Artwork [h.s]

fifty-four

As I made my way to school, I knew that it was absolutely imperative to talk to Harry. The way he'd left some days before wasn't acceptable at all, and the fact that he'd done his very best to ignore me in the following days made it even worse. I didn't know what was up with him, and his behaviour had left me stressed and confused at the same time. I felt left hanging, and embarrassed by the way he'd reacted.

As soon as I arrived, I gave a quick glance around, finding Harry sitting on his usual bench, with Niall sitting next to him. As far as I knew, they hadn't really talked about what had happened at Niall's party, so I supposed that they were sitting together out of habit. I shook my head, suddenly realising that I shouldn't have cared about how Harry's friendships were doing after the way he'd left me, and started walking towards them.

"We need to talk" I said as soon as I reached Harry, hoping that he wouldn't have decided to act like nothing had happened at all.

He glanced up from his phone at my words, sending me a surprised glance, the confused look in his eyes almost making me believe that he had no idea of why I was telling him such a thing. For a couple of seconds, I really did think that he would've just ignored it as always, but, to my surprise, he nodded slowly and stood up, slipping his phone into the pocket of his coat.

Niall, that was sitting on the opposite side of the bench Harry had been previously sitting on, looked up at us, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to understand what was going on, but with no success. Harry glanced to the side, catching his stare, but not doing anything to address it as he quickly surpassed me, walking in the direction of the car park.

I was fast in following him, making my pace faster to keep up with his, trying to go over all the things I wanted to tell him in my mind, knowing that that conversation wouldn't have been anywhere near easy.

Harry stopped when we were on the side of the car park, close enough to see the main door of the building but far enough from everyone else not to risk anybody hearing us. He turned around, leaning against the fence that separated the car park from the rest of the yard, not a word leaving his mouth. He stare was focused on me, and it was clear that he was expecting me to say something.

I bit my lower lip, feeling a sudden nervousness hit me at the simple idea of having to start the conversation. When I'd decided to talk to Harry about what had happened, I hadn't thought it would have been as hard. Standing in front of him in that moment, I felt like everything I wanted to say had been erased from my mind, and I knew he knew it. I also knew that I had to ponder my words carefully, because me saying the wrong thing could've resulted in Harry fleeing from the conversation, and it put me on edge even more. "We should talk about what happened" I said in the end, carefully observing the effect my words had on him.

He was still staring at me, but made no move to agree with what I'd just said. It was clear that he had no intention of making it any easier for me. It pissed me off a bit to realise that he was being even less conversational than usual on purpose, and that he perfectly knew what he was doing. It was obvious that the only reason why he'd agreed to talk to me was because he knew it would've inevitably happened one way or another.

"You left, Harry" I specified, a hint of annoyance in my voice. I took a deep breath before speaking again, knowing that showing him hostility wouldn't have got him to open up for sure. "Why did you do that?"

He shrugged, playing it off as if it wasn't a big deal. "I was busy" he said, the tone of his voice nonchalant, as if he truly expected me to believe that he'd realised he had something to do all of sudden.

I sighed, starting to feel stressed about his uncooperativeness. I really wanted our conversation to work, and specifically, I really wanted him to give me a chance to understand him for once, but it was clear that he had no intention to make it happen. "We both know you weren't" I said matter-of-factly, even if it felt way too obvious to even be said.