Chapter Two:
The next day I woke up and couldn't take my mind off the dream. What could it mean? I thought to myself. My dreams always meant something to me, like a foreshadowing. I understand what the voice behind me meant, but what did it have to do with Harry and why was he telling me that my demons would find me?
I shook it out of my mind and got dressed for the day. Back into the same boring shit, I thought to myself. As I slipped into my black school top and plaid skirt, my phone vibrated.
Just wanted to make sure you were up! See you at school! -Mary Elise
I smiled, set my phone back down on my bed and made my way downstairs. I went straight for the fridge and started to make my daily breakfast: a acai berry smoothie and a hard boiled egg. I was drinking the smoothie as the water started to boil when I heard my father's footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Hey Bethany," he said as he walked past me to get the coffeemaker started.
"Hey, Dad," I replied as the water started to boil.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked as he put the coffee grounds in the filter. The aroma of the coffee made me want to get a cup of it myself.
"Ehh. I had a nightmare," I said. "Can I have a cup of your coffee?"
"Sure. I'm sorry you had a nightmare. Was it bad?"
"Not really," I lied. It terrified me. "It just freaked me out."
"Oh," he said. While the water was still boiling, I decided to go upstairs and grab my phone. As I walked upstairs, I kept thinking about the dream. It still was unclear to me on why Harry was in my dream.
What could he have to do with my life? He's just a kid in my Anatomy class. Nothing important.
I opened the door to my room and walked over to my back pack. I found my iPhone in my pencil bag and started to flip through my artists. I selected Blood On The Dance Floor and started to play their Bad Blood album on shuffle. I put one headphone in my ear and went back downstairs.
When I returned, the water was furiously boiling. I went into the fridge, selected my egg, and gently set it in the water. My father was sitting down at the small table reading his paper and drinking his coffee. My cup of coffee was across from him on the other side of the table. I sat myself down and started to sip my coffee. It was black coffee with a little bit of french vanilla creamer in it.
We sat there in silence as we drank our coffee. He read his paper, I listened to the lyrics of Mourning Star.
I know I'll never be alone, I'll always keep you in this song, No matter where I go, You'll still be with me when you're gone.
For me, music was always a release. I could listen to it and always pour my soul into a song. When I listen to a song, I always think of all the different interpretations for the lyrics. One meaning of Mourning Star could be a breakup or losing someone to death. For me, the way I interpret it is the loss of someone's true self.
I must have been getting engrossed into the music because my father smacked me with the paper to get my attention. I ripped the other headphone out and asked what the hit was for.
"Look at the time," he said gesturing towards the clock above the stove. It read eight thirty, time for me to go to school. That's the thing I like about Bridgewood, school starts at nine thirty. I shut the stove off and threw the egg in the garbage. What a waste.
We drove for a half hour to Bridgewood and kept our speaking to a minimum. My father and I were alike in so many ways: our looks, our sense of humor, and our personalities. We both don't talk much and we are okay with being by ourselves, just as long as we have a good book to read.
My father dropped me off and I found Mary Elise, Lydia and Charlene waiting for me out front. We had a good half hour to kill so we spent it organizing my locker. My locker number was 871 and absolutely empty. It looked like no one had used this locker in forty years. It was dusty on the top shelf and dusty on the bottom.
Mary Elise was disgusted by the sight, but I didn't pay too much mind to it. It was just dust, not a spider horde. I hung my backpack up on the rack and fished out my Anatomy book and pencil bag. I shut my locker and took at good look on the outside. The locker had been painted over to a dark blue color. The paint had started to chip off by the vents and the corners allowing me to see the previous color: green.
I turned around and looked at the girls. They were chittering about something, but I didn't pay close enough attention to find out what. I looked back at the clock in the middle of the hallway, nine twenty.
"I'm going to go to my Anatomy class," I announced to my gossipy friends. We all said goodbye and parted ways. I walked into my Anatomy class expecting Harry to be glaring at me again, but he didn't. He looked at me with a small smile and those blue green eyes. I smiled slightly back at him and combed my hand through my black hair and walked to my seat.
"Hey," Harry said softly. I gave a half hearted wave to show that I acknowledged his presence. I opened my Anatomy book to the page where we left off and started to read the next chapter. I was halfway down the first page when I saw Harry tap on my book.
"You know, you don't need to read ahead yet. Professor Jergins is going to go over the questions and give a lecture about it today," he said in the same soft tone.
