A Single Droplet

Chapter Eight

The whole ride there I kept going over and over in my head about what I would say when I saw Harry. It didn’t stop me from being nervous at all though, I knew the moment he opened the door I would be speechless once again.  Nothing I did was going to prepare me so I decided to just try clear my mind as best as I could to calm my nerves. I had only been to Harry’s once before and didn’t remember the way as well as I thought I would, so I ended up getting quite lost but after noticing a few familiar landmarks I figured out the route, and it wasn’t long before I saw Harry’s large and lonely house come into vision.

My heart was racing at a million miles an hour and the adrenaline was pumping throughout my body. The feeling reminded me of how I had felt at one point last year. My dad was hardly ever home, and mum was almost always drunk, so it usually wasn’t an issue when I needed to get somewhere in the middle of the night. Maisy’s parents were quite the opposite though; I often wondered how Maisy managed to get away with as much as she did. It was the night of this massive party just outside of town, someone Ryan new was turning eighteen and was having a huge party in some huge abandoned warehouse. Maisy had been doing badly at school and her mum was extremely upset, she was constantly trying to get Maisy to study but she just didn’t have the patience that I guess one would need to try get Maisy to study. Maisy’s dad was a cop and always worked nights so he would be home in the really early hours of the morning, and sleep all day. It wasn’t too difficult to sneak out that night, but the thrill of it was something new to me. Sure I’d done badass things before but if we’d have been caught, especially with the joints we had on us, her dad would have had both our necks.

Her bedroom was on the bottom floor and the window led right to the road so we didn’t have a problem on the way out. It was trying to get quietly back in the house while being drunk and stoned, before her dad came home and caught us outside that was the tricky part. It was the single scariest, and most exciting moment of my life, but for whatever reason, as I parked and looked at Harry’s door, I felt like this moment held more adrenaline to it.

I was about to exit the car when I saw Harry’s front door opening. I freaked out and just sat completely still, like if I had moved even an inch, a bomb would have gone off or something. I watched as I saw Harry exiting his house but he was sporting only a pair of long blue and red chequered pyjama bottoms. I felt my stomach twist and a few heart palpitations at the sight of a shirtless Harry. It all stopped though when I saw the girl. She was shorter than Harry, but not too short. She had long golden hair, which looked like she’d had a bad case of bed head, and just as I was trying to convince myself that maybe it was his sister or cousin, he leaned forward and kissed her before she turned to walk off. As she turned and I caught a short glimpse of her, I noticed she looked familiar and a sudden thought crossed my mind. I had to know so I got out of my car and slammed the door shut grabbing the attention of both of them.

No way.

It can’t be.

But it is.

It’s my freaking photography teacher!

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I could see the worry in her eyes; I guess I could understand it’s not exactly legal to screw a 17 year old.  I broke my gaze with her and turned to look at Harry who looked completely dumb-founded. I turned back to our teacher when I heard a car start, looks like she didn’t want to stay and chat.

I felt so done completely and utterly done. Why do I keep trying to do this? I just thought that if I came here, I don’t even know what I thought. What was it I wanted from Harry that I couldn’t get from some other guy? Before I even knew what I was doing my feet were taking me towards him. When I reached him, he still hadn’t said a single word.

“So your plan is to screw the teacher so you don’t have to work on an actual assignment with me, huh?”

“What? No we were just. She was just...” The boy couldn’t even spit out a decent scentence.

“Don’t try to explain, I got what you were doing.” That was it, guys suck.

“No Raven! Don’t you dare do this again.” I turned to face him, slightly surprised.

“You can’t just accuse me of things and then walk away before even letting me explain.” He had calmed down and was looking at me with that look in his eyes that made me want to forgive him for everything, but I couldn’t just do that.

The two of us were shouting sentences back and forth to each other the way toddlers in an argument do.

“You never tried to explain!”

“You didn’t give me a chance!”

“You could have explained in class, you had plenty of chances.”

“I didn’t think you would listen.” I felt the rain start to drop down on me and all of a sudden it started to pour down hard, there had been far too many storms these last few weeks, and it was crazy. The sound of the rain had forced Harry and me to start shouting again.

“No Harry! You don’t get an excuse, what was I supposed to think after reading that message?”

“You weren’t supposed to think the worst of me!”

“I don’t know anything about you! You could have explained to me, you were just scared!”

My hair was soaked and dripping and my thin white cardigan was stuck to me like a second skin. I could see the goose bumps all over Harry’s chest; I hadn’t really paid the tattoos that covered him much attention. I had noticed the cross on his hand the first time I had bumped into him, and the other tattoos I had seen the night I had slept with him, I just really didn’t pay them much attention until now.

“Yeah you know what you’re right, I was scared! You’re pretty darn intimidating, you know that?” He had come closer to me, closing the gap that was between us. His face only inches from mine. His eyes were staring deeply into my own, as he cocked his head round so that his lips were almost grazing against my ear as he spoke.

“I know who you were Raven. I know what you did but I can see you’ve tried to change, anyone could.” He was now facing me again, still awfully close.

“I can see you Raven, you aren’t who you used to be, you’re who you are now. Everyone has a past, and you aren’t the only one to be ashamed of theirs. The only thing that matters is who you are now. Don’t you remember? You are a thousand things, but everyone chooses to see the million things that you are not. There is something enticing about you Raven, I’ve never acted how I have these last two weeks. You were making me crazy.”

At that I began to laugh a little, this all seemed so ridiculous. “I didn’t do anything.”

He looked at me in that way that sent shivers down my spine as he said something so simple yet that clearly had more behind the word than a single word is intended to.

“Exactly.”

 

At that his lips crashed against mine, his hands on my waist as he gently pulled me with him into the house, our kiss never once breaking.