"Still can't believe you really went out with Harry Styles. Like wow. Out of all people, you went on a date with Harry Styles" Ella said, surprise in her voice as she walked next to me, searching for something in the pocket of her coat.
I shook my head at her excitement, glancing away to the side. "It wasn't a date" I specified with a little sigh, hoping that she would've let it go. I'd never regretted telling her something that much before. But honestly, I kind of knew that she would've reacted in such a way even before opening my mouth. If it would've been for me to decide, she would've never known anything about it, but she had asked me about it directly, and I couldn't have possibly lied to her. I would've felt bad.
"Uh, hello?" She said, waving her hand in front of my face to get my attention even though we both knew she didn't need to. "That was a date. Like, an actual date. He likes you Sierra, come to terms with it." She finally fetched a hairpin from the pocket of her brown wool coat and tied her blonde hair up with it, giving me an obvious glance.
I sighed as we stopped in front of the classroom, and I gave a fast glance inside to see how many people were already there. "You don't get it" I said, turning around to look at her. "It's... different-"
"Things are only different if you make them different" she said fast, interrupting me. "He can act mysterious and unreachable all he wants, but he's still human. He likes you and he took you out on a date. That's it." She glanced at her watch, making sure she wasn't risking being late to her next class.
I pursed my lips at her words, furrowing my eyebrows when I felt my phone buzz against my hand in the pocket of my coat. "I don't know" I answered quietly, deciding to wait until Ella was gone before checking if I'd received something.
"It's obvious" she replied, giving her watch another nervous glance. "I should go, don't want to be late. Should I wait after school?" She asked, toying with a loose blond lock before tucking it back into the dark hairpin.
"Better not" I replied, not knowing for sure what my plans for the afternoon entailed, but hoping that Harry would've been a part of it. That morning, when he'd come pick me up, we'd barely talked, none of us wanting to say something important when we knew that Niall was sitting in the backseat, and I'd spent my free period with Ella, so I hadn't seen much of Harry that day. I hoped that he would've changed it, though.
"Alright, bye" she said with a little shrug, going away before I could even reply.
I glanced at her as she went away for a couple of seconds, before turning around and entering my art class. I walked between the desks until I reached the one I usually sat on, and I put my coat on the back of the chair before sitting down, sending a stealthy glance to the front of the class to make sure that the teacher wasn't inside yet and taking my phone out to check if I'd got a text. I unlocked the screen, frowning when I saw the notification of a new message. I clicked on it, the confusion not leaving my face when I realised that it had been sent by the same unknown number of the day before.
Do you?
It took me a couple seconds to understand that the new text was referring to the one I'd received the day before. I sighed. I thought it would've been a one time thing and so I hadn't replied, but it was pretty clear that they, whoever they were, thought I was someone else. Sending another quick glance up to make sure the class was still unsupervised, I typed a quick message in reply.
You have the wrong number, sorry
I sent it fast and locked the screen, putting my phone on my thigh when I realised that my art teacher had just walked inside.
The class went silent in the second she loudly put the bag she always carried around on the desk, giving a glance around to make sure she had successfully managed to get our attention. After the initial moment of silence, though, the faint background murmuring came back, almost as unbothered as before.
I felt my phone buzz against my thigh and, hoping that the teacher wouldn't have noticed, I glanced down at it, pressing the home button to enlighten the screen. I read the reply I'd got fast, my eyes widening when I reached the end of it.
Do you really think so, Sierra?
I locked the screen fast and almost threw the phone back into the pocket of my coat. How was it possible that they knew my name? Did that mean that it was someone I knew? I gave a little glance around, everyone seemed to be talking to each other or be busy waiting for the teacher to start the class, and certainly nobody was on their phone. On the side, I could see Aiden, mysteriously sitting away from me, that seemed to be writing or drawing something. But he, just like everybody else, didn't seem to be on his phone, leaving me to wonder who it could've possibly been.
