Burn

“Is that an interesting book?” A male voice asked, causing Rae’s green eyes to glance away from the page in front of her. The breeze was warm outside, rushing through the backyard and making the hammock sway. Rae lay sprawled out across the hammock in the beautiful weather, sun shining down on her.

“I’m sure it’s not,” Trystan responded, not opening her eyes. Trystan lay beside Rae on the hammock, her feet poised delicately by Rae’s head. While Rae decided she would spend the day reading in the warmth and beauty of the sun, Trystan decided she would do it tanning. “But you’ll never convince her that.”

Harry chuckled at the two girls laying side by side on the hammock, pulling up a chair on the side closest to Rae, plopping down it in. It was obvious to Rae he had just gotten off of work, the smell of dough and flour still lingering on his skin. She had to admit that the smell of the bakery faired better on him than the smell of the bar.

For the past week and a half, Harry had been hanging around the house. Rae was becoming increasingly adjusted to his presence, and he seemed to be doing the same. Around her, Harry’s spouts of angers and drinking seemed to dwindle, though she knew when he wasn’t with her, he was elsewhere, doing God only knew what. She tried not to think about that as much, and she tried to bring it up unless it was necessary.

Trystan had also grown accustomed to Harry’s presence. Though she was still worried of his intentions, she had relented to treating him like he was just someone on the street. Trystan also found herself spending more time with Louis, who she had undoubtedly taken a liking to.

“What are you reading today?” Harry inquired, reaching out and flipping up the front of the page to see the title. He raised his eyebrows. “Ah, Anna Karenina. ‘Every unhappy family is unhappy in it’s own way.”

Rae raised her brows and Trystan cracked an eye open, taken aback by his knowledge of the book. Raising her long legs off of the hammock and standing, Trys stretched her long, tanned limbs. “Well, with that nerdy interjection, I’ll be going inside.”

Rae and Harry watched in silence as she strode inside, leaving them to their own devices. Turning back around, Harry flashed a smile at Rae, who returned it. Scooting carefully, Rae made room on the hammock, letting Harry join her. “I have to admit,” she said once he was stretched out next to him, hands behind his head. “I’m a bit impressed. Here I was thinking you were a halfwit.”

He wagged his eyebrows. “Your lad has got skills.”

“Reading isn’t a difficult skill to obtain,” she objected, laughing as she cracked the book open again. “It’s something we learn to do at the age of five, Harold.”

Harry fell silent as Rae began to read the story again. Silence wrapped around them in a beautiful veil, neither one of them feeling the need to break it. Rae was content to have Harry doze next to her while she filled her mind with a story she already knew front and back.

The two of them lay there like that for a while, Rae almost forgetting the boy was next to her. The only hint that he was, was the warmth radiating from his body and the even breathing that was rising in his chest, a breathing that she rather enjoyed the sound of. If breathing could be beautiful, his certainly was.

Time passed as they lay there, two people completely content just to be in one another’s presence. It was new on both of their parts, and though Harry had never laid next to a girl and do nothing more than that, Rae felt that he found it somewhat calming. She liked to believe she had a calming effect on him, which he desperately needed.

“Do you ever stop reading?” he asked softly, not opening his eyes. She turned to look at him. His face was totally serene, no emotion or frowns across it. It was smooth like a statue of a Greek god, and she had the urge to draw him. “Or do you just go on forever?”

“Well I go on forever until someone stops me.” Snapping the book shut, he cracked and eye open at her, scrunching up his face as he did so. Getting up, her weight leaving the hammock caused it to shift and roll him off, hitting the ground. Rae cackled. “That’s what you get for bothering me.”

Walking past the boy in the grass, Rae let herself into her home, Harry coming in after her and closing the door. He brushed off his jeans, making them free of grass. Inside the house was cool, Harry laying himself across the couch as Rae set the book on the table, fetching a glass of water.

When she returned to the living room, she had another class of apple juice in his hand, noticing that whenever he helped himself to her fridge, which was always his weapon of choice. He looked at her gratefully and with a hint of a smile as he took it.

“So what brings you to my lovely lair?” she asked, sitting on the couch opposite home. Her shorts revealed her tone legs, a fact that Harry seemed to be alarmingly aware of. She rolled her eyes at his boyish tendencies, but didn’t cover her legs. “Not to lay in the sun and read books, I presume.”

“Oh that’s exactly what I was planning on doing.” When she threw a coaster at him for being sarcastic, he laughed, answering her question. “I was wondering if you lot would like to come out tonight. Niall invited me for a night out, and I was wondering if you’d like to go.”

“So I can fight off all the slags?” she joked. When he gave her a serious look, she smiled and shrugged. “I suppose. Jess doesn’t have work tonight and tomorrow, so I’m sure she would love to.”

“Love to what?” she asked, waltzing into the room and running a towel through her wet hair. It was clear that she had just gotten out of the shower, towel drying the luscious blonde locks. “Have a threesome? Because I’m not up for that, no offense.”

Harry feigned disappointment. “Stop trying to eat my happiness, Trystan.”

“She can’t, she’s like the Grinch. But what we were saying, was that you would love to go out with Harry and the lads tonight. Wouldn’t you?”

She seemed thoughtful, considering it. Trys was the kind of person who took any opportunity she could to go out with her best friend, so it was no surprise to Rae when Trystan nodded, flashing a full set of teeth. “I would be delighted.”

“Good,” Harry said, standing up and rubbing his hands on his jeans. Rae looked up at him, trying not to show that she didn’t want him to leave yet. For the past week, she had becoming increasingly needy for his presence, though she showed absolutely no sign of such feelings. “I’ll pick you lovely ladies up at 8.”

Harry ruffled Rae’s wavy locks as he walked by her, letting himself out of the door. Trystan perched herself on the top of the couch as Rae looked after the door for a moment before turning back to face her best friend. Trystan was looking at her intently, finally making Rae ask, “What?”

“Are you sure you want to go out drinking with him?” Trystan didn’t seemed worried or unimpressed, but rather surprised. “We might not like what we see.”

Rae stood, picking up the book from where she had thrown it at Harry. “That’s why I want to go,” she explained, heading towards the stairs, wanting to take a bit of a nap. “I want to see what kind of match I’ve lit.”