The Trouble With Us

twelve

"Earth calling to Olivia?" he laughs lightly, "you know you can tell me anything right? I've known you for ages! Don't you trust me? And don't even try and deny that nothing was wrong because I know you and I know that you were really upset by something. You can totally trust me, you're like a little sister to me."

What. What did he just say to me. A little f*cking sister? That's it. I'm out.

"Uhh..." I fumble.

"Go on, spit it out." He smirks.

"Basi... basically I ran into a total stranger and umm.. he got really angry about it and tried to throw me into the pool and yeah... Katie just stood and laughed and didn't help me..." I trail off, not even thinking about what pathetic excuse is rolling out of my mouth.

"Oh, that is rather scary..." he mumbles, probably hella confused.

"Yeah it wasn't good." I mumble while trying to force a laugh, but end up in a choking fit.

Harry begins to rub and pat my back for some sort of support but his contact on my back seems to burn me entirely.

"Just don't touch me, I'm fine." I try saying, coughing in between.

"Sorry..." Harry says while retracting his hand, "are you okay?"

"Couldn't be better." I mutter.

"Good. Does anyone know you're here?" he frowns.

"No." I reply flatly.

"Oh, okay." He smiles gently while tapping his fingers on his knees.

"Why are you here? Don't you have a job?" I ask, trying my hardest to keep calm about being referred to as his 'little sister'.

"Well, I have an apprenticeship at the electricians in town. But I start in around six weeks, so after your holiday."

"That's cool, good for you." I sigh.

"Yeah. Are you excited for holidays?" He queries.

I shake my head slowly and keep my eyes focused out onto the view.

"Why is that Olivia?"

I can feel him turn to me fully, watching me with those piercing green eyes.

"Because, basically, I have no friends." I frown.

"You have me." He laughs, giving me a cheesy smile.

You see, normally I would be over the moon with his adorable input, but I know that I only have him like a second family, just like he said before.

"Yeah. Anyways, what are you doing on the holidays?" I dare to ask.

"Well actually, I think as of tomorrow your brother, some other guys and a few girls are going camping, even though your brother despises the outdoors. Don't know where yet, but it should be good."

Girls? My stomach twists. I just hope he doesn't show any interest in any of them.

"That sounds like it'll be fun." I tell him.

"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it." he says, emphasising the 'really'.

I force out a laugh and give him a thumbs up, realising how much of a dork I would have just looked like. He laughs anyways. All of a sudden we here a shout from down the track amongst the trees.

"Hey! Who's up there?"

"What the hell is going on?" Harry whispers to me.

"I don't know..." I whisper sounding nothing but terrified.

"I know someone's up here! This is private property! Come here this instant, you's are trespassing on my property!" the voice growls, and he's getting closer; whoever it is.

"Run." Harry ordered.

He grabs my hand and leaps rather athletically across the water.

"Harry I can't do that! My legs aren't as long as yours." I shriek.

He buckles over in laughter at the situation I'm in, but it makes me laugh too.

"Harry help me!" I say in between laughs, "he's coming!"

The man behind us is about twenty metres away, but I can tell he is quickly gaining ground.

"Just come across and I'll catch you." he says whilst trying to hold his laughter in.

"HARRY IT MIGHT AS WELL BE THE GRAND CANYON!" I shriek again.

"You don't have time to argue! Just get a little run up and jump!" He grins.

"Okay fine, I'll try! I can't believe you're laughing about this." I mutter with a smile.

"3...2...1...JUMP!" He shouts.

Surprisingly, I make the jump. But only just, I practically fall into his tall frame but he catches me regardless. We both turn to face the entrance where the man should almost be at. As if on cue, he runs around the corner of the trees and spots us within seconds.

"You little brats," he growls, "you think you can trespass on private property?"

"Liv..." Harry whispers.

"What?" I whisper back, frozen in fear.

"Is he holding a handgun?" Harry murmurs.

Sure enough, this crazy ranger is holding a small handgun in his left hand.

"Sir, we don't want any trouble. We didn't know this was private property, but that probably explains why no one is ever here and-"

"Get over here, I'm taking you to the station." the scary looking man demands.

Harry nudges my shoulder and low key looks over his shoulders to the trees. I nod my head and can't believe that we're in this situation. Before the angry man in overalls says another word, I turn and take off into the trees and look back to see Harry following close behind. I can hear the angry yells, shouts and curses fade away behind me. I don't stop though, and neither does Harry. Finally, when all is quite we slow down to a jog and then stop, bent over in exhaustion.

"What on earth just happened?" Harry breathes.

"I wish I could answer that, but I haven't entirely fathomed any of it." I reply, trying to maintain my breathing.

He chuckles and sits on the ground, I decide to be brave and boldly sit cross legged in front of him so I can see his face. Without talking, we take in our surroundings. All that can be seen his dense forestry and the faint chirping of birds.

"I wonder where the hell we are." he smiles.

"Me too...do you know what the time is?" I ask, remembering I left my phone in the car.

"Yeah," he says while checking his watch, "it's 1:46pm."

"Wow the days gone by pretty quick." I sigh.

"I can't believe we almost got shot." he says, then sighs dramatically.

"He was not going to shoot us," I laugh, "you're such a wuss."

"I am not! You took about three hours to jump across the water." he grins cheekily, slightly leaning closer to me.

"I could have tripped, then gotten washed away off a cliff." I procrastinate.

Harry locks eyes with mine and leans in even closer and at this point, I'm sort of freaking out.

"It was merely a puddle." he smirks, poking me on the nose.

"You would think that, because you have power poll legs," I murmur gently, "unlike me whom has regular human legs, making it a whole lot more difficult."

He's very close to my face now, only inches separating our lips. His eyes sparkle, and I can't help but notice that they keep falling onto my lips. I can't really comprehend what is going on right now, the recent memory of him referring to me as a sister to him just bugs me, especially in this situation here and now.

He places his large hands on my knees and whispers, " I think you have exceptionally excellent legs, and its a good thing I was there to save you."