Note To Self (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Sixty Nine.

Harry felt stomach acid eating away at his throat when he was forced to watch the back of her head for forty five minutes the next morning. It felt even worse on an empty stomach, which had been screaming at him relentlessly to eat something for days. The constant gurgling had begun to hurt, and he felt tired and weak. His joints ached from laying in bed for hours upon hours upon hours, but the dark circles beneath his eyes showed the exact opposite of being well rested. His mind never shut down enough to allow him to sleep, and he was pretty certain his thoughts had managed to morph the love he felt into unadulterated hatred.

The anger he felt was all-consuming, lapping up his esophagus like burning flames. He really just had a bad case of heartburn because his stomach was so empty, but blaming it on fiery hatred sounded better. Especially since when she dropped her purple pen and used her foot to drag it close enough to reach, he definitely felt like he could throw up.

I hate you so much.

He had a difficult time focusing on anything else besides the hatred overtaking his bones, not even Mrs. Violets words as she stood in the front of the room to overview everything they'd learned over the year in preparation for finals. Tests that would define whether he were to graduate or not, and he just couldn't pay attention. Between the pain of his stomach trying to digest itself and the gnawing anger for the copper colored head blocking his view of the board, his mind was elsewhere.

By the end of class, not even one single bit of information was retained in his head. The bell had rung and Harry took all of two seconds to gather his things and head toward the door in a hurry, but Aubry had slid her body out of her desk while he was passing by and effectively caused him to bump into her. Her hip collided with her desk from the force, and their eyes locked. Harry's was much more of a glare than anything, and Aubry's was a bewildered stare. He shook his head and slid by without a single word, the spot on his arm that had made contact with her feeling like it had been branded with hot metal.

Harry's entire day revolved around turning corners in hallways he didn't need, just to avoid coming face to face with the redhead again. Looking at her made him want to rip the hair out of his scalp one strand at a time.

Sitting by himself at lunch had grown lonely and nothing more than a forty five minute torture session to sit and watch everything Aubry did without him, and he decided he was done wallowing. He forced himself to buy a sandwich to eat, because he was certain if he didn't soon he would pass out from hunger. What wasn't quite expected was when he settled in the empty space beside Sophie.

Her eyes glanced up from her lunch, and a shy smile tugged on the corners of his mouth. He hadn't even settled his food down, feeling hesitant and partially waiting to be sent off elsewhere. She scanned his face for several moments before she finally said anything. "Hi."

"Hi," he returned, and his voice was weak. He cleared his throat.

"What are you doing?"

"Sitting?" His eyes flitted across her freckled face. "If that's okay with you."

She nodded, but her attention went back to eating. Harry's did too, taking small bites of bread that tasted like nothing. Even Liam looked confused when he passed by the table and caught sight of the two of them together, and it was the first time he noticed Aubry was missing her sidekick. Harry's eyes stayed trained on his face, locking with honey brown eyes that saddened his heart even more because he missed him so dearly. Liam's attention was short lived, he soon ripped his eyes away and settled at the table beside the one Harry sat at and returned to paying him no mind.

Sophie had noticed the small exchange, and she glanced around the lunch room briefly. "Where's the other one?" The other one meant Aubry, she just hated the taste of her name. "She not here today or something?"