Artifice

Vicious Ducks

I'm going to mix up the locations, I made the mistake of making it in a specific place that I'm not particularly familiar with (cause I'm an idiot). So I don't want to put too much importance on where they are located incase I get a place wrong or whateva.

-

The smell of cologne was the first thing I could collect, then it was the wave of heat coming from underneath me.

I opened my eyes to find Harry being the source of that heat, half of my body was on top of him and his arm wrapped around my waist.

I pushed myself up being greeted by daylight and the skyline again. Harry groaned and shifted on the floor.

"Where'd you go?" He asked mindlessly, his eyes still shut but a frown set on his face.

I was now stood up, watching Harry rustle around on the wood floor.

"Eva?" He now sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What are you doing?" His voice was raspier now and as much as I wanted to admire his droopy morning demeanor, I was going to be late.

"I need to go." I moved towards my bag, shuffling inside of it to find my phone. "I'm going to miss my classes and I have work afterwards." I was panicking, I never missed days nor was I ever late to anything.

"Eva," Harry repeated and I ignored him, picking up my phone. "Eva, it's Saturday."

I unlocked my phone seeing that he was right, it was Saturday morning.

"Oh." I felt like an idiot. "Im sorry for waking you." I took a seat next to him.

"It's fine, we should get going anyways." He picked himself off the ground and went to retrieve his things.

On the way down he acted distant, I didn't know whether it was because he just wasn't a morning person or maybe I said something in my sleep. Lizzy claims that I'm a crazy sleep talker.

Harry ignored the man at front who happened to be a different one from last night but had the same reaction seeing him.

In the car Harry's phone rang repeatedly.

"Are you going to get that?" I asked and he didn't reply, grabbing his phone and turning off the ringer.

With the ringer off, his phone vibrated still.

"Who are you ignoring?"

"Liam, he's been texting me all morning about some things. Don't worry about it." It was now obvious he was acting pissy for no reason.

Last night was perfect, after we briefly kissed we talked about little things until we both grew tired, I recall spending most of the night leaning back onto his chest.

"Are you hungry?" He asked.

"Yeah." The only thing I've consumed in the past 12 hours were crackers and wine so I could really used something to fill in the empty room in my stomach.

We stopped at a hole in the wall type bakery, he ran inside insisting I stay in the car and that'd he come out quickly.

Minutes passed and he walked out with two coffees in a cup holder and a brown bag. He carefully handed me the coffees and jumped inside the car.

"I needed this, thank you." I blew on the top of the coffee cup and took a sip. "Shit, ow." I retracted the cup from my lips.

"What?" He looked at me concerned.

"It's hot." He rolled his eyes at me and started the car. "What'd you get?" I was obviously eager to eat.

"Some bread and pastries." The bag was put in the back seat and I wanted to reach and get something, a girl gotta eat. But I refrained from looking like a complete cow.

"Are you taking me home?" I asked while the cup of coffee warmed my hands and the car seats radiated heat onto my back and bottom, making this weather more tolerable.

"Do you want to go home?"

"Depends."

-

"I wish I could rewind time and eat that donut all over again." I liked my fingers that were covered in the glaze that was on the pastry I was still chewing. Oh god, I'm disgusting.

We were walking through Central Park after Harry insisted we'd do something today instead of parting ways.

"There's one more left?" Harry opened up the brown bag and lifted it up for me.

"Oh no, I couldn't. You've only had one and I've had two, I prefer you didn't think I was a pig."

"I would never think your a pig." He frowned, it was more of a disappointed frown than an upset one. "We're humans we need to eat, I'll never understand how people can be so picky about what they eat because of its calories or how others will look at them. Fuck how much society says you should eat or shouldn't."

"That's new," I said looking down with a smile on my face.

"What's new?" He asked.

"That non-conformist side of you. You surprise me everyday Styles." I raised a finger to his face poking a dimple that appeared.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Abate." He smiled, I wish I could've just taken it as a joke but it was true, I really didn't know much about him.

We continued walking, passing by the occasional jogger, dogs dragging their owners down the path and one person on a bike. Thankfully Harry had an extra coat in his car that I was borrowing, or I'd be freezing about now. All he had on was a sweater and a jacket, I teased him a few times about how he was not a real person for not even shivering.

"What's the bread for?" I pointed out the loaf of bread he bought but we never actually touched.

"It was incase we went to my place and made sandwiches but I've got a better plan for it."

He led me to the pond and inched close to the waters edge, taking out the bread and breaking it into pieces, then throwing the pieces at a group of ducks sitting on the water.

"Very sweet." The Harry I met weeks ago and believed him to be was no where to be found right now, it was as if he was a completely different person. I witnessed this person when he helped the children learn how to ice skate, last night and now.

"Want to throw some?" He handed me a chunk of the bread and I followed what he was doing.

"They're going crazy." I laughed watching them all furiously swim towards the pieces, I hurried to get more and throw it in. "Oh no." I said seeing that I shortly ran out of bread, as did Harry. "Sorry." I spoke directly to the ducks, causing Harry to look at me like I was crazy.

"Harry," My eyes widened when two ducks were swimming dangerously close to my hand. "Harry, Harry they're coming after me." I stood up when they raised themselves off the water and waddled their way to me.

I ran away as they speedily followed behind me.

"You've got to be kidding me." I could hear Harry mocking me from where we were by the lake.

Once I ran away, far enough the ducks gave up and stopped chasing after me. Harry clapped his hands while walking towards me with a stupid grin on his face.

"Amazing."

"Oh shut up, those things are vicious." I began to laugh, Harry shortly joined me.