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Chapter 128

And I just wanna be loved by you
Yeah I just wanna be loved by you
I see nothing worse than to sail this universe without you

— The Pierces, We Are Stars

. . . .

After about half an hour of catching up on more studying and Harry taking a nap beside me, I finally start to get the hang of the more complicated aspects of the topic we're being tested on in class. Harry's head is leaning on my shoulder, his arms crossed, and his lips in a sleepy pout. He's been sleeping for the last fifteen or twenty minutes.

Meanwhile, Amber still hasn't gotten up to leave. She's been vehemently tapping her thumbs against the screen of her phone, not ceasing, not looking up once—at least from what I've noticed.

Beside me, Lilly's bored out of her mind as she works in her workbook for school. She's solving more advanced subtraction involving the hundredths place values and into a bit of starter multiplication. I've been helping her without trying to give her the answer right away, but I'll admit that I gave her the end product for several of them.

On my left side, I hear a very nasally snore erupt and it wasn't Amber—as much as I'd like to blame her for it. It's a bit loud at first and then the second one hits and it sounds like an old dog is sleeping somewhere in the room.

"Oh, my God. Seriously?" Amber stops tapping her fucking nails on her phone and rolls her eyes at Harry.

"Shut the f—shut up."

I wanted to say it; oh, I did, but not when Lilly's in extremely close proximity. Harry doesn't like anyone cursing in front of Lilly, even though we both slip up sometimes.

"It's not like he can exactly control it, you dimwit."

"Yeah, I know. I slept with him on numerous occasions, and unfortunately for me, the snoring was included."

I ignore the twitching vein in my forehead at the fact that Harry does have a past, sexually and romantically. One that involves two people that I loathe more than anyone. I'd be a hypocrite if I blamed him for having been involved with anyone before me, but all that really matters is that there is no one else during our relationship together. He's a loyal man to me, and I should give him more credit.

Instead of letting it fester under my skin, I stand up for him, "Oh, wow, you poor thing. Because snoring is just too much of a dealbreaker to be with a great guy like him."

I could have just left it off at telling her to 'shut up' and not feed into her bullshit, but Harry holds a very close and sensitive place in my heart. I get an overpowering urge to want to protect him from what others may say about him, and there's no stopping what may come out of my mouth. He's the world to me, and it wouldn't be fair if I didn't stand up for him the way he does for me. We're best friends, and best friends stick together.

He's like your favorite pet cat or dog. When someone else makes fun of it or says something rude about it, your first instinct is to defend them. They're helpless in sticking up for themselves, and I do believe that Harry is a very capable man, but most of the time, he'll choose the mature route and walk away.

Me on the other hand, I don't let shit like that go. Even if I don't retaliate, because I'm not the biggest fan of confrontation in minuscule situations, I dwell on it forever. I only confront those who do me, or someone I love, extremely wrong.

Nevertheless, I'd like to let him rest, mainly because he needs it, but also to annoy the crap out of Amber—as selfish as that is. However, Lilly betrays me and reaches across my lap, places both hands on his head, and shakes it slightly, and tells him to wake up. He grunts and looks around as his eyes adjust to the fluorescent lights above us.