The Night I Met Harry

Harry's POV:

She'd been gone since around six when the art supply store had opened for the day. I tried ensuring her we'd go later but she didn't want it to interfere with our plans. I heard the door just then before looking up as she entered the room. I turned the pages of her art book slowly to see if she'd react to my prying. Though we'd been together a while she still held that small insecurity.

Harry:
"You took really long."

She pushed her hair from her face as she turned to scan the large clock along the wall.

Winter:
"I always do that... sorry. I ran into to someone I knew."

She sat her bag down as she proceeded to tell me about her day.

Winter:
"I found these pastels that I've been looking everywhere for. You have no idea how happy that made me."

She went on in the background while I studied something on the next page. I could tell just from the line work that it hadn't been hers. I was long past learning her style from admiring everything she did...I don't know. Maybe I was reading too much into it and she was just trying something new. It was obviously a drawing of her. It looked to be from an across the table point of view. Nice. But different.

Winter:
"Harry are you listening?"

Harry:
"Yea, you said you grabbed every color. Babe, did you draw this?"

I felt silly asking because it was her book, and she was pretty weird about that sort of thing. She looked at the page as I held it up before looking quickly from me to it repetitively. I felt my eyes narrow as I waited for her to reply and satisfy my deep curiosity.

Winter:
"...No actually."
I stood up from where I sat on the bed to face the left side of the room where she'd been stood.

Harry:
"No? Then who?"

I felt I knew the answer to what I'd been avoiding. I chose to continue it further because nothing about it sat right with me.

Winter:
"Mason did that."

I felt myself grow defensive at the thought of someone else even experiencing her that way besides me.

Winter:
"You know he draws as well. He was just showing me something, Harry. It's nothing."

I was a little surprised at how much of a temper I'd mustered in the short amount of time she'd been here. I watched her, choosing not yet to say anything.

Winter:
"Harry don't be that way."

I tried to seek clarity through the conversation before I expressed my discomfort. My eyes were closed briefly in precaution.

Harry:
"I haven't said anything."

I'd managed to muster that calmly. But I knew the rest would be a challenge. Choosing a different approach to the topic this time around. I still have to pry the dam thing from her fingers so of course this took my emotions toward left field.

Winter's POV

I waited for it. The heavy part that always seems to linger between us at the mention of another guy. He approached slowly. I don't know why but my feet moved me backwards as I shifted to autopilot. The wall restricted me any further and he'd closed the gap. The way he peered at me sent foreign sensations throughout my body. He wasn't arguing...but I still waited.

Harry:
"Do you like him?"

I myself didn't know him that well but I guess he was okay personality wise and all.

Winter:
"He's alright. I've only seen him a few times."

I needed to know what he was thinking or even going with this. The questioning didn't stop for long.

Harry:
"Was that who you were with all day?"

I wouldn't say all day but I'd definitely taken longer than I had meant to. I'd ran into him at the art supply and I guess gotten carried with the time.

Winter:
"Yea, sorry about that."

He looked down for a moment in a manner of thought. I didn't disturb him but waited for his gaze to acquaint mine again, or at least a resume in conversation.

Harryh
"How bad is it?"

As if the rest weren't vague enough. And I'd realized my comebacks were always just me questioning his question.

Winter:
"What do you mean, Harry?"

His emotions shifted outwardly to display pain and discomfort for whatever thoughts he'd been painting in his head. I just wished he'd get on with it already.

Harry:
"I know you like him in some way. Is it a crush or are you-"

Winter:
"Huh? What- Harry, stop."

This was insane. This conversation was not happening and he was not hitting me with this. I felt a little sick in reaction to how absurd that was. It kind of hurt for him to think of me that way. He grabbed my fingers, rubbing and tangling them slowly, our eyes synced in contact.

Harry:
"You can tell me."

He hadn't even been acting upset. The exact opposite actually causing me to feel like this was only a dream, or maybe I'd passed out again.

Harry:
"I won't yell at you... Not now anyways..."

Winter:
"I do not like Mason that way, Harry."

Plain and clear. Nothing to be misunderstood there but I'm sure he'd find a way.

Harry:
"You don't have to say that... We're adults, just be honest with me."

Maybe he didn't get the memo of the child I'd be birthing for him in a number of months. Or even the wedding day I'd agreed to share with him. It stung now. The headache was kicking in as I looked away from him. This was nothing more that him putting me in a box. As the girl he met with a boyfriend and a home outside of him. But I wasn't that girl, I was never. He was a special kind of person and then that had suddenly meant more to me than any life I'd ever have with Scott. It wasn't my fault, and I'd stopped blaming myself but those feelings were making another appearance. Regret was resurfacing, and I wished that he hadn't thought of me this way through all this time. If he did it explained a lot. And how could I blame him. It sounded to me that through his eyes I was still the cheater he met...and that hurt.

