Orange [2]
That private place Harry has in mind is a closet.
“Harry,” you whine as he slams the door behind you and twists the lock. “This is absolutely ridiculous. We are not doing this - Hmph.”
His big hand suddenly presses up against your mouth, muffling your voice, and effectively silencing you quiet. He pulls you tight against his body, the hard muscles of his stomach pressing into you, and your cheek pressing up tightly to the space in between his pecs. It’s familiar, and comforting, and you use both arms to push away as hard as you can.
“Quiet,” he whispers gruffly, holding you even tighter. “He’s looking for you. Listen.”
The sound of heavy, Gucci footsteps echo down the corridor and then right outside the door. After a brief pause, a loud curse, and something hard slamming against a nearby wall, you hear your boyfriend tell someone that he suspects you left with Harry.
When Harry finally lets you go, it’s with hesitancy; he’s not sure if he’ll get to hold you again and it scares him.
You, on the other hand, sit down in a huff on a pile of boxes after pressing out your dress and tugging your bag out from wherever it had gotten stuck in the shuffle.
“Is this why you came here? To this event? Just to pull me in a closet to talk?”
Harry leans back against the door, running a hand down his already exhausted face.
“Thought I hadn’t forgotten how stubborn y’were. Yet, here I am - amazed.”
“So,” he starts, looking away from you for a second. “You love him, then? The prat?”
You stand up abruptly, taking a big step toward the door, and only stopping when his big frame blocks the path out.
“M’joking! I’m joking,” he sits you back down with two firm hands on your rolled shoulders. “I just want to talk to you. Really.”
“Go ahead,” you hiss through your teeth. You hope your glare looks as vicious as you feel. You want him to feel some of the hurt you’ve been harboring over the last three months while he was jet-setting around the globe. While he was lulled to sleep by the soothing roar of a jet plane you shoved a fist in your mouth to muffle your cries from a man that shared your bed but couldn’t touch your heart.
Harry stares at you bitterly, all traces of humour gone from his eyes. Maybe he realises the hurt in your eyes and the pain in your voice, or maybe feeling undeserved of the contempt all together, or maybe just masking the sad understanding that if he was just a normal business man like your boyfriend then it could all work out.
You feel a lump beginning to build in your throat.
“I thought we wanted the same thing,” he begins, pulling a box from behind him and sitting down gruffly. Your knees are just barely bumping against his. “I thought when we started that we were on the same page and I thought - Well, whatever I thought, I was way off.”
You study his face for a long moment, speculating. The bitterness is still there - you wonder if it will ever completely leave his eyes again.
Your jaw tightens as you speak. “I thought we would be equals. That you would occasionally pick up your life and be there for me just like I always was for you. Love sided love isn’t love. I can’t love someone that loves me because I will cancel that meeting, or not visit those friends, or skip my plans because suddenly there is a longer layover in Chicago or an added night in Paris.”
He drops his head. His fringe falling to cover his eyes, so you can’t gauge his expression.
“We can’t be together if we’re only together during the in-betweens. In between a performance, or a show, or a city.”
When he raises his head, his features are hard and flat.
“Performing is my job,” he mutters angrily. “You always knew that. I thought it’s one of the thing you loved about me -”
“- So, then what changed?” He’s suddenly standing and his faces shifted from anger to agony in a second. One barely shaking hand rakes through his hair. “Because you loved me and now - now you don’t.”
You look away, the feeling of hot, burning tears welling in your eyes. You loved Harry for his passion, and his charm, and the way he’s always so light and easy to love. It was easy to drop your life for him, and then it wasn’t.
“I love you, Harry. I’ve always loved you…” you struggle with what to add, your voice breaking as you fight to control your emotions. You hear it in Harry’s voice, too. There’s resentment, and confusion, and the sad understanding that you’ve both lost something you’ve been desperately, desperately trying to hold on to. “But I can’t do what we were doing before. I need my life, too.”
There was no reaction that you could read on Harry’s face. No flutter of his eyelids, or quiver of his lips, or movement of his eyes. There was just a vacant face, staring at you.
Your mobile suddenly buzzes, and you send the call to voicemail as you read the name on the screen. Your boyfriend can wait a minute longer, you’re too busy creating new nightmares to cry asleep to.
“I should go,” you say in a weak voice. You try to take a step forward, to wrap your hand around the door handle just around Harry’s back, but you are stuck.
“What do you want?” Harry demands suddenly, his hand wrapping around your slightly outstretched wrist, and his expression hardening into something determined. “Right now, what do you want?”
You look up at him, the violent desire of his gaze catching you off guard and knocking the words out of your chest. If you told him the truth it would only hurt you both - again. It was useless to grasp at wishes and dreams when in reality it would only result in more unhappiness and hurt.
“Say it!” Harry yells, startling you back into the moment.
“I want to leave,” you lie. “I want to find my boyfriend, and I want to leave.”
Stupid tears of betrayal escape the corner of your eyes as you say it, and the way you never pull away from Harry’s hold tells him the truth instantly.
He raises one eyebrow in disbelief, but he releases your wrist from his grip.
You reach around him, using everything in your power to turn the lock and open the door. It isn’t any easier with your back to him, it just felt more poetic than anything.
“I’m sorry, Harry,” you mutter brokenly as tears roll down your cheek. “I wish it could be different.”
You don’t hear what he says next because you open the door and are roughly pulled through the entryway by a strong pair of hands. The vice-like grip of your boyfriend’s hand wraps around your upper arm in the type of possessiveness that marks itself with bruises.
It isn’t until a breath later, when Harry’s frame blocks the yellow light spilling into the hall, and your boyfriend’s toes are inches away from Harry’s that those parting words finally find clarity in your ears.
“I wish it could be different” you had muttered hopelessly, abandoning those dreams that either of you could be happy any other way.
Harry watched your back, saw the tears streaking black down your face, and heard the hurt in your words before promising, “It will be.”
You’re too scared to hope he’s right.