Luella

08 | truth or dare

Multi-tasking; following Kate and observing the surrounding crowd wasn't that hard until I looked in front of me and couldn't find the back of Kate's head.

Cue me freaking out on my first party.

Naturally, thinking and feeling I was being observed, I took a deep, shaky breath as I scanned the crowd frantically in great hope to find my best friend. I couldn't have felt more suffocated.

Refusing to just stand there like an idiot, searching for Kate's familiar face, I decided to actually move the pads of my feet in my brand new sneakers off the floor and get to looking for her, still shaky. This obviously wasn't my usual scene, or a scene I've ever seen before.

Minutes ticked off with me passing by unfamiliar faces with Halloween makeup weird enough to set me off -all the way from spider webs' cheeks, bright lenses and whatnot to full-on red bloody features and false melted skin. As dumb as it sounds, I did actually gasp to myself a couple of times when my eyes caught one of those fucked up looks for the night.

Happy Halloween, they said. Well, this party was scary enough for me already; so it's concept understood. I don't know what had gotten into me for thinking I could come to this party and actually have fun. I would, if I knew any human being in here. But I didn't, so it was terribly horrible so far.

Just as I was starting to convince myself to just go back to the hospital, my eyes caught onto someone in the crowd and I was pretty sure I could see a stable figure amongst all the dancing, moving, grinding others. My feet had frozen in place and my breath hitched in my throat as I subconsciously licked my lips, capturing my bottom one between my teeth. Holding my breath, I turn my head... and it seems like it was almost instantly that his crystals connected with mine, sending a shuddering shiver through me as I let out the breath I was holding.

Not knowing what else to do, I nod once at him, trying to manage a casual smile -but there was nothing casual about me; the music was too loud and my heartbeats were too often and I know I looked like a dear caught in headlights.

I self-consciously pulled on the sleeves of my hoodie and dug the tips of my fingers into them, in hope it would somehow virtually release a bit of the tension. Harry's expression wasn't readable from our proximity -he was across the room, leaning on the wall with a group of friends who danced together next to him. But he was still as a statue.

I gulped, diverting my line of vision somewhere else when I'd noticed the corners of his lips turning up, my heartbeats picking up speed as he leaned off the wall before he started making his way in my direction, pushing through drunk dancers and whatnot, all the while having me fidgeting with the ends of my sleeves and the fur on my wrists and half my arm, looking everywhere but him.

I looked absolutely ridiculous, to say the truth. It was beyond obvious I wasn't the same Luella that I was back at the orphanage who was bold and daring and spontaneous. Now I was shy and pathetic and I didn't know why exactly.

And I bloody hated it.

My eyes were fixated on my feet when a pair of wornout white converse appeared in front of my own clean sneakers. Slowly, I raised my gaze upwards, my eyes quickly sliding over his costume which was only tight black jeans and some dirty cream-coloured jumper that was ripped all over and had one specific hole at his hip, showing some hidden inked art there.

Reaching his jades, I smiled a little and shifted when I noticed his own eyes had already made their journey up and down my body. He looked way younger with a green-and-red snapback worn oppositely on top of his mop of curls, only a few swirls escaping.

"Hi," I had decided to start by squeezing out the word of greeting when it was too awkward of a silence to handle anymore.

Harry raised his hand in a tiny wave, the traces of a smirk still there as he studied my face, and I wondered what was funny before he said something in a raspy voice. "You showed up."