Absolution ➺ H.S. AU

Chapter 11 ➺ Harry

For some reason, I'm stuck on her, and if I can just be friends with her, get a little closer, I'll be able to get her out of my head.

I gave myself a little encouraging pep talk as I walked to the door. Hanging out with Paisley Evans is certainly not something I thought I'd ever be doing, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

If the images of her and the guilt don't go away on their own, give it a little help, and that's exactly what this is going to be. Once I can look past this all, I'll go straight back to my old ways and old life, which is what I want.

I approached the door and saw her through the window, standing on the front porch. I opened the door to see those shocking blue eyes, those eyes that fucking haunted me, and a smile on her face.

"Hi." She said a bit nervously.

"Hi." I said. This was awkward. We'd hardly ever had any communication in person, except for when I was wasted off my ass, and now here I am letting her into my house. This is weird for me. Never have I not had the upper hand, but with her, everything is different. I'm almost afraid of her, and care about what she thinks. "How are you?" I asked, letting her into the house.

"Very well. You?" She asked politely.

"I'm, uh, good." I said. There was a minute of silence, as neither of us knew what to say. "Uh, so nobody else is home, so we can go to the basement. There's like, a TV and stuff." I said. She nodded and we started heading that way.

"Nobody's home? What about your parents?" She asked.

"They're out of town. For work. They're usually gone three or four days of the week." Her eyes kind of widened at that. I guess she didn't have a family that bailed out on her.

"Oh wow. Do you, uh, have any siblings?"

"Nope." I said.

"So you stay here all by yourself?" She asked increduously. I chuckled at her response.

"Yes."

"I would be so nervous sleeping in a house this big by myself. I'd feel like a murderer would try to kidnap me in the night." She said.

"Yeah, I try not to think about that." I answered truthfully. We sat down on the couches in the large basement. I haven't been down here in a while. I used to come down all the time when I was younger and had friends over and we would play video games and whatever. We don't really do that kind of stuff anymore though.

It was silent for a minute, as neither of us knew quite what to say. This was a horrible idea. We are too different and have nothing in common.

"So how is your breathing?" I asked, trying to start a conversation, but regretting it after I said it as it must be a sensitive topic for her. She surprised me by smiling though, acting as if it didn't bother her at all.

"Really good, actually. I feel mostly the same most of the time. At the top of the stairs I get a little winded, but other than that, and the breathing treatments every week, which are a pain in the butt, it's okay." Just hearing her be okay about it brought a little relief to me. As if the guilt was just a little lighter than it was before. And it was a good feeling.

"I'm glad. I'm sorry, again." I said, but still unable to look into those eyes.

"It's okay. But lets not harp on that. This is supposed to be fun." She said. I could tell she was a little nervous, but other than the telltale signs of her body language, her confident voice didn't show it at all.

"Okay." I said, a bit wary.

"I want to get to know you. We really don't know anything about each other." She said, readjusting her legs so she was sitting criss cross on the couch, her body turned towards me.