Carolina [h.s]

chapter eighteen

south carolina
july 1990

***

Vada
//

"I can't believe you snuck in here, it's three a.m"

The cracked window blows night air into my room, and the neon sign below glows a light around us. Harry sits next to me on my window seat, blowing out pot smoke into the air from the lit joint.

His curls are pulled back by a thick green headband, with matching eyes that are red and dazed, his smirk is lazy as he looks at me.

"If your grandmother catches me, then she really won't like me, huh?" he raises an eyebrow.

I roll my eyes. "You gotta stop thinking everyone hates you," I say lightly as I take the joint from his fingertips. "she said she doesn't care if you stay." I blow smoke out the window.

His eyes leave mine as he snatches the joint back from me. "For now," smoke passed his lips.

His head then turns towards me again, and he leans in with a slight smirk on his lips. "until she finds out I let her precious granddaughter snort lines off of my bathroom sink." His words cut through me and I know he wants them to sting.

He likes to cause fires, he likes to watch people burn. I knew from that look in his eye and the curve of his lips that he wants to make everyone just as miserable as he was. But the truth of it all was that I already was.

And even though his words were fucked up and I probably should of slapped him, because he knows how I feel about that night, and how much I don't want to be that person. I never can let him get to me.

I stand up instead, not wanting to be near him anymore. "Fucker." I scoff under my breath as I start to stand but he catches my arm.

Still sitting below me, he keeps a tight grip on my arm and the sinister smirk on his lips. His green eyes on fire, he tilts his head curiously.

"What was that?" he asked but he heard me.

I try to get my arm out of his grip but it just tightens. I try not to wince at the pinch. "Let go of me, Harry." My voice is calm.

He chuckles out. "What's wrong, V?" he asks innocently. "Did I say something?" his pupils are dilated and it didn't occur to me until now that he was probably on something stronger than pot.

I don't know where he had to go earlier but he was gone all day. I assumed he wasn't coming back but I guess I never asked either. He didn't have any new bruises from what I could see but I also knew that fighting wasn't all he did.