Chapter 2
The walk back to my apartment was excruciating.
Harry talked. A lot.
He would not shut up.
I thought that he was trying to lighten the mood after our awkward first encounter, but his incessant chatter was just pissing me off more than anything. My painfully throbbing hand and now excessively sober mind were not in the right state to have to endure it. Especially at God knows what hour of the night it currently was.
"Did you end up telling your friends that you were leaving?" Harry asked, trying to match my pace as I attempted to speed up out of earshot; if only to shut him up for even a minute.
"I already told you, I had no way to tell them. My one friend still has my phone and I wasn't able to get back in without a stamp." I grumbled.
"Aren't they going to worry about where you went?" The sincerity in his voice struck some sort of nerve in me.
"Aren't your friends going to worry about where you went?" I asked, whipping around to face him, annoyance creeping its way into my tone. I stared at him, crossing my arms.
Harry stopped abruptly, quickly bringing a finger underneath the tampon hanging out of his nose to ensure that it doesn't fall out. Confusion swept across his face as he looked down at me.
"What's your problem? Why'd we stop?" He muttered, sniffling slightly, breaking eye contact with me to tip his head back and finger at the blood still dripping out of his one exposed nostril. "I was just asking."
"You! You're my problem!" I snapped angrily, turning away from him to run my fingers through my hair in exasperation. "You haven't stopped talking since the minute we left the club and it's making my head hurt more than my damn hand!"
I didn't look back at him as I started to walk away, but he gripped my arm to prevent me from going anywhere. I quickly yanked out of his hold and stepped back from him.
"Stop touching me! Do you not remember what happened the last time you did that?" I seethed, holding my arms up to my chest.
"Honestly, what is your deal?!" Harry growled, throwing his arms in the air. "The only reason I was talking so much is because you were basically a fucking mute over there. Sorry, I was trying to hold a conversation from two ends - it's harder than it seems! And maybe neither your head nor your hand would be hurting if you hadn't punched me and gotten us into this situation in the first place."
"You think I don't know that?" My laboured breathing made my words come out at a higher pitch than anticipated and I cleared my throat before speaking again. "I'm sorry for punching you and I'm sorry that I didn't exactly want to make small talk with the man who I am taking home to clean up from an injury that I caused! This isn't exactly a situation for me to joke around in."
I clenched my jaw, hoping that the sarcasm in my tone had come out with as much confidence as intended. Maybe I was being rude. Maybe I did go too far. At this point, I didn't care.
All I knew as of right now was that I was mad about more than one thing that had gone on tonight and that Harry was pissing me off the most. This was a bad idea to bring him to my home. I should have left him at the club to figure out his broken nose on his own. I had half a mind to kill him when we got back to my place.
"Don't you think that maybe I should be the one all bent out of shape in this situation? I mean, I saw you puking – you had to have at least had some fun before we got here. I didn't get any of that! And I'm the one who got punched!" Harry took a step towards me and I stood taller, thinking that maybe if I got closer to his eye level, he wouldn't notice the trembling in my knees. "Also, you apologize too fucking much. It's annoying."
"Oh, I'm the annoying one?" I asked with a dry laugh, crossing my arms and rolling my eyes. "You're the one who brought up the punch again!" I wished I could ball both of my hands into fists right about now, but the pain drumming through my left fingers prevented me from doing so.
"Kinda hard to ignore when you've got a bloody tampon hanging out of your nose!" Harry yelled and turned away from me before muttering, "Literally."
I didn't respond and tried for a second time to turn away from Harry. This time, he didn't pull me back.
"We're almost there," I told him after a couple of seconds when I heard him start to follow me again. "I'll clean you up and then you can go."
When we finally arrived at the front of my apartment building, after what seemed like ages, I swung the front door open and turned to hold it open for my companion. He didn't seem to notice me waiting as he glanced around the street.
"You live here?" he asked, finally focusing his attention on me and went to walk inside. I followed him in, stopping to bend down and reposition the brick that had been keeping the entryway unlocked in the door. I could feel his eyes on me as I did it.
"Yeah." I told him and stood back up to face him. He looked concerned.
"This isn't a very nice area," he said as if he were the first person to make this revelation. I shrugged. "It's pretty dangerous. Do you live alone?"