Or what if it was someone I didn't know, and they'd found my name in the same mysterious way they'd found my phone number? A shiver ran down my spine as that possibility came to my mind, momentarily freezing me in my place. I shook my head, trying to get myself together, not wanting to start overthinking it. It probably just was somebody playing some kind of game on me, nothing for me to truly worry about. But still, I couldn't stop the feeling of worry that settled in my stomach.
"I'm talking."
I looked up all of sudden when I heard my art teacher's remark, realising only in that moment that she'd been talking for a while, and that probably I wasn't the only person that wasn't paying attention. I pushed the concerned thoughts about the texts I had received to the back of my mind, to worry about later, and looked at her, hoping that I would've managed to get though the class without thinking of it - or receiving new texts - again.
"I'd like to take a few moments before starting to talk about something different. As you know, this magazine" she said, holding up a copy of one I barely recognised, "is hosting an art competition. Now, I can see you're all wondering what it has to do with you." She leant against the teacher's desk, looking at us attentively. "Now, you might barely recognise it given it's a bit out of your... age range. What matters though, is that this is a famous magazine, and is gonna end up in many people's homes. This is a great opportunity to make your art known." She put the magazine down again, spying us over the lenses of the glasses that were on the bridge of her nose.
Some people murmured excitedly behind me, probably talking about what she had just said. In fact, it did seem interesting, but I knew I couldn't have ever done it. I disliked everything that had to do with competitions and similar things, there was nothing I hated more than getting my hopes up and then seeing them being completely deluded.
"Now, let's talk technicalities" she said all of sudden, making the entire class fall silent again. "The three best works, of course, will be featured in the first edition of next year, that is set to come out on January 24. The deadline to send in your artwork is January 10. If you're interested, the email you should send it to is on this sheet here." She momentarily raised a white paper, putting it back down on the desk right after. "You can come here to copy it down if you want."
As soon as she said those words almost everyone stood up and made their way to the front of the class with pens and paper sheets, while I stayed right where I was, having already decided that there was no reason for me to take part in it.
I glanced down, taking my notebook out of my bag and starting to sketch leaves on the side of a white page as I always did. I was shading the little drawing when I suddenly noticed that someone was standing in front of me, and I stopped what I was doing to glance up. I had to keep myself from sighing when I realised that my teacher was standing in front of me.
"Don't like to put yourself in the game, do you?" She asked, looking down at me.
I shrugged, putting down the pencil. "I just don't think it's for me" I replied quietly, hoping that she wouldn't have made a big deal out of it. It was just a competition after all, something people would've forgot about a month after it would've ended. It wasn't important.
"That isn't true" she replied fast. "Listen. Of all of you, you're the one with the highest chance to win. You're great at drawing people, I'll give you a better chance so do that. Oh, and absolutely no paint. The last project wasn't that good, even though I can't deny your partner has an interesting understanding of paint" she said, putting something on my desk. "Don't let your shyness drive you away from doing what you want to do. The art world is hard, you either put yourself out there or don't get out there at all." She turned around and walked back to her desk before anyone could even notice she was gone.
I furrowed my eyebrows, glancing at the paper she'd given to me just to realise it was an email address. I sighed, taking the small piece of paper and folding it in twice before taking my wallet out of the bag at my feet and slipping it in there to make sure I wouldn't have lost it. Maybe I could've considered the idea of joining. She was right, after all, and if someone knew something of how hard it was to make it in the art world, it surely was her. I had a little over a month to do it, I had enough time to create something good, without having to work too hard to get it done on time. Perhaps Harry wouldn't have minded modelling for something different.
After some more minutes all the other students went back to their desks, and the class finally started.
"Guess what?" The teacher said with false excitement, clapping her hands. "Christmas is just around the corner, so I was thinking of doing something a little more enjoyable for this next project." She started, immediately sparking a wave of interest in the people surrounding me, that started to speak quietly to themselves. "We'll keep the same partners, given you all seem to be comfortable with each other. And I was thinking we could do some Christmas related drawings!" She paused for a second, glancing at us. "The first that brings me a drawing of their partner dressed as Santa Claus gets an F."
After that, the class continued as normal, and I soon stopped paying attention to what she was saying, resorting instead to drawing on my notebook while I waited patiently for the bell to ring.
