Love and All It Does

12

Anika's POV
We arrive at a pizza place from across the school in no more than a minute and was greeted by the diner barely filled in with people. The booths were almost empty. The lady by the counter seemed ecstatic to hear the bell on the door tinkle and have customers to attend to. "Hi, good day! Welcome to Han's Pizzeria. May I have your order?" She says merrily, hands already set to type on the register.

Harry was scanning the menu. I have told him that I'll take whatever he orders. He then leans in to speak. "Uh, we'll have the Angus pizza with Steak sauce please. That and also two orders of mango fruit shake."

I whisper. "And bacon cheese fries."

Harry grins. "And bacon cheese fries."

We found our booth and made silence hover over us for a while. Looking at it now, every time and chance that I was with Harry, I always felt confined. It's weird to be feeling comfortable around him right now. For once, our relationship with each other looked promising. 

Our food arrived after a while and we both thanked the waitress politely.

"What time is your game tomorrow?" Harry looks up from his phone.

"Eight in the morning." I say, taking a slice from the pan and setting it on my plate. "Why?"

He slid his phone back in his pocket. "Just asking." He then gets a slice for himself and took a sip of his fruit shake.

"What time is yours?" I ask, biting onto the pizza. Nothing feels more satisfying than feeding a rumbling stomach.

"Six in the evening." He says before reaching over the table to get a fry. He chews on it, swallows then leans back. "Will you watch?" I don't get to answer right away and he laughs an easy one. "You should. I'll be expecting you there."

We ate in comfortable silence with him just watching people from outside. Sitting across him allowed me to look at his face as it gets gleamed by the sun. I wondered to myself if I ever thought I'd be here, sharing this moment with Harry, when he left. I wondered if I ever thought I would see him again.

When we finished the food and are on to our drinks, Harry speaks. "So, tell me about the things that we did before. Were we adventurous?"

I chuckled. I thought back to the furthest memory of our childhood that I can remember. I begin with the simplest one yet I think is one of the most meaningful for me. "Well, you would always leave out the tapioca pearls in your bubble tea for me." He beams at this and makes an impressed face. "You even got me a pack of dehydrated ones for my birthday."

"I did? Well, I was thoughtful."

"You are." He still is.

"About that friend who taught you soccer..."

I nod. "You were always annoyed at me." I laughed and he does too. "You would fall silent every time I bring up soccer because you know I'd ask you to teach me." It makes my heart flutter to see him look animated as he listened to me. "When you were teaching me how to score, you got so ticked off that you used 'goddamn' in your explanations all the time."

He nods slowly, the grin on his face never disappearing. I can't help but smile. "Kick the goddamn ball with the goddamn side of your..." He trails off, chuckling. "Yeah. That would be me."