"Well I like to get a head start in my classes," I say.
"I can see that," he remarked. "So I take it you were a straight A student in America?"
"Yes and I would like to keep my straight A streak going," I snap. This kid was really starting to annoy me. After what Lydia told me, I chose not to trust this kid. There was something about him that triggered my mind to call him dangerous. Was it the fact he was covered in tattoos and scowled at me?
"Me too, never gotten anything lower than an A- in my lifetime," he said leaning back in his chair. He had the front two ends of his chair in the air and was using his knees under the desk to hold him in place.
"Your parents must be proud," I said looking back into my textbook.
"Yep," he said "They were"
"Were?" I asked looking at him. He was looking straight forward. He took his right hand and raked it through his burly brown hair. He looked at me with dead serious eyes.
"They died a long time ago," he said. Way to go, B.
"Shit, I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to bring it up," I said turning my body to him.
"It's ok," he said. "It was a long time ago."
I had never felt a guilt like this before. He looked away from me and opened his text book. He began to read silently to himself while I sat feeling like a bitch. I turned to face my book and continue to read my text book.
We didn't speak until halfway through the class period. The whole time all I could think about is how he lost his parents and I was the stupid bitch who brought it up. When class was half way over, he passed me a note.
I can tell you feel bad for bringing my parents' death up. Don't. I'm not mad or hurt or anything.
I looked at him and almost started to whisper my response. He cut me off before I could and tapped the paper, motioning for me to write it out. I sighed and began to write.
I still feel bad for bringing it up. Can I make it up to you?
I passd the paper back to him and watched him read it. He smirked a little bit when he finished it. He quickly scribbled something and then passed it back to me. I opened it and started to laugh a little bit.
Sure, me and you going out tonight.
I looked at him kicked him in the shin. He let out a sharp gasp and grabbed his shin. He loooked at me and mouthed "Ow!" and started to silently chuckle. That's when I noticed something about his teeth: they were remarkably white and sharp. I must have been staring because he started to ask what I was looking at. I realized what I was doing and played it off by motioning that I was writing it down.
I just noticed that your teeth are really white and sharp. Do you whiten them or something?
He read the note and then scribbled something on the paper in his messy handwriting.
Yeah, my teeth have always been sharp and I have an obsession with keeping them white. So, would you like to go out tonight or what?
I pondered this for a moment and then finally gave him my answer.
I stood on the corner of the street outside the restaurant waiting for Harry to show up. I looked at my cell phone to check the time: six forty five. I sighed and put my cell phone back in my trench coat pocket and continued to wait. The cold February air was chilling my bones and making my teeth chatter.
You'd think since I had just moved from an Iowa winter to an England winter I wouldn't get chilled as easily, but I do. I always get chilled towards the end of winter. The freezing temperatures weren't the parts that made me get cold, it was the adjustment from -30 to 30 degrees again.
I stood outside another five minutes waiting when I started to think that what Lydia said was right. Maybe he really was a backstabbing tosser, I thought to myself. I couldn't stand waiting outside anymore, so I went inside to the restaurant. I decided to get myself a booth by the window so Harry could see me if he showed up.
"Hi, my name's Lily and I'll be your waitress this evening," said the blonde girl who led me to the booth. She wore her uniform with no cami underneath so her cleavage was more noticeable. "Can I get you started with anything?"
"No, I'm just waiting for someone," I replied. "When he shows up, I'll order then"
She nodded and went away without another word.
Another five minutes passed and I was starting to lose hope. The waitress named Lily came back a few times and asked if I needed anything. My answer always stayed the same.
"Not yet, thank you though"
Her response was always the same too, a smile and then walking away to the next customer. I pulled out my cell phone and looked at my messages. No new messages. I sighed and looked out the window again. Still no Harry. I decided to look through our messages from earlier today to kill some time.
3:15 Hey, it's Harry
Hi. What's up?
Oh not much, just thinking about where we should eat tonight :)
Um, there's a small restaurant outside my town if you wanna meet there?
Sounds great. What's it called?
The Lone Pub. It a weird name, I know. The food is good though.
Whatever works for you will work for me :)
Six forty five?
Sounds perfect. See you then :)
I remember setting my phone down on my bed and thinking about how much of a weirdo he is. A very handsome weirdo, I thought to myself. I quickly shook that thought out of my head. I couldn't let this kid get to me in any way, positive or negative. I had to focus on school.
