Sair:
I walked home from lunch with the girls that afternoon. I’d lied, telling them I had schoolwork. It was half true, but the honest truth was that I just couldn’t bare to come with them and see the boys now. Not after what they said about Niall, and how they praised me for being so sweet and taking care of him. I didn’t take care of him, I didn’t even know if I cared for him at all. And I certainly wasn’t sweet. How desperate he must have been when he pulled me out of that line that night.
“Sairy!”, someone called my name from behind, and it was only one person who called me that.
“Henry?”, I turned around, and waited for him.
“What are you doing out here Sair-bear?”, he smiled at me once he caught up, and we started walking.
“I’ve been having lunch”, I said.
“Oh really?”, Henry’s eyebrows wiggled. “With Neil?”.
“Niall”, I corrected him with a frown. Henry just laughed.
“I’m sorry, I meant Niall”. I couldn’t be mad at Henry for anything, so I just smiled and shook my head.
“Well, it wasn’t with him, it was with a few girls”.
“Right”, Henry nodded.
“What about you?”, I asked him.
“Working out”, Henry flexed his muscles at me as a joke... but they were nothing to joke about.
“That’s...”, I blinked a few times, trying not to stare at his biceps. “That’s great, good for you”. Henry rolled down his sleeve again, smiling up at the sun.
“Yeah, you know”, he squinted up at the bright light, and I think he was about to say something when I heard a clicking sound behind me. There was no way I would mistake that shutter from something else, and I only needed to cast my glance behind my shoulder once.
“Crap”, I hissed, and grabbed Henry by the arm. He was more confused.
“What?”, he asked me bending forward as I dragged him along.
“It’s the photographers, they’re after us”. Henry’s eyes widened. “Don’t look behind you!”, I snapped at him, just before he turned his head. “Just keep up”. We didn’t run, and didn’t panic, but not far off. There were about six of them, and they were all follow close behind. “When we turn the corner over there, we run”, I whispered to Henry, and he nodded. The second we were shielded by the wall, we sprinted down the sidewalk, and Henry started laughing.
“Is this just a normal day to you?!”, he giggled loudly, running fast and easy by my side. I just rolled my eyes, and tried to keep up with how fast he managed to keep the pace.
“In there!”, I yelled and pointed to the park just across the street. Henry took my hand and dragged me over the road, and through the gate. Soon enough we sat behind a tree, catching our breaths. Henry caught it much quicker than me, and peeked out behind the trunk.
“I think we lost them”, he smiled happily, and leant his head back with a satisfied sigh. “Well, that was fun”. I let out a laugh, finally getting rid of the blood taste in my mouth.
“Glad you thought so”, I giggled.
“You should ask your boyfriend to get you a security guard or something”, Henry joked, bumping my shoulder. I just laughed.
“Yeah, that would look great at school”, I smiled, and stood up. Henry just grinned up at me.
“Oh come on Sairy...”, he bobbed his head. “Since when did you care about what people thought about you?”. I reached out my hand for him, and he took it, letting me help him to his feet.
