Legitimately Us ||H.S||

Chapter 38

Harry slowly brings his phone down away from his face as I take a few steps closer, before I stop halfway across the sidewalk from him. I'm not sure why I stop. I just feel the need to give him the space he so desperately needed earlier tonight.

Before I can say anything, he moves closer to me, leaving a couple of feet between us. "I'm sorry I walked out," he says. "I just..I just needed time to think."

"About what?"

It's easy to see that he's fighting with himself over wanting to be happy I'm here and not at the same time. His expression is neutral yet wavering, in a way I can't understand how he's feeling, which I dislike.

"About you being here," he answers. "About you hearing my song. About that Tyler guy who answered your phone. And how I don't know what's going on with you because you never write in your blog anymore, and I hate that more than anything. Why don't you write anymore?"

Of all the things I thought he would ask first, this was not at the top of my list. "I do write," I tell him. "Just not in that blog. It's not that I didn't want you to read my thoughts...well, it is, I guess. But not why you think," I assure him. "I needed to do all of this without you, and if I knew you were reading anything I was writing, I wouldn't have really been doing it on my own. At least that's how I look at it."

He nods in understanding. "And Tyler?" His eyebrows rise on his forehead as he stares at me.

"Just a friend," I answer. "Like I told you. My car broke down in Oklahoma and I made friends with him while I was there for the week. Did you...did you listen to that voicemail I accidentally left you?"

"No," he answers. "I forgot all about it, actually. And what do you mean accidentally? You didn't mean to send me it?"

"No, not exactly." I scrunch up my face at the memory of Tyler's words. I hope he deleted it.

"Well, that's intriguing." He shifts his weight from one leg to the other as he pulls his phone back out of his pocket, pushing buttons frantically. "How about we listen then, shall we?"

"Harry, I don't think..."

But I'm cut off by Tyler's voice coming from Harry's speaker and I let out a long breath, not exactly remembering all of what he said to me that night. I keep my eyes on Harry as he listens with furrowed brows. The expression on his face changes from moment to moment, listening to Tyler confess what he believes we could be together. But when Harry hears my voice sound through the speaker, he looks at me. Wide, sympathetic, almost sad eyes staring at me. And then there's a small silence and I can picture it in my head that it's the moment Tyler tried to kiss me, and I cringe, wondering if Harry knows that's what was happening at that moment.

But it doesn't matter, because my voice says the words that make his whole demeanor change. "I'm in love with someone else." And then a few seconds later, a loud groan comes from the speaker and it makes Harry smile at me.

"You're cute when you're frustrated," he says, shoving his phone back in his pocket. "You always were."

It's the strangest thing, standing in front of him after all this time that's passed. It feels as though lifetimes have passed and we're two completely different people staring at each other right now. We still look the same, but we're not the same as we were just a few months ago. Making me feel as if we're just two strangers with a past standing on the sidewalk together not really knowing what to say.

"Want to walk?" he asks. "We could go get coffee, or something?"

"There's coffee right inside there," I say, pointing to the coffeehouse door.