Crush Culture {{Harry Lewis - W2S}}

✮ NINETEEN ✮

Mila's pov

The second night wasn't nearly as adventurous as the first; due to a spluttering JJ, a pissed-off Lucy and the fact that Ethan had offered out five fights in just under twenty minutes. Which would have been fine, had the men not been bouncers of the club they were trying to access.

So, they were destined to return home early, showered and tucked up by 3 am, well most of them that is.

Mila, as she had done most nights since her youth, sat staring from a window at the stars, simply admiring the view. She had decided that it wouldn't be the best decision to sleep in her own room that night, fearing that she'd be smothered in the night; which was looking more and more likely as Lucy downed her drinks.

It was calming in a way, even in her waved state. Just staring at the sky from her spot on the floor, her legs crossed and a lukewarm, not drinkable, tea in her hands. She was sure that if anybody had come downstairs they'd think she was insane.

She couldn't place her mind in one spot. Her thoughts ran around recklessly, stabbing at parts of her brain.

Lucy; her best friend coming on five years, who, despite their fights, had been by her side through everything. Even before meeting Talia, Mila had gone through things no teenager should, with Lucy standing by her side holding her hand the whole way.

So how could she, with sound mind, betray her in this way?

Was it even betrayal? Sure, she knew about Lucy's crush on Harry, but that wasn't a claim. She couldn't completely disregard her own feelings for the sake of somebody else, she'd done that too frequently throughout her life so far. Denying herself happiness for the sake of somebody else.

But she'd continue to do so.

"Mila?" She didn't move at the voice, only her eyes slowly trailed to the side, her head kept still, "what the fuck are you doing on the floor, lass"

The voice came from the kitchen and came from the one person she didn't want to see at that moment.

"Why not, Harry?" she retorted, smiling lightly to herself as she looked back at the dimming stars.

"Just a bit odd, innit, sat on the floor in the middle of the night, with a perfectly nice bed upstairs where you could be" Harry's voice was closer now, low to not wake any of their housemates.

"A perfect nice bed...yeah" she mumbled, looking to the left and he approached her right, dropping down to sit next to her, his legs crossed.

They sat silent for a few moments, Mila's eyes closing in contentment until she felt a hard push on her shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing" she replied way too quickly for him to believe her, he raised his eyebrow.

"Well, that's a fat lie, you can tell me you know" Harry wasn't particularly good at advice but didn't want to sit there with an upset girl next to him without at least offering help.

"No, actually you're kind of the only person I can't tell" she mumbled, realising afterwards how stupid it was for her to mention that around him.

"Well, now you have to tell me" he's eyes had gotten wider in the moonlight coming from the floor-to-ceiling windows, his knee overlapping her own.

Mila couldn't think straight, sure they'd had skin-to-skin contact before but this was different.

His arm wrapped around her shoulder during the silence, pulling her towards him, where she slowly rested her head on his shoulder.

"You don't have to tell me, just let me know you're doing okay"

Mila's heart swelled at his words. She knew how awkward Harry was, even with her limited time knowing him Harry had shown himself to be impossibly awkward. So that fact that he could sit with her, in silence, with his arm wrapped around her and comfortably tell her that she could talk to him, was like breaking down an unseen barrier.

"Thank you, Harry. That means a lot" Mila pulled her head back from his shoulder, turning her neck to look at him, as he looked down at her.

Their eyes met, blue to brown mixing in the dark. The moonlight shone through his glass-like eyes, the blue standing out more than ever. They were beautiful.

She was too busy focusing on his eyes to notice how they flickered down to her lips, for only a split second, then returned to stare back into her brown ones. However, she soon snapped back into the moment as she felt his arm around her shoulder tighten, pulling her slowly closer to him. Leaning in even slower.

Those few moments felt like hours as Mila's mind spun. In reality, she had mere seconds to decide her next move. She had been thinking all day about how this would affect everybody around her, however, hadn't thought about herself once.

But now she was.

Mila decided, right then in the arms of a boy she had met two days ago and already knew she wanted in her life for a long time, that she was going to be selfish.

Harry was centimetres away from her now, she could feel his breath dance along her glossy lips. She was intoxicated by his aftershave and the slight smell of alcohol that was stuck to him despite his new clothes and shower.

She wanted nothing more than to kiss him right then and there and not stop until they could hear the birds around them the next morning. They were so close now.

"Harry mate, get out"

The two suddenly snapped apart, both turning to see a very drunk Freezy banging on a door, shouting quite loudly.

"Cal?" Harry asked carefully, stuttering slightly as he stood up, walking towards his stumbling friend.

Cal was banging on a door, which she could only assume he thought was the bathroom, but was just a cleaning cupboard.

"Somebody shut him the fuck up!" A shout came from up the stairs, supportive shouts backing them up.

"Come on mate, up to bed" Harry took the taller bot by his shoulders, shooting a short tight-lipped smile over to the girl who still sat on the floor, a simple goodnight.

In moments they had gone from being so intimate to further away than ever, physically and metaphorically.

But she couldn't deny the connection she had felt, as she lied in a ball on the couch, one of Tobi's coats over her as she had no blanket. She stared at the ceiling, for once her thoughts were calm, allowing her to sleep.

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Written: 19th December 2020
Published: 20th December 2020
Edited: 17th June 2023
This wasn't a planned chapter like the other are, I kinda just wrote whatever came to mind and this happened but I kinda like the direction it took the story :)
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