Song For This Chapter:
DNA- Little Mix
"It's the color of his eyes
He can do no wrong
No, he don't need to try"
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After some of the awkward tension between Harry and I fizzled, the rest of the night actually went pretty well.
Niall and Maya seem to be really hitting it off, but I didn't expect anything less. It was getting pretty late though and I knew we'd all have to be leaving soon.
"I hate to be that person, but It's pretty late and I have to work the morning shift tomorrow so I think I'm going to order my uber" Maya says, and you can genuinely hear the sadness laced in her voice.
"Wait you ubered here Maya?" Niall seeks to clarify
Maya nods her head while taking out her phone,
"I can drive you home" Niall offers.
"You don't have to do that, I'm fine with ubering" Maya says reassuringly.
"No really it's no problem, honestly" Niall insists.
Awww. Kinda cute.
Maya is one of those people who will always feel bad for accepting a favor from someone, she'll give and give but she struggles with receiving things in return. She is just a selfless person but if there is anyone who deserves everything in the world, it's her. She is too nice for her own good sometimes.
"But you drove Darlene here too, I don't want to give you another person to have to drive home Niall" Maya states with guilt laced in her voice.
"I can drive Darlene home, problem solved" Harry chimes in.
My eyes widen. What?. I snap my head and look at him trying to give him a look that say "shut the fuck up" but he just ignores my warning glare, looking back towards Niall.
"Great idea Harry" Maya says glancing at me quickly with a smirk.
"I'm sure Niall wouldn't mind driving both-" I feel someone kick me under the table and for some reason I just know it was Harry. I glare and him and he gives me a look that basically states "shut the fuck up", his glare is actually kind of intimidating to the point where I do just that.
"Fine" I state defeated.
"Perfect" Harry smiles.
"Come on Maya, let's get you home" Niall smiles at her getting up from his chair.
"Bye guys" Maya says giving us a wave while following Niall out.
Once they're out the door Harry turns to look at me with a smirk on his face and I go to open my mouth ready to yell at him,
"-ah" Harry points at me cutting me off before I can even start speaking, "before you yell at me, we agreed to play cupid and Niall and Maya are now going to be alone in the car together"
Damn it, he has a point. I just glare at him crossing my arms in defeat. He's right but it doesn't make the potential awkwardness of this car ride any less dreadful.
Harry seems to be awaiting a response from me
I sigh looking away, "You're right"
"I know" Harry says, and I can hear the pride in his voice. My glare returns to my face looking at him once again.
"Harry" I say monotone, trying to keep my composure.
"hmm?" He says with that stupid smirk still present on his face.
"I'll call myself an uber right now" I warn, raising an eyebrow at him.
The smirk immediately falls from his face and he clears his throat, "Let's get you home" Harry motions his head towards the door and I nod with a mocking smile. Following him to the parking lot and to his car.
Once I gave Harry my address we begin driving in silence. I already cannot wait for this car ride to be over, but unfortunately I live about 20 minutes away from this bar.
I have settled on just staring forward and avoiding looking at him, basically I'm pretending that he isn't there. I'll just act like he is just my uber driver tonight. But that plan is ruined when Harry decides to break the silence,
"This would be the perfect time to talk ab-"
"I wonder what's playing on the radio" I interrupt, quickly turning it on and cranking up the volume.
"Pursuit of Happiness" begins blasting through the speakers of the car, "I love this song" I yell over the music.
Harry's seems to snap out of his stunned state and reaches out to turn the volume down going to open his mouth to speak but before he can get any words out I reach out and turn the volume back up.
"Darlene" Harry yells over the music and I can hear the annoyed tone laced in his voice,
"What??" I yell, "I can't hear you, just enjoy the music" I say acting confused and going to look forward again.
I see Harry reach forward to turn the volume down again out of the corner of my eye and I quickly go to turn it back up but his hand catches my wrist when I'm inches away from the dial.
"Don't even think about it" Harry says guiding my hand back to my side.
I just smile at him acting innocent.
"We can change the station if you don't like the song, I'm not picky" I say shrugging.
I just need to keep him off the subject of what happened last night for the remaining 15 minutes of this car ride.
"No, you have lost radio privileges" Harry says pointing at me with a serious tone.
"That's no fair" I say pouting.
