Anna || HS

CHAPTER 43

~May 2014~

Anna- 20
Harry- 20

~May 13th, 2014~

Anna POV:

I talked to my mom for over an hour. Lots of words of wisdom were woven though our long conversation, but ultimately it boiled down to giving Harry time and space. Right now, time and space away from him were the last thing that I wanted.

Then, I called Maddie. I was not surprised to hear that she had already heard from Harry.

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"Anna, he just sounds like he's all over the place, and well... honestly, he's hurt," Maddie releases into the air over our FaceTime call. "Can you honestly blame him?"

"Yeah, I get it, but you're forgetting that I forgave the Kendall thing," I say, looking away from her on the screen, staring off into space.

"But, you didn't find him balls deep inside Kendall after a ten hour flight to surprise him, now did you?" she says crassly, getting heated. I keep looking away, already well aware of how badly I had hurt him.

She doesn't speak for a while, and I can tell that she is trying to delicately walk the line of her friendship with Harry and her friendship with me. "Anna, I can't take sides," Maddie finally says.

"I know, Mads. It just really sucks. I made a stupid, drunken, mistake, and he doesn't even want talk to me now. Fuck-Maddie. I finally figured out what I want, and now he is the one walking away. At the end of the the day, he is my best friend. I don't know what to do."

"Anna, he just needs some space. Please, just give the man some space," she says, as she watches my tears fall through a screen from the other side of the world.

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~May 15th, 2014~

The question was, exactly how much space did he need? I packed up to go to graduation, but I also knew that I needed to talk to him about my living arrangement. I'd accepted the New York job with AR Harris. However, after recent events, I didn't even feel like I could ask to stay at his flat any longer. This meant that I would have to find somewhere else to live.

I need to clarify when I need to be out by. In an effort to give Harry space, and not bother him with this, I stop at the front desk to ask Lewis the end date of my board-approved residency in Harry's flat. He verifies my suspicion, that it is Saturday, May 31st. Which gives me all of two weeks after graduation to pack up and find a new place to live.

"Will you be moving out at the end of two weeks?" Lewis asks me.

"I will let you know soon. Thank you, so much, for all of your help, Lewis," I tell him sweetly, rolling my suitcases to the waiting car out in front of the building. How nobody in the press has figured out this was Harry's flat I will never understand, but the real estate record is not in his name, so I guess people just haven't put it all together, yet. Whatever the reason, I am grateful.

On the flight to South Carolina, I stare out the window, listening to anything but One Direction on my headphones as I attempt to forget about the mess I am in. Sofie is seated next to me, but I maybe say three words to her for the entire flight. She knows that I am reeling, and that I just don't want to talk about it- Harry. Jason. New York. Really any of it.

Jason has been texting me constantly. We have talked and he knows that right now nothing can happen between us, and that more than likely nothing else ever will. That doesn't stop him from checking in with me, offering congratulations on my graduation and sending flowers as a thank you for the project to his team at AR Harris, which just happens to include me.