Artwork [h.s]

forty-three

"Still can't believe you really went out with Harry Styles. Like wow. Out of all people, you went on a date with Harry Styles" Ella said, surprise in her voice as she walked next to me, searching for something in the pocket of her coat.

I shook my head at her excitement, glancing away to the side. "It wasn't a date" I specified with a little sigh, hoping that she would've let it go. I'd never regretted telling her something that much before. But honestly, I kind of knew that she would've reacted in such a way even before opening my mouth. If it would've been for me to decide, she would've never known anything about it, but she had asked me about it directly, and I couldn't have possibly lied to her. I would've felt bad.

"Uh, hello?" She said, waving her hand in front of my face to get my attention even though we both knew she didn't need to. "That was a date. Like, an actual date. He likes you Sierra, come to terms with it." She finally fetched a hairpin from the pocket of her brown wool coat and tied her blonde hair up with it, giving me an obvious glance.

I sighed as we stopped in front of the classroom, and I gave a fast glance inside to see how many people were already there. "You don't get it" I said, turning around to look at her. "It's... different-"

"Things are only different if you make them different" she said fast, interrupting me. "He can act mysterious and unreachable all he wants, but he's still human. He likes you and he took you out on a date. That's it." She glanced at her watch, making sure she wasn't risking being late to her next class.

I pursed my lips at her words, furrowing my eyebrows when I felt my phone buzz against my hand in the pocket of my coat. "I don't know" I answered quietly, deciding to wait until Ella was gone before checking if I'd received something.

"It's obvious" she replied, giving her watch another nervous glance. "I should go, don't want to be late. Should I wait after school?" She asked, toying with a loose blond lock before tucking it back into the dark hairpin.

"Better not" I replied, not knowing for sure what my plans for the afternoon entailed, but hoping that Harry would've been a part of it. That morning, when he'd come pick me up, we'd barely talked, none of us wanting to say something important when we knew that Niall was sitting in the backseat, and I'd spent my free period with Ella, so I hadn't seen much of Harry that day. I hoped that he would've changed it, though.

"Alright, bye" she said with a little shrug, going away before I could even reply.

I glanced at her as she went away for a couple of seconds, before turning around and entering my art class. I walked between the desks until I reached the one I usually sat on, and I put my coat on the back of the chair before sitting down, sending a stealthy glance to the front of the class to make sure that the teacher wasn't inside yet and taking my phone out to check if I'd got a text. I unlocked the screen, frowning when I saw the notification of a new message. I clicked on it, the confusion not leaving my face when I realised that it had been sent by the same unknown number of the day before.

Do you?

It took me a couple seconds to understand that the new text was referring to the one I'd received the day before. I sighed. I thought it would've been a one time thing and so I hadn't replied, but it was pretty clear that they, whoever they were, thought I was someone else. Sending another quick glance up to make sure the class was still unsupervised, I typed a quick message in reply.

You have the wrong number, sorry

I sent it fast and locked the screen, putting my phone on my thigh when I realised that my art teacher had just walked inside.