I. L'instant [H.S]

LXVI

Harry's fingers run across my forehead.

We've been watching a Wes Anderson film marathon, to my request and Harry's disdain even though he's been staring at the screen with such attention you'd think he loves the obsessively symmetrical director as much as I do. We've already had supper and the sun set a couple hours ago, dropping the temperature as I lay down on the sofa with my head on his lap while he drinks from yet another fancy whiskey-filled drink he's come up with. The Daerjeeling Limited ends, announcing the upcoming beginning of Fantastic Mr. Fox.

"I'm not watching an animated film." he states, taking the remote from my hands.

"But I haven't-"

"No, no." he shakes his shakes his head, flipping through the channels until a romantic film pops up. "That's better."

The fact that he likes rom-coms, dramatic love stories and things of the sort will never cease to amaze me. "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind, really?"

He shrugs, placing the remote considerably far from me. "It's a good one."

I smirk up at him, watching him as he tries to ignore me. "You're such a softie, Ed."

"I'm not." he frowns, looking down to me. "You're annoying, that is."

"I don't like it." I wrinkle my nose. "It's bloody depressing, come on! Let's watch something else."

Sitting up, Harry throws his arm over my leg, leaning against me. "It's not real, y'know?"

"Ha." I sigh. "But the story, the meaning of it. It's true and that's what's depressing."

Looking at me, he frowns. "What do you mean?"

Glancing at the screen, right when Joel finds out Clementine has already erased all of her memories with him, I try to unscramble out my own thoughts so I don't come off wrong.

"I have mixed feelings about it. That's all." I gesture at the screen, looking back into his eyes.

Harry stares back. "Tell me, come on." he encourages, pecking my lips.

I give in. "Well, if you think about it, Joel's the biggest needy idiot on the planet and Clementine clearly has a lot of issues she'll end up using as an excuse not to be happy but bring others down with her even though she claims she's just looking for her 'own piece of mind'."

Nodding slowly, he lowers the volume on the telly. "So you think they shouldn't end up together?"

"I just think, in that specific case, if you went as far as to erase someone from your memory because they hurt you so deeply, then why give it a go again? Just because of the love they have for each other?" I frown, looking as Joel's about to undergo the memory-erasing bit.

"You don't think that's enough reason?" he asks, his voice a bit lower.

"But they just dive into it again, no questions asked or the slightless consideration!" I hush. "How could they do that after everything that happened between them? What bothers me is the inevitability feeling to it, like there's no option other than being together because it's 'meant to be'. What the hell is that?"

Harry nods, his expression shifting slightly but then he chuckles. "You've got your mind pretty much set."

"Well, yeah, about that movie in specific." I laugh a little, feeling as though I might've rambled out too much. "I just think that even though you love someone, it doesn't mean they're good for you. Maybe you can keep loving them, but from afar, or the memory of them."