Candles

13 | I N V I T A T I O N

I STRONGLY BELIEVED I WAS laughing much harder than necessary. Harry was back to sitting on the chair across from me and he watched with amusement clear on his face. He brought his coffee mug up to his lips but his eyes were still on me as he sipped the beverage. My laughter soon enough died down and I felt out of breath. I had been laughing at whatever was being said—even if it was not funny to begin with. It did not matter to Harry, though. He just sat back and watched. It almost made me feel like he was listening to my laughter, digesting it.

"There's something wrong with this coffee," he pointed out.

"Too much caffeine, perhaps?"

"Or drugs."

"I don't own drugs!"

"That's what all druggies say, you know, when they're about to do that smoking pot thing."

As soon as the words slithered off of his tongue, I was laughing again. I pushed my coffee mug out of the way because I was afraid I would accidentally knock it over. Harry joined in this time and the sound of both of us laughing made me laugh even harder. Our laughter mixed together did not sound very pleasant. Harry must have thought the same thing because his face had turned a bright shade of red. After a while, we were still laughing but not laughing at the same time. Our mouths were open but not a single sound was coming out.

What if Harry was right about the coffee?

Once Harry wiped away the single tear that had fallen from his eye, it was a sign for us to calm down. My chest ached from laughing and I felt idiotic for laughing at something that was not even funny to begin with. I pulled my coffee mug back and picked it up, taking a couple of sips of it. The warm liquid made me feel hotter than I already felt and I sat the mug back down on the table. Taking a sip of it was a bad idea and I felt like taking a very cold shower. Harry had not taken a sip of his coffee since our little laughing fit. He probably knew it would only make him feel worse.

I stood up and took my coffee mug to the kitchen. I hummed silently as I poured the liquid down the drain. I rinsed the mug out and placed it in the dishwasher. There were not many dishes in there but that did not surprise me. I closed the dishwasher to find Harry going toward the sink with his mug. He poured the rest of his out, too, and placed his mug in the dishwasher. My eyes widened when his arms wrapped around me for the second time today. I hesitated before patting his back a couple of times. Why was he hugging me? It made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

I was the first one to pull away from the hug and I asked with a smirk, "Is this going to become a regular thing? You hugging me all of the time?"

"Probably," he said.

"Go hug your girlfriend."

"Go hug John."

"He isn't home," I sighed.

"Your imaginary friend isn't home?" he asked and I nodded. "Wow, Sydney, what did you do? Threaten him with drugged up coffee?"

I tried to push him out of the kitchen but he moved too quickly. I only pushed the air and this disappointed me on so many levels. Harry chuckled and made his way back into the living room. I followed, out of curiosity, and saw that Greysen was almost finished with the desk. I smiled at the sight of it and made myself comfortable on the floor. I was not too close to Greysen but I was close enough to get a good view of what he was doing. He was screwing a nail into the wood with an electric screwdriver and I noticed the earphones in his ears. They immediately reminded me of how much Harry loved his music.

Harry sat down beside me and he stretched his legs out in front of him. He had taken his shoes off in the kitchen and white socks covered his feet. My feet were much smaller than his and my eyes wandered to look at his hands. Like his feet, his hands looked like giants compared to mine. I looked up at the ceiling and frowned. I had been ignoring him for weeks and now he was in my home—the one place where I felt like I could be alone and had some privacy. If Harry followed me here several times, had he followed me to other places? I did not go straight home everyday from work. The thought of him following me around Seattle made me cringe. I opened my mouth to ask him if he had followed me other places when Greysen clapped his hands, yanked his earphones out of his ears, and stood up.