"You saw my left hook. I'd say I'm capable of handling myself around here, thank you very much." I bit back.
I didn't care to answer his question about living alone. I didn't, but frankly, it was none of his business. He didn't have to know that my roommates were the ones I had left behind at the club. I also still knew very little about this man. For all I was concerned, he could be the one that I should be scared of.
"That's not what I meant," Harry said gently.
"Pretty sure that's exactly what you meant." I snapped. "I'll have you know that most of the people in this area are harmless if you get to know them."
Not entirely true. I just knew exactly who to avoid with the more people I got to know. Same thing.
Harry chose not to respond and just continued to follow me as I took him into the stairwell and up to the fourth floor. We had an elevator, but it had been broken since I moved in. Harry had glanced at it the caution tape as we passed it, but held his tongue. Upon arriving out front of my apartment door, I reached into my bra to pull out my key.
"What else do you keep in there?" Harry asked eyeing at my chest from beside me, a dimpled grin on his face. I turned away from him as I put the key into the lock.
"Nothing you'll ever be able to see," I said rolling my eyes.
If I was being perfectly honest, under any other circumstances, I would not mind if this tall, curly-haired, smooth-talking British man ever happened to see what was in my bra. He was insanely attractive, and the tattoos littered up and down his arms made my mind wander with possibilities.
Biting my lip, I opened the door and decided to leave those thoughts outside the door with the smattering remains of drunk May, as I ushered Harry inside and closed it behind him.
I cleared my throat and awkwardly swayed back and forth on my feet as Harry wandered around my living room, occasionally picking things up and inspecting them.
"Nicer place on the inside than it is on the outside," he said, making his way back over to me. "And I'm assuming you don't live alone considering the amount of stuff and rooms there are."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Maybe it's all mine."
Harry walked past me and poked his head into the first bedroom he saw. "Hmm, right." He hummed.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're really quite nosey?" I asked and Harry pulled his head out of the bedroom to look back at me, the same dimpled grin still drawled across his face.
"Only when it comes to people who seem like they have a lot to hide," he replied, and I scrunched my face in confusion.
What an idiot. I don't think he understood the difference between people who are hiding things and people who are just private about their affairs to strange men that they've just punched and suddenly invited into their homes.
"Well, in any case, if you're wondering about my roommates because you're planning to kill me and get rid of my body before they come home – I can assure you that you won't have enough time. They'll most likely be home within the next couple hours," I looked over at the clock hung above the couch. The club was closing in about 45 minutes and technically they should be coming home then, but I was fairly sure I remembered something being said about a party at Heather's boyfriend's place that we were all supposed to be going to afterwards.
I squeezed my eyes shut trying to remember if it had been tonight they were talking about or some other time. Maybe I should have tried harder to let Amelia and Heather know where I was going before I left.
I think drunk me had so much fury in her that she just wanted to get out and away from that stupid empty parking lot of the club filled with my puke and Harry's blood right away. I didn't really factor in that I was leaving without a phone or without even a word to them that I was alright. I was only realizing now how bad this looks.
I was abruptly pulled from my train of thought by a snort. A snort. I opened my eyes and look at Harry, realizing he was the only person that could've just made that noise.
"If anything, I should be worried about you killing me!" he said and I suddenly had the urge to snort as well. He was not wrong.
"Can I borrow your phone?" I asked quickly.
I needed to try and reach out to Amelia and Heather – to let them know that I was okay. They were most likely losing their mind over where I was, but I didn't want to let Harry know that he was right.
Harry shrugged. He reached into his back pocket to grab it and hand it to me.
"Don't you want to know what I need it for?" I asked, gawking at how he just willingly handed his phone to a complete stranger.
"Figured you wouldn't tell me anyway," Harry said with another shrug. "Plus, I'd never deny a hot girl asking to see my phone."
I think that Harry tried to wink at me after spilling that last line, but the pain from his nose made him flinch and I immediately panicked. I'd almost forgotten why we were even back here together in the first place.
"Shit!" I muttered, looking down at his phone and going to click on the call button, punching in the only phone number that I remembered – my own. "I'm sorry, I'll get you some stuff to clean your nose up in one sec. I just have to make a call."
