Change of Heart

chapter 22

"Look. Your water." True to his word, my water bottle stood on the bench, but I had no recollection of ever putting it there.

I eyed the water bottle suspiciously, but decided nothing of it and used it anyways.

"How are you and Zavier?"

I instantly choked on the water I was drinking and started intensely coughing. Harrison looked at me worriedly then awkwardly rubbed, or tried to rub, my back.

"Thank you. Sorry." I took smaller sips this time, deliberately stalling.

"You and Zavier." He repeated. He kept looking behind for something, or maybe someone.

"Uh, yeah, we're um...just back to normal." I stumbled over my words.

"Even after the fight?"

"Yeah, I think."

"Okay." He dropped the matter, but I still felt wary of his strange behaviour so I decided to do what I always do-

Ignore it.

So far, that method hadn't gotten me very far, but it was definitely the most easy option to take, so I did, and instead switched my focus to the match.

***

Turns out once again, my method hadn't been that successful. Harrison had been off; looking side to side, not answering my questions properly and bringing up Zavier much more in the conversation than before. Even though we had managed to scrape through with a win in our game, Harrison hadn't said one word about it to me.

"You can tell me what's wrong." I spoke up, ending the silence as we both sat outside on the grass.

He looked up at me, then looked back down, and carried on picking the grass.

"Harrison, what's wrong?" I tried again.

He still ignored me, only looking up to glance behind my shoulder.

"Harry."

This finally caught his attention as he lifted his head up, surprise being evident on his face.

"I'm just tired, sorry. Dillon's snoring has been keeping me up."

Lies.

Well, half lies.

There was something more, but he seemed hesitant to say.

I'm sure I would've been able to press it out of him, but then a few of our teammates came strolling up to us, Harrison's walls immediately going back up.

Fuck.

They had huge smiles on their faces, and I desperately hoped that the frustration on the inside wouldn't project on the outside, but judging by the smiles that were still on their face, it didn't appear to be obvious.

"Hello." I had the first word, since it seemed like they had just come over here to stand and smile, which I'd rather they not.

"Wasn't that game so good?" Ben, one of the teammates spoke.

If he meant good as in having to do extra time because of a draw, Coach shouting at us in any break we had and just scraping through to the finals, then yes.

The game was so good Ben.

I just nodded; hoping they'd just get to the point and leave Harrison and I alone.

I looked back at Harrison, but he was still playing with the grass, paying no attention to the pleasant visitors.

"Anyways, come to room 3, the whole teams gonna be there tonight."