Harry:
"Come on. Talk to me."

He asked sweetly and patiently. What the hell was happening with my Harry?

Winter:
"Tell me why you would think that."

Connection was lost again as he looked away. Clearly there was a lot I'd been left out on, because this was a blur to me.

Winter:
"Because of the art, is that it?"

I pushed with a hint of anger building. He hadn't responded but chose to continue looking away as if not believing anything I'd told him. No. I pulled his face forcefully to watch my eyes. You could always see when the one you love is lying to you.

Winter:
"I don't like Mason in that way."

He's still peering, the green irises staring quickly from one eye to the next. I was hoping it'd been beginning to sink in but who could tell.

Harry:
"But the-"

Winter:
"Is that why you let me go to that art show?"

He'd begun to walk away but we were discussing this whether he liked it or not.

I restricted him against the wall as he done me previously, and I dared him to push pass.

Winter:
"Answer the question, Harry."

Harry:
"...What can I do? If I kick his ass, you'll hate me for it. It'll stress you out and I can't argue with you because you'll leave and I'm too fucking in love, okay. So if you're into him even a little, just tell me..."

I think there's only one other time I'd witness a tear leave Harry's eye. Angered wore on him. I was very cold all of a sudden. Frozen and statue-like in emotion. This was obviously eating him up and I'd just been becoming aware of it. How did he assume this all in the few times I'd been with Mason. It was always friendly. Always, and I made it clear that he was who I'd been engaged to. I didn't understand, but neither did he. Everything was seeping in and I couldn't seem to talk until the dust between my eyes had settled. I thought we'd been communicating a lot but I guess I'd missed this part. I wiped the salty specks away as I continued to wallow in my own swelled confusion.

Winter:
"Why do you feel this way? Please. I need to know where this is coming from."

What could I have done to broadcast that idea? He wouldn't say anything now. But he still hadn't resisted the lock I had on him.

Winter:
"...Listen...if it's the art stuff Harry, we just have that in common. I've never really had friends with that same interest so I can admit I was a little curious. But it was never an emotional curiousity...or anything remotely close. I was just polite...I'm always polite but you take it differently."

Harry:
"It's weird for me...that you're sharing that part of you with someone else. I know it sounds odd but I see that it means other things too."

Winter:
"Like?"

Harry:
"...Like trust. Vulnerability. Insecurity. Pain. Love."

Winter:
"So you think I'm in love with Mason. That's gross, Harry."

I tried lighting the mood because honestly it made me extremely uncomfortable.

Harry:
"I didn't say that. But I see the connection...and it makes my blood boil."

Winter:
"The connection you see, if any at all, is art. That is all. I'll never want anyone else the way I want you. You asshole."

I squeezed his cheeks into my hands, trying desperately to get through to him.

Winter:
"And I'm pretty much scarred after having this conversation so I won't be talking to him again anyways."

Harry:
"...You don't have to do that."

I could tell he was actually relieved and cheering inside but wanted to display it otherwise.

Winter:
"It's done. And I'm upset with you now, by the way."

Harry:
"What? Why?"

Winter:
"Because..."

I said walking away and down the hall.

Winter:
"That was Pearl Harbor. You made me feel like some pregnant whore or something."

I laughed to myself at the insanity as he followed, pulling the door open that lead to the large balcony. Air was needed right now.

Harry:
"Hey, don't use that word."

Winter:
"Seriously. I'm completely insulted by you. And what would you have done if I answered differently?"

Harry:
"Kicked his ass."

I laughed deeply at how funny that wasn't. He smiled from the new realizations I'd helped him come to. I took in our view, knowing after this week we'd have to go back home.

Winter:
"Don't use that word."

I'd miss the weather. We were inactive in conversation for a while as he held his arms around me from behind. We both leaned against the edge of the high porch but I was comforted with the sick fact that if we'd fall, we'd fall together. I pecked his arm that now held my chest.

Winter:
"Have a little more faith in me, Harry."

He'd turned me around in an apologetic manner. The wind blew the hair and fabric on each of us.

Harry:
"I'm sorry...I wasn't going to ask but a friend of mine called and told me he saw you too at that resteraunt. Then you were on the phone with him the other day, and the sketchbook thing was the last straw."

I shook my head back and forth at him.

Winter:
"I'm ripping it out later...Gosh you're so frantic."

He closed the gap pairing our lips and basking in the warmth of it. The closeness. It felt good that we had that talk. Any dispute that wedged between us made the makeup even better. The next time he cornered me with something so absurd he'd better have a damn good reason for it.

Notes

You guys have been so quiet gosh, I don't know what you're thinking. It's weird. Still love you though.

Give me names for the baby! So far I've gotten Lily, I think.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Kristian