Black Ink || Harlena a.u.

9.

Anne was vigorously swiping at random stranger's profile, she wasn't even looking at them as her finger flew across the screen; something about increasing my matches that way, but that I could choose who I'd talk to and who I'd ignore from the ones I'd get.

"I think that's enough for tonight," I yawned tiredly as I stretched. My butt and legs had a mini seizure before I limply lied under the covers.

I looked at Anne who kept staring at the screen, frozen in shock towards whatever she was looking at.

"What is it?" I asked as I tried sitting up to look at the phone. She pulled it away after snapping out of it, not letting me see what it was. "Anne," I pressed.

Her eyes looked back at the screen and then at me, "So are you really sure that Harry has a girlfriend?"

My heart hammered in my chest at the thought of what she was looking at. "Yes, now let me see."

She turned the screen towards me, but wouldn't let me hold it. "You saw it."

My eyes widened, heart stopping and breathing hitching as a smiling Harry was proudly displayed on screen. "Don't even think about it," I warned. Her finger was already pressed on his chest as it slowly slid to the side

"This," she began dramatically. "Is how we will see if he's really interested or not."

"Anne," I drawled out in horror.

It seemed like everything was in slow motion. Me jumping to get my phone out of her hands and Anne's triumph smile as her finger finished swiping the screen. Almost instantly, the screen lit up to a new notification.

We both were frozen as we read the image. Slowly, we looked at one another.

"Oh. My. God," Anne breathed from beside me.

"You swiped Harry!" I yelled in shock as my mouth hung open. My eyes darted between Anne's mirrored expression and Harry's smiling face on my screen.

"He swiped you first!" Anne yelled back. The thought sent a shiver down my spine and a shot of warmth through my chest. "Click to send him a message!" She smacked my arm repeatedly.

"And say what?!" I was nervous, but excited. A huge part of me was too happy that biting down the smile that tugged on my lips, was useless.

"How's your girlfriend?" She snickered. I smacked her arm, sending us into a fit of giggles at the pettiness.

"Maybe I should pretend that I haven't seen it and wait for him to send a message first?"

Anne squinted her eyes in thought, lips puckering and head tilting sideways. "Okay, yeah. We could do that."

I pressed the power button before placing my phone on her nightstand. The bed dipped here and there as we shuffled to find our comfortable position and after she stayed still, I pushed the blanket under my arm. It wasn't hard to still see the outline of her small frame, especially since the night wasn't as dark as it had been years before.

"Anne?" I whispered. The giddiness inside of me was slowly replaced with something else.

"Hmm?"

My teeth gnawed at my bottom lip, "I'm really sorry for screwing things up for you." Perhaps it was this whole Tinder Harry thing that had my mind in a new high that I felt the need to apologize to her. It had been, in fact, thanks to her that I was feeling this way.

She was facing the wall, but as soon as I finished, she turned around and sighed, "It's not your fault. You were just looking out for me and maybe it didn't go as smoothly as you would have hoped, but it was the thought that counted... so I'm sorry for lashing out about it."

We lied in silence for a while. "What are you going to do?"

"About Liam and Niall?" I nodded, but then remembered that she couldn't see me; however, Anne must have gotten the idea because she sighed once more. "I think I'm going to talk to Liam and make sure that he wants me as more than a friend. I want to hear it come from him. And as for Niall... I'm going to explain to him what's going on. I don't want him to be some sort of back up. If Liam and I don't work out, I want Niall to know about the whole thing instead of making him believe that he was always the first choice. And if he still accepts me, even after that," she paused. "Then he's more than what I deserve."

I thought about her words and it was moments like these that I remebered how mature Anne really is. She might be all jokes most of the time, but when things get serious, she's that smart and independent girl I moved in with. Despite the scary thought of being on our own after moving out, Anne's reassuring smile always comforted me because I knew that we were doing this together.

My phone began buzzing uncontrollably, so much so that I kind of panicked and thought it would burst at any moment.

"You got more matches!" Anne yelled excitedly, calm demeanor quickly replaced with mischief. "Hurry and check," she pushed.

I grabbed by buzzing phone and scrolled through the long line of notifications. The app opened up to countless faces and a few genitals that Anne pressed for me to screenshot in case I felt needy one night, to which I tried my hardest to glare at her.

Match after match, I scrolled until my eyes landed on a really good looking guy. The rest looked either too young or too old, but he... He was mesmerizing. I couldn't stop looking at the screen that read:

"Holy fuck he is hot!" Anne gushed. "You have to send him a message. I gave you a pass on Harry, but this one, no exceptions."

My fingers hovered over the screen before I clicked the red bubble and typed.

Me: Hey

"Should I add a smile, or is that pushing it?" I asked.

"You can so push it."

Me: Hey (:

And send.