Beating For Two

Chapter 26

Thursday, April 14th

Thirty-four weeks and three days

“Lou! We're gonna be late if you don't get out of bed soon!”

I wanted to die. I really, really wanted to die. Well, maybe not really, but it sure felt like it at the moment. For obvious reasons, I hadn't gotten much sleep last night and my head had been processing the same words over and over and over again until I felt sick.

“I have a girlfriend and I love her, but... if she wasn't in the picture, you... you would not be my last choice in partner, okay?”

Okay? Okay? He thought he could just say things like that and have it be okay? If he thought so, he was wrong, because it was so far from okay. After having spent the last three months or so telling me that he was completely straight, he suddenly got up and told me that the idea of me and him together wasn't a complete impossibility? Who the hell did he think he was, saying things like that out of the clear blue? What on earth was it all about? Where had it come from? Had he meant it at all or had he just said it in an attempt to comfort me? If that was the case, I'd most likely end up in tears because he'd said that me and him wasn't completely impossible. I would have to talk to him about it later, but right now, I had to get out of bed and get dressed if I wanted to be on time for my first class.

Fifteen minutes and a very quick breakfast later, we were on our way to school. Harry hadn't really said much since we left the house, but then again, it was early and he was most likely a little stressed out considering we only had a little over five minutes to get to school. When it was only a couple of kilometres left of the drive and he still hadn't said a word, I decided to take matters into my own hands; there was no way I would be able to go the whole day in uncertainty, not when it came to this matter.

“Harry?” I said, looking at his profile.

“Hm?” he responded absentmindedly.

“We don't really have the time to talk about this properly right now,” I started.

“But we should at least get something cleared up, so... about what you said last night-”

“Oh, fuck, I was supposed to call Lauren,” he interrupted, not seeming to have heard any of what I'd just said. Without sparing me as much as a glance – okay, fine, so he was driving – he took his cellphone from where he'd placed it on the dashboard and picked it up.

As he pushed a couple of buttons on the screen and then lifted the device up to his ear, I looked at him, feeling a little confused. Why didn't he bother listening to what I had to say? Did he really have to call Lauren right then? Couldn't it wait until I'd said what I wanted?

Then a thought hit me and I wanted to bang my head against the window. Was it possible that he had decided that last night never happened? Was it possible that that was his way of dealing with all of it? I felt anger boil in me at the thought and I directed my gaze straight forward and crossed my arms over my chest, uttering a slight huff of annoyance.

By the time we pulled up on the school parking lot and he stopped the car, I'd managed to get properly angry, which may have been a little ridiculous considering I didn't actually know that my theory was correct, and I jumped out of the car and headed off without even looking at him.

“It's still a couple of minutes left before class starts,” I heard Harry call after me, sounding confused.

“You don't have to stress.”

“Whatever,” I replied curtly without bothering to turn around or even stop.

“What's wrong now?” he asked.