Array
(
[text] =>

I was walking out of the building after my last class when a hand suddenly stopped me, grabbing me by the forearm. I turned around fast, momentarily gripping the strap of my bag to keep it from falling off my shoulder with the movement. I furrowed my eyebrows when my eyes didn't meet the ones I was expecting.

"Hey Sierra" he said, an apparent happiness in his voice.

I frowned, sending a fast look around to see if Ella was in any way behind it. "Aiden?" I asked confusedly, not understanding why he'd decided to stop to talk to me again. Frankly speaking, I was quite sure I would've been done with him for good after our failure of a date.

"I was thinking, we could go out an afternoon of these, you know, get a drink at Starbucks and have fun" he suggested with a little shrug, putting his hands in his pockets and giving me a seemingly innocent look.

"Uh..." I said, not really understanding what was going on. "I'm not really the Starbucks kind of girl" I continued, hoping that he would've got the message and left me alone without me having to explicitly tell him.

"Somewhere else then!" He said cheerfully, jumping at the opportunity and making me almost want to roll my eyes.

Of course, though, I didn't. "I really don't think it's a good idea" I said quietly, nervously pursing my lips and starting to walk down the stairs, trying to get away from him.

"Come on, it would be fun." He walked down the stairs as I did, so I just stopped on the sidewalk, thinking that he would've probably followed me home while trying to convince me if I had kept walking.

"I don't really think so" I replied, putting my hands on the pockets of my brown coat and nervously starting to play with the small pencil I found in one of them. "We didn't really hit it off the last time... sorry." I took another hesitant step towards the street, but I stopped in my tracks when he took another step forward as well, closing the distance again.

All of sudden I felt an arm sneak around my waist, and I almost jumped away before catching a glimpse of the cross tattoo and realising it was Harry.

"Shall we go?" He asked me calmly, his stare focused on the blond-haired boy in front of me.

Aiden huffed at his words, rolling his eyes at him. "You aren't her boyfriend, mate. She can stay if she wants to" he said, a badly hidden hint of aggressiveness in his voice.

Harry raised one of his eyebrows. "I'm pretty damn sure she doesn't" he said sarcastically, seemingly enjoying the way the shorter boy had decided to stand up to him. I wondered if he could tell as well that the blonde in front of us was trying to appear more menacing than he truly was.

Aiden narrowed his eyes at him, clearly not enjoying the way Harry was making fun of him. "Fuck off" he spat, the venom in his voice causing some people that were closed to us to turn our way.

The little sarcastic smile was wiped off Harry's face by his words. "You may want to shut the fuck up before I make you" he said lowly taking a step closer to him, sending the other boy a penetrating glare.

"Harry" I whispered fast, putting my hand on his chest, hoping it would've been enough to stop him from giving into his boyish instincts and picking up a real fight. I didn't really know if he would've actually done something like that, given that he always seemed really collected, but I'd seen enough of that around not to want to risk it.

"Fuck off!" Aiden said louder, a hint of hesitation in his voice, successfully managing to grasp the attention of all the people exiting the building, that stopped walking in the second they recognised Harry as part of the commotion. "You are bad for her!" He continued in an almost childish tone, making me furrow my eyebrows.

Who did he think he was, telling me who was good for me and who wasn't? At least Harry wasn't following me everywhere hoping to get a second date with me even though our first one sucked. It was as if, since day one, Aiden had discovered how unsure I was about everything that regarded Harry, and had been using it against me to get me to stay away from him. That was kind of messed up, and completely uncalled for, given that we weren't even friends.

Harry raised his eyebrows, the corners of his lips turning up in a little sarcastic smile. "Oh really? And what are you basing this supposition on exactly?" He asked him in a tone that I was quite sure would've driven him insane. Considering the winning look hidden in his mint green irises as he stared at the boy in front of him, I was quite sure he knew it as well.

"You fucked my brother and then left him!" Aiden shouted, an outrageously shocked look on his face, and I furrowed my eyebrows, looking up at Harry, almost missing the completely unimpressed looks on the faces of the people who had stopped to look at what was going on.

