Effortless (h.s.)

Chapter TWENTY ONE - tension

I held my ground there, my jaw was open but my lips were sealed while Harry and I had a stare down after the multiple meaningful phrases rolled off his tongue. His eyes were dark but the faded smile on his face told me he knew exactly what he was doing right now.

"And about that date," he whispered, his body pressed up against mine. I surprised myself and didn't move back. My heart was in my toes and my mind was racing so quickly that I couldn't process anything going on right now. All I was sure of was I was enjoying this. I didn't want to rush anything and have the moment end, "I know you were in an altered state of mind when you agreed, but love, it would make my day if you said yes."

I swallowed hard and forced myself to blink, "Only if you tell me exactly how you asked me the first time, I really want to remember," I truthfully revealed, his eyes smiled at mine and he took a step back, putting his hands together before trying to recall.

Harry squinted up at the bright lights and clapped loudly catching me off guard, "I got you back to my place, you remember that?" He asked while shifting the weight in his feet from one side to another.

"Kind of," I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest. I got distracted and looked past him for a second, staring at the thousands of empty chairs watching us. That familiar feeling fueled me again to run. I refused to listen to it though, I planted my feet right in the middle of the stage and directed my eyes back to Harry, who was watching me closely.

"I told you that you didn't have to work the next day because you would feel like absolute shit," Harry laughed, "and then you complained about how you had no excuse to come over without the job, so I asked you on a date."

I lightly frowned and crossed my legs in front of each other, "I don't remember any of it."

"Maybe next time you shouldn't get so drunk that you can't get up the stairs," Harry puckered his lips in a failed attempt to hide his smile, "I came down and had to physically move you upstairs because you told me that the wall in the lobby was comfortable."

My hands covered my face in embarrassment, why did I had to get so drunk? Why couldn't I have been like everyone else and drink enough water to have my brain functionally work?

"Harry! This place needs to be cleared out in five minutes!" Harry and I both shot our heads around to see a man, no older than twenty five, walk into a gate underneath the lowest bowl seating about a few hundred feet away from us. The man had ginger red hair and was buff, "Lennon," he nodded his head to me with a small smile, then bowed his head to initiate his turn around. I guess that was Scott.

Harry reached for my hand and squeezed it firmly, pulling me away from the middle of the stage. I turned back around and stared at the view while we walked off the stage and towards a staircase leading to the back.

As a music major in college, this was truly a dream come true. It was so inspiring to see something this amazing. This place brought thousands of people together to experience music. I bit my lip and shifted my gaze onto the floor, I smiled thinking about it.

"So was that Scott?" I questioned, Harry gave me a side glare and rolled his eyes.

"Don't change the subject," He kept walking for a minute but stopped in front of the stairs, he inspected the gates by peering over my shoulder, looking to see if Scott was still around. When he pulled back to look me in the eyes I stepped closer to him, he opened his eyes a little wider and scanned me up and down.

"I'm not changing it, I'm trying my best to absorb all the information I was deprived previous to now. Either I was drunk or had my eyes shut. You should feel lucky I'm still on track about what the hell is going on right now, most people would be lost," I sassed, raising a single finger and tapping it on his chest. I kept the finger resting there for a minute.

He bit his lip, trying his best to hide the smile that was appearing on his face, "My bad, miss," he spoke in a southern drawl. I studied his face, his beautiful deep green eyes was sending my stomach overflowing butterflies and fuzzy feelings. God, he's too attractive for me.

I giggled and glanced over his shoulder to see a set of stairs. Harry crinkled his forehead and was just about to peer behind to see what I was looking at. But before he did, and instead of accepting his idea of a date, I made the sudden decision to bolt around him and down the stairs. There was about a dozen steps before I reached a long and dark hallway, I jumped the last two steps and bolted down the pitch black corridor. I couldn't stop laughing and it only grew when Harry let out a groan, loud enough for anyone to hear within the building.

My blue converse shoes hardly stomped the floor while I sprinted, soon enough I could see a dim light down the end of the hallway.

"Lennon!" Harry called, he was farther away than I expected.

The adrenaline in my body sent me flying faster than I had ever ran before, the movement of my legs brought life back into me. I hadn't felt this alive in... in a long time. I didn't feel any muscle pain or the ground pushing back up at my feet, all I felt was a sense of lightness in my body. It was amazing.

My hair flew in my face when I turned around to see where Harry was. I made out his back lit shadow in front of the lights in the arena, but in the dark area that's all I could see. The air rushed around my head when I looked forward again, reaching the lighted area.

I slowed my running when I saw there were people in the entrance area of the building, most of them were men anywhere in between their twenties and fifties. My feet shuffled backwards and I waved awkwardly to them, each turning around and giving me a confused look.

An arm snaked around my shoulders again, I peered up to see and hear Harry heavily breathing and smiling at the men, "Evenin' gentlemen, thanks for letting us come by," they immediately lightened up and muttered their your welcome's and no problem's. Harry grip clenched on me after I tried to pull away, I looked down as we started to walk to the front door together.

"I think I'm going to start running," I whispered to him, low enough so that the men wouldn't hear me. He bent down and gave me a menacing glare, playful, but menacing, "I miss exercising, that felt so good."

He averted his eyes back to the men and then spoke lowly, "Don't think you can out run my question."

"I'll go on a date with you, Harry," I glanced up at him and gave him a dumbfounded look. Did he really think I was going to reject him? I had practically just fangirled in front of him ten minutes ago.

He bumped my hip and sent the bottom half of me in the other direction, but then tugged my upper half back into him. My head collided into his chest, and for a second he kissed the top of my head, "Good," he murmured into my hair.

I tensed up from the affectionate gesture, Harry noticed just as quickly as I reacted.

"Is now the time to tell you that I've already kissed the top of your head before?" He questioned, I snapped my neck up and opened my mouth in shock.

I pulled away from his arm and stomped my foot, "No! I missed that?" I threw my hands up in the air and stormed off to the door, opening it and waiting for Harry to walk through, "Fuck this. I'm never drinking again," I decided while Harry passed through the door I was holding.

"So I'm going to guess you don't want to know that I kissed your forehead too?"

My heart dropped and I pouted my lips, "You're kidding, please tell me you're kidding."

He backtracked and walked over to the door again. I blinked hard before the two of us made eye contact, I think he was enjoying this. Knowing that I was upset that I missed 'the first' of something between me and him, "No," he pouted his lips with me, "But there will be plenty more for where that came from."

He leaned in and gave me a delicate kiss on my forehead, his lips lingered there for a second before pulling back, "I'm going to take you home, it's been a long day," he whispered, I stood underneath his six foot statue with my eyes shut.

I rested my hands on his hips, I didn't want to move but in reality, there was a big chance that the men here were still watching us.

"I'm tired," I complained, for a second I didn't care what all those people thought about us. I pulled Harry into a tight hug and rubbed the tip of my nose onto his dark colored jacket.

"Come on," Harry chuckled, "I'm spending the night at yours, you can hug me all you want there."