untitled |h.s|

thirty-two

Harry

It's been a few weeks since Niall and Ari's mom left, and Ari's still acting weird. It's like she goes through waves of wanting to be around me and act normal, but the next day she'll completely pull away, barely speaking to me and avoiding my gaze at all costs.

At first, I thought she just missed her mom and I let her go through the motions while I silently attempted to navigate her, but it's been almost three weeks now and I still don't know what's going on with her. Eventually, I started to accept the good days when they happened rather than risk ruining the mood by dwelling on the bad, but I'm not sure how much longer I can deal with that.

I know our relationship is anything but conventional, and I can't stop trying to figure out what I did to make her suddenly so hesitant. Are we moving too fast? Were we just in some sort of honeymoon phase and she's out of it now? Did I do something to make her question us?

"H!" I'm rocketed from my thoughts at the sound of Niall's raised voice as his palms hit the counter in front of where I'm sitting in our kitchen. He lets out a slow breath when my eyes meet his, a concerned look plastered on his face. "Are you good? I said your name like 5 times before you acknowledged me."

Shit, I think I'm losing it.

"Yeah," I finally answer, dragging a hand over my exhausted face. No matter how much I try to sleep lately, my brain refuses to shut up long enough for me to get more than a couple of hours in. "Just tired," I offer as a half-assed explanation.

He stares at me for a second, unconvinced before he gives in with a short nod and turns to the fridge, continuing to talk to me.

"Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about the Halloween party at the studio. Do you wanna go costume shopping today?"

"Sure," I answer despite having entirely forgotten about the party next week, "I'll have to talk to Ari though, I was hoping we could-"

"Too late," Lylah interrupts as she enters the kitchen, "me and Ari already have our costumes so you're on your own, boys." Her taunting words linger in the air while she walks over to Niall, stealing a grape right from his bowl. Smirking at his dramatically offended face, she turns her attention back to me, "You'll like it though." She shoots me a devious look that disappears as soon as I hear footsteps behind me.

Ari's comes to a halt at the end of the hallway as I glance over my shoulder, following the direction of Lylah's eyes. She almost looks surprised to see me, despite the fact that we woke up in the same bed mere hours ago. A smile quickly replaces her expression as she walks over to the empty stool beside me, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes the way it usually does.

I stand from my seat almost immediately after Ari takes hers, letting my pent-up irritation show as I grab the empty bowl from my breakfast that's been sitting in front of me for way too long, rounding the counter to put it in the sink- admittedly with too much force.

I don't mean to let the small burst of anger out, but I can only watch my girlfriend put on a fake face every time she's around me so many times. I had a feeling this would come along with dating an actress, but the hard part is the fact that I notice every single detail that only displays when she's really showing her emotions. She's amazing at what she does, she can switch into any role within seconds and fool around her, as long as they don't pay too much attention to her eyes.

Those shifting hazel orbs are her weakness, putting all of her emotions on display. It's one of my favorite things about her, I'm obsessed with attempting to decode every combination of colors that reflects in them as her mood shifts. They're bluer when she's vulnerable or sad, but specifically the kind of sad those depressing ass animal shelter commercials make you feel. They appear more golden when she's happy, literally shining with joy when the delicate skin around her eyes folds just slightly enough to highlight the sparkle that only exists when she's truly happy.