Nightmare {h.s | au}

1.13

I had to wake up early to go to work on the mural, Bonnie and George's mural. None of our ideas had actually been half decent for a junior high hallway apparently. So we had to go with a "Be Kind" theme that was bright and colorful and would take too long. Miss Vent had told us that it'd take the rest of the nine weeks but based off of my calculations and the way the other two worked, it may take at least sixteen. That was the remainder of the semester.

I had better things to do in class.

So I had dragged myself to the middle school, looking as nice as I possibly could in my horrible mood. My jeans were ripped, boots untied, and rugby shirt half untucked. As soon as Harry saw me, his eyebrows shot up like he hadn't expected this. I moved past him without a word and towards the hallway that we were supposed to be working on. Miss Vent stood there with boxes of what I assumed were the rock that we were going to have to plaster up on the wall.

"Good morning," Miss Vent said cheerily.

"Yeah, it's just peachy," I replied, glaring at them both. Miss Vent lost her smile quickly and explained to us exactly what was going to happen and how it was supposed to go. I understood quickly and from the lack of questions from Harry, I took it that he did too.

We went to work, creating the border. The only words we shared were if we needed something from one another. Then Miss Vent decided that she needed to go get some more coffee because she was, and I quote, "exhausted from dealing with this tension". Once she was out of sight, Harry stopped working and turned to me.

"What's up your ass?" he asked calmly.

I didn't answer. Times like these weren't ones that I'd spend communicating with Harry of all people. This project was huge. If we planned on finishing it on time, we'd have to actually work.

"Hey," he said, trying to get me to pay attention to him. I was trying too hard to make the border as straight as I could to actually talk. My hand was in the process of putting a piece into the clay when it was suddenly engulfed in a larger one. A couple tattoos were printed on his tanned skin.

I looked from his hand to him, "I'm trying to finish something."

"What's wrong?" he asked, ignoring my previous statement.

I pulled my hand from his gruffly and pressed the shard of blue tile into the clay. Again and again I did this until I'd found the right words, "What's wrong is the size of this project. What's wrong is that I have to get up early to work on this. What's wrong is that their idea is too blue. What's wrong is that I'm pissed off and you keep acknowledging it when it'd be better if you didn't."

I stopped talking and turned to him. He's staring at me with so many emotions running across his face that I was unable to decipher them all. It was unnerving to watch him like this while being so mad.

"What's wrong is that we're partners, Styles," I snapped.

He grinned at that, a full-fledged grin that made me realize that he had dimples. These dimples weren't just any normal kind of dimple but Harry Styles dimples. They were impressive and age-defying and sweet and made him look more than his normal doom and gloom. I liked seeing him with his dimples and seeing his teeth on full display. It was one of the most brilliant things I'd seen in a while and that made me disgusted.

"Yeah and you're stuck with me, Nelson, for roughly nine weeks," he stated, his grin lessening until it was just a simple smirk without his silly dimples.

"That's the worst part," I grumbled and went back to work.

^^

I'd stayed quiet most of the day, only talking when it was necessary. People seemed to understand that I wasn't in the greatest of moods so they stayed away. But Angelina had dutifully stuck by my side even though I'd told her that I wanted to be alone. It reminded me a lot of Darcy and I way back when.

And that's when I realized I wanted to see her. That was one of the people that I surely wanted to see as soon as I returned back to the states. But she wasn't here and I'd let that go. Maybe I could go see her this weekend when I was supposed to be going to see my aunt with Sam. Sam would just have to stay home and Reece would have to keep his mouth shut.

The table at lunch was full of its usual chatter and I sat beside Reece like usual. Everything was pretty normal aside from Bennett looking Nicky's way every so often and Harry was once again sitting on my other side. Today I didn't even try to join the conversation for fear of lashing out if someone said the wrong thing. No one seemed too bothered by it to be honest.

"This Friday's game is going to be-"

"Shut up, Liam," Reece said. "We worry about practice and then taking them out, right?"

I looked from Liam to Reece before deciding that Reece wasn't being harsh. If the guys worried about the game coming up, they wouldn't do well in practice. The team needed great practices in order to play a great game. That's how I did in back when I was in soccer and it worked well for me. But that was how Dad had raised us to work and encouraged us to try and transfer it to our teammates.

Liam nodded. I had always kind of admired Liam because there were so many things holding him back but he kept going. So many people had picked on him when we had first arrived, but then Reece had taken him under his wing and helped Liam become the guy he is today. All he needed was a slight shove in the right direction and some guidance along the way.

I gave him a small smile to say he was fine. And that's when I realized that our roles were slowly reversing. Reece was getting angry while I was slowly letting my rage from this morning go. He'd been fine this morning but lunch totally changed him.

I looked around the lunch room as discreetly as I could to see if I could find anything out of place. Everything seemed fine, but I had also been gone for a good year so I had no idea what could make him tick. I could only guess until he told me.

Nudging him, I looked to the watch on my wrist then at him. Reece looked at the face of the small wristwatch then gathered his things to go. I frowned and looked to Angelina who could only gesture for me to follow. So that's exactly what I did. Once again, I was leaving lunch early but this time I wouldn't be skipping a couple of classes.

Reece stood out of the door with his hands shoved in his pockets and a glare on his face. I faltered slightly in my steps, almost fearful of talking to my own twin brother. He looked beyond angry now that he didn't have to put on a face.

"Hey...you okay?" I asked, stopping at his side.

Reece turned his head and glared down at me. I stopped breathing in that moment, fearing that Harry had slipped and told him whatever it was he knew. But he wasn't walking away or yelling or claiming I wasn't his sister. Maybe he didn't know after all.

"Just great," Reece growled out.

"What happened?"

Genuine fear was pulsing through my veins during those moments as I waited for his answer. I tried so desperately not to let him notice that either.

"It's just something stupid, okay?" Reece said, yanking the strap of his backpack up higher on his shoulder and taking off down the hallway.

&&&

I know it's really short but this is all I wanted in this chapter.

So I'm really excited to see what becomes of these morning art sessions!