After what felt like ages it finally did, and I put my notebook and pencil back into my bag, putting my coat on and swinging the strap of the bag over my shoulder before leaving the room quickly, not wanting to risk being pulled back by Aiden.
I pushed the door open, discovering, to my surprise, that Harry was indeed leaning back against the short white wall next to the entrance of the building. Trying to keep a smile from showing on my face, I walked towards him, pretending to search for something in my pocket for a second.
He looked up when he heard me approaching, putting his phone away once I was close enough. "We're waiting for Niall" he said quietly, as if I should've just supposed beforehand that he would've been the one to take me home.
"Alright" I replied quietly, sitting on the wall next to him. I subtly glanced down, one of his hands was between us, supporting part of Harry's weight on the wall. For a couple of seconds, I was tempted to put mine over his, but I changed idea quickly, not knowing how he would've reacted to something like that. We'd held hands a couple of times the day before, and he hadn't seemed to be against it at all, but I didn't know what his feelings were about doing it while we were at school, surrounded by people we knew.
I was suddenly snapped out of my thoughts when I saw someone approaching us, and I looked up, discovering to my dismay that it was Zayn. I didn't want to dislike him, especially given that he was one of Harry's closest friends, but his aversion to me was way too obvious for me to ignore.
"Hey" he said apathetically when he was standing in front of Harry, messing up his raven hair as he sent half a glance to a couple of girls that were glancing at him from the side. He took a pack of cigarettes out of his black coat, taking one out before offering the open pack to Harry, that, surprisingly, shook his head. Zayn shrugged, closing the pack and hiding it back in the pocket before taking a lighter out of the black bag he was carrying around and lightening up the cigarette.
Harry let out a little sigh, sitting more comfortably against the wall. "Where the hell is Niall?" He asked roughly, glancing at the entrance for a second.
"Got held back by that Evans dude, will be here soon" Zayn said with a shrug, blowing the smoke out of his nose before speaking.
"The next time it happens I'll leave him for you to drive home" Harry commented, the hint of annoyance in his voice showing that he didn't like to be made to wait. He flicked his head back, successfully getting a loose strand of hair out of his green eyes, glancing back in the direction of the door, tapping nervously on the wall.
I glanced down at my feet, feeling as if I had no place in that conversation, finding myself hoping for Niall to arrive soon so that he would've put me out of that awkward situation. I'd never enjoyed seeing Harry pissed, and Zayn was doing all he could to ignore me in the most complete way possible, so it wasn't enjoyable in the slightest.
All of sudden I felt Harry's hand graze against mine and I looked down, just to discover that the touch had already disappeared, and that his hand was back in the position of before. For how fast it had been, the touch reassured me that Harry wasn't actually mad - considering he got really skittish when that was the case.
"You're driving him home" Harry said after some more minutes that we'd spent waiting. "Come on, Sierra" he told me, brushing his hand against my back to invite me to stand up as well.
Zayn glanced up from the piece of floor he'd been quietly observing for the past minute or so. "What do I tell him when he flips shit?" He asked calmly, throwing his by then finished cigarette butt on the floor and crushing him with his foot.
"To mind his own business" Harry replied, before starting to walk down the couple of steps, leaving me to rush after him.
I went down the first step, but stopped all of sudden, turning my head to glance back at Zayn. "Bye" I said quietly.
He looked at me, his amber eyes studying me for what felt like ages. "Bye" he muttered coldly at the end, glancing away fast.
I went down the last couple of stairs, rushing towards Harry, that had been completely unaware of the whole exchange. We walked towards the car, not a single word being said. When we reached it I stopped in front of the passenger's side, waiting as he made his way to the driver's side.
He looked up, his hand on the handle. "It's open" he said quietly, making me slightly embarrassed, considering I had been waiting for him to unlock the car.
"Oh" I simply said, opening the door and sitting on the seat, sliding my bag between my legs before closing the door and buckling my seatbelt. I glanced out of the window as he started the car and drove out of the car park, trying to get over the awkwardness I'd felt. "You didn't smoke" I said after a while, trying to fill the silence and at the same time to move on from what had happened. I didn't even know why I was feeling so embarrassed about it, when I knew for a fact that he hadn't minded at all. There were a very few things he truly seemed to mind, honestly.
