skinny || h.s. au [Rewrite Now Up!]

eighteen

Once Harry finally got back to Marley's house and his car, he noticed the note he left in the screen door was gone.

He quickly takes the red gallon container he's been carrying for the past mile and a half and pours it into the gas tank of his Range Rover. He wonders if Marley will understand now that he knows how to explain.

Acacia lied. It had nothing to do with him. So they will be able to get back to normal. Right?

Harry puts the gas container in his trunk once it's empty. Promises to fill his tank after he gets on the road. But first, he needs to talk to Marley.

Taking the stairs in long strides, he is at her front door in seconds. Knocks. And waits.

Nothing.

He knocks again, this time a bit louder. Before trying the bell.

A full two minutes pass before he sighs in defeat.

Maybe she left. The note isn't in the screen door anymore. Harry thinks that's a reasonable explanation. And when he turns to walk back toward the driveway, he sees her.

She's walking up the road, wearing a loose pair of shorts and a shirt at least two sizes too big. But it's hard to tell as she has it tied in a knot at her waist. Even from here, Harry can see the sheen of sweat on her forehead.

Something about how her skinny legs look in those shorts unsettles him. They're shorter than her normal gym shorts. And he thinks for a moment that if she wrapped both hands around her upper thigh, her fingers would easily overlap.

Marley is at the base of her grey, patchwork driveway before she even sees Harry frozen on her front porch. She stops for a moment when she sees him. Snaps out of it after a few seconds and tugs her shorts down slightly as she walks toward him.

The boy with the troubled kind of green eyes watches her carefully as she steps up onto the porch.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, her breathing still somewhat heavy after her run.

"I came back for my car." Harry explains. "And I wanted to talk to you."

His words seem to remind Marley that she promised herself--and her subconscious--to stay away from him. "Oh." She says. Pushes past him toward her front door.

"I didn't do anything with Acacia." Harry blurts.

Marley stops just as her fingers grazed the handle of the screen door. Faces the boy who unlocked her emotions and stole the key to the box she tried so hard to keep them in. Doesn't say anything.

"I called her after you went back inside. She lied, Marley. I didn't-"

"Stop." She cuts him off. "I don't care what you did or didn't do. I'm just not a 'friend' kind of person. I don't like company. I like being alone."

Except me. You like my company.

"No one likes to be alone." Harry counters. Knows she's just trying to push him away. And he thinks he knows why.

"I do." Her voice is emotionless despite the swirl of them inside her for this boy. "So, please. Just leave."

"Why are you pushing me away?" He asks.

Marley leans against the exterior wall next to her front door. Crosses her arms to try and make herself look indifferent. When really she feels the exact opposite. Now she feels everything. And it's all because of him.

"Maybe it's because I actually hate you." She says as bitter as possible.

And she sort of does. He has come in and turned everything upside down. He broke down her walls and got under her skin. But she regrets her words as soon as pain flashes through those troubled kind of green eyes. And she knows she could never hate him.