"'S fine," He mumbled, and I felt another pang of guilt run through me. "Stop apologizing."
As I held the phone to my ear, I watched him walk over to the couch and plop himself down. I was about to comment about the dirt from his clothes and dried blood from his hands getting on everything, but I realized that I hadn't been the greatest of company this whole time and decided to keep the remark stagnant in my throat. Not only had I dragged him here due to an injury that I caused, but I had also ruined his night and been rude to him the entire time.
The phone rang loudly in my ear and I hold it a bit further away from me. The pounding in my head was starting to get unbearable.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up." I whispered, beginning to pace back and forth. Behind me, I heard the T.V. click on.
"Do you have cable? Or Netflix?" An annoying British voice chided in the distance and I didn't bother to answer him as I stepped into my bedroom a few feet away, shutting the door behind me.
I was about to give up on getting an answer when the phone is picked up at the last second.
"HELLO? WHO IS THIS? YOU'VE GOT MAY'S PHONE!" A voice shouted from the other end and I immediately recognized it as Amelia. The music from the club droned on in the background. I could hardly hear her, even though she was shouting.
"Amelia! Babe! It's me, May!"
"What the fuck?" I heard from the other end and then there was a commotion that I couldn't make out. A couple of seconds pass before I heard chatter between two people, sounding far away from the speaker.
"Whose phone is this?" Amelia shouted at the mystery person she was with.
"Are you dumb? What do you mean 'whose phone is this'? It's May's, idiot!" The other voice responded – Heather.
"Can't be! I'm pretty sure she just called it? How could she call it if it's her phone?" Amelia slurred.
I wanted to pull my hair out and shout through the speaker in my hand, but I knew that they wouldn't be able to hear me.
I heard more disturbance on the other end and assumed that Heather had grabbed the phone from Amelia.
"Hello? May?" she said into the speaker and the music in the background started to fade, making me think that she had stepped away from the crowd.
"Yes! It's me!" I told her, relieved that I wasn't immediately hung up on.
"Where in the bloody hell are you? Why did you call your own phone? Are you okay? Sorry about Amelia, she's pretty wasted."
I smiled into the receiver, knowing that she couldn't see me, but feeling happy with the thought in my head of my best friend dancing her ass off and enjoying herself. She deserved it.
"It's okay, I'm glad she's having fun. I hope you are too," I said, hoping she could hear me well on the other end. "I'm alright. Got a bit sick outside the club and headed home. I just wanted to let you know that I'm safe."
"Do you want us to come back?" She asked a bit loudly. "I can tell Kevin that we're gonna bail on his place."
"No! Don't head back. Go to his party and have fun. I miss you both, I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to worry about me-"
"Stop it, Amelia! Fuck off. I'm talking to May-"
"Tell her I love her! I've been looking for her ass the whole night! She always disappears when she's hammered."
I laughed at the sound of my best friends bickering, part of me still wishing I was there, but then also remembering the man I was harbouring in the other room that I had to deal with, and the laughter died away in my throat.
"Listen, I'm gonna go okay? You guys enjoy yourselves. I'll see you tomorrow." I mumbled into the phone, not even sure if either of them could hear me anymore.
I heard a handful of loud goodbyes and 'I love you's' through the phone and as soon as the sound of music increased once more, I pulled the phone away from my ear and hung up.
I loved my friends with my whole heart. They meant absolutely everything to me. But I was also glad that they weren't here at this very moment or that neither of them asked exactly how I got home or whose phone I was using. They could be a handful and if they caught wind of the fact that I brought a guy home, it would be the end of me and Harry. They'd be here in under 10 minutes to investigate and scare the shit out of him.
Sighing, I lifted myself off the edge of the bed and go to throw my phone on top of it as I headed out into the other room. I only stopped myself at the last second when I realized that it wasn't my phone and belonged to the problem on the other side of the door.
I opened the door to see Harry standing right on the outside and I jumped, falling backwards onto my ass.
"Jesus Christ! What are you doing?" I asked, scrambling to get up.
"Snooping." he said with a grin and offered out an arm to help me off the ground. I ignored it as I stood. "Also, I was trying to find the washroom but happened to be right outside your door when you came out."
