Effortless (h.s.)

Chapter THIRTY ONE - distance

"Here, hold these," I reached out onto the window escape where Harry laid staring off into space. His eyes flashed to mine and noticed the two mugs I firmly grasped. He quickly took them, allowing me to hoist myself up into the window frame and crawl out.

The warm Los Angeles night tickled my chilled skin. Once settled on the thick blanket sprawled out, I peered to see Harry taking a sip from one of the mugs. The moon and stars were the only thing projecting light upon him.

He slowly gave me the other mug back, still taking a long drink from his own.

"Coffee this late?" He shifted closer to me and laid back down, "nice cup though."

I hummed, "Thought we kind of had a lot to catch up."

The alley hugged us tightly with darkness, I focused my eyes on the cars whirling past the small opening. Chilled air slammed the fabric of our clothes onto our bodies.

Harry stilled.

The dirt beneath my nails provided a distraction from the tricky subjects at hand.

"We do, but it can wait if you're not ready. I know we kind of relaxed on the train and didn't talk everything through but that's because I unde-"

"No," my head turned to see the lying boy's head pressed against my thigh. Tingles shivered from the base to tip of my spine, his eyes afire with innocence, "I'm sorry for leaving."

Harry's lashes bat several times, he shuffled into a sitting position to mirror my position.

"I was angry and scared, my mom called saying I had to go home with them. I should've talked with you first but I was really fucking jealous," I uncomfortably laughed, shaking the few contents of my stomach, "And when I found Sierra I couldn't handle that embarrassment-"

"You were embarrassed?" Harry lowly questioned.

I perked my brows up.

"She showed up again, Lennon. I was telling her about you and she went mad, that's when you showed up and then..." He bowed his head and swallowed, "But I shouldn't of followed you into the gym and all. I noticed Dylan was over and.... I was so bloody pissed off."

"Why did you lie about who was at the door? If it was Dylan, wh-"

"I was jealous, Lennon."

I pursed my lips and lifted the mug to them, I hesitated and pulled back, "How come all of our issues revolve around jealousy?"

Harry broke eye contact and leaned up against me, "I can't help it, I really try and stay calm when those things go on but my judgement gets clouded."

The moon was high in the sky tonight, it was a small crescent shape. I transported back to the night Harry and I climbed out my apartment window and went for a walk prior to going to the forum. It was the same moon we associated all of our memories with.

"Are you naturally like tha', too?" Harry murmured.

I scratched my scrunched up brow.

"Not usually, no."

Harry hummed and slowly brought himself to sit up, placing his cup of coffee on the windowsill. His hand reached for mine and pulled me closer gently.

"Come 'ere," He grunted out, he slid himself partially beneath my arm and pulled onto my shoulder to get me to lay down. I snuggled the side of my face into his chest. We both left out sighs and relaxed into each other.

Even though we were in California, when the sun went down it started to get chilly.

"I'm sorry about your dad, Len," Harry drew circles in my upper arm with his thumb.