(ATLANTIS) - haylor au

chapter twentytwo (3/3)

(harry)

We're all seated in a circle. With Zayn and Niall on my right and left side respectively.  and Taylor's makes it a point to be as far from me as possible as she sits opposite me. We leave a spot between Gigi and Zayn for Liam because he says he'll be here any minute now.  Taylor's got Karlie and Gigi on her either sides and I've got the only happy couple I know beside me but it's not as bad as last year when they used to be really all over each other. 

"When the hell's he going to get here?!" Karlie's pouting now, looking at her phone. The rest of us exchange looks of amusement as Karlie starts getting pissy. 

"Calm down, Kar. Liam knows better than to be late." Gigi laughs. She turns to Zayn and leans over. "Don't ever be late to any of Karlie's events. She will hurt you." Gigi's looking straight into Zayn's eyes with a straight face and I look on with an amusement expression. He only nods, wordlessly. "I'm playing!" She bursts into laughter and I pat his back, laughing with Gigi. 

"I'll get you back for that one." Zayn says to her as he nods his head slowly. 

Selena and Niall are already mixing drinks for everyone in front of us. "Karlie, when did you get these, I was there with you the entire time yesterday?" Taylor asks, grabbing the bottles of the hard liquor which I'd been asked by Karlie to get last night. Karlie shoots me a look and says, "Nice lil' Hazza got us that." She calls me Hazza and I get flashbacks from when we were kids and all of them would call me because it sounded like a magician's word. "After his cute lil' date." She flashes a smile, scrunching her nose and her entire face. 

"Shut. up!" Selena and Gigi say one after another. "Spill." Selena passes me a plastic cup with the drink. I absentmindedly take the cup and am still trying to process what Karlie's referring to. My face must've shown that I'm confused because Karlie's rolling her eyes. 

"At the smoothie place?" She tries to remind me. "We saw you." 

"We?" I repeat as reflex.

"Taylor and me?" Karlie rolls her eyes again and it finally makes sense what Taylor'd been  saying in the kitchen. 

"Oh." is all I say before taking a sip. I take another sip, and another, and another. It's not that I'm hiding anything from my friends but what yesterday was, wasn't a date. I'm just humouring Sarah and I couldn't let her down. "It wasn't a date." I say but I'm looking at Taylor — answering her from before. "I'm not dating anyone." I add, still looking at her. She's trying not to look at me as she tries to pour herself another mixer.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Gigi says, swirling her cup and looking into her drink. "Tell us about her." She adds before downing her entire cup. 

"Is it the secret admirer?" Niall finally asks, as if he'd just arrived to the conversation. "Sarah?" 

"SARAH?" Selena shouts. "Are you crazy? She's so young! Harry, are you crazy?!" She snatches my cup. "Sarah from the Art Club?" Her voice comes out calmer at the end but she's still giving me a bewildered look. I glance at Taylor but I can't read her. 

"Sarah's been writing Harry secret notes and leaving them in his locker for weeks." Niall chuckles. "Harry's just humouring her, guys. C'mon." I let out a sigh of relief as Niall comes to my rescue -- at least someone is on my side. 

"First of all, sophomore is not that young." I say to defend myself but I'm not even going to end up dating her. "And, I know, she's young. Like 16?" 

"Yeah! Imagine how fucking dumb you were when you were 16!" Karlie shouts with roar of laughter afterwards. All of them laugh except Zayn because they're all referring to my ex-girlfriend; Beth. Beth was my second girlfriend and she was an exchange student. She was from Asia and thought America would be the perfect place to experiment. I was thrilled just to have someone new in my life and let her run my life for a while. Taylor's the first to tell Zayn about Beth and then, he too starts laughing. 

I'm rolling my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Beth." I wait for them all to settle down. "Look, I confronted Sarah a few days ago. Found her leaving notes. And I felt bad just turning her down. So I just wanted to get to know her. Is that a crime?" Shaking my head, I take another sip. 

"Yeah, you're making her think you're interested. That she has a chance when you've already made up your mind." Tay finally speaks up. I can tell there's a hint of spitefulness in there because that's not how she normally sounds. "That's fucking disrespectful to any girl who would give you the time of day, Harry." What the fuck is she on about? I glance over to the other girls and their smiles have faded too. I'm staring at Tay now and she's looking at me but it's like she doesn't see me. 

"What the fuck's wrong with you today?" I can't help but feel angry now. "You've been short with me the entire day." Why am I doing this in front of everyone? "Do you just not want me around? Because you could've fucking told me that you didn't want me to get a ride with you." My voice comes out angrier and angrier and I don't feel like anyone's around. She's looking at me still and she's still mad. But now, I am too. 

"I am not having you two argue at my party!" Karlie finally yells, snapping both Taylor and I out of whatever we are having. "Can you two just get along like before? Please."

Taylor looks at Karlie and her face softens, nodding. She hasn't had the last word so it's not over yet but I don't want to ruin the night for anyone. I nod too and try my best to give her a smile.

"Liam's here!" Niall and Zayn both cough out, excitedly. Both of them quickly get up and run over to him.

Selena takes my cup and pour more vodka into the my cup, giving me a playful wink. This makes me laugh and I take it thankfully. 

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(author's note) 

what! a ! mess! these two are! HAHAHA 

please comment below on what you think! thank you so much for reading :)