Rivals | D.M

27. The Second Act

Aster's POV

I let Harper sink into the plush leather booth, her body limp and her eyes slightly glossed over.

"Why did you do that Harps?" I ask over the rudimentary music they were playing in the intermission.

She slowly turns her head towards me.

"I don't know Ast, I really don't know. I just saw her with him and I snapped" she explains, her eyebrows furrowed as if she couldn't figure it out for herself either.

"I know it's Pansy, but we need to respect Blaise's decisions on who he wants to be friends with. He's always done the same for us"

"But she was all over him, that's not what friends do!" she snaps, her eyes droopy but fiercely mad.

I grab the pitcher of water and pour her some water into a glass. Handing it over to her, I give her a piercing stare until she finally relents and tips the glass to her cherry soda stained lips.

I take a deep breath.

"Are you jealous Harper?" I ask.

She stops drinking, her glass paused on the tip of her bottom lip.

"No" she scoffs. Her face had switched to a look of boredom, but from someone that had known her for years, I could read right through that expression.

I contemplate telling her, but a nagging pull lingered at the thought.

Instead, I leave it to Blaise and Harper. If he wanted to tell her after tonight, I wouldn't get into the middle of that.

Instead, I shake my head at her and look around the place.

The dance floor had dwindled, people were now either lined up outside the bathrooms or the bar. There was still a slight buzz in the atmosphere, and the bar was now starting to smell like spilled alcohol and sweat.

It was only the intermission and the night was already falling apart.

Blaise was nowhere to be found, and I prayed that he hadn't left without us. Draco was sitting in his own booth, the boys chugging down beer. Pansy was sitting idly next to Draco, and if it wasn't for her irritable scowl and Draco's body language I probably would have felt a pang of jealousy myself.

Jealousy was an adequate but unremarkable emotion. It compelled people to act but most of the time you're either too late or too early.

I didn't want to be jealous of Draco and his relationships with others. I was happy enough seeing him behind closed doors, it was safer that way. 

It was fun however, to see Draco jealous. I was ok with that.

I try to convince Harper to switch to water but with her stubborn ways she ignores my pleading and instead climbs out of the booth over and to the bar. I sigh as I watch her. She's always been very flippant with her thoughts, has never really been one to talk openly or ask for advice. She loved to give advice but she was one of those girls that lived by her own rules and was very much floating by majority of the time.

Sometimes it was exhausting being Harper's best friend.

As I watched her order a drink from across the room, I remembered why I came out tonight in the first place. I wanted to feel the music notes on my skin and the heavy pounds of the bass against my eardrums. I grabbed my own drink, swigging it down and I let the alcohol erase the doubts and restraint from before.

The intermission wasn't long, once Harper had finally obtained a sweet enough drink she strolled back, gave me her usually apologetic cheeky grin and we were back on the dance floor, just the two of us jumping up and down to the second act.