four

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Later that night, my door was knocked on again. I groaned, sitting up from the couch, and went to open it.

Harry was on the other side, his eyes focused on me as soon as the door was opened.

I gave him a fast once over. He was still wearing the clothes of the past night, but he looked way better than he had. He had probably just had a shower, judging from the slight dampness of his hair, that was now swept back. His cheeks were a rosy colour, in strong opposition with the cream white of the last time I had seen him.

"Yeah?" I asked, trying to break the silence that had been created between us.

"I just wanted to thank you for this morning. It was really nice of you" he said softly. His voice was quite deep, and, given his very calm way of speaking, somewhat soothing.

"You're welcome. I'm happy that you liked it" I replied.

He gave me a brief smile, and started walking back to his door.

"Hey!" I called after him right before he opened his door, and he turned around. "Do you want to come in? For a tea, or something?" I asked him.

"It depends" he replied. "Do you have sugar?"

"Unless you want to make sugar mountains and ski on them, I think that's covered" I replied, and he smiled again.

"I just might, then" he said, and I opened the door more so that he could step inside my house.

"Tea or coffee?" I asked him, walking to the kitchen as soon as he closed the door.

"Tea" he simply replied, following me in the other room.

We stayed in an awkward silence as I waited for the water to warm up, not really knowing what to say, given that we didn't even know each other. I let out a breath of relief as soon as the water was ready, rushing to put the water in two cups and the tea bags in them just to have something to do.

"So tell me something about you" I asked him putting the cups on the kitchen table, steam coming out of them.

"I don't think there's much to say, honestly" he replied, taking it and blowing softly on it. "I'm Harry, I'm 25" he added, after a small silence.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Harry" I said, sitting down on the other side of the table and crossing my legs on the chair. "I'm Grace, I'm 23."

"It's nice to meet you as well" he replied gently, slowly sipping his now less hot tea.

After that, the silence fell on us.

"Do you want something to eat?" I asked him after a few minutes, trying to keep the conversation up.

"No, thank you. I tend not to eat at-" he stopped to take a look at the clock above the kitchen counter, "1 in the morning."

"Oh my god, is it really that late?" I asked, turning around to check the clock as well.

"I guess that's what happens when I knock at people's door at past midnight" Harry said, after clearing his throat.

"I don't really mind. You can knock whenever" I assured him.

He looked at me attentively. "You don't really mean that."

I held his gaze, not wanting to give in to him. "How could you know that?"

"I just do" he replied. "I think I really need to go now, there's stuff waiting for me at my house" he added, standing up.

I smiled briefly as he took his cup and put it near the sink. "Have a good night, Harry" I said.

He stopped for a second and looked at me, pushing his hair out of his face. "You too, Grace."

He closed my door quietly behind himself, and after a few seconds I heard the sound of his door being locked.

That night I fell asleep unusually fast, and with a smile on my face.

On the following day, I had the night shift, which meant that I could sleep in. But for some weird reason I found myself queuing at my favourite coffee place at 8am, and asking for two chocolate cupcakes, a dark coffee and an Earl Grey tea - the kind he'd chosen the night before - in two separate bags.

As soon as I reached my floor, I put his bag and his tea in front of his door, and knocked three times.

I entered my house fast and leaned against the closed door to listen to any eventual movements. After some seconds, his door opened. I heard the paper sound of the bag being picked up, and the door closed again.

Content of how things had gone, I went into my kitchen and started eating my cupcake. After some minutes, somebody knocked on the front door. I went to open it but, before I could do that, a piece of paper was slid under it. A "thank you" written on it in a small, messy italic. I picked it up and put it on the library next to the television in my living room, together with all the other little notes we had shared.

Some hours after breakfast, the little sleep I'd got the past night started to kick in, and I decided to go back to sleep a little more, considering that I didn't want to be tired during my shift at the restaurant.

I was woken up some hours later by the sound of voices coming from somewhere in the house.

"You're a lazy ass."

"What makes you think I care about that?"

"You should. Because you are."

"Move away or come sit here, you're keeping me from being a good couch potato."

I opened my eyes, staring at the ceiling. I tried turning around and going back to sleep, but it was totally impossible, given that they wouldn't stop talking. I sighed and stood up, shivering when my feet came in contact with the cold floor. I went in the living room, where I found Liam and Niall bickering.

"What in the world are you doing in my house?" I asked them.

"We came here to accompany you to work later today! We decided to make it friends time" Niall replied.

"And you didn't think of advising before coming?" I asked again, slightly - just slightly - annoyed.

"I swear I tried but you didn't answer, I thought you were dead" the blonde said.

"Remind me again why I gave you a key to my house" I told him, going to get a glass of water from the kitchen.

"You didn't. I just kept it when I moved out" he replied again, and I hummed in response.

"What time is it?" I asked him.

"Like, 6:30pm. You have half an hour to make yourself decent" Niall was fast to reply.

"That's okay" I said. "Just do me a favour and don't do anything of inappropriate. That's my couch right there" I added, going into the bathroom.

Not having time to take a shower, I just tied my hair up in a bun. After a fast look at myself on the mirror, I decided I had no will nor time to put make up on, and just went into my bedroom to get dressed.

"So what are we doing tonight?" I asked them when I went back into the living room, sitting on the couch and putting on my old and worn black converse.

They looked at each other with complicity.

"We're making it a movie night! Tomorrow is Saturday, so we can stay awake for the whole night! How exciting is that?" Niall explained. "Liam will probably fall asleep right away though, he's such a baby" he added, and earned a side kick from Liam.

"Shut up, I'm not" he told him.

"Whatever!" Niall replied, putting his hands up in surrender.

I smiled at them and opened my front door and went out, and they followed me shortly after. As we went away, I carefully slipped a piece of paper in front of Harry's door.

"You're welcome."

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