🚨🚨APRIL 7th !!!! 🚨🚨
I CAN'T WAIT.
Babe is actually treating me for my birthday this year🙃🙃
If the gif kills you as much as me than vote 😊
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We had sat there for the past three hours drawing on our canvases with barely a few words exchanged between the two of us. Harry seemed to have put a wall up and I found myself constantly scrutinizing him when he wasn't looking. He looked somber yet emotionless. Troubled, even. But I had no idea what the reason was for his change in mood and I was too afraid to ask him. He had been so nice to me the last few days I was scared if I said one wrong thing, it'd set him off.
Sighing tiredly, I pulled my hand away from my drawing and set the canvas aside before standing up. Harry didn't even look up at me when I did but I ignored it and went to my bag that rested on the floor next to the foot of the couch he currently sat on. Bending down, I dug inside it until I felt my phone and pulled it out. Pressing the home button, I found two missed calls from Louis and one text from Niall.
Niall: Hey mate, are you up for coming out with us tonight? You promised us you'd spend some time with us this weekend.
I mentally slapped myself for forgetting and pressed my lips together, stealing a glance at Harry who still was focused on his project. He mentioned getting dinner afterwards but with his mood, I was sure he was going to change his mind.
Me: Sure. What time and where at?
I waited until I received his reply with the address and time, glancing at the clock to see it was only fifteen minutes from now. Deciding I should probably start heading out then, I picked my bag up and slung it over my shoulder. When I stood up to my full height Harry had finally glanced at me, eyes darting to my bag on my shoulder. He stopped drawing and sat back. "Where are you going?"
"I'm actually meeting up with some friends in fifteen so I should probably start heading out." I said, walking back to where I had been sitting to pick up my canvas.
"What about our project?"
"I think I've gotten enough done today."
"Oh."
The tone of his voice caused me to pause and I looked at him to see his shoulders had sunk down. His eyes were focused on his drawing again but he was merely staring at it with a frown on his face and I felt bad. Maybe he really did still want to go get dinner together even if he wasn't in the best of moods.
"Uh," I cleared my throats and tucked my hair behind my ear. "Do you want to come with us?"
His head snapped up in surprise and his eyes widened. "What?"
"I asked if you wanted to come with us?"
"With you?" I nodded. "And your friends?" I nodded again and he pursed his lips. "I don't want to intrude."
"You're not, we're just getting dinner at some pizza parlor and that's it." I shrugged and gave him a small smile in encouragement. "Come on, it'll be fun."
"Are you sure you're okay with me coming?" He asked hesitantly, pinching his lip between his forefinger and thumb.
"We're friends, aren't we?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go." I told him and he briefly hesitated again before standing up, turning his canvas over before I could take a peek at it. We walked across the living room and I began to head towards the front door when Harry's hand tugging on my wrist stopped me. He jerked his thumb over the shoulder and pointed to the back door.
"We're going through the garage, I'll drive us there."
"You don't have to, it's not that far of a walk."
"Maybe not but are you going to lug your canvas around with you the entire time?"
He had a point.
Without saying anything in response, I turned and followed Harry to the back door. He locked it behind me once we were both out and lead the way through the garage, his hand digging into his pocket for his keys. The sound of his car unlocking drew my attention back to the sleek black Range Rover. Looking clean and freshly waxed, I was almost afraid to touch the doorknob in fear that I'd leave fingerprints. But that was short lived when Harry walked to my side first and opened my door for me. I halted.
He blinked at me and when all I did was stare at him in shock, he arched his eyebrow at me. "What?"
"You opened my door for me." I said slowly and he shrugged.
"Yeah? So what?" He rolled his eyes and beckoned me over with his free hand. "Just hurry up and get in."
A little irritated by the way he kept rudely waving me in, I narrowed my eyes at him and closed the distance between us. Passing him, I climbed into the passenger side before Harry shut the door behind me. Like last time, my gaze swept over the interior of the vehicle and my hand hovered over the dashboard. It was so nice.
"So I don't mean for this to come out rudely," I started once Harry had climbed into the car and closed the door behind him. "But are you rich?"
With one hand putting the key in the ignition and the other holding the steering wheel, he stole a quick glance at me and shook his head. "No. But my dad is."
