Damaged » h. styles au

Chapter 59 - Harry

Then I lost it. I took the skillet away from her hands and placed it on the table, not giving her enough time to realize what I was actually doing before I grabbed her face between both my hands and crashed my lips against hers. It didn’t take her more than a second to kiss me back, her fingers fidgeting with the sleeve of my jumper between both our bodies. She seemed to simply not find the strength nor the space to pull her arms up and wrap them around any part of my body, so she just kept them there, loosen around her own body, hanging next to her legs.

“I love you,” I whispered, pulling back and pecking her lips again. “I love you,” peck on the cheek, “I love you,” peck on the nose, “I love you,” peck on the lips. And I longed there again, pulling her lower lip between my teeth and biting on it gently.

When we pulled away, Scarlett was lightly shaking, but smiling warmly at me. Her eyes showed sorrow, though, and I couldn’t help but feel worried. What was so wrong with telling her how I felt? I loved her, I was sure of that like I’d never been sure of anything else, and yet, she seemed so afraid of me saying it.

“Um, yeah. We should eat, you know.” She stated offhandedly, desperately trying to get rid of my touch, but I stopped her, sliding my hands down to her upper arms and holding ‘em tight.

“Lettie?” I tried, tentatively saying the new nickname, tasting the sound of it on my lips. It seemed to fit. When she looked up at me, then, it made a lot more sense. “You won’t act like this everytime I say that I love you, now will you? Because trust me, I’m willing to make it a thing.”

She awkwardly giggled, clearly uncomfortable, focusing her gaze on her feet as she had nowhere else to look at.

“No, I- it’s not that- I. Just, not used, to it, you know?” Then she shrugged, kind of, still not looking up.

“Tyler doesn’t say it to you?”

“Well, yeah- yeah, he does. Just not. Not the way you do. I mean… You’re saying it to me; he’s saying it to her. You know what I mean?” I nodded, fully understanding her, wishing more than ever she could hear those three words daily; know how much it means to me; feel each one of the letters, let them sink into her heart and warm it up. She deserves that, at the least, for all she went through, for all she is now.

“You are going to get used to it, you hear me?” I said confidently, willing to say it to her a lot from now on. Things are different between us now, and I’ll let her feel this change every day of her life from now on, if possible. And when she shyly nodded, I couldn’t feel prouder of her, of me, of us. What we’ve become. “Is it okay?” I asked again, wanted to actually hear it from her.

“Hm-hm,” she mumbled, nodding surer this time. “Yeah. ‘S okay.”

She had a bowl of ice cream between her hands – yes, even if it was a hell of a cold day, do not ask me – whilst the quilt hanged over her knees (pointing up to the ceiling), her feet curling up on the edge of the couch, her body shrinking every once in a while and shifting on her seat to keep comfortable. Meanwhile, I was on the other end of the sofa, leaning against the armrest and staring at her in disbelief – not because she’d done something stupid, but simply because this was happening –, with my own ice cream bowl between my digits.

We might get a cold, but who really cares, after all.

Some odd movie was playing on TV, and it was not really interesting, if you ask me. Or at least, that’s what I thought, because Scarlett seemed completely into it. She was actually so focused she even missed her mouth a couple of times, smearing her cheek with vanilla ice cream. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight, shaking my head with that stupid grin plastered to my face.