Save and Pursue

I am awoken the next morning by the April sun streaming through my bedroom window. I groan. It's Saturday. For students, an end of semester Saturday means being locked in the library trying to coax something intelligent from our exhausted minds to put in a paper. I haul my body out of bed and stretch, but I’m stopped by an involuntary flinch.

“Ouch,” I say under my breath. I meander over to my bathroom and lift my baggy pajama shirt in the mirror. The bruise on my abdomen is dark and angry looking.

“What the hell, Josiah,” I grumble. I don’t know how I’m going to address the situation or if he’ll even remember it. I can make excuses about papers and exams and probably put off seeing him until schools over.

I’m pulled back into the memory have Harry lifting my dress in the mirror. A small smile pulls at my lips. I still can’t believe he just lifted my dress like that. Tool. I change into a pair of dark jeans and a plain grey V-neck t-shirt, finishing off the look with a black baseball cap to hide my unwashed hair that is still wavy from last night.

I sweep on some mascara and I go about the rest of my morning routine eventually gathering my books, binders, and laptop into my bag, ready to head to the library. I open the door to my apartment to leave, but I’m stopped by a curly head of hair. Apparently, I caught Harry looking at his shoes, and his head shoots up at my appearance at the door.
I raise my eyebrows, waiting for some sort of explanation

“Uh, hi,” he says with a lopsided grin.

When I don’t respond he starts to stammer. “Uh your friend Shay… I saw you with her before… She told me where you lived and I thought…” Ugh Shay, why?! I can’t say I blame her, it would be hard to say no to Harry. Though I supposed I did. As I’m trying to compose an irritated text to Shay in my head, I’m interrupted by Harry asking, “Hey are you okay? After what happened…”

“I’m fine,” I say automatically. I’m not about to tell him I spent half the night tossing and turning imagining what might’ve happened if no one stopped Josiah. But someone did stop him, Harry did. And I’m being cold towards him. I sigh, deciding not to be irritated with him anymore.

“Want to come in?” I say opening the door wider. He looks surprised but quickly transforms his lips into a bright and happy grin. “Yeah,” he replies enthusiastically. He brushes by me into my apartment, sending tingles through me as his arm makes contact with mine in passing. I close the door behind him and allow a small smile to grace my lips; I like man that is willing to pursue me. So much for the library.

As I walk over to where Harry has made himself comfortable on a stool by the kitchen counter, my phone in my back pocket begins to vibrate persistently. I pull it out and see Josiah’s name on the screen. I instantly envision myself trapped between Josiah and the wall as he attempts to grind into me and feel slightly nauseous. I make a disgusted noise in the back of my throat and reject the call. As I do, I notice about a million messages and text from Josiah and Hannah, and one from Shay. I open Shay’s text which is a long paragraph about some hot guy named Harry who convinced her to tell him where I live and that now she thinks he may have been a creepy stalker so I should look out. Well, creepy stalker or not, he’s in my kitchen.

I drop my bag, place my phone on the counter, and begin to assess Harry. He’s wearing a white V-neck, dark jeans, and red Vans. He looks hot. He observes me checking him out and a slow grin spreads across his gorgeous face, showing his dimples. Feeling particularly confident with Harry in my domain, I step forward and grab his jaw between my thumb and forefinger, turning his face slightly to inspect his brow. He has a bruise but his cut has scabbed over. Harry takes advantage of my closeness to poke my hip once again, but this time I don’t flinch. I’m distracted by his eyes, green and sparkling with laughter. My hand falls to his knee, which is supported by his foot resting on one of the bars of the stool.

“What are you doing here, Harry?” I say, maintaining our close proximity and eye contact. I can feel his breath on my face and his leg is warm. His hand covers mine, making my breathing come a little faster. I glance down at our hands, his massive one completely covering mine. When I bring my eyes to meet his again, he says, “I wanted to make sure you were okay.” His voice is low and I swear I can feel the tenor vibrating in my chest… and other places. I take a quick step back, distancing myself from him and freeing my hand. I am getting overwhelmed being so close to Harry; he makes me feel like I am on fire.

“I am okay,” I say quickly my breathing still a tad too fast, my face too warm.

“You shouldn’t be, some guy tried to hurt you,” Harry says as his face darkens a little.

“He wasn’t just some guy” I reply, “He was my friend,” I finish my statement quietly, wondering if he is still my friend.

Harry approaches me a puts a large warm hand on my waist and pulling me slightly closer to him. “He’s not your friend; I doubt he’s even a decent human being if he was willing to do what he almost did to you.” I look up at him sharply, “And what are you doing,” I retort glancing down at his hand on my waist, “Who are you do judge when you’re already treating me like a possession, coming to my place and doing whatever this is.” I brush off his hand and step away again. I don’t get it. Why is he here? “I don’t know you Harry, and I don’t appreciate you acting like you know me.”

He steps slowly closer to me again, “I know you don’t like me complimenting your looks. I know you’re stubborn. I know you have strong convictions and unfortunately not kissing strangers is one of them. I know you’re brave from how you fought that guy. And,” he says stepping so close to me that our bodies are just barely touching and whispers gruffly in my ear, “I know you’re attracted to me.”

Before I can react, he tangles a hand in my hair and moves his lips toward mine. My breathing accelerates and I’ll admit I’m turned on, it feels as though hot lava is moving through the apex of my thighs. Before our lips touch I manage to ask, “What do I know about you, Harry?” The question seems to catch him off guard. He freezes his progress towards my lips and slowly draws back, releasing his grip on my hair.

“Nothing, you don’t know anything,” he says flatly. I raise my eyebrows at the cold response, his joking nature is gone and he seems like a different person.

“Do you feel like changing that?” I ask, trying to bring back the light and flirtatious atmosphere of a minute before.

He looks into my eyes, as if he’s searching for something. “I feel like kissing you,” he says lowly.

I sigh, unimpressed. “If that’s all you want I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I have work to do.” I move to pick up my backpack and sling it over one shoulder. I wish I could kiss him instead of going to the library.

He hasn’t moved or said anything as I open the door and stand by it, waiting for him to leave. He looks desolate, like a child lost in a big world without his mother.

I scream internally at what I’m about to say.

“Want to come with me?” A big grin spreads across his face and he practically skips over to me, grabbing my hand and pulling me out the door.

Notes

Please let me know if this is worth continuing, I kinda like it so far