Flood [h.s]

December 7th

Eve asked him at lunch who Arcadia was. She was careful with her tone and her volume because she knew that it would upset him but she couldn't help her curiosity.

Harry shifted awkwardly in his seat and wouldn't meet her gaze. He knew she wanted a deeper answer than his best friend who killed herself his freshman year, but he didn't want to talk about it still.

"Could you ask me something else?"

His tone was soft and laden with sadness and Eve could see traces of tears in his eyes. She nodded and offered him an apologetic smile, "What are you going to do over Christmas break?"

The noodles on his plate were pushed around aimlessly as he shrugged, "I dunno. What about you?"

Eve shrugged in return, "I suppose I'm going to work on my art project, maybe break the law a little bit, you know, the usual stuff."

Harry's eyes widened slightly as they met with hers, questioning the last half of her plans. She had said that on purpose to see if he was really listening because she had brought up a touchy subject only a minute or so before.

Her laugh was loud and wonderful in his ears and he stared at her smile and the way that her lips moved as she spoke, "I'm kidding! Okay, well maybe I'll have a drink or two on New Year's, but that's a normal kind of illegal."

She was right, it wasn't abnormal to do such a thing and Harry found himself smiling as he dropped his eyes again.

The rest of lunch passed by in silence and he didn't see her again until English, which was a period or two later and just before his last class of the day.

Eve threw her stuff down and let out an exaggerated sigh before turning to him and smiling brightly, "Hi, Harry."

Harry had a hard time biting back his smile because of how she did things like that purposely just for him and he really enjoyed it, "Hi, Eve."

They didn't speak again as class started and, after they had gotten a few minutes in, Eve passed him the usual sticky note.

It was blue today.

"Sadness flies away on the wings of time." – Jean de La Fontaine

The only thing that ran through his mind was how being around Eve, for any period of time, ate away at his sadness little by little. He had just lifted his eyes from his beginning page of notes to look at her when Mrs. Laveric started picking pairs for the project.

"Eve, you'll be with Harry."

His eyes widened slightly and he panicked internally. Mrs. Laveric was no longer on the list of teachers that he liked.

It wasn't because Eve was his partner, it was because he preferred to work alone and this would force him to interact much more with Eve.

Granted, it would probably be good for him, but he was really nervous about the whole thing because Mrs. Laveric normally let him work alone on the account of his current...status.

Everyone knew that he would talk to Eve, even if only just a little bit, and she probably took that to mean that he was okay with it. Once she had made up her mind, it didn't matter though and he saw no point in trying to find a way out of it.

Eve gave him her phone number before class ended so that they could work on the project and she made sure to tell him that he could just send her information over email or text if it was easier for him and that she didn't mind setting up the presentation herself.

Harry wasn't sure if he wanted to do either really, but nodded and decided that he would think about what he wanted to do before he went to bed.

He didn't see her again until he went for his routine run. Recently, during the past few days, she has been running with him. She must have seen him out there around the same time every day and realized that he kept the same routine.

It shocked him the first day that she had come out of her house in active wear and ran alongside him, but it shocked him even more when she continued to do so. Only a little time had passed during the first time she ran with him and he could already tell that she wasn't used to it.

Her face was bright red immediately and her breathing was heavy and uneven, but she kept pace with him anyway and didn't stop until he did. She left without saying a word and every day since she had done the same thing.

Today he started to feel bad because he knew his legs were impossibly long and hers were strictly average so she had to work harder to keep up with his fast pace. He couldn't help it though, his routine had become something set in stone and he never expected her to ever join him.

Eve had less of a rough time this time, because she had already joined him for about a week, but he could still see how painfully hard it was for her to keep up with him and he started to feel really bad about it.

Once he had made it back home, he decided that he would slow down his pace for her tomorrow. She was already trying so hard and he didn't want her to push herself to utter exhaustion just for his sake.