We both sat there in each other's arms for another good two minutes. Then he got a phone call from Niall, telling him to do something. I had gone to Harlow's immediately after. He just said bye to me and didn't say anything after that the next morning. Weirdly. No texts, no phone calls, no unannounced visits, no voice mails, nothing. I didn't miss him of course. I still can't look at him for more than 10 seconds without wanting to punch his teeth out, but otherwise, I'm doing better.
That was definitely an eventful Friday. But my weekend however, has been the most normal it gets. Harlow and I visited Mr Jane the morning after Friday night. He was fine, but the police said this wasn't just a random attack. This was targeted. To hurt someone that Mr Jane cares about. I don't really know, I haven't given it much thought. I was mainly just consoling Harlow and hanging out with her because she was scared someone was going to target me after what happened with Alex. I have no clue what happened with him or where he went. I asked Harry what he did with him, and he just said, "He was taken care of." Whatever the hell that means. I really don't give a flying fuck what happens to him because I haven't been able to sleep at night because of him. His image sitting by my bed just reappears every time I close my eyes.
"I'm just so thankful for Niall through all this." Harlow says while we ignore the movie playing on TV. We're sitting with a bunch of candy and ice cream while we sit and talk about everything.
"He was the one who stayed with me while all of this shit was happening to you. By the way, about that. I'm sorry." She breaks a gummy worm in half, one half sitting in between her pointer finger and thumb, and the other in between her teeth.
"Sorry? Why are you sorry?"
"Well, because I was just sitting here while that bastard was assaulting you," I can tell she feels really bad. She partially has a reason to feel guilty, but none of it was her fault.
"Absolutely not. If fact you were the one who stayed with me through all my mom's stuff. You were just doing everyday things. You couldn't have known," I pause to gulp then resume. "Anyways Harry was there with me."
"Yeah, how's it going with him? I can tell he makes you feel... what's the word? Safe."
I snort. Harry? Make me feel safe. Quite frankly it's the opposite. He makes me feel like knives are pointing at me from every direction.
"Not sure that's the word." I smile while raising my eyebrows, looking back into my ice cream tub.
Both our heads whip behind us when her doorbell rings. I continue munching on my ice cream while Harlow gets the door. A familiar scent fills up her tiny living room as she opens the door. I turn my head to watch who comes in. My eyebrows raise again when I see.
George, Harry, and Niall stand right in front of the front door.
"Well that's an interesting group of people." I say while still processing it.
Niall snickers while giving Harlow a peck on the lips. Harry just stares at me, not breaking eye contact. And George just waits for Harry to stop whatever he's doing so he can talk to me. He looks like he has a lot on his mind. Like he's under stress.
I snap out of it and signal to Harlow with my eyes once they all get busy with their own things. Harry is retying his shoes, George is judgmentally watching him do so, and Niall is helping himself to some soda in the kitchen.
'What are they doing here?' I mouth to her.
'I invited Niall and Harry, I don't know about George.' She uses all kinds of gestures to get her point across to me.
I form my lips into a line, accidentally matching my gaze with Harry's. I look away at the TV, pretending I'm watching. I can feel his eyes lingering on my neck. Shivers travel from my shoulders to my spine just to the thought of him staring at me. Still hate you Harry. 2 nights ago didn't change anything.
My body immediately turns to my side when I feel the couch sink and then rise again. George takes a seat next to me and hesitantly keeps his eyes on me. He's unsure if I would be comfortable with this. Well there's the distinct difference between Harry and George.
Suddenly, his sweet voice speaks. "Noelle," He hesitates, then resumes. "Can we please talk?"
I ignore his question for a reason, rotating my head to see what Harry was doing. He was quite obviously listening to our conversation even though half his body was faced towards Harlow and Niall.
"Yeah of course." I turn back, gently smiling at him.
We both stand up, his hand unknowingly taking mine. We both walk hand-in-hand to my room. Once we reach inside, he leaves the door open ajar.
"I heard everything that happened. I'm just- I'm just sorry. That I wasn't there. I'm terrible I know, I just- I'm so sorry Noelle," Tears start welling up in his eyes.
I quickly embrace him, tightly giving him a squeeze. "George you didn't know. It's okay I-"
"No it's not okay. I'm your boyfriend. I mean- well. I was. I should've been there. And I wasn't. God I'm so selfish Noelle." He continues hugging me firmly, not letting me go. He genuinely seems sorry.
But where was he? It doesn't seem like George at all to leave me alone during something like that. He's hiding something.
"But where were you?" I say as I let my chin off of his shoulder. Our hands are still holding each other.
He looks at me like he's gonna get smacked if he tells me. He's silent for another moment, but then he speaks. "I was-"
He's cut off by his phone ringing unnecessarily loud in his pocket. His jeans literally look like they're shaking. I look at him, waiting for an answer, but he tucks his lips inside his mouth anxiously looking at his phone.
"I'm sorry I have to go."
"But-"
He cuts me off my pressing his lips to mine. The kiss is quick, it's not meant to be passionate. It's more like a goodbye kiss. I furrow my eyebrows as he rushes out the door. I jog out the same way, trying to catch him before he leaves, but he has already dashed out the front door.
Harlow looks at me confused. I'm just as confused as her.
I have no clue what's up with him. He's never acted like this. He doesn't seem in a rush to go somewhere. There's a difference. He seemed frantic. Like he's being held at gunpoint or something. It wasn't even that serious, I just wanted to know where he's been. There's something else definitely going on.
