Beating For Two

Chapter 21

Friday, March 18th

Thirty weeks and four days

“I- you- why are you a-asking me if I- I want you to kiss me?” I asked, stuttering slightly.

“Because I wanna know if you want me to kiss you obviously.”

“But why do you wanna know?”

“Can you just answer the question?”

I furrowed my eyebrows a little before I answered with a slight quiver in my voice.

“I- I think we've already established that I do... want it.”

“You want me to kiss you?”

I felt my face grow warm and I bit my lip nervously before I nodded ever so slightly, not quite trusting my voice not to betray me if I put it to use.

“Then I'll kiss you,” he said easily.

It took me a brief moment of thinking to understand what he'd just said. Then the realisation hit me and my mouth fell open.

“You- you- what?”

He smiled faintly.

“You want me to kiss you, so then I'm gonna kiss you. It's quite simple.”

“No, no, no,” I said, shaking my head.

“You're not gonna kiss me.”

“You just said you wanted me to.”

“Yeah, if you had wanted it as well,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“I don't want you to do it against your will, that's just... no, it wouldn't be the same.”

“I'm a good actor.”

“Not that good.”

“You don't know that.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“No, you don't.”

“Yes, I do know that and we're not hav- hmpfh.”

My eyes widened to a comical extent and I spent half a second catching onto what had happened and why my words had suddenly gone muffled. The reason was that Harry had ignored my protests and pressed his lips against mine. I was too surprised, almost shocked, to be able to even try and enjoy it, and even if I had tried, I doubt I actually would have enjoyed it because it was a hard, dry and slightly uncomfortable kiss and I swore I felt him squirm with disgust.

He pulled back after a few seconds and looked at me with a look of surprise and amusement on his face.

“It would probably have been easier for you to enjoy that if you hadn't stood there, stiff as a coat rack,” he said easily.

“I- I said I didn't want you to do that,” I mumbled, my eyes directed at a spot right next to his ear.

“Yeah, well, your eyes told me differently,” he said.

“Wanna try it again and this time actually kiss me back?”

I swallowed.

“We're standing outside,” I said, still not looking him in the eyes.

“Anyone could see us.”

“I don't really care, but if you do, you can come back inside.”

I didn't care if anyone saw us kissing, not really; as far as I knew, no one who went to our school or anyone my mum was in contact with lived around here, so there was no chance of accidentally outing myself. But Harry lived here, his neighbours could see, his parents could suddenly return home for some reason, his friends or Lauren could decide to stop by... shouldn't he keep any of this in mind?