Underwater. ||h.s.||

chapter two.

You know that feeling you get when you're in the dressing room? And there are people waiting for you outside, but you're trying to look your best when you come out, so you take forever?
And even though they've probably picked out all these things for you to wear, you can't make it work on you?

This is just my personal problem as a ginger, but it is extremely hard to find a blouse that will match my hair.

Three red tops and a shawl later, I gave up. I stepped out of the dressing room, holding up the godforsaken shirts...and hoping to find Rory with her hands on her hips.

That wasn't the case.

"Rory, these shirts are—"

"Erm..."

"O-Oh..."

On my twenty-second birthday, I walked out of a dressing room with just my bra on. My mouth lowered to the ground when I saw that the male friend of Rory's was actually handling both of their purses while they tried on some stuff in the adjacent stalls.

Given the circumstances, I ran back into the dressing room before I could make more of an ass out of myself.

Throwing the clothes to the ground, I limply paced back and forth in the room. My hands were running through my perfectly parted curls and my eyes were bulging out of my sockets. Gosh, I just met the man not too long ago!

But was it really the fact that he was there that got me? Perhaps so, but perhaps not.
I made the risk in walking out there and thinking that Rory and Quinn would stand there, scowling at how much time I was taking up.

I'd never expected to see him standing there.

Do I apologize? Would that be too much? Oh geez, I don't know...

KNOCK KNOCK.

My pacing stopped and I found myself staring at the door.
Whoever it was should identify themselves first.

"Who is it?"

"The unusual encounter, said the man with the locks. 

To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing such beautiful skin?

The fair lady replied, Why, chancellor, beauty is only skin deep.

This woman knew nothing of her own words.

Yes, but I am the beholder and beauty is casted upon the eye of the beholder.

The chancellor smiled, knowing he had charmed her."

Even my brain stuttered.
"...What?"

"It's a poem of cliches and modern phrases molded into a love story. Actually quite brilliant, in my opinion."
It was totally 'the guy' and what he was saying, I had no idea what it meant, but at least he was making one hell of a first impression.

Putting the blouse back on and opening the door, just to peek, I found him smiling down at the peeping redhead.

I whispered, "So you're into clichés, yes?"

"I believe in the science behind them."

"There is no science behind words."

"Then how can your brain tell what is cliché or not?"

I've had enough talk about the brain for one day. "...I don't believe Rory fully introduced me to you." I held out my hand. "Erin."

"Harry, the unusual encounter."

"Nice to meet you—"

"Before you scurry away again, I wanted to compliment you."
I felt anxious to hear his compliment. I wasn't used to them much anymore since I barely got out of the house (the only time being to a coffeehouse, or to snap photos of random buildings. Compliments weren't my thing) and could hear nothing from strangers.

"O-Okay."

Okay.

"You have a very nice ra—"
"Ugh, this store has the worst selection of tribal skirts," Rory interjected. Once her eyes landed on Harry and I, I felt like she'd make the assumption that many make in a situation such as mine.

I was small in this moment. I was halfway out of the door, halfway in while Harry hovered around that space, complimenting me and speaking in cliché tongues. My dose of awkward had just arrived.

"You all right, Ernie?"

"I'm fine."

Fine.

She smirked at me and I almost felt the need to screech, 'It is nothing like that!" but I remained quiet. Sure, I was dormant in the world of boys. I'm most positive that in the four years of knowing her, she'd think I was asexual because the only interest I showed in guys happened to be with Calum, and we were only together after he asked me out while I was drawing myself for one of my comic strips. Other than that, he was just a guy that visited me and hugged me two times out of the week. But enough rambling about that—