Buttercup [H.S]

Chapter Eight

He gave me another once over, quickly this time, before lifting his shoulders in a shrug, shooting me a smug smile.

"I mean, you do it to me all the time," he says quietly. "Just thought I'd give it a go."

"And?" I ask, nearly choking on my own spit as he takes a slow step toward me.

"And," he says breathily, reaching a large hand over the partition toward me, his head quirked to one side as his eyes dart all over my face, resting on my mouth momentarily, "You have icing sugar on your nose."

He swiped his thumb down the bridge of my nose before holding the pad up to show me a little spot of white powder.

I feel my face flush before I turn my back to him, ignoring the laugh that he belted out. But instead of snapping back some retort, I caught his gaze over shoulder and let out my own small laugh, shaking my head before getting back to work.

I didn't know what it was this week, but I just hadn't found myself wanting to argue with him so much. Lucy had noticed too.

"It's cute, you guys are obviously getting along better," she said, topping up my glass before she sat down in the deck chair opposite me, taking a sip from her own.

"It's not cute. I'd hardly call it getting along," I shake my head. "He still hates me."

"I don't know, I'm not convinced, Ry. I'm getting serious sexual tension vibes from you guys."

I scoff, appalled. "Definitely not!"

"Oh come on!" She laughs, leaning forward in her chair. "So you're telling me that you guys were best friends at the height of pubity, all of those crazy hormones flying all over the place, and nothing ever happened?"

"Nothing."

Lucy widened her eyes in disbelief, "So you never even made out? Maybe that's the issue, if you guys had just rocked each other's bones-"

"Lucy!" I laugh and cover my heated cheeks with my forearm, "I'm serious, nothing ever happened. I...I had a boyfriend back then."

"Oh really," her eyes lit up with excitement, waggling her eyebrows at me. "Who was he? Was he cute? I bet Harry was hella jealous."

"Stop that! He didn't like him but Harry was definitely not jealous." My stomach turned at the thought of discussing Jason. I hadn't spoken about him to anyone since the court case years ago, apart from the few references Kyle made about him. It was weird to be discussing both him and Harry so casually.

"Jason - he, uh...He was Kyles best mate," I sigh, trying to pick apart which details I was happy to share with her. "Typical Rugby player, entitled, school bully type."

"Oh," Lucy grimaces. "A real catch then."

I laugh. "Not really. He was a massive prick if I'm honest."

"So why were you with him?"

An inviting breeze blows my hair over my shoulder, and goosebumps raise on my arms, but I'm not sure it was entirely down to the weather.

"His dad and my dad, they did a lot of business together. And I think they just sort of put us together. It was just expected, I guess."

Lucy gives me a solemn look and I wonder if she could see the discomfort written all over my face. It felt so strange to be talking about any of this, truthfully it was the first time any of this had passed my lips in years. And back then it was in a statement to the police.

"Harry doesn't seem like the typical ass-hole jock, how did he fit into everything?" Lucy asks, clearly invested in the story.

"Friends in secret, remember?" And she nods in understanding. "He was so different from Jason and the others. He had really long hair, always had his guitar on his back. Used to wear black all the time," I laugh at the memory, "We only really spoke in Art class at school. And we'd hang out at night sometimes, when I wasn't with Jason."