less than lovers (h.s.)

six

"Listen, I know you said you wanted to be Blossom, but is it okay if I dress up as her instead?"

I kinked my brows together as I glanced over at Liv, who was in turn staring at me expectantly. "Wait, which one is Blossom again?" I asked.

She snorted, shaking her head at me. "Blossom's the pink one. I just don't have any cute blue shit to wear."

I nodded. "Yeah, okay. I have this matching blue set I haven't worn yet, so I think I'll just go with that."

"Perfect," Liv smiled. She looked down at her phone for a moment before continuing, "We should probably start getting ready soon."

"Probably," I nodded in agreement. Neither of us made any effort to move.

A few minutes later, when we were still sitting at the kitchen table mindlessly scrolling through Pinterest, I heard the sound of keys turning in the door. Liv gave me a wide-eyed expression, her smile slightly manic as she registered that Harry was about to walk in. She hadn't seen him since the hockey game, and she didn't believe me when I said that things had returned to normal between us.

The thing was, I wasn't even lying. Things were normal between Harry and I—for the most part. We still talked and laughed about the same things as usual, although I noticed he would never mention any girls. In return, I did the same, although it wasn't like I even had a guy in the picture to be discussing. If anything, the last guy in my life had been him. I inwardly cringed at the thought.

"Hey," Harry said when he stepped into the doorway. His eyes darted in the direction of Liv, and he smiled when he noticed her. "Oh, hey, Liv. How've you been?"

"Oh, I've been pretty good," she replied, thankfully keeping her tone casual. "Just busy with classes."

He nodded, the corner of his mouth tilting into a sly grin. "Run into Niall lately?" It was the same question he asked her, without effort, every time he saw her, and I honestly didn't know how she hadn't dropkicked him for it yet.

Liv rolled her eyes, shaking her head at him. "No, I haven't. But I'm sure I'll see him tonight, won't I?"

His grin widened at her response. "Am I imagining things, or do you sound excited about it?"

"You're imagining things," I jumped in before Liv could answer his question. "As usual."

Harry glanced at me sideways, his smile slowly growing. "Thank you for always keeping me in check, Jonesy. You're so good at that."

Almost immediately, I was drawn back into a memory from two weeks prior, when Harry and I had spent the night together. It was a memory I took great measures to force out of my mind, but sometimes all it took was certain words to trigger it. Take right now, for instance —all I could hear in my head was Harry's deep, restrained voice from that night, closer than he had ever been, and would ever be again. You're so good, Jonesy. Baby, you feel so good.

I was interrupted from my memory by the feeling of Liv shaking my shoulder gently. "Jonesy, are you okay?" Across the table, Harry was staring at me just as intently, clearly confused.

My entire face was flushed and I nodded my head as I purposefully avoided eye contact with him. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine," I laughed awkwardly. "Just spaced out for a second. You know me."

Liv nodded, but Harry didn't look convinced. For a moment, I wondered if he was ever flooded with memories from that night too, but then I reminded myself that was exactly the opposite of what we had agreed upon. Well, to be fair, we had agreed to never discuss it. We hadn't actually confirmed anything about thinking about it. Still, it felt wrong either way.