Rule number seven

Chapter eighteen

I hum along to the music playing in my ears. Tapping my foot along to the beat while laying brush strokes on the wall swaying my hips. It's a quiet Wednesday afternoon and not a lot of people have bothered me today. Harry and I are painting on the walls opposite from each other but we haven't had an actual conversation. We just smile at each other if we make eye contact and focus on doing our own thing. After two full days of work everything's coming along and I love it. This design was definitely the right choice and it gives depth and character to this room. When the music teacher came in to have a look she was very impressed by my painting and she loved what I have done. I can't lie that gave me a massive ego boost but I'm not complaining. I only have about a couple of hours left to completely finish this but I'm not bothered. It will definitely not take too long to get this completely finished. I have a few piano keys to add and then finish it off with some shading and a nice finish. I place my paintbrush down onto the stool and take a step back. I take it all in and examine my work. This is probably the best thing I have ever done and probably will do.
"That looks good." I turn around to see Harry looking at my work. "Thank you. Yours is nicely coming along too." I say and he puts his brush down. "Thanks." He chuckles. He walks over to me and takes a seat near me. He looks up at me and we make eye contact. "I wanted to ask this ages ago but I was too shy to talk to you but are you okay? I can tell there's something bothering you and it has been bothering you for a while and it got worse here. I've never seen you so high alert here. I mean it's not any of my business but I just wanted to ask." I let out a deep sign and sit down next to him. I know I can trust Harry because he's so shy and gossip is probably the last thing on his mind. Along with that, telling people has made it easier for me and now a lot of people know what happened and that he's in this school, area, class. "Yeah I'm fine now, it's nothing major but there's this boy. I really thought he was something special and we were made for each other but he just left with no explanation. That was about four weeks ago and on Monday when I saw him walk into the class my heart stopped. I'm just very confused at the moment because we had our moments together but I don't know." I can tell that he doesn't know what to say, no one does. It's a situation you commonly see but there is never a right answer on what to say about it. Everyone has a different reaction to it. You can tell that person that they deserve better or that you understand or that you're sorry but they're all shit responses. It's better to not say anything and just be there for that person.
"Shit. Is he the guy that burst in through the door on Monday?" I look down to the floor. "Yeah it was." I say quietly.
"The way you gasped got me so confused. I thought you found your long lost brother or he just scared you." He said chuckling and I begin laughing at his ridiculous comment. I gave him a 'really?' Look and he just burst out laughing. We both sat there laughing, cheering each other up. I could tell that he was just trying to get me to cheer up or get a genuine smile out of me and he managed to get that. I really appreciate him for doing this, especially if we know nothing about each other and barely have spoke before but it was nice seeing him open up to me slightly.
We sat there and talked for hours about whatever crossed our minds and getting to know each other. Harry may be the shy quiet kid but he has a great character to him that you would never expect. He talks about the most ridiculous things and has such strong opinions but no one would have ever guessed that. He is full of energy and happiness, so genuine and delicate.