The little smile on the dark haired boy's lips stayed at his words, showing how completely unaffected he was by Aiden's big revelation. "What, are you pissed because your brother got laid before you or because you wanted me to fuck you too?" He said sharply, making my mouth fall open at his words.

A little shocked chuckle left my throat and I looked down, faking a small cough to hopefully cover it up. I looked up again just in time to see the glare Aiden sent to the both of us, immediately feeling bad for having found Harry's words funny.

"Sorry, I don't do charity" Harry continued sarcastically, not giving him time to reply. "Let's go, Sierra. I'm driving you home" he said, keeping his gaze on the blonde as we surpassed him, his arm still around my waist, and walked towards the car park.

We stayed in silence while we made our way to his car. He unlocked it when we were a couple of steps from it, walking in front of it to get to the driver's side when we reached it.

I grasped the handle on the passenger's side's door, opening it and sitting on the seat as he did the same, lowering my bag between my legs. "I can't believe you really said that" I said as soon as he closed the door. "Aiden will have your head" I added lowly the second comment, that was meant to be kept to myself rather than shared.

"I'd like to see him try" Harry replied as he inserted the key in the ignition, catching me by surprise. I looked at the way his fingers played with the black keychain as he seemed to be thinking about something. "I know you're wondering about what he said" he told me all of sudden. "It was one night stand. Not my fault if he didn't know how they work."

I gave him a slight nod. I wasn't really wondering about the people he'd been with in the past, but I also knew that I would've eventually overthought about it at some point.

It was in the second in which my eyes fell to the rear-view mirror that I realised that something was missing. "Where is Niall?"

"He'll ask someone else to drive him home, he was late" he replied, making me furrow my eyebrows.

"Hang on, why are you driving me home?" I asked again, suddenly realising what was going on. To be honest, we hadn't even agreed on him coming to mine that day, so it really didn't make sense for him to go out of his way for no reason at all.

"Is it a problem?" He asked back, and I shook my head.

"Are you busy later?" I asked him, a sudden idea crossing my mind, turning to look at him again.

He shot me a mildly confused glance. "Why?" He asked as he parked the car in front of my house.

I shrugged. "I could use some more time to complete the drawing" I said, my hand finding the handle of the door, but not pulling it yet as I waited for his answer. It wasn't a way to make him stay - not totally, at least. It truly would've been better to have more time to do it, given that it was the hardest drawing I'd ever done. I didn't know what it was, but I just didn't seem able to get it right. I'd already messed up the part of Harry's chest and tattoos that was under the water a countless amount of times, and the worst part was that I could never tell what was wrong with it. If I looked at each line separately, they all seemed perfect, but all together they looked completely awful, and I didn't even know why, so I couldn't fix it. I was close to dropping everything and doing a completely different one, but in order to do that, I needed more time.

"Sure" Harry replied, turning off the engine and opening his door, and I did the same, a little smile on my lips as I bent down to get my bag before getting out and shutting it behind myself.

I walked to the front door, taking out my keys and unlocking it before entering my house, leaving my shoes next to the door, taking off my coat and hanging it over another coat to make sure there would've been a free hanger for Harry to put his coat on.

As almost always, I walked straight upstairs, going in my studio to get everything I needed before Harry came up. I rushed into my bedroom with my hands full of stuff, discovering, to my terror, that the room was messier than it'd ever been, an unfortunate residue of the weekend that had just ended.

I left all the stuff I'd brought in on the desk, dropping my bag on the floor next to the window and rushing to my bed, putting the blankets over it nicely, before walking fast towards my couch, taking all the clothes I'd taken out of my wardrobe and left there that morning while I was in a rush back into the wardrobe, fixing the pillows and taking my blanket and folding it nicely before putting it back in its place. I took a fast look around, making sure everything else was fine, widening my eyes when my gaze fell on Harry, that was leaning against the side of the door.

I blinked a couple of times as I took in the mildly amused look on his face, trying my best not to think of how long he'd been there for in order not to die of embarrassment. "So..." I started, giving another glance around in hopes of finding something that could've broken the extremely awkward - for me - silence that had just been created.

"My room is messier" he said, and I knew that was it. At that point, a hole could've opened on the ground under my feet and swallowed me whole, and I would've thanked it for its service.