"Isn't it the same thing? I mean he's your family."
"It's his money." He stated as he backed out of the spot, eyes focused on the back window before he turned back around to face the front.
"So the car...?"
"Was a graduation present." He shared, pressing his lips together before taking another glance at me. He was quick to look away though and his green eyes focused back on the streets we were now driving through. "My dad likes to buy me shit. He thinks it'll make up for his lack of presence in my life."
"He tries to buy your love." I said in realization, feeling sad for Harry now that I got a little more information on his background.
He chuckled without humor and nodded. "Yep. I've learned to just accept the meaningless gifts even if they don't make up for anything."
"What about your mom?" I asked quietly and Harry's jaw clenched, lips clamping shut. He turned his head to the other side a little as if he didn't want me to his face. He had fallen silent again and I could actually feel him putting his wall back up. Just when we were getting somewhere...
"We're here." He spoke, ignoring my question as he pulled into a parking space in front of the pizza parlor. Sighing, I decided to drop the subject and looked through the windshield to see a large amount of people sitting at the booths near the windows. Taking off my seatbelt I then moved to open the car door, reaching for my bag before closing the door behind me. Harry was already waiting on the sidewalk for me and I walked up to him. We fell into step together once I reached him and though I was surprised again when he held the door open for me, I played it off as if I hadn't thought the gesture was nice.
My eyes darted around the parlor the moment we stepped in, the loud atmosphere filling my ears. Not seeing either Niall or Louis, I was about to look around again when a hand darted up into the air near the back before a head full of blonde hair poked up above the others. "Avriella! Over here!" Niall shouted and I smiled at him waving his arm back and forth crazily. He had to be kneeling up on a stool with how his head reached over the others.
"Come on." I told Harry, looking behind me to see him standing close to my back. It was pretty crowded in here and he kept getting shoved closer to me. I reached for his hand, wrapping my fingers around his and his eyes darted down to it. But before he could say anything, I pulled him along with me and threaded our way through the very little spaces between the table tops. Finally, we reached them and I released Harry's hand the moment we did only to be engulfed into a hug from Niall. He smelled like a mixture of beer and cologne.
"Avvvvvvv!" He dragged out and pulled back to look down at me with a wide smile. His eyes were a little red. "Soooo good to see you!"
Not even responding to him, I looked to Louis who was grinning in amusement. "Is he drunk?"
"Getting there." He laughed and shrugged. "The Irish."
"Ah. Yes. The Irish." I laughed and Louis stood up from the table to give me a quick hug. Niall chuckled, and slung his arm around my shoulder lazily before his gaze swept to the body that stood behind me.
"Who's this?" Niall asked with a grin, gaze darting from Harry back to me. "This your boyfriend?"
I almost choked on my own spit and I quickly shook my head, feeling my cheeks heat up in embarrassment. I prayed neither one of the three boys noticed. "Er, no. This is my friend, Harry."
"Ohh, friend. Okay." Niall wiggles his eyebrows and I refrained myself from smacking him in the face. With his arm that wasn't slung around me, he held a hand out to shake Harry's hand. Harry hesitantly shook his, green eyes moving back and forth between Niall and I. And I wasn't sure if it were my imagination but he seemed to have glared at the arm currently hanging on my shoulder. "I'm Niall."
"Hi, I'm Harry." Was his introduction before he dropped his hand and arched an eyebrow, pointedly glancing at Niall's arm around me again. "And you're...?"
"Oh," Niall laughed and pulled his arm off of me. "Her friend. She's all yours mate."
Harry's eyebrows pulled together but I noticed his cheeks tinge a light pink. "We're not-, she's my friend."
"Okay." He laughed again like he didn't believe either one of us and I rolled my eyes, shoving his shoulder in irritation. He just continued to chuckle and Louis shook his head, stepping up to shake Harry's hand as well.
"I'm Louis. Also her friend. But excuse Niall, he's an annoying drunk." Louis rolled his eyes and Harry laughed, while Niall gasped.
"I've got no idea what you're talking about, I'm the funnest of them all!"
"'Funnest' isn't a word," I corrected him, arching my eyebrow and smirking in amusement. "It's actually supposed to be 'most fun'."
