Friends?

I moved away from him. I stood at the window, looking out. Harry got off the bed and walked to me. He put his hand on my shoulder. I flinched a little, but it went unnoticed between the tension both of us had.

He slowly whispered in my ear, “Did you mean it?”

“All of it.”

He slid his hand down my shoulder to my wrist. He grabbed my wrist and yanked me away from the window. He whispered, “I meant what I said too. And might I add, your eyes. They’re so beautiful. Still full of life, after all those events.”

“So are yours. They’re the most prettiest pair of eyes I’ve ever seen. I’m in love with them.”

He looked at me for a while, his head slightly tilted. My body was getting tired. The healing process had begun, but I still needed rest. And after seeing Harry’s bruises, he also needed rest.

I stood up and kissed his cheek, lightly. He said, hopping off the counter, “Don’t do that...it makes me fall in love with you even more.”

"Isn't that my main goal?”

"They say love is blind but how can you go blind and miss such a beauty?”

"Aw, and you know what you should do?”

"What?”

“Sleep.”

“Ugh, fine.” He brushed a small strand of hair out of my face.

He got into his bed. I sat on his desk, waiting for him to fall asleep. I might as well sleep on the desk.

“Lillian, you know I can’t sleep if you keep staring at me with your beautiful eyes?”

“Are you sleepy?”

“Nope.”

I gestured him to come to me. He walked to his desk and sat on the table. “Do you want to know more about your mom?” He asked, hopping onto the counter.

“Yes.” He pulled his laptop out. I asked, “What are you-“

“I had a project in literature that I had to write an essay on a-"

“Cut to the point.”

“I have a detailed seventeen page essay on your mom.”

“That-"

“That’s cool, right?”

It probably meant that he knew. He knew that she was my mother. I asked, “Did you know about her?”

"What exactly?”

“Her, being my mother?”

“Yes-"

I took a deep breath in. This isn’t a time to get mad at him. We looked through his essay, every detail of her building her career was here. Everything except how she disappeared and where she was. There was nothing about her private life. Not a single word.

Both of us fell asleep reading the essay. I was sleeping with my head on his desk and he was sleeping with his head on my shoulder.

The alarm went off, forcing me to wake up. I slowly opened my eyes. I wasn’t in my room. Oh, I realized that I was at Harry’s place. I groaned, “Who the hell wakes up at 5 in the morning?”

“Me-?” Harry answered. He was already dressed in his jogging gear.

“I’ll sleep for a little more while...” I yawned. I noticed he was sweating. "Did you get back from a jog?"

"Yeah..."

"Wow."

"You used to wake up early as well, you remember?"

"No shit, I had a modelling career for a reason. Anyway, I'll go back to sleep."

"Night. you can sleep on the bed..." But before he could finish his sentence, I had already closed my eyes and fallen asleep.

I finally woke up. I refused to get out of his desk. I wanted to sleep more. I hadn't noticed but there was a warm blanket on my shoulders and hot chocolate on the desk. The room's door opened. I saw Harry walk in. He was holding his shoulder and limping while walking.

I rushed to him, slowing touching his face. I asked, "What's wrong?"

He pulled me into a hug and whispered, "Everything is wrong, Lillian. Every single thing."

I rubbed his back. I whispered back, "It will be alright soon."

"I can't live here, not like this. He-he-he" His voice started to crack "He treats me like...just like absolute shit."

I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. I held him close to me, that's all I could do. It was late in the morning, around 10am when I woke up. I check my messages. There was one text from Carol.

I opened it. It was a video. She said in the video, "You should ask Harry on a date."

I quickly hid my phone away, as Carol was still blabbering in the video. I raised a question to Harry, asking, "Are you free tonight?"

"Yes, why?"

"We might have a fancy chat over the conversation last night."

"Oh, well you see-"

I cut him off, saying, "Now, that's a plan or not?"

"It is a brilliant plan. In fact, I had thought of the same. I even reserved a table for the both of us, in one of the most fancy hotels."

"Marvelous."

***

The evening took forever to come, but that's the thing about good moments. They take forever to arrive. All I had in my backpack was jeans and dresses. I walked into the shower and pulled out the most fancy looking dress I had. It was a pale purple summer dress with a lace trim on the neck line. It looked cute. I slipped into the dress, trimmed a few rough end of my hair and I was set to go.

My chest was still killing me, but all I could do was forget it. I made sure that the dress stayed in place, the crisps in the dress staying the way they were. I gathered the loose hair and threw it in the garbage can. I walked outside to be greeted by Harry. He looked handsome. He was all dressed up in trousers and a pale yellow shirt. He had also thrown a denim jacket on for the additional marvel. I looked at his face, his beautiful green eyes glowed in the lighting.

His voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I mumbled, "Pardon?"

"You look gorgeous."

"And you look so very handsome, just, I would say you look perfect."

"Shall we?" he asked, giving me his forearm to hold.

"We shall," I answered, taking his forearm and wrapping my hands around him. Both of us got outside the house without making a single sound, or else either of us would have died.

He said, "I'm sorry for making you walk...I'm sorry!"

"It's just down the street, I can walk," I said, chuckling to myself.

The taxi was waiting for us. We both got in the back. I put on my belt and Harry put his on. He slowly grabbed my hand, interlocking our fingers together.

We looked out of the same window. The lights reflecting in the water was just beautiful. It was a pity that Duna was such a small country. It had a population of 1000 people approximately. Most of them were homeless, as the people living in Duna were either rich businessmen, models, actors or farmers. Everyone had an equally good earning, as long as they had a job. Studying in Duna was expensive as well. I went into a thought, how was Duna when dad was my age? Was it cheaper or even more expensive? Was it just as beautiful?

"Lillian, we're here." Harry whispered. I snapped out of my thoughts and smiled at him.

We got out of the car. I went to pay the Taxi but Harry stopped me. He said, "I paid, already."

"Splitting the cheque, right?"

"Fine, fine."

He took my hand. Both of us stepped into the huge restaurant. I stopped for second, trying to catch my breath.

Harry pulled my to a side. He asked, "Nervous?"

"It's my first date in two years, of course I am nervous."

"Me too. Let's go inside and leave the thoughts to itself."