Paperboy. (h.s. au)

13.

Harry and I walk in the park for a little while. We talk about our day, take pictures, and laugh together. I find that being with Harry is surprisingly easy. Before, he would make me nervous more often than not. But lately, he's not so bad. He's fun to be around and somehow relaxes me from my usual state of constant anxiety. Maybe that's why I like being around him. Or maybe it's his jokes.

"Hey birdy," Harry says between giggles, "What do you call an alligator in a vest?" He covers his smile with his hand and I wish he'd uncover it. "An investigator!" He bursts into laughter and I smile at the bad joke.

Okay, so maybe it's not his jokes. But he's still nice to be around.

Some time into the walk, Harry's phone rings, interrupting my sentence. He picks it up and presses the phone to his ear, greeting Lacey readily.

"Hey, Lace," he greets cheerily. It's quiet for about a minute after that. He just nods and listens carefully, smiling occasionally.

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sure. I'll be there. Yeah. Okay. Love you," he then waits expectantly for a moment, then frowns ever so slightly and hangs up the phone. "I have a thing."

I gasp sarcastically. "A thing?"

Harry laughs quietly and nods his head, "Yeah!" He clears his throat, "No, um, Lacey wants me to come over. She's got a thing. Didn't say." He bares his teeth, seemingly nervous. I say nothing, and nod at him.

"Oh okay, leaving now then?" I'm slightly disappointed that he has to leave, but I guess the girlfriend comes before the friend. Mostly everything comes before the friend, I suppose.

"Yeeeah, gotta go now. I can drop you off at home if you'd like?" He suggests this and I quickly accept his offer. I wouldn't want to walk home in the dark again. I wonder if Harry remembers that.

We walk silently to the parking lot. The phone call kind of ruined the talkative mood we had. I hear Harry sigh heavily, but I pretend that I didn't hear. I wonder what's going on. I'm tempted to ask again as we reach the car.

We reach his small black car and he jogs up to the drivers side, plopping down on the seat and shutting his door. As I slide in, he turns on the engine and the radio the radio immediately starts blasting some angry-sounding song. Harry quickly turns down the volume when he sees my face. "Sorry," he says, "I like the music loud when I'm alone in here.

He sits for a moment, getting the station just right. He hums quietly to the song and puts his right hand on the back of my chair and turns around to back out of the lot. I try to ignore how close his hand is to my arm and look out the window. After about a minute drags by, I ask again, "You sure you're alright?" Harry's sighs slightly and purses his lips. For a moment I fear I've annoyed him. But then his eyes soften and his frown pulls into a line.

"Yeah, it's just.." He trails off, but I don't push him. I've already asked too much. "It's nothing. Thanks for worrying though." He smiles and I feel relief wash over me.

"Of course," I leave it at that.

We pull up to the curb of my house and Harry stops, putting the car in park. "Here you go, almost forgot this." Harry pulls my camera from his neck and hands it over to me. At some point during our walk, he took it again and captured a few more pictures. I almost forgot, too.

"Oh, right. So did I," I laugh nervously, "Thanks for the ride." I open his car door and walk up the pathway to my front door.

Harry shouts behind me, "Bye bye, birdy!" I laugh at his cheesy reference and wave behind me at him. I don't turn around fast enough, however, and end up falling backwards after stumbling over the first step to my porch. Harry, who was driving away, brakes the car and puts it in reverse. He stops in front of my house again and jogs up to me. I've pulled myself up but my face is red with embarrassment. I'm suddenly very thankful for the dark surrounding us.