I almost decided to call it quits when he finally showed up around seven. He was wearing a dark trench coat like mine and his dark curly hair was pushed towards his face because of the wind gusts coming at him. The black scarf around his neck was the only thing not blowing in the wind because of the fact it was tucked into his coat.
When he entered the restaurant, he hung his coat up on the coat rack and asked Lily the waitress if he had seen me. She pointed at me and showed him to where I was sitting. As soon as Harry sat down in the booth across from me, Lily started in on giving us our menus and getting us our drinks. I ordered a water, Harry ordered the same.
"So you're extremely late AND a copy cat?" I said looking at my menu.
"I know, it's the combination that every pretty girl wants in a man," he said with his crooked smirk on his face. I looked back up at him and got a good look at him. His long brown hair framed his face perfectly, his blue green eyes were stunningly gorgeous, he had a cute nose and perfect lips for a guy. He was very well put together.
"Totally," I replied. "You ready to order?"
"Oh, I'm not all that hungry. You go ahead and order," he said setting the menu down at the end of the table. I looked at him with disbelief.
"What?" he asked smiling showing all teeth. They were still as blindingly white and sharp as ever.
"You don't eat?" I asked. He hadn't eaten all day. I remember him coming over and sitting next to me and my friends at lunch today. He didn't touch a single thing on his plate the whole time we were there. He just talked and listened.
"No, not this stuff. Too many calories," he replied. I nodded and started to look for the healthiest thing on the menu. Caesar Salad sounds ok, I guess, I thought to myself. When Lily came back again, I ordered my salad and called it good. She seemed to be really into Harry.
"Are you sure I can't get you anything? We have great specials today," she said leaning on the table to show some of her cleavage. I was appalled that she would even try to do something like this.
"No, no thank you," he said making eye contact with her. She seemed to get the message that he wasn't interested and then walked away. I looked at him and mouthed "Oh my god!" and he started laughing.
"Easy much?" he replied through his laughs. He had such a beautiful laugh, soft and smooth like velvet.
"And I thought us Americans were easy," I said smiling. We continued to talk about America after that. He wanted to know what it was like growing up in a small town. To my surprise, he wasn't bored when I told him about living in a town surrounded by corn and soy beans. I found out that he had grown up in London and had never even been to the countryside until he moved to Cheshire.
He was very open with his life. He told me about the dark times in his life and how he became who he was today. When he was eleven, his family got sick and passed away. It started with his sister and then took his parents two months later. He lived with his grandparents until he was seventeen. While he was living with them, he started to get into some trouble. He wouldn't tell me what.
"Enough about me, what's your story?" he said placing his palms on the table. This is when I noticed his tattoos all over his left arm. They intrigued me, starting from his wrist and moving up to his bicep. His black short sleeved shirt cut the tattoos off so I couldn't see all of them. He saw me looking at them and smiled.
"Yeah, I know I've got alot," he said running his right hand along his tattoos.
"I like them. What do they mean?" I asked. He told me they all meant something personal. I got the memo he didn't want to talk about it so I started to talk about myself. I wasn't going to go into as much detail as he did, but I told him some stuff. I told him about my stunt that landed me here and my parents divorce. Thankfully they were long stories.
"So, your stepfather pretty much threw you out for smoking a joint?" he asked when I was finished.
"Not exactly. It was also my choice to leave too," I replied.
"Ah. May I ask why?" he asked. I started to open my mouth to answer when Lily, thankfully, came over with my salad.
"One Caesar salad," she said setting the plate down. She made zero eye contact with Harry. She simply asked if I needed anything and then left when I didn't. I looked at Harry when she left and burst out laughing. He laughed along with me.
"She didn't even bother looking at you," I said when I regained my composure.
"I know," he said as he nodded. The rest of the night went along smoothly and the personal stuff didn't come up again. We ended up talking about books and Shakespeare. He turned out to be very passionate about Romeo and Juliet and F. Scott Fitzgereld's Great Gatsby. He could go on for ages about Daisy Buchanan and his hate for her. I tried keeping a straight face through his five minute rant and failed miserably.
When Lily returned with my check, Harry picked it up before I could take it from her hand.
