Chasing the Clouds || H.S. [ONGOING]

Seventy-Seven

"The freedom of falling, a feeling I thought was set in stone,
It slips through my fingers. I'm trying hard to let go.
It comes and goes in waves and carries us away."

Song: Waves — Dean Lewis

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𝓝𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓶𝓫𝓮𝓻 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟏

Andie walked into the lunch room, finding Harry in the lunch line talking to a pretty brunette girl a handful of people ahead of her. He was in deep conversation with the girl and was making her laugh obnoxiously. Andie rolled her eyes, deeply wishing that the things Harry did wouldn't affect her anymore.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, trying to occupy her mind, but she could hear the quiet murmur of his deep voice and the shrill laughter from the girl he was with and it wasn't so easy.

She just beat a level of Candy Crush when she finally made it to the food, watching as the lunch lady slopped mashed potatoes and gravy onto her plate before using tongs to lay a piece of grilled chicken next to it. She wasn't a big fan of mashed potatoes, but whatever. She could just eat the chicken.

When she exited the lunch line, Harry and his new girl were nowhere in sight and Andie was grateful for it. But when she sat down next to Janessa at their usual lunch table, her eyes immediately found Harry a few tables away, sitting with that same girl.

"Who's that?" Andie asked Janessa a moment later, curious about who Harry seemed to have replaced her with.

"That's Theresa," Janessa said with a scowl on her face as she looked at the two ex-lovers.

Oh, it was the girl that Andie replaced— momentarily, it seemed.

She always wondered who Theresa was, what she looked like. She could have easily asked any one of her friends to point her out, but those days, she was doing everything she could to not think about Harry, so it just seemed counterproductive. But now she couldn't stop staring at the girl who had Harry so fucked up for so long.

She had long, straight brown hair and a decent enough face. She wasn't overtly pretty, but she had sort of a natural beauty going for her. She didn't wear a lot of makeup and her clothes weren't anything special, but none of that really mattered in the grand scheme of things.

Andie wondered if that was what Harry truly liked— a plain, natural beauty. Was she just too much for him, what with her highlights and abundance of makeup? Or did Theresa's glowing personality outshine Andie's in every way? What was it about Theresa that made it so hard for Harry to want to be with Andie? She was certain she would never know. But she was also certain that she may never stop wondering.

"What the hell is he talking to her for?" Andie asked under her breath, more so rhetorically than anything.

"Because he's a fucking idiot," Louis chimed in from across from Janessa.

"Yeah," Andie said quietly as she shamefully watched Harry having lunch with his ex from across the cafeteria.

"You really fucked him up, Andie. So much so, he's regressing," Louis chuckled darkly.

"Me? I didn't do anything. Everything that happened was because of him," she snapped. She would not take the blame for their demise.

"I know. But like, he's fucked up over you," he pointed out. Harry sure wasn't acting 'fucked up' over anything. He seemed to be doing just fine.

"It's not my fault," she scoffed, looking up at Harry and Theresa again.

This time Harry was looking back at her and their eyes met, causing Andie's stomach to twist with anxiety. Their gaze only lasted for a moment before Harry turned to look at his ex again.

Andie's entire stomach dropped when Harry leaned in toward Theresa whispering something in her ear. When Theresa laughed out loud and swatted at his arm in a flirty manner, Andie felt like she was going to throw up.

Was he doing this on purpose to make her jealous? All she knew was that it made her angry and disappointed in him. He spent so much time trying to get over Theresa, over what she did to him, and now he was just going to be all buddy-buddy with her again? Louis was right, he was a fucking idiot.

"I don't know what's worse, Sasha or Theresa," Louis told them.

Andie's stomach dropped once again at the mention of Sasha. That girl spent the entire summer plotting to take Harry away from Andie, and once things went a little south with the two of them, she was right there to sink her claws into him... or, you know, sink her mouth around him. And Harry let her.

"Theresa, definitely Theresa," Janessa said, scowling in the direction of Harry and Theresa again.

"They're both succubuses," Louis said firmly and Andie couldn't help but snicker under her breath as Zayn walked up to the table.

"What the fuck is Styles doing talking to Theresa again?" Zayn asked as he sat down next to Louis, across from Andie.

"Being a stupid fucking idiot," Louis told him evenly.

"I was gonna say the same thing," Zayn chuckled as he opened his milk before picking up his fork.

"Hi," he said, smiling at Andie.

"Hi," she greeted, smiling back at him.

Zayn's big brown eyes stared into hers for a few moments as she relished in the sight of him. God, he was so beautiful. She bit her lip and looked down at her tray. She really needed to stop feeling bashful around him. He was her boyfriend now. They were dating.

She finally got what she wanted with a boy and she wanted to feel comfortable. But it was still hard to get over those old feelings she had back at camp, thinking a boy like him would never actually like her, when in reality they were both secretly crushing on each other.

"Do you want to hang out today after school?" Andie asked a moment later.

"Of course," Zayn said, smiling as he looked up at her, causing butterflies to take flight in her stomach.

"Okay," she said, smiling back at him.

"Aww. Look at you two," Louis teasingly cooed at them.

"Shut up," Zayn chuckled, rolling his eyes at him.

"Zandie," Janessa reminded Louis.

"Yeah. Zandie. You're so adorable," Louis told them, smiling wryly at them.

Zayn breathed out a laugh as he smiled from ear-to-ear at Andie.

"I kinda like it," Andie told Zayn of their couple name.

"Me too," he agreed, bouncing his eyebrows at her.