CHRYSALIS

29.

There is an eerie silence in the limo right now.

Harry's lips release mine and a whoosh of cold air floods my face at the loss of contact. Our eyes meet and mine immediately widen in panic.

Oh shit, he really just did that. He just kissed you in front of all his friends, one of whom is his MANAGER, in the back of this limo...

I can feel my heart racing and I know my face is bright red. I'm way too drunk, it feels like everything is happening in slow motion right now.

Harry's hold on my cheeks loosens while he registers what he's done and his eyes also go wide for a split second before he removes his hands from my face.

It feels like we've just been staring at each other for ten minutes while everyone is dead silent in here but realistically it's probably only been a few seconds. I think we're all just waiting for someone to say something.

We're waiting for Harry to say something.

Instead, Harry turns to Mitch and grabs his face, planting a fat kiss on his mouth.

He grabs Sarah's face and loudly smacks a kiss on the corner of her mouth.

He leans stands and leans across the middle to grab Glenne's face and kisses the corner of her mouth with a loud smack and then finally he grabs Jeff's cheeks and dramatically smushes his lips against him, making loud and exaggerated kissing noises.

"My beautiful friends, what would I do without you? Thank you for this. I love you all."

Oh, so he's gonna play it off like that!?

He doesn't want them to know.

Of course he doesn't want them to know, I mean really what would he tell them? "Oh yeah sorry mates, by the way, I've been mouth shagging good ol' Jo over here for the last 12 hours."

Apparently, when I'm drunk and my feelings are hurt I give Harry the most obscene British accent I can muster up in my pea brain.

"Did someone bring the goldfish?" Eating my fishy friends seems like the only way to help the situation right now so I blurt the question out in the middle of their laughter about Harry's odd gesture.

Harry looks at me quickly and I shoot him a mega-watt smile, determined to not let him know that his actions affected me.

"Here ya go babes, I put them in the to-go bag." Glenne pulls a fresh bag out of her purse and passes them to me.

"Thanks, mom you're the best." She blows me a kiss and I give her a sloppy drunk smile. I manage to scoot myself back into the seat far enough to tuck my legs up and to the side, leaning on Mitch for support while Harry rambles to Jeff about some funny story.

Mitch and I aren't even that close but he just has the most calming presence about him, I wanted to be near him in hopes that some would run off on me. "Hi. Sorry, I'm in your bubble. Is it okay if I stay?"

"You're fine, Jo. I'm glad you're comfortable." Mitch's gentle voice gives me the reassurance I need to relax into my spot and tear open my bag of fishies.

That thing is happening where I'm staring for too long in one spot while I fill my mouth with cheddar fish and let my mind run rampant. -

Of course he kissed his friends after he kissed you, he doesn't want them to know that you've kissed, how embarrassing for him! You're nobody for god sake, you are as unstable as a card pyramid in an earthquake, "Harry, please" why would anyone want to attach themselves to you with any kind of permanence.