antidote | h.s.

2 - bittersweet

ashton mackenzie

Drew drunkenly introduced me to everyone in the apartment. It was a bit slurred, but I think I got the names of everyone.

There's Violet, Harry and Drew's other roommate, her best friend Connor, Connor's boyfriend Felix who literally hasn't left Connor's side since I've been here, and then Ilene.

Ilene is gorgeous, I'm not going to lie. She's tall, like probably just as tall as me, but all legs, and she's super skinny with such tan skin. I would genuinely commit a lot of crimes if it meant I could look like that. She's been standing and talking to Harry a lot. They seem like good friends.

I haven't had anything else to drink since Drew made that one drink for me like an hour ago because I decided my social timer is definitely going to run out around midnight and I am going to want nothing more than to go home and sleep in my own bed. I also couldn't ask Harry to drive me, I would feel way too bad.

Drew on the other hand has not slowed down his drinking at all. He's definitely way past the healthy amount of drunk and will probably be crashing in his room pretty soon which is great news for me, sitting in a room full of strangers now.

No one has said anything about any games yet, which makes me wonder why this is called game night, but it has only been a couple of hours so I'm not exactly sure.

Everyone seems super nice. I had a long conversation with Connor and Felix about work, and they were super interested in my job and what I do, which I thought was very sweet. Violet is nice, but not very talkative. It's really been just her and I sitting and watching the random sitcom reruns playing on the tv while everyone else mingles.

I keep making accidental eye contact with Harry. I don't know why he keeps looking at me, and it's making me think I did or am doing something wrong. More importantly, I don't know why I keep looking at him. Overall I am just lost on the reasoning for it to be happening at the same time every time.

"OKAY!" Drew's loud voice suddenly fills the room, making us all go silent, "Who's ready to play a drinking game?!" He earns a couple of hoots and cheers from the room, everyone deciding to sit down along the couch in the living room.

Everyone but Harry. I don't really know why my eyes searched for him right away, but when they did, I noticed he wasn't here.

The group begins passing around the bottle of vodka and a stack of plastic cups, everyone taking one and filling it with a shot's worth amount of alcohol. I immediately start sweating. I definitely don't want to drink anymore, but I also don't know how to say no to anyone.

The bottle and cups come to me, and before I can even make the awkward pass on to Connor on my right, a hand comes over my shoulder from behind me, holding another plastic cup and some clear liquid in it. I recognize whose hand it is from the rings I saw earlier in the elevator. They're actually very pretty up close. I look behind me and make eye contact with Harry, now having to have the awkward 'no thank you' conversation twice.

"I'm okay, thank you, I don't really feel—" before I even finish my words, Harry is leaning down and almost-- almost-- pressing his nose into the side of my head to whisper closely in my ear, making sure no one else can hear him. 

"It's water. You can take it and just pretend it's vodka so no one gives you shit," he says.

He pulls away just as quickly and shoves the cup of water closer to me. I smile at him, nodding my 'thank you' before taking the cup from his hand.