Faded Stars

Painted Faces

Weeks go past, months even, without any contact from Saphira. Harry starts to move on slowly. It was his fault anyway, he shouldn't have let his guard down, again. He should've learnt from his previous mistakes. 

He used to think about Saphira everyday for the first few weeks of her disappearance, always looking up at the door when he heard the bell chime, his heart soaring high, wishing from his heart of hearts that it was going to be Saphira who walks through that door this time, but it comes plummeting down when it's just another faceless person with a thirst for coffee. 

His thoughts of her soon decrease to the point where he only thinks about her if he sees a person who looks similar to her but he sometimes unconsciously looks up when someone enters the shop, a couple of minutes before his lunch break on weekends. He tries not to get his hopes up, he doesn't think he can handle the disappointment all over again. 

His father always did tell him that he wore his heart on his sleeve.

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Harry sighs as he wipes down the table that has spilled coffee and takes the dirty cups back to the sink for washing up. 

The song 'Stop crying your heart out' by Oasis is playing in the background softly and he hums along with the tune. 

He hears someone enter the shop but ignores it because Kat, his other co-worker, is at the counter, she can handle this costumer. The shop isn't very busy today, only a hand full of people were scattered around the shop, maybe because it's a couple of minutes past 2pm on a weekday or because it's minus 1 Celsius outside. He bet it was the latter.

"Lovely song, eh, whiteboy?" came a painstakingly familiar voice from somewhere behind him and only one person ever calls him 'Whiteboy'.

His head turns around so fast that he's scared that he might've just gotten whiplashed. 

"Saphira?!" he says, incredulously.

His eyes widen when they land on her gaunt appearance. She looks like she just spent weeks without food and survived.

She cut her hair, it was shorter now, it reached just above her shoulders but she kept her thick front fringe, it was messy and looked like it hadn't been brushed for days. Her cheeks were hollow and she had dark smudges under her eyes, like she hasn't been sleeping. 

Her lips were pale and looked like they've been bleeding. 

Her clothes barely fit her, her jumper was sliding off her shoulder and her skinny jeans were ripped and loose. 

She smirks at him and he cringes, she looks like the walking dead.

"What the fuck happened to you?" he all but yells. 

Peoples head turn towards him and he gives a sheepish apologetic smile in their general direction before he moves closer towards Saphira, who's standing opposite the counter.

Kat shuffles away, knowing best to leave them alone.

"Miss me?" she doesn't answer his question but grins at him.

'Yes, I've missed you... so much.' he wanted to scream at her face but cleverly decided against it.

He swallows a lump in his throat and tells her to take a seat while he gets her coffee order ready.

She nods and walks over to the same table she always occupies and he wonders why it's always unoccupied whenever she enters the shop.

"I'm taking a break." Says Harry to Kat, while taking off his green apron that's tied around his waist.