Yellow || hs au

| 88 |

—

February.

Harry

   "Jesus Christ man!" Rick sighs, catching the ping pong ball in his hand and leaning his palms against the table. "That's the third time in a row that I've beat you at your own game, what the fuck's up with that?" He questions, lifting his shoulder and wiping the sweat from the side of his scarred face. I sigh and set my paddle down on the table, shaking my head lightly.

   "I don't know." I answer, my hands gripping the edge of the table as I allow my head to hang low, my eyes focused on the ring around my finger, my heart hammering in my chest. It's almost the end of February, and the last time I spoke with Clover was my birthday. I know she's busy and she does call me quite a bit, but I just miss her. I want to be home with her. "Just miss my girl." I say pathetically, but it's true. And I can proudly say that.

   "Clover, right?" He asks, a small grin tugging at my lips as I nod my head. The sound of her name brings chills to my body, my heart fluttering at the mere thought of her. All I want is to be with her right now. I don't know why I'm feeling like this, I guess I just am getting a little homesick.

   "Yeah." I nod, remembering how much Rick really liked her. He told me they met when she was here last in January, all he could do was tell me how nice she was. She is nice. And, when I talked to her on my birthday, she made sure to ask me to tell Rick hi for her, which I thought was sweet. She always seems to get along with everyone, it makes me wonder how the hell we fell in love. Guess I'm just a lucky son of a bitch.

   "Why don't you call her?" He asks, watching me from across the table. I chew my bottom lip, knowing that I could very well call her, but it really just isn't the same. I know I'm not in a position to pick and choose, calling her is all I have right now and I'll gladly take it, but I always feel like shit after we end our call. I can hear the way she holds back tears, and that shit makes me cry every time. I wish the circumstances were different. And now I understand why she was so worked up when I told her it would be another three months before I came home. That's a long time to be away from someone you love, and I couldn't be more in love with this woman. The distance is catching up with me now, but I really hope that she isn't getting used to it.

   "She's got shit going on." I reply with a shrug, straightening back up and grabbing the handle of my paddle. Rick stares at me with squinted eyes, not moving a muscle which causes me to sigh in slight irritation. "What?"

   "That's one hell of an excuse." He states, giving me a look. I roll my eyes and motion to the ball that he's been holding hostage, Rick continuing to stare me down. "Don't be a pussy, call her and tell her that you miss her." He pushes, tossing the ball and hitting it over the net, my hand moving quick to return it back.

   "She already knows I miss her." I voice, sending the ball spinning back to his paddle. Rick doesn't say anything else, and neither do I. We continue sending the ball back a forth, keeping it easy on one another. I miss Clover, and talking about how much I miss her makes it worse and I have an awful feeling that the next two and a half months are going to go by much slower than the other three did.

I furrow my eyebrows deeply as Rick catches the ball in his large palm instead of returning it back with his paddle. He shoves his paddle and the ball in the small holder hung off the edge of the table before he simply walks away without saying anything. I stare at his back, fully confused on what just happened as he situates himself on one of the unoccupied couches. I sigh lowly and leave my paddle on the table before I make my way over to sit beside him.