how you get the boy

thirteen

If I didn't know Harry better, I would say that he was avoiding me, for it had been three days since the incident in the hallway and yet, I hadn't seen him at all after that despite the fact that we lived just next door. Or despite the fact that we had always bumped into each other before, but now all of sudden, it seemed as though he never left his flat and I was beginning to wonder if he really did live in this building.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case because I did know Harry enough to know that it wasn't him who's avoiding me; it was me who's avoiding him.

See, steering clear of Harry wasn't exactly part of my plan, but when it's the only thing I knew seeing that it's one of the fewer things I was good at, that's exactly what I found myself doing.

I didn't realise that I had been missing my trip to The Cup every morning for the past three days until Niall casually brought up his name in our conversation.

As much as I hated to admit it, I could still clearly remember the dejection etched on his face as he glanced at us before he stepped inside and hard as I tried, I couldn't quite erase it from my memory. Not even the memory of Louis' lips pressed against mine or his fingers digging into my skin could help bury the image of those stupid, stupid, beautiful green eyes that taunted me every night, that appeared behind my eyelids each time I closed them.

'It was just your bloody imagination, Tee' had become my mantra. Nevertheless, I was aware that I was just fooling myself because no matter how convincing I sounded in my head, I knew that if it were an imagination, I wouldn't be able to conjure it up, wouldn't be able to see it clearly as though I'd seen it with my own eyes. I did, I did, I did, and I couldn't banish it from my thoughts.

"Tee, I know you're shite at confrontation," Niall stated, his accusation pulling me out of my reverie, to which I immediately smacked his head, emitting a yelp from him. Rubbing the sore spot, he then rolled his eyes at me and continued his interrupted speech. "But yknow, you should give it a try. Who knows it might work. In fact, 'm positive it'll solve 90% of your bleeding dilemmas."

"That's not true," I crinkled my nose at him despite the fact that it was true. But having someone else point out a fact about yourself – one that you refused to acknowledge, especially – wasn't exactly in the list of the things that I enjoyed in life. I chose to deny it until I made everyone around me including myself believed that little lie. "I do enjoy confrontation. And where'd you get the statistics?"

Niall let out a loud scoff, causing some people that were browsing through the records to glance at us, as he quirked an eyebrow at me and gave me a look that said he didn't trust me. "Tee, we all know that's bullshit."

"No s'not," I shook my head, crossing my arms in front of my chest whilst a pout made an appearance on my chapped lips. "Just because you've never seen me confronting anyone doesn't mean it's bullshit, Ni." I continued with my head held high, to which he simply chuckled instead of taking me seriously.

In my head, I was already strangling him and making him choke on his chuckle because damn it, I hated that sound so much when it's directed at me. Fortunately for me, it did stop after a few seconds even though it seemed as if it wouldn't. I would've been more glad if he were to remain quiet but that was just too much to ask, wasn't it?

"'Kay let's see if you're telling the truth, yeah?" Niall suddenly mentioned as the corners of his lips were tugged upwards into that devilish smirk I knew very well and hated with every fibre of my being. "He's here."

Before I got the chance to let the word 'what' leave my lips, the bell above the door jingled, producing a sound that signalled that someone had just walked in and my eyes widened in horror as realisation dawned on me. I looked around the store in an attempt to search for the nearest hiding spot but when my eyes landed on the cash register, I realised that it was too late to hide behind it now because Niall was already calling out Harry's name, telling the bloke to come over to us.