boiling point || hs {au}

chapter eight

Harry's POV

"Fucking hell, Delilah, what are we doing?" I groan, pawing at my eyes and trying to wipe the sleep from them. 

"Shh, just follow me." She squeezes my hand a little tighter. I stumble along, trying to keep up with her, but the alcohol makes me feel like everything is in slow motion. Which is also nice because this is the longest Delilah has ever held my hand and I wouldn't mind it if this feeling lasted forever.

"When are we going home? Isn't your mom worried?" I ask her. She scoffs and looks over her shoulder, still moving quickly. 

"What about your mom?" She smirks and her eyes glitter and her hair falls in a way that makes me want to tangle my fingers in it and kiss her. 

"She doesn't care what I do. We've discussed this. And we've also discussed how she's in the States." She nods. 

"I know." 

"Then why'd you ask?" I am confused by her, as always.

"Because you asked me something so I felt I should even the score by asking you something, too." I chuckle and I hear her giggle quietly as she steps over a rather large hole in the road. I follow her lead and pull her towards me so she's standing with her side touching mine. I gain confidence and wrap my arm around her waist, leaning down so my lips are almost touching her ear.

"You going to tell me where we're going?" I whisper. I feel her shudder and tense up.

"You're still drunk," she states, trying to change the subject. She wraps her fingers in mine once more and turns. "I wanted to show you this. Look." She points up to the sky. It looks like there's a billion little holes punched out of a black piece of paper.

"Wow, stars," I say sarcastically. She rolls her eyes. 

"Remember the other night in the field? With the stars?"

"Indeed," I answer with a nod, numbly walking my fingers across her side.

"They're so bright and so beautiful but so far away," she marvels. Her voice is small and so light that it sounds like it could float up and join the stars that are strung up in the sky.

"They remind me of you," I whisper, looking at her. Her head is still lolled back, admiring the twinkling dots. Once what I said registers, she snaps her head up to look at me.

"Yeah? How so?"

"Well, you're bright and you're beautiful," I answer. I place my hand gently on her face, my thumb by her ear and the rest of my fingers in her hair. I move close enough so that my lips are almost touching hers, just ghosting across them. "Except you're right here, and you burn brighter than the sun, the moon, and all the stars combined." She looks into my eyes, and for a minute, I swear she's going to kiss me, so I move to kiss her. She turns her head so I just catch her cheek with my lips.

"If you weren't so drunk, maybe I'd think about believing that." I laugh and before I know it, I'm doubled over and heaving up the burning mix of alcohol and rejection. 

"I'm not fucking drunk," I mutter. I spit and wipe my mouth with the sleeve of my jumper. "I'm just in love." In my peripheral vision, I watch her fold her arms across her chest and tuck a strand of hair behind her right ear. After a minute of silence, she finally speaks up. 

"Do you know what love feels like, Harry?" I think about it.

"Yeah, for sure. Love is like the butterflies in your stomach when you see the person smile. It's what you feel when you hold their hand and they squeeze yours so tight but you don't mind, and in fact, you don't want them to ever let go." I look at her and stand with my hands at my sides, waiting for a response. She faces me and smiles. Her eyes are watering and she dabs them with her fingers.

"That's cute, Harry, but the definition in any dictionary is 'an intense feeling of affection'."

"That's pretty much what I said," I counter.

"Yeah, I know. I'm just telling you the real definition."

"Why?"

"So you know what 'love' is when you think you feel it for the first time."

"Have you ever been in love, Delilah?" She walks closer to me and rests her head on my shoulder, lazily wrapping her arms around my waist.

"I don't think so."

"Well, I have. With you. Right now." Why doesn't she believe me?

"Show me what love is to you, Harry. Make me feel what you feel. I want to know what it's like to be in love." I lift her chin gently with my fingers and kiss her. I kiss her hard and wrap an arm around her waist because I want her to feel the tingles in her toes when I touch her that I get when she touches me. After a minute, we pull apart for air, and there's tears in her eyes.

"What? Why are you crying?" I don't usually see Delilah cry. I mean, I have before, but twice in one night? For apparently no reason?

"Because I wish I knew if I loved you back." My heart thumped when she said it. Then it thumped again, but harder when it hits that that's not necessarily a good thing. She hugs me and kisses my shoulder and mumbles words into my chest. 

"I can't hear you, Del."

"I said, we should go home now. I'll drive. I'm sober." 

a u t h o r ' s   n o t e:  i am so so so sorry about how short this is but i haven't updated in forever so i thought you'd maybe appreciate at least something?? i enjoyed writing this omg. comment some predictions about what you think will happen/what you want to happen next :)) once this story gets 170 votes and 50 comments (that's 10 more votes than right now and 5 more comments than right now) then i'll post another chapter. sound good?? remember; COMMENT what you think will/what you want to happen :)) tysm for reading ilya