Deserve [H.S.]

Chapter 23

DISTRACTED

It felt like deja-vu.

Harry had been anxiously waiting for Noah to reach out to him all day. He wanted to give her the time to cool off that she mentioned needing, but, in all honesty, he had cooled off the moment she left. The hours apart did allow him to think of how to apologize, though, so he figured that was a positive from the situation.

It was Saturday, which meant Harry had a fight that evening. He had been training all day, but made sure to take breaks so he could check his phone in case Noah got in contact with him. He worried that she would call him when he was away from his phone so he couldn't answer and then she would get the wrong impression.

It was around 4PM when he took a break from training and made a beeline for his phone in the locker room. When the screen lit up, he felt his heart drop as he noticed that he had a missed call from Noah only a few minutes prior.

Harry instantly tapped on his screen to call her back and raised the phone to his ear, running his hand through his hair in anxiousness. He heard the ringing stop as there was a slight noise on the other end of the call, most likely Noah as she brought the phone up to her ear.

Soon enough, her soft voice cut through the static, "hey, Harry."

"Noah, hi," he breathed out, taking a deep breath immediately after to say, "I'm really sorry about yesterday. I really am. You were right, I should have talked it out with you so I could get it off my chest. I'm sorry I was an asshole to you, I should have never treated you that way. Everything I said was bullshit, too. You don't push me too much. I need to be pushed, honestly, and you push me just the perfect amount. As your boyfriend, I should have told you what was bothering me and I'm sorry I was shutting you out. I know I said that wasn't what I was doing, but it actually was."

In all honesty, Noah wasn't expecting Harry to apologize so strongly right off the bat. She was extremely grateful to hear it, though.

"Thank you for the apology, handsome. I need to apologize, too, because I definitely was too pushy. I think you need to be pushed, too, but I should have known that you just needed a little extra time to simmer down before telling me stuff. I'll be sure to approach these situations with you in a better light if they happen again."

Harry didn't think Noah had anything to apologize for, but he didn't want to dismiss her apology because she clearly thought it was necessary.

"Thank you," he said quietly, unable to think of anything else to say. After a brief pause, he awkwardly said, "glad we handled that well."

Noah's sweet giggle caused him to smile unconsciously, endlessly happy to hear it again.

"Me too," she allowed her laughter to dissolve into a sigh before she said her next words, "so, do you want to tell me what happened yesterday, or do you want to just forget about it?"

Harry knew that he couldn't keep it from Noah anymore, but he didn't want to go into too much detail, so he just said, "it was just Anthony being his usual asshole self. Talking shit about how fighting should be my entire life and I can't get distracted from it."

A sigh was heard through the phone as Noah took in his words, "I'm sorry, bub. We'll get you out soon enough, okay? We'll figure it out."

All Harry could do was hum in response, knowing that it wasn't that easy.

"In other news... I'm sad I didn't get to spend the night with you, though. You know I literally had my overnight bag in the back of my car?" She laughed to let him know that she wasn't talking too seriously.