the beautiful and damned - h.s.

twenty- three

He pulled the door wide open looking at the other guy who was in the room, "Leave," he gestured with his head towards the door. "No it's really ok, I should leave," I argued but Harry wasn't having it. I couldn't necessarily see his face as he looked at the other guy but whatever he did was enough to make him scurry out of the room, brushing past me quickly.

"Sorry," I mumbled as Harry walked further into the guest room.

He didn't say anything except sit down on the bed. He had gotten rid of the jean jacket at some point and now he was just left in a white plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up, exposing his various tattoos.

Tattoos were always so fascinating to me. I wanted one badly but I had always been to chicken because I had the lowest pain tolerance to ever exist. Harry had so many...black swirls of ink littered his entire arm and his chest from what I could tell. He had more tattoos than I could ever count. I wonder what each of them meant? Did a naked mermaid really have a meaning? What about the anchor I saw on his wrist multiple times...or the ship on his upper arm.

"You didn't need to ask him to leave, you could've gotten back to..." but I stopped talking once I realized how horribly awkward were the words coming out of my mouth.

"No..." he mumbled, running his hands through his curls, "I just needed a distraction," he shrugged.

This made me frown, "From what?" I asked innocently.

"You"

Maybe I was still drunk because there was no way I had heard that properly. "What?" I asked, "Me? Why?"

He sighed, "You're so painfully oblivious sometimes, it hurts," he laughed.

I was taken aback slightly by his comment, and I held my lips into a thin line, "Sorry-"

"It's not a bad thing," he cut off my apology. The silence between the two of us was deafening, I still stood by the door, a few feet away from him. He still sat on the bed, looking at me so intensely it was making me more and more nervous. "Are you gay?" I asked out of the blue, the nerves finally getting to me before I could even process the words that left my mouth, "Oh my god, I am so sorry that was really rude of me, you do not need to answer-"

Harry's laughter rang through my ears, stopping me from continuing my sentence. "I'm not gay Joyce," he continued to laugh.

"Oh"

Harry's laughter came to a halt as he saw the confusion riddled upon my face, "I don't have a preference. I like who I like," he shrugged.

Why did I feel relieved to know that?

"I shouldn't have asked like that though," I attempted to apologize again. Harry just waved his hand in front of him, "It's not a big deal...aren't you at all curious as to why I needed a distraction,"

I laughed lightly, "If it has to do with me, probably not," I admitted honestly. Harry licked his lips, looking down at his hands before looking back up at me. He stood up from his spot on the bed, slowly making his way towards me.

"It's nothing bad," he smirked.

I laughed nervously because he was getting closer and the glint he held in his eyes was making me feel all types of ways. My back was now flush against the wall next to the door frame and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

Was he aware of how he was making me feel?

"Are you still super drunk?" he whispered so closely that I could feel his breath on my lips.

"I can still recite my animal facts, if that helps," I blurted out and I wanted to smack myself against the door frame. Harry just looked amused, in fact, he didn't seem fazed at all, "You have no idea what you've been doing to me," he murmured.