"I'm sure," I muttered sarcastically and shook my head, angrily handing him his phone as I spun on my heel. "Come on. It's this way. I'll clean you up and get you something for the pain so that you can go."
"Wanting to get rid of me that fast, huh? I'd expect better hospitality from a girl that socked me! Especially when she so kindly refused to give me her Netflix login." he teased and I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see me. It felt like the hundredth time I had done that tonight.
As we got to the bathroom at the end of the hall, I reached in and turned on the light, walking over to the medicine cabinet above the sink. Harry slinked in behind me and sat on the toilet, removing the tampon from his nose and throwing it into the waste bin. From the cabinet, I removed a washcloth, Hydrogen Peroxide, Bandages, a compress, and a stabilizer.
"Holy! Cool it, Doctor Killer!" Harry laughed, looking at the pile of supplies I'd amassed on the counter. "All I need is something to clean the blood up and for you to pop my nose back into place."
"Well, I wouldn't want you to get an infection and- wait, what?! Put your nose back in place?!" I blurted, horrified, staring at him. "I have no idea how to do that, Harry! What the hell! I am going to fuck it up worse than it already is!"
"Glad to know my nose is looking fucked. I can give you credit for that one." Harry joked with a rugged grin, but I was not in the mood for sarcasm. Not right now. I think he could tell from the look on my face because he immediately sobered his expression and shrugged. "It's not a big deal. I've been hit plenty of times. It's going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you."
I gaped at him. He couldn't be serious. This had got to be another one of his jokes.
"It's not me I'm worried about!" I half-yelled, wide-eyed. "I don't know how to set a nose. You're insane. We should go to the hospital."
"Mm, you'll be fine. We aren't going to a hospital," Harry scolded, shocking me when he took hold of my wrists to pull me in front of him. I recoiled slightly, my bruised hand not expecting the touch, and he immediately loosened his grip. "Sorry, I forgot about your hand."
I didn't say anything but instead took a deep breath as he guided my hands up to his face, me now stood in between his parted legs. On any other occasion, this would be considered intimate, but the minute my fingers grazed over the caked blood around his nostrils, I swallowed the urge to vomit for the second time tonight and any intimacy that could have been dissipated immediately.
"Okay, do you feel the ridges on either side?" he asked, looking up at me through his lashes, and I nodded as I placed my fingers gingerly overtop of his nose. He placed his hands over top of mine to ensure that they were in the right spot. "Do you notice how one of them is sticking out more on the left side?" He tapped my finger that rested on that side of his nose and I nodded again. "Align your hands up with them and push as hard as you can to shove that ridge on the left side back in."
I tensed, immediately feeling as if my knees were going to give out. "I can't do that," I muttered.
"Yeah you can, it's not a big deal." Harry urged and I felt my breathing accelerate. "You can always punch me from the opposite side to get it realigned again."
I wanted to laugh, but my brain was swimming and my limbs felt like noodles. I wasn't even sure if I could speak, let alone laugh. This was really not where I thought the night was going. I tried to control my erratic breaths as we both remained awkwardly in this position, trying to force myself to follow through with the task at hand.
"What if I called one of my nurse friends-" I suggested, but he cut me off, "No. May, if you were able to punch me, you should be able to do this. Grow a pair."
I flinched a little and closed my eyes, trying to steady myself.
"Don't close your eyes!" Harry said suddenly, a little panicky.
I opened them again quickly, staring back into his now anxiety-riddled expression. It softened when I look at him.
"Don't worry. You've got this. I promise. The worst that could happen is that you fuck it up more than it already is – your words, not mine. It's already broken anyway." Harry consoled me and I had the urge to rip my hands away and just break my own nose. It would have been a hell of a lot less painful than trying to do this.
I did feel a slight bit bad that he was the one with the broken nose trying to calm me down, but that feeling was immediately lost when he opened his mouth and spoke again.
"You've got this, baby- OW! Fuck!"
My fingers worked without thinking as I shoved the jutted ridge of his nose as hard as I could right back into place, removing my hands as soon as I was finished to walk back over to the sink and wet a washcloth for the blood.
"Don't call me baby." I spat.