But when I turn to look at Harry I see a warning glare on his face and suddenly I decide to just shut the fuck up. I just snap my head forward once again, why the hell is he so intimidating?
"Darlene" Harry says in a stern voice.
"Harry" I say back in a hesitant tone continuing to stare forward, Harry has never yelled at me out of anger and I am actually kind of scared he is about to lose his shit. Maybe I took it a little too far, but I already told him I didn't want to have this conversation.
"We are going to talk about what happened last night because we are mature adults" Harry states in a concerningly calm voice, so calm that I just know he's two seconds away from snapping. "Do you think you can handle that?" He says in a mocking tone giving me a mocking smile.
I glare at him, I don't care how mad he is I fucking dare him to push my buttons. Suddenly my fear is replaced with anger. Fine, Harry is you wanna have this conversation while I'm angry so be it.
"Can you handle that Darlene?" Harry repeats himself again with more anger from my lack of response.
"Fine, you wanna have this conversation right now, go for it" I say letting out a laugh in disbelief. Crossing my arms over my chest and looking forward.
Harry lets out a defeated sigh, "Look, the sooner we talk about it the better" Harry says and I can hear the anger begin to leave his voice, "There's no point in dragging it out"
I sigh, I hate that he's right. That's the second time tonight. Though it would be much easier to stay mad at him, I understand his frustration with me. It is kind of selfish of me to avoid the conversation, the situation isn't just about me.
"You're right" I say taking a deep breath and turning to look at him, feeling a bit guilty.
Harry nods his head at me in understanding, turning to look towards the road again.
I bite my lip nervously deciding to be the one to start this conversation, "I just want to make this clear, what happened yesterday won't be happening again" I say.
It's not that I wouldn't want it to happen again because-well it was hot. But I know that it shouldn't happen again, I doubt anything good will come from this continuing. I'll just end up with my feelings hurt.
"If that's what you want" Harry nods his head to me, "but I'm not going to pretend that I didn't wish it would" Harry says and I can hear the disappointment buried in his tone, even though he attempts to hide it.
"It's not because I didn't enjoy it or anything" I say awkwardly, "Its just-" I struggle to find the right words, "It was great Harry, and honestly hot as fuck but it really shouldn't happen again because-" I pause again.
I'm really struggling here and I look to Harry with a desperate look trying to convey through my expression that I have no idea how to explain my reasoning.
"It was hot as fuck" Harry agrees and small smile gracing his face amused at my choice of words, "I am just grateful that it even got to happen once, I never thought I'd actually be able to get to-you know- I don't know exactly what changed you mind, but I am glad it happened." Harry says giving me a reassuring nod.
Fuck, why'd he have to be all cute about it. He is making this even harder too by being all adorable and understanding. What the fuck.
"I don't regret it happening Harry, I'm glad it did too" I say smiling at him.
"Good, as long as you don't regret it than I'm happy cause there's no way in hell I'd ever regret getting to share that with you" Harry says with a soft tone, glancing at me.
Fuuuuckkk. Can he stop being so fucking mature about it. I thought I was going to be just another achievement for him, maybe I reading this all wrong but I feel like he's not just having this conversation to make himself feel better. God he's so confusing, I can't let how he's acting now blind me from how he's acted with every other girls in past though.
I need this car ride to end before I do something I regret. This could be apart of his game, I have no idea. Fuck I'm so confused right now.
"Darlene?" Harry says in a hesitant voice.
"Yeah" I answer back
"Would you consider at least being friends? I hate the idea of you going back to hating me" Harry says with an out of character shyness in his voice.
"I don't hate you Harry, and we can be friends. Besides we still need to play cupid to get Niall and Maya together" I smile at him.
God-fuck, take a shot everytime I said he's being adorable, but he's being adorable...again. The fact he's not trying to sway my choices and he wants to be my friend is making me want to take back everything I just said. I literally want to jump his bones right now because he is making my heart scream in my chest.
We pull up to my apartment building and Harry puts the car in park and turns to look at me with a soft smile on his face. A genuine smile, not his usual smirk. Don't kiss him. Don't kiss him. Don't kiss him.
"Definitely" Harry responds to my previous statement. Fuck I need to get out of this car but I swear to god I'm frozen staring at his face.
