HARRY
There's a numbness seeping into my very core. It travels through me as my vision turns blurry. It's a result I can't escape.
"Harry, please."
Please. He sounds sorry. He's sorry he's been caught, sorry his secret rendezvous has been revealed. He's sorry my coffee is staining his carpet where I dropped it, sorry I've noticed the empty condom wrapper next to his bed, sorry his accomplice-to-cheating is gathering his belongings and rushing out past me. And yet someone stops his escape as they nearly crash.
"Andy?"
Andy.
Whoever he nearly bumped into knows him. And when it occurs to him what's happening, mind processing as his eyes dart back and forth, his expression turns into one resembling mine.
"Louis," Andy says. "What are you...?"
What are you doing here? It was Nick's instinct as well, to question me on my presence as though it was a mere inconvenience I had interrupted something.
"I came to surprise you," Louis says. "Seems you're surprising me instead."
"Harry," Nick says, catching my attention again. "Let me just—"
"Explain?" I interrupt. "No, thank you. You can fuck right off."
"Harry—"
"I never wanna see you again."
I spin around to go, passing Andy and Louis as I continue towards an exit. I release my emotions as soon as I'm out, panic rising in me as I drop to my knees and gasp to catch my breath as tears wet my cheeks and run down my neck.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Breathe.
I remove my backpack and put my palms against the ground as I breathe in and out, in and out, in and out.
"Hey," someone says, crouching opposite me. "Harry, was it?"
I look up to meet Louis' eyes through my blurry vision. "Yeah."
"Are you having a panic attack?"
"I'm not sure," I say, voice unsteady as I continue gasping to catch enough air. "I've never... I've never had one."
"Well..." He pauses as he considers it, hands soon a calming presence on my wet cheeks. "Do you suppose I can kiss you?"
I'm not sure I understand it, but I agree anyway, breathing in deep as soon as our lips meet. I hold my breath and soon breathe out through my nose, tasting tears as Louis coaxes my lips apart and dips his tongue into my mouth. I relax in response, enjoying the sensation of being kissed until we're separating again.
"That was..."
He stares into my eyes. "Alright?"
"Yeah."
He helps me up and reaches into his pocket to get a cigarette. "So... your boyfriend cheated on you?"
I nod. "With yours, I assume?"
"Seems that way."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your crime," he says. "We were both cheated on."
"You don't seem very..."
He shrugs, but then he tears up. "Yeah... well."
"Were you expecting it?"
