nerd.

quarante-huit

.

.

.

Arielle

"But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?"

No. It didn't. I screwed my eyes shut but it still felt like everything had changed, because it had changed. 

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know what c..came over me." Harry stutters, and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. I press a finger to his lips and shake my head to keep him from saying more. 

"Harry, it's totally okay." I half-smile, and he looks up, his eyes wide. 

"What do you mean, 'it's okay'? We broke up months ago and I still have the nerve to kiss you." Harry mumbles, running a hand through his hair and pacing back and forth. 

"Harry." I grip his shoulders, preventing him from walking any more. "It. Is. Okay." Harry nods hesitantly before his lips curve up into a dimpled smile, showcasing his perfectly white teeth. 

"Arielle?" A weak voice whimpers from the other side of the room. I whip around at the voice, seeing Marcel waving with a weak smile. "Hi." he says softly when I crouch down next to him. 

"How are you feeling?" I smile back, although my heart is melting at the ungodly sight of my poor best friend. 

"I've had better days." Marcel chuckles quietly. "When did you get here?"

"Few hours ago." I mumble. "Harry told me about your accident." Marcel shoots Harry a glare, which he returns with a cheeky smile. 

"Right, well, it wasn't too bad, I suppose." Marcel starts, but he is cut off both by the doctor coming in and my phone letting out an obnoxious squeal. I step away from the bed to give the doctor some space before pulling my phone out of my pocket to check who texted me. Hannah. 

Hannah Banana: why are you in belgrade again?? 

AirBear: bc my friend got into an accident so i came to see how he was doing

Hannah Banana: which friend? 

AirBear: does it matter? 

Hannah Banana: yes. 

AirBear: Marcel

Hannah Banana: Harry's brother?

AirBear: yea

Hannah Banana: so that means ur with harry rn

AirBear: yea

Hannah Banana: when r u coming back 

AirBear: couple days, i'll probably b back tuesday or wednesday 

Hannah Banana: ur gonna miss classes

AirBear: I called the professors

Hannah Banana: ok, ttyl

I put my phone back in my pocket with a sigh and glance to my right, finding that Harry is staring at me. His eyes quickly dart away when he sees I caught him, and I giggle lightly. 

"Stalker." I whisper, and his cheeks flush a deep red before he shoves me lightly, smiling a little bit. Harry's phone rings and I plop down in the chair while he goes outside to talk to whoever was calling him. After fifteen minutes of him not coming back, I start to get a little worried, and I stand up and peer outside the hospital room window. I'm relieved to find that he is still there talking to someone on his phone, but at the same time I'm worried because he looks extremely stressed, and he is yelling into his phone. 

Something is definitely wrong here. 

Harry

"Hannah, you need to shut up right now. There's no need for her to know, okay? It was in the past, and it stays in the past." I bark into the phone. 

"What needs to stay in the past?" A small voice asks behind me, and I freeze when I realize that it is Arielle. I turn around slowly, praying that it isn't really her, but my hopes deflate when I see the brunette standing behind me with a confused look on her face. I hear Hannah cackle with delight on the other end, and I am extremely tempted to just press the red END button. 

"Yeah, Harry, why don't you tell her?" Hannah cackles loud enough for Arielle to hear. 

"Who is that? Is that Hannah?" Arielle asks, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "And what do I not need to know? Tell me." 

"Arielle, I--"

"No, tell me right now. And put Hannah on speaker so that I know you aren't lying." Arielle says, her voice wavering slightly. Shit, Harry, what'd you get yourself into now?, my subconscious remarks, and honestly I wish I could tell it to fuck off. 

"Arielle, it's nothing, honestly." I try, watching Arielle nibble on her lip to get it to stop quivering. 

"Clearly it's something, because if it really was nothing then you wouldn't be telling Hannah and not me." Arielle argues, though her voice is soft so it doesn't have nearly as much effect as it would. "Now put her on speaker and tell me." I sigh, fighting the urge to cry, and put her on speaker, biting down on my lip until I can taste blood. 

"I don't..I don't really know how to say it." I mumble, and Arielle glares at me, her eyes starting to water a little. 

"How about you start saying how you're not who you said you were?" Hannah cackles. 

"Wait, Hannah, you knew about this and you didn't tell me?" Arielle demands, causing Hannah to fall silent for a moment before she regains her confidence and speaks. 

"I didn't think Harry would want me to tell you." she lies. "It's not my secret to tell." Arielle rolled her eyes, but motions for me to continue with what I was saying. 

"Well, um, like Hannah said, I'm not who I said I was. I used to do...bad things." 

"Like what bad things?" Arielle asks, gulping audibly. "You didn't kill anyone, did you?" 

"No, no, not at all." I shake my head, laughing a bit. "I just, uhm, I drank a lot, you could say. I went to a lot of parties...got into the wrong types of groups and that." 

"So you did drugs?" Arielle asks in disbelief, tears threatening to spill from the corners of her beautiful eyes.

"Yeah..." I scratch the back of my neck, ashamed, and look down at my feet, not wanting to make eye contact with her after finally telling her what I had always wanted to.

"Do you do them anymore?" she asks, and I'm surprised Hannah didn't jump in and make up some lie about how I still do them. 

"No, not anymore." I shake my head rapidly. "I never want to do that again, actually." 

"And you didn't do it after you went back to London?" she asks, and I shake my head once more, glad that she isn't taking this in the way that I had expected her too. 

"Okay, well then, guess what, Hannah?" Arielle laughs slightly, grabbing the phone from my hand. 

"What?" Hannah snaps, annoyance clear in her tone. 

"Looks like you're out of luck, because for Harry, I can still look past that."

*

a/n-

idk i thought this was getting boring so that happened 

ilyasm x