"Definitely" I repeat what he says in a whisper while I take in his appearance.
I analyze it, his jawline, his messy yet perfect curly hair, his green eyes, his stupid cute dimples that faintly rest on his face from the soft smile he's still giving me. God I knew he was hot but staring at him right now I find him also adorable.
My eyes betray me when they trail down to his lips and before I know it I'm grabbing the front of his shirt in my hand and tugging him closer to connect our lips. Harry seems shocked for a moment but his lips begin to move with mine after a second.
Harry kisses me back with the same urgency, and I can just tell he was craving this just as much as I was.
Harry's hand reaches over the center console to rest in my hair, pushing my lips against his more. I kiss him desperately my hand still bunching up the fabric of his shirt. My mind goes blank, completely consumed by the relief I feel from his lips on mine. The way that they feel so soft despite the desperation he's kissing me with. The way I can taste the remnants of the alcohol he drank tonight on his lips. I have never kissed someone with so much desperation before, I swear it was as if I couldn't bear another second of not having his lips on mine.
I like the feeling, in fact I think I may have just become addicted. As the thought crosses my mind I slowly snap back to reality and realize what the hell I've just done. I pull away from him slowly and out of breath before squeezing my eyes shut, looking down and hiding my face from him. I can hear his heavy breathing too.
I let go of his shirt and sit up, completely avoiding eye contact with him.
"Thanks for driving me home, uh-I should go" I say opening the door and getting out of the car. I hurriedly walk into my apartment building my mind still in a daze and reeling from what the fuck I just did.
I literally just told him that nothing would happen again, I agreed to be just friends, and then I fucking kissed him. I'm a dumbass, but he must be way more confused than I am right now.
Apparently I also have a habit of just leaving him immediately after, which is not helping the situation at all.
As I go up in the elevator I begin to feel nauseous from stress and because basically all the progress from tonight is now completely gone and I know that we are going to most likely have to have another conversation. Fuck, I did this to myself but I am now even more confused by my feelings than I was before tonight.
Once entering my apartment I immediately begin getting ready for bed, I need to sleep away my problems right now. But just as I'm about to change into my pajamas my phone rings.
My stomach drops for a second before I realize there is no way that it can be Harry because he doesn't even have my number. Taking a comforting deep breath I reach out for my phone and see that Maya is calling. I answer and am immediately met with her voice,
"Darlene May you have some explaining to do" She says, and I can hear the joy in her voice.
"Actually, Maya Carter, you have some explaining do" I say back in a stern tone but before she can answer I continue, "I know you weren't sick yesterday and you purposely asked Harry to cover you, don't even try to act innocent"
"I don't know what you're talking about" She says in faux confusion.
"Maya" I sigh, "Why did you do that? You know how mad I got at Niall for it" I say upset.
She sighs too, dropping her innocent act, "Look, I just wanted to give you the chance to talk to him since you agreed you'd be nicer to him" She says.
"That wasn't your choice to make for me Maya, plus I had already agreed to the bar that was our deal" I say rubbing my forehead in stress.
"Well when you put it like that, now I feel like an ass" Maya says sounding regretful.
"Just don't do it again okay? I mean it" I say sternly.
"I promise" Maya states, she pauses for a second, "but you two totally fucked yesterday didn't you" she adds the same joy creeping back to her voice.
"Maya" I say in shock.
"Does that mean yes" She squeals in excitement.
"I didn't say that at all" I say quickly my stress building. God damn it I knew she'd find out but I didn't think she'd figure it out this fast.
"You didn't have to, I knew it, I knew it- I could tell at the bar bec-" She begins to ramble,
"How did your car ride with Niall go?" I interrupt changing the subject.
"How did your car ride with Harry go?" She questions me back with an accusing tone.
"Fine, actually we just listened to the radio" I say back "a-matter-of-factly".
"You listened to the radio while you made out or-" She accuses.
"I will not let you accuse me of such things, I am going to sleep now goodnight Maya" I say before ending the call quickly.
Well, if I didn't have enough things to worry about with Harry, now I get to worry about Maya drilling me with questions about him.
What the hell am I going to do now?
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A/N: Ooop. Are y'all just as confused as Darlene?? These two suck at figuring out THEIR OWN FEELINGS. Where do you think this leaves them now?