"I'm being a gentleman," he said when I looked at him with my mouth open. "Deal with it"
He gave me a quick smile to assure me that he didn't mean anything negative by the comment and then took his wallet out and paid. Lily thanked him and then left with pink cheeks without another word, obviously still embarrassed. Harry and I got out of our booth and made our way to the coat rack. Being a gentleman, he helped me into my trench coat. He smiled at me while he slipped into his and then held the door open for me.
We were welcomed by a strong gust of cold February air that immediately made me feel like I was in Iowa again. The winds in Iowa were always super strong and super cold during winter, especially when there were no trees to block the wind out. I tried to bury my face in my coat as best as I could because of my teeth chattering. No matter how cold I got, even if it was a small chill, my teeth always chattered.
Harry must have heard my teeth chattering because he gave me his scarf and offered to give me a ride home. I looked at him and couldn't believe what I was seeing. This kid who had been glaring at me the first time he saw me was now paying for my dinner and now offering to give me a ride home. I remembered what Lydia had told me about him backstabbing the people he was nice to and decided I should probably prepare myself for the glaring Harry again tomorrow.
I nodded in acceptance and followed him to his car. He drove a 2009 silver Hyundai Sonata that was all decked out with black on the inside. All the car seats were protected with black covers and his floor mats were black and silver. He turned on the car and cranked the heat up to high. While the car was warming up, he asked if I had any music preferences. I asked if he had Def Leppard and without another word, he inserted the Hysteria album into his stereo system.
I looked at him in disbelief that he had actually heard of Def Leppard. He didn't look like the kind of boy to be into rock music.
"You continue to surprise me, Mr. Styles," I said to him. "I never pictured you as a rocker."
"One of my many talents is the element of surprise, Ms. Thompson," he said as we pulled out of the parking lot. "Which way to your house?"
"I'm a half hour going south out of town and on the right side of the street."
As we listened to the album, I couldn't help but sing along to Love Bites. I looked out the corner of my eye and saw him smile a little bit. Man he smiles a lot, I thought. I had never met someone who is practically always smiling around me other than my family. It was kind of unusual to experience it.
When Pour Some Sugar On Me came on next, Harry cranked the volume up and started to jam out with me. It was no surprise to me that he could sing as well as he did, despite the purposely hit wrong notes. Every time his smooth voice cracked, I couldn't help but giggle.
As the next track began, I pointed Harry to my driveway. As he pulled in, he turned the music down. He parked next to my garage and then looked at me.
"I had a really great time tonight, Bethany," he said.
"I did too," I said smiling a little bit. "Thanks for having me make it up to you."
He smiled and replied with a "No problem." and then asked if we could hang out again. I nodded and then unravelled his scarf from my neck.
"You might want this back," I said handing it over. "It's cold outside."
"Keep it," he said pushing it back towards me. "You need it more than I do."
I smiled and then realized that he hadn't taken his hands off mine. The only thing separating our hands was his soft, black scarf. I looked into his eyes and saw they were filled with desire. That's when I realized he was starting to lean in for a kiss.
I took the scarf, thanked him for everything, and then got out of the car. I looked back at him in the driver's seat as I walked toward the front door. He had a look of confusion and hurt on his face. I couldn't look at him any longer and then entered my house.
My father was sitting on the couch watching the television and drinking a beer.
"Hey," he called from the couch.
"Hi," I replied as I walked into the kitchen for a drink.
"Did you have fun tonight?" he asked. I opened the fridge and grabbed the carton of almond milk and took a few quick gulps.
"Yeah, I'm pretty tired though. I'm going to bed" I said. He told me goodnight and then I hurried up the stairs. I opened my door and then threw myself on my bed.
All I could think about was the look on his face when I left so abruptly. He probably wouldn't want to talk to me tomorrow and if he did, it would be an awkward conversation. If only I could tell him why I didn't kiss him. Then again, it wouldn't be a good idea to tell him. He would probably use that against me if things went south in this thing we had.
I decided to get up and get dressed for bed. I threw my coat down on my chair in front of my vanity and slipped out of my tee shirt and jeans and into my black tank top and fuzzy guitar pajama bottoms. I threw my hair up into a loose ponytail and then climbed back into bed. My phone buzzed just as I started to throw my decorative pillows on the ground.
I got up and dug my phone out of my coat pocket and saw I had one new text.
1 New Message
I clicked open and saw it was from Harry.
Did I do something wrong?
I sighed and clicked my phone off. If only you knew. I set it down on my nightstand and then fell into a deep and nightmare filled sleep.