stars in your eyes

sedecim

Claire found herself walking home from school with Damien on Wednesday. They decided to get more work done on their presentation. She convinced herself that it would be best to go to his house again. She didn't really want to bring Damien Styles to her house in front of her parents or jasper. She didn't want to have to explain anything.

Just as they were getting settled around the table, the front door opened.

"Damien!" She heard Harry's voice echo through the house and her entire body froze.

"In here!" Damien called out and Claire cringed. No, don't call him in here. Please.

"Hey—" Harry said, coming into the dining room. His words, his whole thought process cut off when he saw her.

"claire. Hey," he choked out, staring her down.

"Hi," she said quietly.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked, looking between her and his brother.

"Homework," she stated plainly.

She could see the slight hint of jealousy in his eyes as he contemplated her words and looked at their books that were sprawled across the table.

"Cool," he said, nodding his head.

Claire's eyes stared into his as a wave of anger hit her. She did not care if he thought it was cool or not that she was there with Damien. Actually, she'd rather him not think it was cool. She hoped he was out of his mind with jealousy. She hoped it tore him apart and he lost sleep over it. Then just maybe he'd feel a slight bit of what she'd been going through since he broke up with her.

"What did you want?" Damien asked Harry.

"Oh. Uh... nothing," Harry said, waving it off, still looking at claire.

She had to look away because it hurt too much to look into his eyes. Her textbook was the perfect distraction.

"Alright then," Damien said, sounding impatient, probably wondering why Harry was lingering.

"Yeah," Harry said, but didn't move.

He stood there for a few more moments before he turned and left. And when his presence wasn't suffocating her, Claire finally felt like she could breathe.

"That was weird," Damien mumbled to himself as he started flipping through his text.

"Yeah," Claire agreed quietly.

"So, alright. Where were we?" Damien asked, looking up at her.

"Uh... I think we were going over Visa and green cards last time," she said, opening her own textbook.

"Oh, yeah. Okay," Damien nodded, flipping the pages to find the right chapter in the text.

They were just getting back into things when Damien's Mother, Anne, got home.

"Damien! Are you ready?" She called out.

"What?" Damien asked, sounding confused.

"Damien, where are you?" She called out again.

"In here, Mom!" Damien calls back to her.

"Come on, let's go!" She said as she rounded the corner into the dining room.

"What...?" Damien asked.

"Oh! Hi, sinclaire," Anne smiled brightly at her.

"Hi, Anne," Claire greeted her with a smile.

"It's so lovely to see you around here. You'll have to come by for dinner soon," she smiled brightly.

"Where are we going?" Damien asked his Mom.