I blink a few times to escape my thoughts. My eyes unknowingly dart to Harry. He has definitely made himself comfortable on Harlow's couch. He's eating the tub of ice cream with the spoon I was using, and he's peacefully watching the random movie we played.
I attempt to walk past him, but he grabs my wrist before I can get away.
"Sit with me méchante fille."
I widen my eyes and quickly spit out, "I'm good thanks."
I successfully make it past the couch and into the kitchen. It wasn't that hard to begin with. Harlow's apartment is only like 400 square feet. Her kitchen is only a few feet away from her living room. I stop in my tracks when I notice that Harlow and Niall are making out against the stove.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would rather sit and watch a movie with Harry.
I spin on my heels, quickly going back to sit with Harry. I must be out of my mind to do this. I hate him so much. But I would rather sit through that than listen to the smacking of Harlow and Niall's lips.
Harry took my spot, so I sit on the opposite side of the couch and actually start paying attention to the movie. It's not bad. I'm pretty sure I've watched this movie before. I just forgot the name. It was called wallflower or something. I watched it with my mom a few years ago I think.
I notice Niall and Harlow quickly rushing to her bedroom, giggling like little girls. I can see the tinted lip balm Harlow had on before is now all over her face. And his.
Harlow is really happy with him. I can tell. Even though I know what kind of person he is and what he's capable of, he cares about her too. Just the way they look at each other. They've known each other for about a month and the way their eyes light up when they see each other. I thought that was something you only see in books and movies. I could never picture myself loving someone like that. Or someone loving me like that. I'm not an easy person to love. Because there's always something wrong with me or another.
"Why would she go and talk to him?" Harry's voice breaks all my built-up line of thinking.
"What?" Is all that comes out of my mouth. Cause I don't even know what's happening in the movie. I wasn't paying attention.
"Who would go and talk to someone who constantly blends in? He's so quiet and shy, only a fool would go and reach out to someone like that."
It just clicks me that the movie that's on right now is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It was my mom's favorite.
"Well she's just as lonely as he is on the inside. She just doesn't show anyone." I explain while he intently watches the screen.
He sighs, repositioning himself. "How do you know that?"
Jeez. He really wants to know a lot about this movie just by sitting here for five minutes watching it.
"Cause I've watched this movie so many times with my mom. It was her favorite. I could probably recite this whole thing if I wanted to." I force a laugh at the end of my sentence, also now paying attention to the movie like him.
He doesn't say anything and continues watching the movie. He drives me insane. I hope one day he knows that. I can't explain how I feel around him. It's like pure and utter hate, but then it's also a sense of comfort. One that no one else gives. It's crazy because he's practically a murderer. Well technically he never murdered anyone, it was self defense. But still, he shot two dudes in the damn center of their chests.
Harlow's voice interrupts my train of thought. "You guys are adorable. Sitting here and watching a movie."
"Harlow." I say with a stern voice while eyeing her very seriously. I don't care what I think to myself, Harry is still a fucking stalker and practically a murderer.
Harlow smiles to herself as she takes a seat between me and Harry. Not like there isn't room. I would gladly scoot to the other side of the couch but I felt bad. Niall peacefully sits down in the singular chair diagonal to the couch we three are sitting on.
Harry realizes this is getting a bit weird. I can see that he's feeling just as uncomfortable sitting this squished together with Harlow as I am. Harlow looks over at me and he takes this golden opportunity to get up and sit on the other singular chair across Niall.
"Dad is sleeping over at the Singhs for tonight and then he'll be back with me again finally." She throws her arm around the couch cushion behind me so her arm is resting against my head.
The Singhs have been the Jane family's friends for all of Harlow's life. I even remember playing with their daughter Millie when we were younger. They've entrusted that family with everything after Harlow's parents divorced. They literally have Mr Jane's other emergency house key other than me. Millie and her parents have done so much for Harlow and Mr Jane.
"He refuses to sleep at his own place until that bastard who knocked him out is found." She scoffs at the end of her sentence while focusing her eyes on the screen.
"I'm just glad he's okay." I eye Harry for a moment then intertwine my fingers in my messy curls.
Okay I'm not entirely sure if Harry knocked Mr Jane out, because recent events lead me to think otherwise. But it's just too tricky to trust Harry. He could've just been found in the wrong place at the wrong time, or he really did betray me like that. Not that I wouldn't put it past him, let's not forget he shot two people in the chest, stalked me, then tried to trap me at the police station. So I'm not really rooting for him either.
The doorbell rings and almost all of us jump a little. It's been quiet for a minute so we didn't really expect anything.
"Food's here." Harlow almost gets up but I tap her on the head to let her know I've got it.
I walk past the couch to the tiny door. I turn the knob and expect a person. But there's no one there. Just a brown box on the doormat. What did she even order? Usually the Chinese food person hand delivers it. The box looks familiar. I feel like I've seen it someplace but not too recently. I furrow my brows, picking up the box.
It rests in my hands for a moment before I use one hand to pop the flap open. It's not sealed or anything. What terrible takeout packaging. I open the other flap and immediately drop the box to my feet when I see the contents inside.
I gasp, my hand flying to my chest.
"Harry." I unknowingly blurt his name.
A skull.
//
i know a lot of things don't make sense right now, but they will later on in the story. vote and comment pleaseeeee!