The Art of Pretending (Harrison Osterfield AU)

Chapter 5

Three days. It's been only three days since you accepted to be his girlfriend for the wedding on the weekend. And the even crazier part was, that it had only been five days since your first conversation. Although it already felt like you've known him for quite a while now after the two of you spent like two hours talking about everything the two of you liked or disliked, you still weren't too sure about who the real Harrison was. Was it the guy everyone was talking about? The guy who spent his days getting drunk at parties with his best mates or was it the guy that was super creative and smart when it came to developing new ideas for something he was passionate about?

After spending quite a while discussing the topic of your short film, you came to the conclusion that you had absolutely no fucking clue what you wanted it to be about. Harrison thought about something along the lines of a few sketches about something that was related to what people thought about your major. Although you really liked the idea, you had also thought about going a bit more serious with this short film. You had no idea about what you wanted to be serious about, but you felt like this was a great time to speak up about something that was important. Accepting the fact that you needed more time to think about it and that you maybe had to talk to a few more people and gather their thoughts and ideas, you called it quits for the day.

"Sooo.." Harrison started, the corners of his mouth turning up.

"Oh no." You said, knowing exactly where he was going with this and what he was going to say.

"Back to the important business." He continued after deciding to ignore what you just said, "I thought it would be nice of me to tell you about the whole schedule of the coming weekend so you don't get completely thrown under the bus."

"That's what you wanted to talk about?" You said, raising your eyebrow.

"Yeah, what else would I be talking about?" He grinned at you, signalling you that he definitely knew that you thought he was going to ask about the practice kiss you had promised him.

"Uhm, n-nothing. Continue. The schedule, yes, tell me about it."

"Tom and I were going to drive there after classes tomorrow evening, but if you have plans, we can go on Saturday morning?"

"No, no tomorrow evening is fine by me. I don't have any plans."

"Great, so we'll pick you up some time between 6 and 7pm probably. So, depending on the traffic it shouldn't take too long to get there. After we've gone through the whole meeting my family and introducing you as my girlfriend part, we're good to go to bed I believe. The introduction is probably going to take a while because I know my mother ... and my sister. Charlotte is definitely going to ask you what made you start dating me out of all your options. I hope you've got a great answer." Harrison grinned.

"Because you pay me? Or maybe because you made me do it?" You said as your lips curved into a smirk.

"Yeah, don't say that, please, because my family will never let this go and I'll never be able to bring anyhome home again." He laughed, "Nonetheless, Saturday is probably going to be pretty stressful. I believe the wedding starts at 2pm, but we're supposed to be there at 1pm. So, I don't know how long it'll take you to get ready and all, but like, I figured you needed a bit of time to get ready. So I assume we're going to have a family breakfast at around 9am and after that you can get ready and all?"

"Yeah sounds alright."

"Wait, do you have a dress? I can buy you one if you don't have one yet? Shit, I should've thought of that a lot earlier than two days before the wedding."

"Harrison! I have one. Don't worry." You interrupted the boy's rambling.

"Alright, so that's taken care of." He smiled before continuing, "Yeah, so Saturday is basically just wedding stuff, food, dancing, pictures and all that."

"Uhm, how are we handling pictures?" You asked, "Like, if anyone is going to ask me to join you in a family picture or something, what do I say? You probably don't want your fake girlfriend showing up in your pictures."

"I don't mind. My mum is definitely going to make you take pictures with us, but it's fine, honestly, she'll probably end up liking you more than me and we're still going to take pictures of just the family, so we're good."

"Yeah, okay. Anything else?"

"Sunday's just a recovery day and we'll be leaving at some point in the afternoon if that's cool with you?" The boy sent you a nervous smile. He seemed really serious about having this all planned out which surprised you.

"Yeah, sounds great to me. Is that all?"

"Well, there is something else..." He was back to his signature grin and you knew that it was probably time to take up your promise.

"Thought you forgot about it..." You groaned, but nonetheless stood up from your place at the desk and plopped down on the bed next to the blonde boy.

"I would be really stupid if I forgot about that." He chuckled as you felt the air in the room get thicker and the tension grow stronger with every second that passed.

"I would be really happy if you forgot about that." Your voice didn't come out as confident as you hoped it would.

"Hm, I don't believe you." Harrison grinned, his eyes flickering down to your lips and back up to your eyes as his right hand found its way to your cheek.

Feeling yourself lean into the touch, you realized how close both of your faces already were. Your eyes fluttered shut as you felt the boy's hot breath on your lips. To your surprise you felt yourself get frustrated by how long it took him to close the gap between the two of you, but you blamed it on you being an impatient person in general.

"Still so unhappy about me remembering?" You heard and literally felt Harrison whisper, his lips only millimetres away from your own.

"I hate you."

"Are you sure about that, Beautiful?" You were about half a second away from pulling him closer and finally closing the gap between the two of you when the door to Harrison's room flung wide open, making the two of you spring apart.

"Yooo, lovebir- uhm, what's happening here?" Tom stood in the doorway, a big grin on his face. Of course he had seen how close you were, and of course, he was going to take the piss now.

"What do you want Tom?" Harrison groaned, shifting his attention from you towards his roommate and best friend.

"I was just going to ask if you wanted to order some take out, but I'm sure you guys would much rather eat each other's faces." He giggled as he made kissing sounds and exited the room, but not without telling you guys to "wrap it before you tap it".

"I swear, this guy is a walking cockblock." Harrison complained as he let himself fall back onto his bed, leaving you wondering how you ended up being so frustrated about Tom interrupting this stupid practice kiss.