skinny || h.s. au [Rewrite Now Up!]

five

"I don't know, you'll have to wait and see."

And both members of the Styles family smile.

"Okay, fine. I'll go do my homework." Harry says before walking toward the stairs.

"Love you!" She calls after her son.

He just smiles. "Love you, too Mum."

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"So I was thinking, about Thursday--"

"Help me sell it and then we will talk about that. I need this money sooner rather than later." Marley cuts him off as she's putting her books away at the end of the day. Once again, Harry leans against the locker next to hers.

Girls pass and glare at Marley. Some wave at Harry. But mostly they glare at Marley.

But none of them really catch Harry's attention.

"Then I'll buy it off of you." Harry shrugs.

Marley looks at him skeptically. "You do drugs?"

"Why don't you say it louder, Marr." Harry smirks but eyes the crowded hallway to see if anyone overheard.

Marley shuts her locker. "I'm serious."

"I don't." Harry assures her. "But if you need the money, I'll buy it and sell it myself."

"Good. I deal with that enough with my brother, the last thing I want is to have a drug-addicted friend, too." Marley realizes what she has said only after it's out. Too late to take it back.

"So I'm your friend?" Harry grins. Thinks he might have attepted a cartwheel if the hallway weren't so crowded. But then again maybe not. Because that would be plain silly.

Marley ignores his question. "Where would you even get the money for it?"

Harry shrugs. Tries to be modest. "I'm not exactly short handed when it comes to that sort of thing."

"Lucky you." Marley rolls her eyes. And adjusts her bag on her shoulder.

"I mean, I'm a good saver. I-I never spend the money I... er... get for birthdays and stuff." He stutters.

"Oh." Marley says but doesn't completely believe him.

No one gets a Range Rover while still enrolled in high school without some seriously rich parents. She tries not to let the idea intimidate her.

The bell rings, letting them know they have two minutes before the busses leave.

"I can give you a ride." Harry suggests, not wanting to part ways with the girl with crystal blue eyes that remind him of icicles and frost-bitten noses.

"Umm..." Marley actually thinks over the suggestion.

Don't you fucking dare.

"Sure." She smiles softly.

You're trying to give me a heart attack. It's official!

Harry grins so much his cheeks ache. He hadn't thought she would actually agree.

And he smiles all the way out to the parking lot. And as he opens the passager door for her. And as he walks around the car to his side.

He follows her instructions once again on how to reach her neighborhood. And is surprised when they pass the corner he let her off last time.

"Just take a left here and it's down a little on the right." Marley says. Her voice is soft to Harry's ears.

She figits her fingers in her lap, growing more and more self conscious as the houses grow more and more shabby and neglected as they drive.

He will see the way you live and be utterly disgusted. Maria sneers, clearly very happy with this possible outcome.

Marley wants to scream at her subconscious but stays quiet for the sake of her company.

"The one with the red door." Marley points to the shabby two-level with overgrown grass and ivy climbing up and swallowing the right side of the structure. She avoids his gaze. And prepares to shamefully walk into her home.

Because Marley is all cold fingers and half-crazed minds who is tired of being a broken mess of cheap glass and fake flowers on the floor of her kitchen. But maybe this boy with a troubled kind of green eyes could help put her back together.

She just doesn't quite see it yet.

The car rolls to a stop in front of her grey, patchwork driveway. Engine a steady rhythm beneath their feet in the short pause of celestial silence. Marley reaches for the door handle.

"Wait."

She stops and stares at the dashboard. Her hair creating a curtain between them. She takes a breath. And slowly turns to look at him.

But Harry just stares at her, trying to imagine such a beautiful girl living this way. With no parents and no one to take care of her but a drug addicted brother.

"Why did you have me drop you off at the corner before?" Harry wonders aloud.

Marley scoffs, looking out the windshield again at the overgrown grass. "Because I didn't want you to see this. I don't want anyone to see this."

"Then why am I here now?"

She looks at her hands in her lap once more, trying to figure that out herself. "Maybe I thought you wouldn't want anything to do with me if you saw where I live."

"Marley, I wouldn't care if you lived in an old car or a million-dollar mansion." Harry says. Realizes they've slowly leaned closer to each other and tries not to get distracted by that. But it's hard to be this close to the girl with crystal blue eyes that remind him of icicles and frost-bitten noses and not be distracted.

"Yeah, well not everyone is like that. Maybe I was hoping you weren't so perfect." Marley looks at him again. Realizes he's leaning extremely close to her. And shifts slightly away from him. "I should get going."

Her hand rests on the door handle once again but she doesn't open it as she holds Harry's intense gaze.

For a moment they don't speak. And it's just like that first day in English when Harry was caught up in the luminous shade of crystal blue in her eyes. How the color reminded him of icicles and frost-bitten noses.

But this time she is caught up in his, too. The troubled kind of green that somehow reminds her of summer grass and warm breezes.

And there they sit in Harry's Range Rover like colliding seasons that never should work so well together. But they somehow find harmony between the disaster in her shades of blue and the trouble in his shades of green.

Because Marley is all cold fingers and half-crazed minds who is tired of being a broken mess of cheap glass and fake flowers on the floor of her kitchen. But maybe this boy with a troubled kind of green eyes could help put her back together because Harry is all kind smiles and selfless gestures who is tired of sleeping alone.

And neither one knows who leaned in first but suddenly their lips are mere centimeters apart.

And Harry wants nothing more than to kiss her. Boy, does he want to kiss her.

But he worries her tendency to push him away would only make her run for the hills. He had managed so much progress with getting her to slowly open up to him, he didn't want this to be the reason she closed off to him again.

Because maybe the girl with crystal blue eyes that remind him of icicles and frost-bitten noses is worth being patient for.

"Marley." He whispers. "Can I kiss you?"

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-Lena xx