Some Lonely Feeling ✧ H.S. A.U.

Chapter 10;

“Yeah,” he nodded making an expression almost unexplainable, “She,” he paused, “We should start with her name of course,” he laughed, as I forced a smile also, though I was more concentrated on him as he spoke, “Her name was Ashley,” he said putting his elbows on the table. I never did like the name Ashley. Maybe not particularly the name itself… More the people I had always met in the past that carried the name. I was never fond of any of them, and his ex-girlfriend, who I had suddenly become oddly jealous of, was another person to add to the list, “I mean I don’t really know what to say,” he shrugged.

I had many questions, or things I would’ve like to hear him say; like, she was a slutty bitch when I met her and she probably always will be, “Was she always like that?” I asked. He looked at me with a perplexed expression, “Um,” I coughed, “Always rude?” I asked trying to be subtle, and ease him into it.

“No,” he nodded, “When I met her she was… Normal, really classy,” Wow, hard to believe, I thought, “After a few months of dating her though, I found out a lot about her. Things that would’ve kept me away from her if I knew about them when we met,” he replied.

“Like what?” I asked determined to get it out of him.

“Like, she didn’t tell me she was ever an alcoholic,” he said, “About 4 months after we were dating, she starting going out and drinking more. We, we always did go to parties, but she always seemed to control how often she got drunk… By the eighth month, she was completely ruined. I tried convincing her to go to rehab,” he nodded, “But she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t do it,” I could tell the topic was becoming harder for him to talk about it, “The saddest part of it all is the fact that I practically watched her ruin her life, and I couldn’t do anything about it,” he said. His voice had become shaky, and an awful wave of guilt washed over me for making him talk about it.

“You don’t have to finish,” I snapped before his next words came out.

“No,” he paused for a second, “I haven’t had anyone to talk to about it in a while, and I think it’s nice that you’re here to listen,” he smiled reluctantly.

I would’ve felt a lot better about making him talk about it if my intentions were for him, not me. I wanted to know about her because I was jealous, and being selfish. I would’ve felt better if it was because I truly wanted to help him in the long-run, “Yeah,” I shrugged uncomfortable, “I’m happy I helped,” I weakly responded, “Look, um,” I thought for a second, hoping to make myself feel better after I had been so egotistic with him, “It’s for the best I guess, I mean you couldn’t help she was an alcoholic, and you couldn’t have her holding you down I guess,” I said. Why’d you have to make it sound so cheesy? I questioned myself, becoming embarrassed.

He laughed softly, “I guess,” he smiled looking at me.

*

“Here’s your bill,” the waitress said laying it face down on the surface of the table.

He picked it up looking at the price, “I have some money to help pay,” I said feeling around my in my coat pocket considering I didn’t bring a bag.

“No, it’s fine,” he laughed.

I thought for a second, holding my money in my hand beneath the table, “It’s not like this was a date or anything, just let me help,” I smiled almost childishly.

He nodded no, almost playfully, with an odd expression, “Fine,” he sighed putting his hand out for me to give him the money.

A smile plastered  itself onto my face as I handed it to him. He sat it on top of the bill, waiting for the waitress to return, which didn’t take long, “Thank you for coming,” she smiled soon walking away.

Harry stood up running his hands up each arm making sure that the sleeves to his plaid shirt were rolled up. It was unbelievable how attractive he was, and even more surprising that I hadn’t noticed until now, “Ready?” he asked smiling, defining his dimples.

“Mhmm,” I mumbled following behind him towards the door.

We had just made our way to the door when I heard a voice, “Harry?” someone shouted making my vision descend in that direction.

“Jace!” Harry laughed walking his way to greet him. I veered towards the both of them to find a guy, almost Harry’s height with a girl. The guy, Jace, had shaggy brown hair, and brown eyes. He had a smile plastered on his face, making it obvious that he was happy to see Harry. The girl behind him was about my height, with really long black hair, longer than mine. She had red lipstick on, and you could tell she was wearing mascara. She was really pretty, making me almost regret the fact that I had chosen to wear no makeup, “Claire,” Harry paused smiling, “This is Jace, one of my best friends, and his girlfriend Isabelle.”

“Hey,” the boy waved, “Who’s this Harry, what happened to Ashley?” he asked inquisitively.

“We broke up,” Harry shrugged comfortably, “And Claire is my… friend,” he said looking down at me. There was a long pause before the word ‘friend’, making me apprehensive suddenly.

“Ohhh! Friend,” Jace nudged Harry. He stood quiet for a second, “Hey,” he said unexpectedly becoming quite concentrated, “We’re about to go swimming… would you wanna come?” he asked. It was odd to be going swimming at such a late hour, being eleven and all, but he said swimming in a fashion that made me figure Harry knew exactly what he was talking about.

I stood silent with a confused expression. Even Isabelle was smiling like she was in on things, “Well,” Harry eased, “Claire if you don’t wanna go, I’m not going,” he said bringing all eyes on me.

“I mean, I guess, but where are we going?” I asked still bemused, which was becoming embarrassing.

“You’ll see, come on,” Harry said taking my hand, and jerking me out the doors of the restaurant.

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