The Rings

[ twelve ]

Me and Harry sat in silence outside the staffroom. I would blame Harry, but I was so exhausted that saying anything seemed like a lot of effort.

We had been here for about two minutes and hadn't spoken a word to each other. I didn't understand him, he was like a puzzle that I had solved, only to be blown into even smaller pieces again, this time too complex to put together again.

Sometimes he would drive me insane with his childish games and other times he would play with my emotions, completely confusing me and leaving me feeling incomplete and uncomfortable.

"Skye?"

"Are you going to ask me for another pencil?" I said, jokily, too tired to smile.

"No."

"I know you weren't, I was joking." I said, sighing.

"I'm sorry." He said, softly, reminding me of Zayn. That took me by surprise.

I stared ahead for a moment, before I furrowed my eyebrows. "You apologise a lot, don't you?" I murmured, looking down at my hands.

"I've been an idiot." He said. "I thought it was funny, but it was wrong."

There was a moment's silence as I processed what I had just witnessed. I glanced up at him and stared at his face for what felt like forever. His lips were in a flat line and his eyebrows knitted together. I felt a tenderness for him, that I couldn't explain, as though he were a wild tiger locked behind bars.

"I don't know what to say." I whispered, our eyes never losing contact.

"I know what you want to say." He said, glancing down for a split second before meeting my eyes again. It was like we were transfixed. Looking away was cold and lonely, but staring at each other was like a bonfire, spitting hot sparks at each other.

I hadn't ever felt like this with him before, I felt like I wanted to pour my heart out to him and tell him how difficult he was. I wanted to tell him all of my problems and tell him how much I thought of him, and judging by his knowing gaze, it felt like he could hear every word that crossed my mind.

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. What was I supposed to say? "What do you mean?" I asked, as I loured inquisitively at him.

"I feel like I know you so well, like I can tell exactly what you're going to say, or do."

I was inarticulate. What was he implying?

"Harry..."

"I don't want to pretend anymore." He purred, his whole body facing me.

My mouth dropped open, his confession leaving me tongue-tied. Was it a confession? Was it about to become a confession?

I didn't have a chance to utter a response, as our music teacher appeared before us, temporarily putting our fixed gaze on pause.

"Skye, Harry." She nodded to us both and I cursed her in my mind; she interrupted what could have been a love confession just for some silly detention. As me and Harry faced her, the warm, safe atmosphere had evaporated into thin air. I knew Harry felt the same way and I realised: I knew him well too.

"I am very disappointed in the pair of you." She snapped, folding her arms, pressing her huge bust in our faces. Her breath was vile and I could feel it blowing on my face as she spoke. "Harry, it was wrong of you to lead Skye on. Skye, you shouldn't follow people who try to disrupt your learning."

Follow? What was she talking about? I didn't follow him. This woman thought I looked up to him, aspired to be a talentless gimp like him. As the thoughts surrounded my mind, I remembered when Harry said he knew me. Did he know that I was no longer feeling his magic?

Could he feel my sudden irritation? Because I could.

"Skye, do you understand me?" She grumbled.

I nodded hastily, swallowing hard, my throat burning.

"Harry, do you understand me?" She repeated, this time harsher than before.

"Yes, ma'am." He replied, staring at her, although somehow it felt like he was watching me out of the corner of his eye.

"Good." She muttered. "Now go, and I don't want to hear anymore trouble from you two."

I got up and left, debating wether to walk with Harry and let him finish, or bail on the whole thing and run away like a headless chicken. I chose to bail, but just as I sped up, Harry called me out.

"Skye, wait!"

I didn't want to hear it. Whatever it was. Although I sort of knew what it was. Sort of. I left the building and sprinted, as soon as I was out of sight, creating a large blank space between us.

It was mid-November, so I was pretty much freezing to death as I considered what the possibilities of what Harry was going to say could be.

'I can't pretend anymore', what was that supposed to mean? Was he saying that he used to pretend? Pretend to do what? This information was slowly mashing up my brain, along with the November chill, so I walked quickly home, to warm myself up.

When I reached the front door, I heard sobbing silently from inside. I quietly pushed the door to and peeked in to see Charlotte, lying across the sofa, her face tear stained and black with mascara, where it had ran. Despite my attempt to be quiet, she noticed me straight away.

"Charlotte, what's wrong?" I asked, forcing as much sympathy out of my tone as I could.

"Me and Harry," she sobbed, sniffling and patting her cheeks with a few dozen tissues. "I think he's cheating on me!"

I froze. That little... And I had just started to think that maybe he was okay, but no. He had another girl in the running in the background.

"What makes you think that?" I asked, trying to be comforting.

"I don't know he keeps just going off and not telling me what it is and saying he has to meet someone and then he kept going on about you!"

Shit. I didn't normally swear but that seemed appropriate at the time.

"Me?" I did my best to seem confused. "You think Harry's cheating with me?"

"No, of course not! I just think he's doing other girl's whilst he's still doing me."

Oh. Too much information.

******

I ran myself a hot bath that evening to try and relax. I placed a 'Caribbean burst' scented candle beside the bath and lit it, climbing into the bath.

However the bath didn't help at all. I just lay there and thought about my insignificance in the whole wide universe; how I was just one tiny person in the whole world and to some people, my 'problems' were probably nothing except me being silly.

As I thought over everything that happened with Harry and Niall earlier today, I slowly drifted off into a doze, the scent of the Caribbean burning my nose and knocking me out.