"Oh who gives a bloody fuck." He scoffed and I laughed.
"I can see now why you suck at English." I tsked, patting his head and he shoved my hand away before plopping back down on a high stool. Struggling a little due to my short height, I moved to sit on the one beside him while Harry went to sit on the one beside Louis, leaving him to sit across from me. Niall reached for his half full beer and for a moment, I thought it would of been ridiculous if he was already getting drunk just by drinking half of that but then noticed the four other empty glasses sitting at the end of the table.
"Did you want anything to drink? I'll get you something, they don't really check IDs here." Louis asked and I shrugged.
"I guess one won't kill me. Sprite and Jameson please." I told him and he nodded.
"Did you want anything Harry?"
"Yeah, but I'll go with you. I don't mind getting it myself." He said and Louis nodded while Harry and him both slipped off their stools. Louis said something about being back and Harry briefly glanced at me before following after Louis. I watched his back as he retreated from the table, noticing I wasn't the only girl staring after him and for some reason that irked me.
"So what's the deal between you two?" Niall started the moment we were alone, placing his arms over the table top and leaning towards me excitedly.
"Who?"
He rolled his eyes. "You and Harry. You guys are dating, right?"
"No." I flushed and tucked my hair behind my ear. "We're friends."
"Riiiiight." He laughed. "I can literally feel the sexual tension between you guys. Have you ever had sex with him?"
"Niall!"
"What? It's a legitimate question." I shook my head and he 'booped' my nose. "Come on, I'm your friend. You can tell me."
"I don't kiss and tell."
"So you did have sex with him." He concluded, smiling mischievously when my eyes widened. "Your face says it all."
"Shut up." I mumbled, eyes darting back to the bar are where I could see the top of Harry's hair.
"We're just friends." I stated and looked back to Niall who was arching an eyebrow at me.
"Friends who fuck, am I right?" When I sighed and gave him a swift quick nod he grinned. "Knew it."
"We're just friends." I repeated and Niall nodded, taking another drink from his beer.
"Yeah yeah," he waved me off and put his glass back down before turning towards me, his face becoming serious. "Just be careful, alright? Pull yourself out before you start to get attached. These things don't always end well."
"I won't get attached." I insisted, but I wasn't sure if I was trying to convince him or myself. "He doesn't even like me like that."
Niall hummed. "If you say so." The way he said it made me want to slap him but I held back when I noticed Harry and Louis walking back to our table. Luckily, Niall saw as well and dropped the subject. I leant for arm on the table and happily took my drink from Louis when he got to the table, taking a sip from the straw. My eyes flickered to Harry as he rounded the table and slipped back on his stool, green eyes catching mine before he looked away. I watched him bring the glass of beer up to his mouth, throat bobbing as he swallowed and for the first time I noticed he had tiny moles on his neck. Don't get too attached, I reminded myself and forced myself to look away.
"So Harry," Niall started and perched his chin in the palm of his hand. "Do you got to our school?"
"Columbia? Yeah, I do." Harry nodded and Louis chimed in.
"What year are you?"
"I'm a third year student. What about you guys?"
"It's our second." Louis responded and Niall nodded along with him. "How long have you been living in America? Based off your accent you obviously aren't from around here."
"No I'm not," he laughed and circled his finger around the rim of his glass. "I moved here the summer going into my senior year of high school."
"Yeah? Why'd you move here?" Niall asked with mere interest and I leaned forward, waiting expectantly for his reply. I couldn't help it, I was just as curious about him and I was finding out more and more about him today.
"My parents wanted a change." He shrugged and kept his eyes on the table. "No grand reason."
"Hm," Niall nodded. "Well I'm from Ireland."
"I can tell." Harry laughed. "Your accent gives you away. Why did you move here?"
"College." He shrugged. "I've always wanted to move to the states so I took the opportunity to do so for school."
"Same with me," Louis said and jerked his head towards Niall. "Met this lad during orientation for the exchange students. He's been my best mate since then."
"You guys should meet my two friends sometime, they're both from the U.K. as well."
"Yeah? Where they from?"
