Pressure [hs au]

10 - Skittish

Word count: 3430

"Pose for you?"

"Pose for me." He said it so plainly, like it was as typical a question as 'how was your day'. 

"When?" I ask, cautiously reaching for the sketchbook without breaking his gaze. 

"Friday night?" Four days away. I can do that, right? I don't see the problem with posing for him. He would just be painting me, I shouldn't feel so nervous.

"A painting yeah?" I'm just stalling now. I feel like this would either be the best, most fun thing we've done yet, or the most awkward. 

"Yep." He chuckles, raising the sketchbook higher. I sigh, relaxing into the booth next to him.

"Isn't there a list of models you could call, hanging up in one of the studios?" I think I saw one earlier in one of the drawing classrooms. He nods slowly, eyes tracing over all my features. 

"I got my first assignment today, and I'd like you to be my subject." He voice was so low I nearly got goosebumps. 

"Yeah, okay." My voice cracks a little I look away instantly. He drops the book in my lap, resting his arm on the headrests of the booth. I whisper a quick 'thank you' before moving back over to my side of the table, putting my sketch book away in my bag again. 

"Did you walk here?" He asks suddenly, breaking the short silence.

"Uh yeah."

"All the way from The Bean?"

"Yup."

"But you were scared last night going home?" I roll my eyes, cleaning up the mess of wrappers on the table. When I come back, Harry was standing, all of his belonging neatly tucked away in his backpack.

"Ready to go?" I nod, quickly bending down to grab all my loose items and shove them in the front pocket of my backpack. Once I was ready, we walk out, turning around the same corner we did last night to go back to the apartments. I would have been fine taking a taxi, but it was really nice outside at this time of day. 

"Oh shoot." I stopped walking, hitting my forehead with my palms. "I meant to go shopping today; I don't have anything to eat."

"There's a market down that way." He points, and there actually was one a couple hundred yards down. Nice.

"Thanks, uh you don't have to come with me if you don't want to." I say once we get to the corner where if you go right, you're heading to the apartments, or you go straight and are at the market. 

"No, no, I want to. I've been living off of takeout, leftovers, and McDonald's for too long now." I smirk to myself, knowing how true that was, because so was I. He's complained to me several times about how the cheapest takeout here is Chinese food, so he kept getting that.

"Sweet, because I've never been here before and don't know where to start." I admit. 

I look up at him as we cross a street; It's strange to think about how a week ago I had no clue who Harry even was- I was still talking to Valerie everyday, and Jason and I were in a semi-decent relationship. 

I still want to try to talk to Valerie about all of this-- I can only complain about Jason so much to Harry. I'm actually just tired of talking about Jason in general. I'm not going to be heartbroken, we aren't together, and I'm okay with that. 

The second I suspect he was about to look down, I quickly peer forward, acting as if I wasn't just staring up at him. God I hope he didn't notice. If he made another smart ass comment I would die.