Aquarelle [h.s]

eight

The next day was awkward. It was awkward from the second Harry stepped inside my studio in the late morning, and it didn't become any less awkward as the minutes went by.

I couldn't tell what it was that make it so awkward, if the fact that I was drawing him again like I'd done all those years before, or the fact that we were both way too aware of the conversation we'd had the day before. I wondered if I should've put on some music, just to escape the silence, but for some reason that felt even more awkward. Everything seemed to be awkward whenever Harry was involved, and I couldn't tell how it was possible, as he definitely wasn't awkward in the slightest.

The thing was, there was no way to escape the awkwardness of the entire situation, because it was there, present, and it was impossible not to notice it. It hovered in the air around us as he sat in front of me, glancing in my direction, but focusing on the wall, and as I finished my sketch of him, looking up at him every once in a while just to discover that he was no longer staring at me.

By the time the first two hours ended I'd had more than enough, and I couldn't have been gladder that I finally got to spend some minutes away from him.

"Alright, we're done for now" I said in the second the clock ticked midday, quickly standing up and making the chair scrape the floor harshly, looking up at him just in time to catch him slightly flinching at the loud sound. "There's a free hour now" I continued, even though I knew that he perfectly knew that too. "Uh, I'm going out" I added when he made no move to stand up. I didn't really feel hungry and I wanted to wait for him to leave, but I quickly changed my mind when I realised that would've entailed spending some more minutes in his presence as he gathered his stuff and got ready to go out. "I'll leave the door unlocked."

I exited the apartment quickly as soon as I was done speaking, going down the stairs and deciding to go waste some time at the cafe at the end of the street, where I ordered a cappuccino and sat down at a table in the corner, checking my phone as I waited for it to cool down a bit.

I answered a text from Nicholas and moved on, rolling my eyes when I realised that Louis too had sent me a text.

From Louis: How's it going with Harry? Do you need me to come save you?

Of course he would make fun of the fact that he knew I hated the idea of having to work with Harry. Sometimes, I just wished he would've seen my point of view on the whole thing, even though I knew it wouldn't have been likely as long as I wouldn't have told him what had truly happened between us. I should've probably done it at some point, but I just couldn't find it in me to do it, and I always kept chickening out at the last second.

To Louis: Surprisingly fine

I sent the text and locked my phone, ignoring it as it vibrated again a couple of minutes later, supposing it was only another sassy remark from Louis.

I started sipping my cappuccino, careful not to drink it all in one go, deciding to wait about half an hour before going back to the studio, wanting to be perfectly sure that Harry had enough time to leave.

At the end I finished my hot drink way sooner than I would've expected, so I decided to take my notepad out of the pocket of my coat and draw random things and people I could see on the street in an attempt to waste some time. I sat there for twenty more minutes, doing exactly that, filling a page of my notebook with a multitude of little sketches of the most different things, from people that I'd seen walk by to the flowerpot on the window of the building on the opposite side of the street.

When the thirty minutes I'd forced myself to wait went by I paid for the second coffee I'd ended up getting before exiting the place and going back to the studio.