"Both from England, just different parts. I actually met Liam my senior year, we went to the same high school and ended up applying for the same college as well. We met Zayn at orientation and by our sophomore year we put in a request to be roomed together when we moved from the dorms to the apartments."
"Nice," Niall interjected. "I've been tellin' Louis over here we should do that but we're having trouble finding a third roomie." He paused and then glanced at me. "Hey, what about you? Would you be interested to do that next year?"
"Me?" I looked between Niall and Louis and they nodded. "I'm living with Zen and the girls right now."
"Yeah, but what about next year? I mean aren't Zendaya and her friends juniors? They won't be in that apartment with you much longer and you can stay but you'll be forced to find new roomies."
"At least if you come with us, you'll actually know the people you're living with." Louis commented and I pursed my lips in thought.
"I don't know..." I mumbled and smiled sheepishly. "How about I decide when that bridge comes. I've just started living with Zendaya and the girls, let me see how that works out."
"God, I can't imagine living with three girls." Louis groaned. "There's both pros and cons to it."
"Don't you like, get your bras mixed up?" Niall asked curiously and I coughed on the sip of my drink I had tried to swallow down.
"No. We do have our own rooms, you know."
"Yeah but what about when you do laundry?" Louis asked and I paused, because they did have a point.
"I mean, yeah I guess. It happened to me once, Sam and I are the same size so." I shrugged.
"What is Sam's size?" Niall grinned and leant towards me. I rolled my eyes at him, knowing he was only asking because he had seen her with me one day in the halls at school and told me he thought she were 'fit'.
"You do know she has a boyfriend, right?"
"A guy can look." He said quickly and kept grinning. "So, what is it?"
"Why would I tell you that if telling you meant that'd you know mine?" I asked and shook my head. "What is it with guys and boobs anyways? They're literally two bags of fat."
"I don't know, I think it's just nature. Don't ask what it is we men find so arousing about it because I'm not actually sure." Louis responded thoughtfully.
"Who cares? They're nice to look at." Niall smirked and placed his chin on my shoulder. "Tell me the size Av."
"You are so annoying."
"Just tell me the size."
"No."
"Av."
"Niall."
"Tell me."
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Av."
"Niall."
"Jesus Christ, it's 34B."
My head whipped around to stare at Harry wide eyed, who was looking down at the table. He pressed his lips together as if he had just realized that he blurted out my bra size. I didn't even know he knew what it was, or that he had payed close enough attention to find it out. Not every time we had sex did my bra come off, but it for sure had the night I agreed to pursue this whole friend's with benefits thing. He had to have taken a look at my size the next morning when I'd been asleep.
Niall grinned mischievously, an amused glint in his eye when he looked between Harry and I. "Well, thanks for that Harry. I believe you."
"Wait why would Harry know that?" Louis asked, looking suspiciously between us and I wanted nothing more for the ground to swallow me up whole.
"It was just a guess," Harry said nonchalantly and shrugged. "I've seen a lot of tits. It's easy to estimate the size." Ouch.
"And you've seen Sam's?"
"No." He stated and his green eyes shifted back to me, before flickering down to my chest. "But it isn't hard to take a guess with Avriella. Judging from where I'm sitting that's what I'm guessing her size is."
"Wow," Louis laughed and my cheeks were burning hard. I couldn't tell whether it was out of embarrassment or anger. "We've got an expert here!"
Harry laughed when Louis clapped him on the back and I fell silent, avoiding Harry's eye when I felt him look back at me. I took a large sip from my drink and looked around the pizza parlor, tuning out the rest of the boys' conversation as I people watched instead. It quickly became boring and I tried not to roll my eyes when the three of them turned to the topic of soccer. I don't mind talking about sports but it got exhausting when Louis and Niall constantly talked about it during class as well. Except now Harry was joining them.
"Beckham is hot," I chimed in when his name came up. "Let's talk about that."
"Lets not." Louis quickly said and laughed when my face fell. He looked around the parlor and glanced at the time. "You guys want to get out of here? It's actually getting pretty late."
Looking at the time myself, I found that we had already been here a little over three hours already. I hadn't even realized. "Yeah, I've got to go job hunting tomorrow morning." I commented, moving to slip off my stool while all three of them did as well. Niall came to hug me again, rubbing the top of my back and then releasing me. Louis did some weird 'bro' handshake with Harry before moving to give me a hug as well. Over his shoulder I saw Niall doing the same handshake with Harry before they both pulled out their phones and exchanged numbers.
