leather journal / h.s

47

M A R Y

the next morning, penny came knocking on our door and invited herself in. no one seemed to mind, because ever since freshman year she had a habit of doing that. it made me wonder if she even had caring parents.

still, we ate a nutritious breakfast of pop tarts and orange juice before grabbing our backpacks and heading out. school was a ten minute walk, and those walks always went by fairly quickly because we managed to talk about the most random topics.

everyone was truthfully nervous for the first day of senior year. people changed. it was hard to compare what they looked like now to what they did three years ago. it was weird.

"hey!" we were greeted by an old somewhat friend of ours, named chelsea, as we first walked in. we both smiled fondly and waved, walking past without a word and looking for the one person on both of our minds.

we made our way to center hall, where we saw him talking to a few juniors.

"mike!" penny cheered, nudging him hardly. i smiled effortlessly at the old friend. being honest with myself, i used to have a little thing for him before i met harry. he was cute.

but instead of giving penny attention, he looked over at me and his cheeks reddened. "mary miller." he smirked, pulling me in for a hug. after, he said, "didn't think you'd show your ass in this school again."

"you'd be surprised, the things that i do." i challenged back, but anyone with a good eye could see that this was anything but flirting. mike and i had a very playful nature as friends. we used to be really close and were used to testing each other's waters.

after a bit of playful banter, mike, penny, and i compared schedules. i only had second and sixth period with penny, but for some reason shared all my classes with mike. what a disastrous year this was going to be.

-

by fifth period, mike had been driving me insane.

"so, who's this mystery guy?" he taunted over the teacher, who was giving her normal world history lecture. we were expected to take notes but that was really hard with my old friend in my ear every second of the class.

i didn't want to tell him, i didn't. harry and i's relationship was to be completely undisclosed. no one was supposed to know until his break was over. maybe even a little bit after that.

"his names henry." i lied quickly.

mike chuckled, twirling his pen in my hair. the last time he did that, the ink leaked and stained my blonde hair for quite some time. "is he ugly?"

i scoffed. "i don't think i would date him if he was ugly."

he shrugged from beside me. "you're not supposed to date someone for their looks."

that wasn't why i was dating harry at all. it really wasn't any of mike's business, and he was pissing me off with all of his prying for information.

i stayed silent.

"did i tell you that i got a new car?" he asked about five minutes later, near the end of class. i merely shook my head and continued to sprawl words on my paper.

"it's a porsche. my parents got it for me. you missed the birthday party, by the way."

then a lightbulb went off.

"hey, i actually do give a shit about your cool car you got for your birthday that i was too unbothered to show up for." i chimed with a fake smile.

a hopefully grin showed up in his features. "really?" he must've seen the look on my face because his smile fell. "oh. where do you need a ride to?"

"in all fairness, i always told you when you got your car you would be my personal chauffeur." i teased. mike opened his mouth to speak but then the bell rang and cut him off.

we started to walk towards sixth period together. finally, another class with my best friend in it. i was already starting to miss her.

"where do you need a ride to, then?" he asked again when we stopped at my locker. i thought of a way to tell him without giving away the fact that i was there for harry.

i slammed it shut after putting my lunchbox inside. "styles selections." i hummed. now we were walking in the other direction, on our way to forensics.

while we were walking, mike's eyes bulged out of his sockets. "like, that one store that harry styles--"

i nodded.

"harry styles." he whispered to himself. "harry. henry. harry. henry. no way...."

my heart nearly stopped. i guess i could have possibly come up with a better fake name than something so similar. "mike, it's not what it looks like."

we stopped outside the classroom door. "please don't tell me you're in one of those funks where you're so determined that you're dating an international pop star."

that was close.

i just laughed it off. "i know, it was silly of me. im not dating him, i just need a ride to his store after school. id like to buy a thing or two."

he nodded, his eyes prodding at the bandana that harry had got me from his store. "nice bandana." he commented, his eyes downcast as he strolled into the classroom without me.