Ignorance ➵ h.s. au

sixty second

Harry brings a hand up against his lip, motioning for her to be quiet. Dani swallows the lump forming at the back of her throat, standing back up her feet. Silence hangs in the air, metallic clatter coming off from the pitch black pipes. He wasn’t moving the switch anymore but it remained creaking, chills running down her back from the noise. Water was running inside, dripping from the rusty cog switch and onto the concrete floor. The switch handle turns on its own, her feet moving backwards in shock, water spurting out of the corner of the tube behind it, making a small puddle on the floor. Just when they thought it was over; simultaneous metal clangors screeched through the pipes, the black tubes shaking from the walls. Danielle tries to process through what was happening, bringing her bottom lip between her teeth in frustration.

Her parents were gone, making the two of them the only people in the house. She hasn’t gone through it yet how she was going to apologize for what she did yesterday and he wasn’t talking. Why would he? He wasn’t the one who cried and ran across the parking lot to get away. It’s only been a day but she already missed him, like they haven’t seen each other in two months. That’s what it feels like at least. Maybe this was a bad time, but when was the best time if her parents were going to be following them around for the rest of the day?

The switch flies off of the tube, mercilessly dragging her away from her thoughts and hitting Harry on the side of his head, Danielle’s heart jumped out of her throat, her stomach churning and her eyes widening in horror. He falls onto his knees, holding onto his face for dear life. Thick water gushes out of the previous switch. flood quickly crawling through the floors until it was covering her feet. She could care less about the water, her feet sloshing through the flood as she ran towards him, blood gathering in the corner of his cheek bone and trickling down his skin, He wipes it off with a hand, a grimace permanently morphed on his face, her chest squeezing from the view.

“Oh my god, are you okay?!” She exclaimed, sinking to her knees, placing both hands on either side of his head and gently tilting it to have a good look, both of their legs drenched as the current kept cascading from the tubes. An extensive cut sliced through his cheek bone, slight discoloration staining the area around it. He wasn’t okay. He was no where near okay and she didn’t know what to do, panic surging through her bloodstream as red dripped from the cut. This was all her fault. She shouldn’t have made him come. If she had known he was going to be hurt from her mother’s stupid request, she should’ve just risked getting hit in the face. This was so much worse.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine, the tube’s fucked.” He grunts, attempting to get up.

“No! Where are you going?! You’re hurt, we need to take care of that!” She protests, stopping him from getting up but he insisted, getting up his feet before she could.

“I said I’m alright, it’s just a stupid cut, don’t worry about it.” He wipes it off again with the collar of his tank top, shaking off the pain consuming the entirety of his face. It wasn’t alright. If Dani knew anything about him, it was that he was good at lying. He would often say he doesn’t have a problem, and then the next, he’s drunk, fighting with his girlfriend and throwing things around while she watches their silhouettes through his window curtains. That was one thing they didn’t have in common. She could try, but somehow he could always tell the difference between lie and truth, and she didn’t. It was unfair how he could always do that, meanwhile she didn’t even know how to differentiate her own emotions. She’s always hated that part of him; always keeping secrets on his own and always suffering alone. What was the purpose of their friendship if she couldn’t help?

Dani got up from her feet as well, the flood reaching up their ankles and soaking his sweatpants and her pajamas. It has flooded all over the room, detergent bottles previously resting on the ground now floating through the clear pool. The water flashed out from the tubes in thick white drops, almost like a waterfall the longer it remained uncovered by the switch. Her mother wasn’t going to be mad, she was going to absolutely and completely die. She’s always been like that whenever something wasn’t properly working around the house; whining and easily mad. “What are we going to do? we can’t just leave it like that!” She fretted. With the lack of water on the tap came the absolute disaster of it down the basement.