Shy Heart || h.s

Epilogue

♛

She was anxious. Her heart was racing, her palms sweating, her breathing accelerated as she stared at the screen of her laptop in anticipation.

The constant ringing coming from her laptop felt agonizingly slow, it felt as if time had slowed. Was she ready for this? She tried to compose herself, because she hadn't seen him in so long. She hadn't seen his face in so long. Words and silly text icons were all they had to communicate for a whole year. And now, the time had come, they had finally found some time in their lives to do this.

Her breath hitched in her throat at the sound of a ding, notifying her that he had accepted the Skype call, the loading sign on the screen painful to watch.

And before she knew it, her eyes were watering. The mere sight of his dimpled smile was enough to put her to tears. God, she missed him so much and now here he was, maybe not in physically shape, but he was still in front of her.

"You hair is longer." She whispered, pressing a finger to the image of his figure displayed on her screen. She didn't let the slight glitches and lagging in his video affect her happiness.

It was true. His hair had grown uncontrollably, and Scarlett wanted to laugh through her tears at the sight of him grinning sheepishly.

"Trying something new." He muttered, his eyes glancing all over his screen as if to absorb the image of her as much as possible, just as she was doing with the image of him.

She giggled, a giggle that sounded very odd to Harry. He squinted his eyes at the screen, his face moving closer to the screen to see Scarlett's emotions. And that was when he realised she was crying. The look of realization on Harry's face told Scarlett that he knew she was crying, and she knew he was going to feel bad about it because that's how Harry was.

"I miss you." She muttered, smiling a sad smile.

Harry returned an equally sad smile, leaning his arms on to the table as he watched Scarlett.

"I've been thinking..." He muttered, a thoughtful expression taking over his features.

"To try come down there at the end of this year. I can get a day off or something, anything because I'm currently dying to see you."

Scarlett laughed, nodding along to his idea.

"How is it?" He asked, referring to her college life. She was in England, going to college, living an ordinary life. Her mother was still supporting every step she took, and her friends were still there for her too. Perrie, Eleanor, Zayn, Louis, Liam, Niall , Amber and herself were scattered all around England, the whole of them occasionally seeing one another. Scarlett was more than happy to find out that Perrie would be attending the same college as Scarlett. But her mood had deflated the day Harry had come to her, rambling about his acceptance at a college in New York.

She was more than proud of him, she was happy for him and she was swelling with excitement for him. Yet there was still a part of her that was scared, a part of her that was sad, lonely, and frustrated because Harry was going to leave her behind. What if their relationship was affected by the distance? How was she going to familiarize herself with a life where Harry was not physically there to hold her, to kiss her and to hug her?

But she soon came to the realisation that life works in a funny way. The things that make you happy can be taken away from you in a simple click, but you can always find away to complete life's challenges, to take a different path in order to discover that happiness again. And that's what Scarlett did.

She accepted the fact that Harry was leaving, she accepted the fact that there was always going to be some kind of distance between the two of them. But she was also willing to accept the hope that she would some day have the ability to see Harry, to be with him. They were still young, they could survive, they could live. Yes, Harry was her anchor, he was someone she depended on. But that didn't mean Scarlett was incapable of being independent, she wasn't incapable of living on her own and she knew that if she tried hard enough, she could last through this year without Harry's physical presence.