Precious [h.s.]

Chapter 38

Niall scoffs and turns his head around from me, "she's got you wrapped around her little finger, mate." I know he's talking about Nadine, but I wasn't aware that he's not fond of her.

"None of your business." I stand up and finish my drink in one shot. If they're gonna be assholes, I'm gonna let them be assholes together and leave me out of this.

"Where are you going?" Niall asks as he sees that I stood up.

"To get another drink." I turn my back to them and head to the bar, not saying anything else.

To get there I need to get through a crowd of people that are dancing, who also had too much drinking tonight. They try to get me to dance with them but I just search for the thing that I'm here for.

I refuse everyone, not being in the mood to dance, and only to drink. I ask the barman for one, tapping my fingers while waiting.

I'm angry at Niall and Liam. I wanted to have fun tonight and they have ruined it. I don't like it when people can't mind their own business. It's my life and I'm happy, so why can't they be happy for me?

My thoughts are being interrupted by someone sitting beside me, but I'm still distracted by the debate from inside my head caused by the idea of just going back and apologizing, even if I don't think I've done anything wrong. I don't like to argue with my friends so giving in is something that I do very often.

"Hi," the person next to me says and I finally turn my face to them, finding a girl around my age, holding a glass in her hand.

"Hi," I mumble back to her, not feeling like having a chat and wanting to go back to my pro and cons list of apologizing.

"I'm Ava," she introduces herself to me and I repeat her name in my head.

"That's nice." I try to brush her off, considering for a second just standing up and leaving.

"What's your name?" I sigh but she still looks at me smiling and waiting for an answer.

"Harry."

"What are you doing here all alone, Harry?" She puts down her drink and I take a good look at her face. She's pretty, but Nadine is prettier.

"Drinking, trying to clear my thoughts." My glass is already empty, so I ask the barman for another one. I think he sees it in my eyes that right now I don't want anyone around, but he just fills up my glass and shrugs his shoulders, laughing at me.

"I can help you with that." She puts her hand on my thigh and I stop my drink mid-air, understanding what she wants from me. She got straight to the point.

"I have a girlfriend. Sort of," I tell her and slowly take her hand off me.

"Is she here with you?" She laughs and looks around jokingly.

"No, I'm here with my friends - or at least I was supposed to be with them."

"Then it seems like there's no one else to help you clear your mind." She pouts her lips and starts tracing the tattoos on my arm with her finger.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm not cheating on Nadine. I love her." The alcohol gets to me and I start confessing to strangers.

"You're not cheating. You're just having fun. I can keep you company."

"There are probably many people who would like to have fun with you. Go talk to them." Out of the many, many people in here she had to choose me.

"But I like you." She gets closer, taking a strand of hair from my face and putting it behind my ear.

"Listen, Ava. You're a pretty girl. If you came up to me a few months ago, maybe I would have fucked you in the bathroom or something, but right now my answer is no." I stand up and she turns her chair to me, "Have a great night."

"Wait," she says and from instinct, I turn back to look at her. "I'm sorry that I've been so pushy with you. God, this is so embarrassing now." She rests her elbows on the bar and hides her face in her hands. "My boyfriend just broke up with me like half an hour ago and I guess I'm all over the place." She tries to sweep it aside by faking a laugh but I can see her getting teary-eyed.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I say and sit on the stool next to her.

"It's fine. Break-ups happen every day." She goes on to drink from her cup, only to release there is nothing inside.

"Look, Ava, I can't um...sleep with you or anything, but if you want I could buy you a drink. We'll be drinking buddies." I click our glasses together and she nods her head.

Of course, we don't stop at one drink and after some time I start feeling drowsy. She talked to me about her relationship and her job at a local newspaper. She said she likes her job but she wants to work for some magazine with a fancy name that I forgot the next second after she said it.

I told her about my boring job at the bakery and what I came to America for. I also suggested that she could read what I've written so far and that's something that I haven't shown to anyone - not even Nadine.

She calls for a car to get her home and we stumble outside together. I wait with her for it and in the meantime, we exchange numbers and promise to meet up sometime.

I come back to the couch where the boys were sitting, only finding Liam.

"Where's Niall?" I ask and sit down next to him.

"On the dance floor. I need to keep an eye open for him or else he will fall and crack his head open after all the booze he had," he announces an old I open my phone that I've apparently forgotten here.

"Shit. I have like seven missed calls," I say and scroll through all the calls I've missed from Nadine.

"And you say you're not her little puppy," Liam lets out under his breath as he takes a sip from his glass.

"Fuck off, Liam." I sit up, taking my jacket and checking to see if I have everything on me.

"Oh, so you're leaving me here. Very nice of you."

"Glad you're okay with it," I tell him and leave the club to look for a cab.

Author's Note:
Not a very long chapter but I hope you enjoyed it <3