red hair and a blue hoodie // ed sheeran

Chapter 57 - Devising a Plan and White Girl Starbucks

zσ'ѕ ρσν:

With the window open the wind was calm in my face. Sierra was humming along to ‘Happily’ in the kitchen as she made some tea for the two of us. It made the area calm and easy to paint in as the brush was held lazily in my right hand.

I reached out, feeling around the border of the canvas as I grazed my brush behind my hand. In my head I pictured a beach of sand and water and sea shells and fish and dolphins. The sun was setting in the background and boats were sailing steadily on the calm waters. With the precise image in my head I got to work painting my vision. I knew they would never turn out the way I imagined them.

Sierra would always inspect my works after I had finished them and she always told me that they were ‘masterpieces’ or ‘works of pure creative genius’ but I knew they were just wasted paint on a canvas. I knew they looked nothing like how I wanted them to and I knew that Sierra lied to me on a daily basis.

She wasn’t taking advantage of me but she probably had it in her head that I couldn’t handle the truth. A phone ringing shattered the silence around us and Sierra’s voice echoed around the room.

“Hello?.... Wait slow down babe, I can’t understand you… He called you saying what?... Niall said that? No fucking way… He must really want this huh?.... Yeah, hold on I’m just gonna go somewhere quiet.” Then it was footsteps I heard, coming closer and closer to me. “Zo?”

“Yeah?” I responded at the sound of my name. 

“Harry wants to talk alone with me. Are you going to be alright if I step into the other room?”

“Love, I’m not five, alright? I can look after myself.” I jokingly countered, my brush still scratching ink against the canvas. 

“Ha-ha, alright,” she laughed in response to my lame attempt at humour. “I’ll be right back.”

Then her voice and footsteps faded down the hallway towards her and Harry’s bedroom. For a few minutes I continued with my painting, the image of a glorious beach day still trying to reach the canvas in front of me but then my curiosity got the better of me. My mind started to replay the short conversation that Sierra had on the phone until she left the room.  It wasn’t just your everyday ‘I miss you’ call and by her tone I could also tell it wasn’t a sex call. Before my brain registered it, I was reaching to my side to retrieve my cane.

ѕιerra'ѕ pov:

“Okay, we can talk now. So what’s happening again?”

“Ed called me up just now and said he wants to see Zo again. He told me he heard her on the phone when he was talking to you and he loves her too and-”

“Fuck.”

“What?” Harry’s voice rung through the phone, confused.

“I was just really hoping he didn’t hear her. She’s going to be so upset if she finds out I violated her trust like that.”

“She doesn’t have to know,” he assured. “But he really does want to come around.”

“She still hates him though. She’s… ugh. She’s torn between loving him and absolutely despising the earth he walks on.”

“Do you even know why she hates him?” 

That question, to be honest, really put me on the spot. “She hasn’t really mentioned it to me before. I don’t want to pry her.”

“It’s been six months since it happened. You’re allowed to pry if she’s still moping around the place.”

“She’s not moping.” My tone was harsher than I initially intended it to be but I guess it made sense to get mad when he was accusing my best friend of lies.