The Deal (English)

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

*Harry Styles*

I honked twice, letting Olivia know I was waiting outside her house. I leaned back against the seat, waiting for her. I was glad to be out of the house again.

Mum had freaked out when she’d seen me, and taken an off for a few weeks from work, despite my repeated pleas, telling her to do otherwise. The boys and Olivia dropped in everyday to check on me, but often came with food and movies, so it didn’t turn out to be as bad. Still, everyone was treating me like I was a kid, constantly bombarding me with questions such as ‘are you okay?’ ‘do you want something to eat?’ ‘does something hurt?’ ‘are you tired?’ and the like, and often, I’d have to yell at them to get them to shut up.

I smiled as I spotted Olivia coming out of her house, and her face lit up when she saw me.

When Olivia and I had started off, she’d been nothing but the girl I went to when I was horny. But over the course of the few months, she’d become much more than just that. I never thought it was possible, but she was a friend now. But every time I thought about what Lexi had said the day I’d defended Olivia, I wondered if there was even the tiniest bit of a possibility of us being something more. Could there be? Did I want there to be? Olivia and I were friends, so surely, we were better off that way? I wasn’t going to ask her that, because I was scared that if I did, I’d scare her away. And if there was one thing admist all the confusion that I was absolutely sure of, was that I didn’t want to lose her. We’d become too close, and been through quite a lot together to lose what we had.

She opened the car door and quickly got in, snapping me out of my reverie. I smiled at her.

“Morning,” I said, starting the car.

“It’s nice to see you up and moving.” She said, running a hand through her hair.

“As opposed to lying half dead on the bed?” I asked, grinning.

She laughed. “You were fine.”

“Oh, really?” I raised an eyebrow. “Is that why you cried, and checked on me every day, and called me every two hours to check on me and make sure I was taking my painkillers and eating properly and whatnot?”

“I did not.” She mumbled, blushing.

I laughed. “Yeah, you did.” I said. “Harper, you called me this morning too.”

“I just wanted to make sure you were coming to school.” She stuck her tongue out.

“Missed me that much?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes but didn’t reply, and I laughed again. As my hand raised to turn the radio on, she mumbled something quietly that made me smile involuntarily.

“Yeah, I did. Of course I did.”

---

I shut my locker, ready to go to my next class. On my way, I spotted Dylan walking down the corridor alone, his head hanging low. I smirked, remembering what Olivia had done to him. He looked up in time to see me smirking at him, and his expression darkened.

“I’m surprised you’re still alive.” He growled.

“You gotta work on your punches, man.” I said. “I bet, even Harper can throw better ones. I think you know that, though.”

His jaw locked and his nostrils flared, but I only laughed and walked past him.

---

I slid onto the bench, taking a seat next to Olivia. I looked at my tray and wrinkled my nose with disgust at the food sitting in front of me.