masochist // h.s

15; NOXIOUS SMIRKS AND MELTING GRINS

15 ::

my ribcage holds in a fluttering heart

too scared to fly free

in fear of being torn apart

-

/ florence /

::::: three days later :::::

Class went by so slow. I took notes robotically and worked on the lab assignment with my chemistry partner. I kept looking at the clock to find that only five minutes had crept by. Finally, the bell rang.

When I sauntered out of the class, Harry was waiting for me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I decided to wait for you," he explained.

Spencer advanced towards us. "Hi Harry." She gave me a suspicious look from behind his back. I looked away, pressing my lips together to fight the urge to smile.

"Are you grounded?" Harry asked as he walked alongside me.

"Sadly."

"Can you tell me what you're allowed to do?" He asked.

"Not much," I answered seriously, my grin deflating.

"But you can do anything that involves studying, right?" He confirmed, trying to put the pieces together.

"Pretty much. As long as I have a ride and am home before eleven o'clock."

"Would your grandmother know if you weren't doing the studying thing that you said you were doing but still followed the eleven o'clock rule?"

I sunk onto my seat with my stomach in my chest. I could guess where he was going, and it was a place I was too afraid to even consider.

My parents had given me a final warning, and I didn't want to ruin their trust by exploiting it. Moving in with my grandmother was the best that had ever happened to me since college. If they ever found out about me sneaking out again - I would be indefinitely killed. They didn't want a repeat of history; a repeat of three days at that police station.

"I don't know. Why?" I tightened my eyes to try to read his thoughts.

"Just wondering," he said, still thinking. My attention was snapped to the front of the room when we were requested to pass our work forward.

I wondered in confusion about his sudden change of character.

"Would you ever purposely do something you know you aren't supposed to do?" Harry continued with the inquisition on our way to Anatomy.

"Like what?" Again, not liking this line of questioning.

"Like sneaking out of the house, or saying you're at the library but go somewhere else instead?"

I looked at him with wide eyes. I swallowed the lump lodged in my throat at the thought of doing something reckless again. Does he not recall getting arrested just a couple of nights ago?

"I guess not," he concluded by my speechlessness, and probably audible gulping.

"What are you thinking?" I finally asked.

"I'm just trying to figure this out."

"What out?"

"Us," he said as he entered the classroom and took his usual seat.

I stumbled to my seat, not breathing again. He was so confusing. I wished I had warnings when he was going to say things like that.

"Mr. Styles," Mr. Snicket declared, "would you please join Ms. Quinn at her table? It appears her partner is no longer in this class, and there is no point in having two single tables, especially when we have our dissection labs."