it's not living if it's not with you | harry lewis/wroetoshaw

chapter seven

17th November

Cal had been texting Stella for most of the weekend, explaining details of the party, what time and where it was. 

It just so happened to be at the Sidemen house due to it being a larger space to fit everyone. Stella hadn't seen Cal in person since she slipped out of his flat, and she hadn't seen Harry either, only texting for brief periods of time, as he had apologised for leaving her in the flat again. She didn't want anything to be awkward, already getting implications from Freya about Harry, but Cal insisted he wouldn't tell Harry about finding her there, and as far as she knew, he hadn't said anything. 

Stella studied her makeup in the mirror as she fiddled with the back of her earring. She wiped lightly under her eye, making sure her eye makeup wasn't smudged. 

Glancing down at her phone on the bathroom counter, Stella saw that it was near enough time for her to be leaving for Cal's party, and had organised to meet Talia outside her flat, which wasn't too far from Stella's. 

Dropping Talia a text that she was setting off, Stella pulled on her coat and shoes and locked the door behind her.

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Stella had only been at Cal's party for under an hour, and the boy had already come up to her several times to announce that he was "absolutely peppered". 

A lot of people were there, unsurprising, considering the boy's popularity and friendly nature. For some reason, Stella had found herself having being forced into playing beer pong, most notably by Gib, only having spoken to him once or twice before. Gib was shaking her shoulders, trying to egg her on into playing, and therefore, ended up on the same team as him and Stephen. On the other team was Josh, Lux, and Harry. Stella being one of the most sober ones out of the six of them, came pretty close to being the best at beer pong, however, was just beaten by Harry, which was impressive considering how tipsy he was at that time. 

Another cheer sounded as the opposite team got another ball into the cup, ending in Stephen having to drink once again. Now each team was on one cup left, the next one in resulting in the winning team. Not that it was really that big of a deal, but the six of them, and some of the onlookers were pretty invested at this point.

"I don't know if I can do this next one," Gib confessed, pushing Stella forward as he laughed. "And if Bogger gets the next one in, I'll have to drink again."

"Are you kidding?" Stella laughed, in disbelief of her teammates backing down. 

"No, you can do this one." 

Stella stepped forward, mirroring Harry's stance at the opposite end of the table. She was one hundred percent sure that she had never seen the boy look this cocky in the whole time she had known him. 

"I'd wipe that look off your face." She taunted, getting ready to throw the ball.

"Why should I?" He smiled even more at that. 

Stella ignored him and instead threw the ball, it hitting the edge of the cup and bouncing off.

"Fuck." She breathed out, feeling slightly defeated.

"Not so confident now," Harry piped up from the other end of the table. 

"Shut it."

Next, Harry got ready to throw the ball, and with ease it went straight into the cup, right in front of Stella.

The other team cried out in celebration, most likely doing one of those fortnite dances. But Stella didn't even notice and instead stared down at the cup in front of her in defeat. Looking back up, she saw Harry staring at her, smirking.