"That's a lie, I've been in your room" I replied, remembering the almost meticulous way everything had been in its rightful place. No object had been out of place, the only thing breaking the tidiness of his room having been the couple of pencils and pens strewn across his desk. I felt a small wave of gratitude hit me, nonetheless appreciating his attempt at trying to make me feel better.

He gave me a little shrug, entering the room and closing the door behind himself. "Just trying to help."

"So..." I started again, eager to change topic, "I guess we could sit on the bed... and I could just draw..." I said, unable to mask the hesitance in my voice.

He hummed, nearing me. "Sounds nice" he whispered, the sound hitting my ear right away because of our closeness and making me take a hesitant step back.

My breath hitched in my throat when my legs hit the side of my bed, and I almost fell on it. I escaped to the side quickly, getting everything I needed and putting it on the chair, bringing in closer to the bed and noticing that Harry had sat down in the meantime.

I took a deep breath, taking my book and drawing and bringing them with me as I sat down on the bed as well, leaning my back against the wall and bringing my knees up to put the book on my thighs. I stopped breathing for a second when Harry scooted closer to me, his somewhat sweet scent hitting my nose. Usually I didn't like it when people looked at my drawings before I finished them, but with Harry, for some reason it came easy not to mind about it. He made it easy, in some weird way. I didn't know how he managed to always look like he had an opinion about everything surrounding him, and yet to seem so deeply nonjudgmental whenever he looked at my artworks.

I closed my eyes for a second, trying my best to ignore his presence next to me, his scent, the warmth of his thigh grazing mine, but it seemed completely impossible. I made another attempt at drawing the part of the drawing I always messed up, letting out a distressed sigh when I didn't manage to do it. I took the rubber and cancelled it, before giving it a hopeless glance. It was almost impossible to concentrate with Harry next to me, it was as if everything I could think about was him.

"I never manage to get it right" I sighed all of sudden to my own surprise. "I wish I could just cover this part up."

"Then do it" Harry said quietly in reply, and I glanced at him, trying my best not to scoot to the side when I realised how close we were.

I shook my head lightly. "I can't cover the water, it'd look weird." I stopped talking right away when a sudden idea struck me, seeming so obvious that I didn't understand how hadn't I come up with it before. "I could colour the water though!" I said excitedly all of sudden. "I could colour the water completely, maybe some nice colour that would go with the mood of the drawing? Something light, like pink, maybe, or light blue? Is pink still your favourite colour..." My words died between my lips as I turned to look at him again, losing my train of thought as soon as my eyes met his mint green ones.

He twirled a strand of my auburn hair between his fingers, getting closer to me and brushing his lips against my cheek. "I like it when you get excited" he whispered into my ear, the daring words making a shiver run down my spine all of sudden. I turned my head, almost getting caught off guard when his lips grazed mine, before suddenly being pressed against mine more roughly.

The sudden change in pace made me feel a sudden warmth explode inside my chest, and I let out a sigh of surprise as his arm found his way around my hips, bringing me closer to him and making me fall backwards on the mattress, with him on top of me. I ran my hands up his spine, earning a little hum from him as my fingers finally tangled in his hair, pulling lightly as he experimentally trailed his down my thigh. I sucked in a breath against his lips as he grasped my knee, pulling me closer to him and easily fitting between my legs, his lips leaving mine to leave a trail of hot kisses down my jawline. I felt sudden goosebumps on my skin when his hand slid under my shirt, his warm fingers slowly sliding up my side.

I put my hand over his, stopping it, before he could reach the strap of my bra. "Too soon" I breathed, and he sat up between my legs, passing a hand through his hair.

"Uh, yeah" he whispered, scooting to the side to allow me to sit up as well.

I did, giving him a side glance. His hair was completely dishevelled because of the way my hands had passed through it, and his pupils were wide as he stared at the wall in front of us. I bit my lower lip, my gaze unintentionally falling to his lips, that were a bit darker than usual. He turned his head all of sudden, catching my gaze on him, and I looked away fast, already feeling warmth spreading through my cheeks.

"I probably should finish the drawing" I muttered, retrieving it from where it had ended up in a corner of my bed.

[text_hash] => da3aa320
)