"I'll give you a text the next time I'm going out to play some golf," Niall told Harry and padded his shoulder. "Nice to meet you lad."
"You too, mate." Harry told him and moved towards me after he gave them one last goodbye. I started heading towards the door, knowing Harry was following close behind and it became confirmed when he moved to open the door for me before I could grab it myself. Mumbling a quick thank you, I passed him and walked into the chilly night. Goosebumps covered my arms and I crossed them over my chest to conserve my body heat, hunching my shoulders as I walked to Harry's parked car. Again, he opened the passenger door for me and I pursed my lips, not particularly liking that he kept doing nice things for me when I was currently annoyed with him.
I sat quietly as he climbed in the car, the rumble of the engine filling the silence between us. I for sure thought he was going to just drive me home but I stole a glance at him when the car still didn't move after a long minute. Freezing in my seat when I found him staring at me. "What?"
He bit down on his lip and awkwardly scratched his cheek. "I'm sorry...for what I said in there."
"What'd you say?" I asked a little bitterly.
"You know, blurting out your size like that." He muttered and scrunched his nose. "I know you probably don't want them to know that you and I have slept together. It just came out."
"You're right, I didn't want them to know but now they probably do." I told him, keeping out the part where I had told Niall. Sure I might have shared the little secret with him but that didn't mean I wanted Louis to know. And maybe I was also annoyed because of how he spoke about it. Reminding me of how many girls he'd slept with in the past. It bothered me. And it bothered me that it bothered me.
"I'm sorry. I'm not use to having to keep the benefits part a secret. I'm usually very open with what I'm doing, I don't have shame and I'm not embarrassed. But I keep forgetting that you're not the same way. The girls I used to do this with never cared if people knew stuff about them so...this is kind of new to me." He shared and I pursed my lips. "I'll try to be more considerate next time."
I sat there quietly, staring out the window as his words rolled through my head when I felt his hand suddenly touching my hair. I stilled in surprise, slowly turning to look at him as he tucked my hair behind my ear. The gesture was...nice. And sweet. Something a boyfriend usually did but I didn't want to look too much into it. Yet it was hard with the way he kept looking at me so intensely I felt like he could see my soul.
"I'm really sorry, Avriella. That was a dick move on my part." He spoke sincerely, biting down into his lip as his hand moved to curl a strand of my hair around his finger. He stared down at it and I was reminded of how he said he liked my hair earlier.
"It's fine." I finally said, breathing out shakily from my mouth. "Just...don't do that again. I like parts of my life to stay private."
"I know, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
I nodded and expected him to start driving but glanced back at him when I felt him still playing with my hair. I caught his eye, the light from a street lamp outside illuminating them in the darkness of the car. He looked so kissable and pretty. The urge to lean over and kiss him was strong but I held my ground because kissing him when it wasn't leading towards sex felt too intimate. I was sure that wasn't allowed so I pushed the urge off, not moving an inch as I held his gaze. I should of looked away from him but the thing about Harry, was that it was hard to ever look away from him. He was a sight and there was something about him that drew me in, and was making my heart speed up the longer he stared at me.
I cleared my throat and Harry blinked, suddenly looking away with his teeth sunk into his bottom lip. "I should take you home."
"Yeah." My voice came out in a whisper and he swallowed thickly, staring out the windshield as he shook his head and began to back out. We were silent the rest of the car ride but It seemed now that Niall had pointed it out, the tension between us was more apparent. But I don't think it was the physical kind, it seemed more emotional... and if that were the case then this was dangerous. Harry should have caution tape wrapped around his body because he was a damn hazard to me. And the longer I sat there with my heart thumping at an irregular speed, the more I knew that Niall was right.
This would not end well if I got anymore attached then I already was.
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Hello :) sorry for the long wait on the update! Just started working at a new job so I've been super busy lately but thank you for being patient with me!
Questions:
What's up with Harry?
How do you think this is going to end?
Vote+ comment! I'll update again soon, thank you for reading <3