13 December 2018
2 days left in Operation Mistletoe

I knew what was going to happen. Courtney sat across from me trying and failing to keep the myriad of emotions off of her face as she turned a kind of red in the booth across from me in the school library.

"You what?" Finally came her hurried kind of rushed words.

I just kind of gave her a shrug not sure how to respond. Both Courtney and I had been too busy to talk about the last couple of days due to studying for finals, so we had finally decided that meeting at the school library to 'study' was in our best interest. I had just finished recounting to her what had gone on with Louis on Saturday.

"Let me get this straight, you went on a date with a smart, funny guy who appears to genuinely enjoy your company, you ask him to be your fake boyfriend and then friendzone him thirty seconds later?"

"I didn't mean to!" I exclaimed shaking my head "I didn't realise what I was saying, but yeah I think Louis and I are better off as friends. I mean he's sweet and all, but he's not, not, not..." I was struggling to find the words when a knowing look crossed Courtney's face.

"He's not Harry." She finished for me shutting her biology book.

"That's not what I meant." I protested.

"Sure keep telling yourself that," Courtney stated with a smirk, "you have feelings, and nothing is going to happen until you realise that."

"Precisely nothing is going to happen," I said leaning against the bench that had been digging into my back uncomfortable for the last hour.

Trying my hardest to ignore the stare that Courtney aimed at me I grabbed up the music theory book that I had left on the table. I was almost halfway through finals, and the stress of it was starting to buckle me especially since all the exams I had left were in my hardest classes, like music theory.

I could still feel Courtney's gaze twenty minutes later when I realised that I had been reading the same paragraph four times and I still couldn't figure out what it meant. Putting the book down on the table I could see the satisfied smirk cross Courtney's face.

"I can't concentrate with you staring at me," I stated with a huff earning a wider smirk.

"Then we might actually have to talk about it," Courtney said insistently resting her chin on her hands.

"What is there to talk about." I bit back bitterly knowing that this was going to happen once Court was set on a subject she usually didn't let it go until everything was out in the open.

"You... and Harry." She said merely reaching over to close the book in front of me.

"There's nothing to talk about." I said, "We fought, we haven't talked since that's it nothing more to say."

"And you're okay with that?" Courtney asked gently realising that this was still a bit of a bitter issue.

"Of course I'm not," I stated loudly earning shushes and glares from the people around me.

"I'm not." I said softer, "But it's not up to me. I mean the whole fight was all about Harry and how he wouldn't talk to me, and I mean I can't fix the fact that he won't trust me."

"Don't you think that you're being a little too hard on him," Courtney said concerned, "I mean trust is earned Riley and I mean you're not exactly an open book yourself most of the time."

I wanted to scoff at her words, but they were true. I tended to appear vulnerable because I had a lousy tendency of talking too much but I also had some things that I just wouldn't talk about. Shaking my head, I conceded.

"So then what do I do?" I asked softly.

"You admit that you like him?" Courtney stated excitedly.

I just sent her a glare to tell her that that was so not the point. Instead, I just used Courtney's tricks back at her and sat staring at her until I knew that she would crack.

"You talk to him, you idiot." She stated like it was something that should have been obvious to me. "And soon, because you leave Saturday."

"And?" I stated even though I knew exactly why she wanted me to talk to Harry before Saturday.

"And you can ask him home with you for the holidays. I mean it would be perfect right? Since you told me that he's been avoiding talking about his holiday plans like he doesn't have any."

"I was just going to take Louis," I muttered hoping that Courtney wouldn't catch it.

"But you don't like Louis," Courtney said point blank, "And you like Harry."

Knowing that she wasn't going to let this go, I nodded my head. It was something that had been bugging me the last couple of days anyways. I really shouldn't like Harry, but somehow he always made his way to the back of my mind like a ghost that my brain couldn't entirely forget. I didn't know if that meant I liked him per se even though I couldn't deny there was chemistry. Courtney just smiled at me assuming that I just had conceded my feelings knowing that she would never let this go.

"Then tell him," She said, "and then he can go with you for Christmas it might not even have to be fake."

"He's not exactly the guy that I would bring home to dad." I protested trying to think of every way that I could get out of this.

"But he's exactly the guy that you would bring home to piss Heather off, and Liam," The last word was softer out of her mouth almost as if Courtney was worried that she shouldn't ever mention Liam in my presence.

I thought about it for a second. I knew that she was right. Harry would piss off Heather considerably especially since he was everything that Anthony wasn't, handsome, smart, and dangerous all without having to pull off the wannabe vibe that always seemed to follow Anthony.

But pissing off Liam that wasn't something that I had been aware of or was even sure that I wanted to do. Liam still held a kind of sore spot for me. There were still feeling there no matter how many times I had tried to make them go away. But I also knew that I wasn't supposed to let those feelings have any hold on me anymore. I mean Liam was my ex and ever since the incident he wasn't someone I could trust anymore either.

"He would, wouldn't he," I muttered softly.

"Definitely," Courtney said a smile across her face before pushing out of her chair, "now I have a biology exam, and I really can't be late so wish me luck."

With a smirk and blowing her a kiss, I wished Courtney luck before returning to the theory book in front of me. It took me twenty minutes to realise that I couldn't concentrate any better without Courtney as I could when she had been there. So knowing that the exam wasn't until the next morning, I grabbed my stuff and exited the library and into the quad.

I needed to find Harry.

Notes