"I made a deal a couple of months ago" he said quietly in reply.
My head snapped towards him at his words. "I..." I started, but stopped right away, realising that I didn't quite know what to say. "Thank you" I ended up saying. I would've never thought he'd taken it so seriously, but I couldn't say that I didn't like it. It felt odd to think that he'd truly stopped doing that just because I'd kissed him, even though I knew perfectly that it wasn't really about the kiss, but about keeping his part of a deal we'd made in the spur of a moment in a starry night of autumn. A deal that I'd forgotten until then, too.
He sent me a quick glance, before going back to look at the street, not saying a single word.
I sighed, turning a bit towards him so that I could look at him more comfortably. "There's a drawing competition" I said quietly, successfully managing to get his attention. "Will you be my model? I can draw you turned around or something, people won't know it's you if it's an issue" I asked fast, wanting to get that part of the thing done as fast as possible, hoping that he would've said yes. If he had, I could've considered actually going through with that whole thing. The idea of taking part in a competition didn't seem so scary anymore, if I had Harry by my side - even though he would've just been my model.
"Okay" he replied as if it wasn't a big deal at all, making me smile.
"Thank you" I said, glancing out of the windshield when the car came to a halt, furrowing my eyebrows as I took in the unusual line of cars in front of us. "Think there's been an accident up ahead?" I asked Harry, taking in the slow pace at which we were moving.
He shrugged in reply. "Could be" he said, a hint of uneasiness in his voice.
I nodded, going back to looking out of the car window. After a while, we reached the intersection, discovering that there had indeed been an accident. I frowned as we passed next to two cars, one destroyed at the front with a broken windshield, and another, that seemed to be damaged on the side. It wasn't hard to guess what had happened. An ambulance was on the scene, but it was turned off. What caught my attention right after was a body, covered by a white sheet on the ground. I looked down, turning my head in silence.
I glanced at Harry, his jaw was clenched, a deep frown on his face. He seemed deeply bothered by what we'd just seen, and it didn't take me too long to understand why.
He drove past the accident and took a turn, driving down the street in a suddenly heavy silence. I furrowed my eyebrows when he parked at the side of the road, stopping the car all of sudden. I turned my head to look at him, giving him a confused glance, noticing just in that moment that he was gripping the wheel so hard that his knuckles had become white.
"What's wrong?" I asked him quietly, not wanting to upset him any further.
He shook his head, letting go of the steering wheel just then, his gaze focused ahead, through the windshield. "I'm fine" he muttered coldly, looking down at the obvious lie.
"Harry" I said softly, knowing perfectly that it wasn't the truth, and knowing that he knew it as well, putting my hand on his forearm and squeezing gently. "It's okay."
He sighed at my action, not looking up, passing his hand through his dark hair in an attempt to push it out of his eyes. He scratched the blunt nail of his thumb against the material of the steering wheel, lost in his thoughts, a frown on his face.
I let out the breath I was holding not to disrupt the sudden silence that had fallen over us, glancing down as well, wishing that I would've known what to do. I didn't know how to comfort someone, and especially, I had absolutely no idea of how to comfort Harry. I'd never been great with words, but even if I'd been, I didn't think I would've found the right ones to say to him - if they even existed, that is. I was pretty sure they didn't, but I also know that saying the wrong thing could've possibly been the worst thing I could've done in that moment. So I stayed silent, hoping that it would've been enough.
I looked up all of sudden when I felt sudden warmth on my hand, discovering that he had intertwined our fingers. Before giving myself enough time to rethink it, I leant my head on his shoulder. He sighed, putting his other hand over our hands.
We stayed like that for not more than twenty seconds, and then, all of sudden, he straightened himself up, letting go of my hand and turning the key in the ignition again.
"I'm taking you home" he said, no emotion leaking through his words, as if nothing had happened at all.
Artwork hit 550k! This is amazing, thank you so much!
I hope you liked this chapter x
Miki