoguh excitement to get him through the night.

Daisy approached the bar and got them two beers pretty much instantly. That was the power of pretty girls in bars. Minus the fact that barely anybody else was waiting to be swerved. They sat down in a booth together and the night went by like lightning. They talked and talked for hours on end, about everything, about nothing at all.

The range of scope they alked about seemed to have no end. Theyt alked about everything from love to loss to everything in between. They debated about sexuality and politics and they found they they shared many of the same opinions. He poured his heart out to her about the demons of his past and he found that she had many of her own too. It was here that he realised that not everybody was who they seemed on their surface and everybody had layers of depth that they remained hidden buried deep benearh the sand. He was fascinated by her and wanted to know everything she had to offer. There was so much more that he wanted to talk to her about, he desperately wanted to know her inside out. He was about to ask her a crucial question about how many times she had fallen in love before her eyes near bulged out of her head.

"Oh my god! This song... This song is my jam! Come dance with me!"

Harry had not even noticed that the song had changed. Without a second of hesitance, he allowed her to drag him out on the dancefloor. They may have been the only two in the room having a good time but she really didn't care. He laughed at her as she busted her cringiest moves and something inside of her seemed to change. They stared at each other for a few seconds before she wrapped her arms around him and their lips pressed against one another’s. It lasted barely a second but somehow, it changed everything for him.