Limitless

Chapter 15

Every time I saw Harry that week, I wanted to punch someone in the face because I was so irritated.  Claire clung to him like a koala to a tree, giggling and poking him in stomach or kissing his cheek any chance that she could.  She followed him to his classes and sat with him at lunch - or rather, ON him at lunch, playing with his hair and feeding him his food.  The thing that irritated me the most though was that he didn’t respond.  He didn’t kiss her back or hold her hand or even talk to her. If he was going to try and make me mad like this then I wished he would just go all out.

Harry and I made eye contact only once the whole week, but it was from way down the hallway, and Harry immediately turned down another corridor to avoid having to pass me.  If Liam was walking with Harry in the hall and Emma and I happened to catch up to them, Liam and Emma would talk and hug and kiss and Harry and I would just stand to the side and pretend like the other person wasn’t there.  At lunch, for some reason Harry insisted on still sitting with us, which meant Claire was sitting with us too.  Emma looked daggers at Claire all lunch long, despite Liam’s protests, and Claire just paid attention to Harry.  I tried to act like this wasn’t all killing me but it was actually tearing me apart.

On Friday night, I waited at Briarwood for Josh to pick me up for the party.  I was still not going to tell him where I lived, especially after he slapped me.  It made me sick to think that he thought everything from our short past together was over and done with, and that I was actually asking him for another chance.  He was the equivalent for me as Claire was to Harry for the week, giving me hugs I didn’t want and attempting to kiss me on the cheek and hold my hand, but I didn’t let him do that much.  He texted me every night and asked how I was and what I was doing, but that was it.  He always tried to keep the conversation alive by talking about homework or something that happened in one of his classes that day but eventually I would just stop replying.  We would have the same conversation the following night.  I grimaced when I received a text from him as I waited in my car.

-Almost there Honey Bear :)

I sighed and looked around.  I laughed to myself when I thought of something: Harry was pushing me to my limits even when he didn’t mean to.  Finally I spotted headlights and Josh pulled up next to me.  I locked my car door and climbed into the passenger seat of his car.

“Holy shit you look great,” he breathed as I pulled at the bottom of my dress.  I didn’t usually dress up for parties.  Most girls did, but I just never felt the need.  I was always too busy impressing people with my parties instead of impressing them with my looks.  I didn’t have a reason to impress anyone until now.  I was wearing a short, fitted black dress and some plain black heels – nothing too fancy – and I curled my hair away from my face.  I was glad that my dad was gone for the weekend on another business trip because if he had seen me, I wouldn’t have been allowed outside of the house.  He actually asked Kaylee to watch me and make sure I stayed in, but I lied and assured her I would be good and told her that she didn’t have to come watch me.

“Thanks,” I said quietly as I looked out the window, responding to Josh’s compliment. 

Josh turned on his radio. “Listen,” he said excitedly. I waited for a moment as he pushed the play button on is radio.  I heard a CD begin to spin behind the dashboard, and soon enough the opening notes of “Chim-Chimney” began to play.

“Marry Poppins…” I said slowly, a little creeped out that he actually went and bought the CD.

Josh nodded and began to sing along as we drove out of the parking lot.  I was surprised I didn’t jump out of the car before we got to Kellan’s.  Josh kept trying to hold my hand or rest his hand on my knee, but he was having a hard time with his new cast. We literally almost listened to the whole Mary Poppin’s soundtrack, but we got to Kellan’s before the second to last song.