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

chapter ten

14th December

Stella was currently waiting. In her head, she imagined it was like a game.

In that case, it would be her least favourite game to play, even over Fifa. At least with Fifa, Stella could get some sort of entertainment out of it, especially with Harry, him almost bursting a blood vessel with how bad she was at it. But the waiting game was irritating, and was now pushing Stella to her patience limits. On one hand, she felt clingy and ridiculous, but on the other hand, she felt her feelings were justified, at Harry taking so long to arrive. She knew he was bad with timing, but he's never been this bad. The group had decided to go out for a meal before the trip, for whatever reason, but Cal insisted and was really excited, so Stella just went along with it.

Her hand itched as she resisted the urge to text him another time, having already sent him a few since he was fifteen minutes late. That fifteen minutes had now turned into half an hour.

Stella touched her phone screen again. Nothing.

Let me know when you set off

sent.

Since Harry's birthday, he had been quite distant with Stella. He often messaged her first, but he hadn't done so in over two weeks, which prompted Stella to text him first instead. However, when he eventually replied back to her, it was sort of blunt, or was an excuse if Stella had asked if he wanted to hang out. Stella didn't know what she had done to piss him off so much, to the point where he completely stopped acknowledging her existence, but she was too petty to ask what was wrong.

Since Talia, Simon, JJ, and herself were the first ones there, Stella understood why he wasn't there immediately, but after most of the rest of them had arrived, bar some, she started to wonder if he wasn't going to show at all.

"Earth to Stella?" Tobi spoke, sliding into the chair next to Stella.

Stella gave a warm smile. Well, as good of a smile as she could muster up with all the intrusive thoughts on her mind.

While Stella and Tobi began to strike up conversation, more of the seats began to fill up, apart from a few. At this point, that left Harry, Ethan, Karinna, and Karinna's friend, Sophie, left to show, and at this point, Stella hoped the latter wouldn't turn up at all. She pulled out her phone again and began to type.

Don't let Karinna get here before you haha

sent.

Stella was so close to throwing her phone at his face when he would finally step through the door. Trying to calm her thoughts, Stella decided to text Cal and Lux, instead, which was in a groupchat that had been accidentally created when Stella was trying to ask both of them what was up with Harry. So, from there they continued to message in there.

How come Harry didn't come with you?

Soon after she sent the message there was a buzz again. Cal was sat further down the table, so she wouldn't have been able to ask him face-to-face.

Cal: Said he woke up late, told me to go and he'd catch up later.

Stella blinked slowly. That made sense, suddenly she felt guilty for pestering the boy.

Cal: cnat belivee i typed tjat  wihtout lookig

Well that's ironic, Cal.

Lux: i'm sure he's fine Stell, don't worry about it, enjoy the dinner

Stella swallowed the lump in her throat, and placed her phone back on the table, face down to avoid her checking every ten seconds to see if Harry had replied. She laced her fingers together and leant forward on the table, trying to listen into other people's conversations in order to distract herself.