Resolution

54. Chills

"Anyway, you don't have to leave. We're just hanging out," I said, even though I just wanted to be alone with Halle. I silently hoped he'd turn down my offer.

"Alright, cool," he said happily. I tried not to be disappointed. As much as I liked hanging out with him, I'd rather spend time with her. I blinked as I realized my thoughts and found it hard to believe I was having them in the first place. I really was becoming that guy.

Fifteen minutes later, Jay and I had each downed two more beers and were positively drunk by the time I finally heard Halle come through the front door. My heart gave a painful thump as she came into my line of vision, her beautiful face lit up with a grin as she made eye contact with me.

"Halle!" Jay cheered, the beers he'd consumed making him excessively happy. She blinked before her eyes widened, surprised by the enthusiastic greeting before she recovered and laughed. I watched her eyes crinkle in the corner and her lips pull across her teeth as she grinned at him. She was so beautiful it actually hurt.

"Hi Jay," she returned before her eyes fell to the pile of cans in front of us. She looked slightly confused and her smile dimmed slightly before she crossed the room to me. "You guys having some fun or what?"

Her tone was light and I was relieved she wasn't upset about us accidentally getting drunk. Jay grumbled as she crossed in front of the screen, his head darting dramatically to the side as if he couldn't possible spend less than a second with his line of vision cut off. I ignored the game again as I reached my hand out for her. She grabbed mine and I pulled on her arm, making her bend at the waist so I could press my lips into hers.

"Ooh, yep, sure are," she laughed as she caught the taste of beer on my lips. I grinned guiltily at her, the warmth of the alcohol and her presence making me feel ridiculously giddy.

"Didn't mean to," I grinned.

She pulled back to sit next to me before I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her to sit on the floor in front of me. I wanted to have as much contact with her as possible because I'd missed her touch all day. She followed my guidance and folded herself between my legs, her back leaning against the couch as my thighs bordered her shoulders. I leaned forward, my forearms resting on my knees like they had before and circling around Halle. My hands fell in front of her as I returned my grip to the controller.

I expected her to complain about having to watch us play video games, but she was surprisingly content. I suspected she enjoyed doing anything with me no matter what it was, because that's exactly how I felt about her.

How I got to be so lucky, I'll never know.

Halle's POV

I hadn't been expecting Jay to be here when I'd arrived, but I didn't mind. I liked Jay a lot, and it made me feel weirdly happy to see Harry with at least one good friend. I got the sense that he was one of the few people in Harry's life that actually liked him for him and not because he was someone everyone knew. There were a ton of people that knew Harry, judging from the amount of people he always knew at parties, but he never really saw them outside of that atmosphere which led me to believe they weren't actually his friends.

I sighed contentedly, relieved to be back with Harry after such an exhausting day. After my terrifying interaction with Miles at the mall, I'd spent the rest of the day catching up on homework. Maggie had finally come home from Annie's, as I had expected, and insisted on knowing every single detail about the fight. It had drained me in every way possible as she dragged every word out of me, the memory of it fresh in my mind.

What little time I'd had that wasn't spent doing any of those things had been completely consumed by stressing about whether or not to tell Harry about what had happened with Miles. It felt like a broken record by now, this internal debate over whether to share with him or not, but the blatant threat from Miles not to tell him scared me. His flat out warning to keep quiet about it was the only thing stopping me from blurting it out to Harry right now. That, and the fact that Jay was here now. And, it was quickly becoming apparent, that Harry was quite drunk.