Phantasm || irwin

[ 52 ] 2014

[ 52 ] 2014

-

"You'd better not look down her shirt."

-

"The boss asked me to watch over you." He replied.

Harley groaned out in frustration. "Why is he doing this to me? I'm not a child."

"He's your dad. He just wants to keep you safe." James pointed out. "Dads always want their kids to be okay. If you were my daughter, I'd have done the same or something worse to Saris." He confessed with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "I could have made her skull explode to bits with a blink, but that would have startled my guests." He said. While Harley found it to be completely absurd, he seemed to find it entertaining.

Harley sighed after she pushed the mental images of Saris' head exploding into pieces out of her mind. "I suppose you're right." She said in regards to his previous words about dad wanting to keep her safe. "But he never watched over me before."

"He did. You just never noticed." The fair skinned young man informed her. "Why do you think I was best friends with Billy?"

"You said you didn't remember me." She argued.

"All part of the act. But I always kept an eye on you all through high school until you moved away." He grinned, clearly proud of himself. "Dumb jock by day, hunter by night. I pretend I only care about basketball and girls, and the students of Applecross completely buy it." As Harley heard those words, it all made sense to her. All the time James would spend at their house because he was friends with Billy. It was all to keep an eye on her. Harley concluded Arthur was more smart and secretive than she thought.

Gesturing to her beer soaked clothes, she spoke, "I should probably go home now. I smell like beer."

"At least whoever smells you will think you had fun at a sick ass party." He joked.

"Loads of fun." She rolled her eyes at him.

"And," He added, before she turned to go in search of Phoenix and her cousin Rory, "I hope you understand that I'm only doing my job. Paul, Dempsey, and Michael have told me you can get pretty difficult."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You know them?"

He nodded in response. "We all know each other."

-

Harley saw James around the cafe where she worked often, though he was better and more understanding about giving her privacy. He would come around just once each day and ask how she was doing. Then he would play some tricks on Saris before leaving.

During the time she was working there, her grandparents paid her, and she had made some money of her own, which made her feel more independent. For two weeks, which was the total amount of time she spent visiting in Perth, she never received a text message or even a call from Calum. Harley was worried that something had happened to him. Or maybe he was still so mad at her that he didn't want to answer her texts. She hoped it was the latter, but she knew he hadn't even read her messages.

She returned to Sydney the night before school would resume for a new semester at St. Genevieve's. Her final six months of high school before she would graduate.

Harley got back to her house in Sydney tired from the trip, but she was relieved that she was back. For one, she missed her family, and her friends. And also, she would get to see Calum at school and he would have to talk to her. They had all the same classes and he wouldn't be able to avoid her.