Artwork [h.s]

thirty-six

I was walking out of the building after my last class when a hand suddenly stopped me, grabbing me by the forearm. I turned around fast, momentarily gripping the strap of my bag to keep it from falling off my shoulder with the movement. I furrowed my eyebrows when my eyes didn't meet the ones I was expecting.

"Hey Sierra" he said, an apparent happiness in his voice.

I frowned, sending a fast look around to see if Ella was in any way behind it. "Aiden?" I asked confusedly, not understanding why he'd decided to stop to talk to me again. Frankly speaking, I was quite sure I would've been done with him for good after our failure of a date.

"I was thinking, we could go out an afternoon of these, you know, get a drink at Starbucks and have fun" he suggested with a little shrug, putting his hands in his pockets and giving me a seemingly innocent look.

"Uh..." I said, not really understanding what was going on. "I'm not really the Starbucks kind of girl" I continued, hoping that he would've got the message and left me alone without me having to explicitly tell him.

"Somewhere else then!" He said cheerfully, jumping at the opportunity and making me almost want to roll my eyes.

Of course, though, I didn't. "I really don't think it's a good idea" I said quietly, nervously pursing my lips and starting to walk down the stairs, trying to get away from him.

"Come on, it would be fun." He walked down the stairs as I did, so I just stopped on the sidewalk, thinking that he would've probably followed me home while trying to convince me if I had kept walking.

"I don't really think so" I replied, putting my hands on the pockets of my brown coat and nervously starting to play with the small pencil I found in one of them. "We didn't really hit it off the last time... sorry." I took another hesitant step towards the street, but I stopped in my tracks when he took another step forward as well, closing the distance again.

All of sudden I felt an arm sneak around my waist, and I almost jumped away before catching a glimpse of the cross tattoo and realising it was Harry.

"Shall we go?" He asked me calmly, his stare focused on the blond-haired boy in front of me.

Aiden huffed at his words, rolling his eyes at him. "You aren't her boyfriend, mate. She can stay if she wants to" he said, a badly hidden hint of aggressiveness in his voice.

Harry raised one of his eyebrows. "I'm pretty damn sure she doesn't" he said sarcastically, seemingly enjoying the way the shorter boy had decided to stand up to him. I wondered if he could tell as well that the blonde in front of us was trying to appear more menacing than he truly was.

Aiden narrowed his eyes at him, clearly not enjoying the way Harry was making fun of him. "Fuck off" he spat, the venom in his voice causing some people that were closed to us to turn our way.

The little sarcastic smile was wiped off Harry's face by his words. "You may want to shut the fuck up before I make you" he said lowly taking a step closer to him, sending the other boy a penetrating glare.

"Harry" I whispered fast, putting my hand on his chest, hoping it would've been enough to stop him from giving into his boyish instincts and picking up a real fight. I didn't really know if he would've actually done something like that, given that he always seemed really collected, but I'd seen enough of that around not to want to risk it.

"Fuck off!" Aiden said louder, a hint of hesitation in his voice, successfully managing to grasp the attention of all the people exiting the building, that stopped walking in the second they recognised Harry as part of the commotion. "You are bad for her!" He continued in an almost childish tone, making me furrow my eyebrows.