The Clique

Chapter Seven

The initial surprise of Harry and Liam's friendship was slowly subsiding as their chatter filled the empty space of the cramped booth we were seated on. It was obvious that the boys had known each other for a long time, but a small part of me felt an underlying tension in their relationship and I couldn't exactly pinpoint the cause. I still had a few butterflies in my stomach at the fact that Harry had squeezed into the seat beside me, rather than sit next to Liam. "Oi Indy." The banter at our table came to a halt as Harper appeared a few metres away. She slid into the seat beside Liam in annoyance barely even acknowledging either of the guys, her shrewd gaze locked on my face. "What the hell? You said you were going to the bathroom and then just disappeared on me." She rolled her eyes before sipping on the lemonade in her hand.

"Sorry Harpie." The scowl on her face deepened at the mention of her loathed nickname. "But I ran into Liam." The look of confusion on her face was enough to keep me going. "You know from school?" Her face was still blank. "You were his lab partner in year 8?" Her face lit up in recognition as she took in the man sitting beside her. "Oh my God Liam! Look how big you've gotten. If I'd have known you'd end up looking this good I would've never stopped crushing on you." She exclaimed as even I blushed from her forward comment. But that was Harper I suppose, extremely blunt, honest and she knew how to have a good time, but she also knew when you needed a shoulder to cry on or a night of ice cream eating and Netflix until the sun came up. "Um yeah" Liam awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, mumbling lightly "Nice to see you too Harper."

"And I'm Harry." He introduced himself and stuck his large hand out for Harper to shake. Her eyebrows scrunched in confusion as she glanced at me quickly before shaking his hand. "You look oddly familiar." I could tell that she was searching through her memories to try and locate his face from some point. "I believe you ran passed me last Friday night." A slow grin spread across his lips as Harry leaned comfortably back into our cushiony bench. "Well you and your little accomplice over here." He stuck his thumb in my direction, as Harper practically choked on the red straw hanging from her cherry lips. "Are you fucking kidding me Indigo Rose Moore? You commit your first felony and pick up this hunk of man in the same night?" She shook her head in disbelief as my cheeks flared yet again and Liam looked between the three of us in obvious confusion. Harry simply laughed at her comments.

I tried desperately to change the subject but was thankful when Harry interjected. "Well I don't know about you ladies but Li and I came here to bowl." I saw Liam's mouth quirk up slightly at this, leaving me slightly puzzled but I ignored his action. "How about playing teams?" Harry continued as we all made our way over to the lanes, and agreed with his idea. "Great. I pick Indy." My eyes widened in shock at Harry. "What? But I'm terrible." I blurted out and Harper sadly shook her head at me as though I was a dog she had trained, which was half true when it came to boys. "That's not what I saw when you were playing with Harpie." Harry's deep voice mocked my friend and I couldn't help but giggle as she scowled. "That was such a fluke. I'm actually the most uncoordinated person that I know." He snorted at my remark and Liam chuckled whilst Harper stared at me with a knowing grin. "I'm sure that you're exaggerating, I mean how bad could you be?"
..

Harry soon figured out how atrocious I was at sports after my third gutter ball. Liam and Harper were grinning at each other in presumed victory as Harry laughed at my attempt yet again. My cheeks were surely bright red with embarrassment. Without Harry's amazing strikes almost every turn, I'm sure that our score would be into the negatives which probably isn't even possible. "Because we are so extraordinarily generous and humble in our impeding victory, Harper and I have decided to give you a replay Indigo." Liam's voice carried over the noise in the bowling alley. I picked up my trusty green ball and took a deep breath as I stared down the lane at the 10 pins that I had to knock down. Just as I was preparing to send the ball into the gutter again, I felt rather than heard Harry's presence behind me. He placed his large palms on my waist and allowed his minty breath to flow over my ear yet again. And for just a few moments, it was only us. There were no snobby little children in the lane adjacent to us, nor any egotistical maniacs laughing behind us. There was no other sound but our heartbeats and the feeling of his breath hitting the side of my face.