Petal [h.s.]

ELEVEN - RUINING MY LIFE

"And lord knows my sister needs to get laid." Dani made a face, shaking her head.

I raised my eyebrows at her, smiling slowly, because I knew something she didn't know: "Your sister gets laid plenty. I hear it through the walls nearly every bloody day."

Dani furrowed her brow, shaking her head, "What? She... I didn't know she was seeing somebody?"

"Who said she's seeing somebody?" I asked, turning to look at the door again, "You don't need to see someone to fuck them."

"Belly does. She told me after..." Dani trailed off, like she just remembered that she wasn't supposed to talk about whatever it was she almost said, "Well, she said that she didn't want to sleep with anyone she didn't have feelings for."

God, she's dense. I thought to myself with an eye roll. It's literally right in front of your eyes, idiot.

I decided against answering her, just shrugging my shoulders instead and letting her think about it. That was enough instigating for the night. I knew it would bother her that her big sis wasn't giving her all the details of her love life and I knew Dani was annoying enough to bring it up to her.

My leg was still bouncing anxiously. I wanted a cigarette but was too scared to leave, I didn't want to miss anyone going into the bathroom. Dani stared at me for a second longer, but when she realized that I wasn't going to fill in any blanks for her, she gave me a glare as she moved down the bar to fill someone's drink order.

"You're wrong, you know." I addressed Buffy's earlier comment, taking a long sip of my drink, "There's nothing but hatred between me and her."

"You're full of shit." Buffy replied, her voice taking on a stern tone, "You can lie to everyone else, but I know you, Harry. You watch Arabella so carefully, like... like she belongs to you. I've never seen you look at Jessie like that before. Not once in the entire time I've known you both. Look at you right now! You haven't taken your damn eyes off that bathroom door since she walked through it! Would you let the girl pee in peace?"

I tore my eyes off the door and turned away, shaking my head but not telling Buffy that she was wrong and that Arabella was in there for a whole different reason. I didn't want her to get involved in our game, so I just forced my back to stay toward the door, trying to act as nonchalant as I could.

"I'm going back to the boys. You coming?" Buffy stood up, picking up her drink and looking at me.

"No. I don't like them." I stated, running my finger along the edge of my whiskey glass slowly, staring down at it.

"You don't like anybody." She scoffed, "Come find us when you're done obsessively watching Airy."

"I haven't even looked at the door!" I argued back, sitting up straight and glaring over at her, "I don't give a fuck about her."

"You keep telling yourself that." She patted me on the back and started to walk away, shaking her head as she did.

I slumped back down in my seat, looking back down to my nearly empty glass and gesturing to the other bartender for a refill. I tilted the rest of the whiskey down my throat and felt it go straight to my head, knowing that I should probably stop drinking now so I wouldn't do anything I'd regret.

"You drinking all alone, babe?" The female bartender asked me as she poured me another glass of whiskey.

She was cute. I eyed her carefully, staring at the exposed part of her stomach and the way her breasts were spilling out of her crop top. I could fuck her... if I were single. I felt myself deflate as I remembered that while I could flirt with anyone I wanted to, I couldn't let it go past that. I cheated on Jessie once and the guilt from that ate me alive afterwards. I refused to let myself do it again with some random bartender.