no more skipping rope, skipping heart beats

Harry’s grin widened when he heard what Serenity retorted. “Not yet, you’re not. But c’mon…there was definitely chemistry in that kiss. You can deny it all you want, but it was so obvious,” he said, a smirk plastered on his face as he shook his head at her. Harry was pretty proud of his little ploy to get the two of them to kiss. However, even he was shocked at the chemistry between the two of them. They had completely forgotten that he was in the room and they had both gotten completely lost in each other. Now that had happened, it would be difficult for either of them to deny their feelings for each other. It would only be a matter of time now.

He shrugged his shoulders and glanced off to the side. “Well, he came to your mind awfully quickly,” he said, turning back to her with a smirk on his face,”Still thinking about that kiss, huh?” Harry couldn’t deny that he enjoyed teasing both Alex and Serenity about what he had seen. He knew that he was right and the other two were just in extreme denial. His words always seemed to jar them, though, and it was pretty entertaining to watch. They really made it too easy.

Harry was so distracted by the shop clerk that he was taken by surprise when Serenity suddenly burst out her thanks and gave him a quick hug. “You’re sure you’re not on the menu?” he asked, grinning and biting his lip. The shop clerk sighed, exasperated. “Do I need to throw you out again?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, but having a playful look in her eye. “Oh, c’mon, that wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know that lady had a boyfriend,” he said, putting his hands up in front of him,”Alright, I’ll have that one.” He gave in and pointed to the chocolate cupcake he was standing near. After paying for the two treats and saying goodbye to the shop clerk, he caught up with Serenity.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming!” he said, before taking a bite into the cupcake and only briefly looking both ways before starting to lead the way across the street, unaware of an oncoming car.

Harry’s jaw slowly dropped and he raised his eyebrows when Serenity accidentally let slip that he was right. He was right. Harry’s smirk grew, spreading across his face. “Just because I’m right doesn’t mean I get to make fun of you for it?” he asked, repeating her words to her. He was practically unable to contain the joy upon hearing such words. That was it. His night was made. He attributed it to this sugar high or whatever it was that was making Serenity so hyper. Despite that, though, it pleased him. And it was clear by the way she cut herself off at the end of the sentence that she knew she shouldn’t have said those words…which just made him even more satisfied.

Before he knew what was happening, Harry was being pulled to the ground and a strange wall appeared in front of him, right when the car passed by. His eyes widened and he felt fear hit him right at the bottom of his stomach. It was a mixture of having almost been killed and seeing what he could only assumed was magic appear in front of him. His chest started heaving up and down. It had been years since he had been around magic; almost ten years, to be exact. Alvin and Agitha – he hadn’t forgotten about them, not at all. He just tried not to think about them as much as he could muster it. They still haunted his nightmares and they were the reason he turned to drinking every once in awhile.

Serenity speaking up pulled him out of his memories and scrambled away from her. He clung to one of the trees on the side of the road and peered at her, fear in his eyes. “What – that was…what did you do?” he asked in a shaky voice. He shook his head, staring at her. In all of Harry’s experience with magic, none of it had been good, so he had grown to have a state of mind where all magic was bad. He didn’t want to think Serenity had magic. They had grown to be such good friends and now this? He continued shaking his head, feeling as if he had been tricked this whole time.

Harry could feel his stomach tightening up and his heart beating faster and faster. He hadn’t been this afraid of anyone or anything in years… In fact, he was pretty sure that the last time he was this afraid was when he first met the Garretts and Tobias. They had broken into Alvin’s laboratory and taken Harry back home with them. He was still under the witches’ control, so they had to strap him down to a table not completely unlike the one where Alvin had experimented on and tortured him. Harry remembered being terrified that he had fallen out of the frying pan and into the fire. He knew nothing about the Garretts at the time, so for all he knew, they could be even worse than Alvin and Agitha.

He could tell that Serenity was starting to cry, but it didn’t quell his fears. If anything, it made him even more paranoid. “Don’t – don’t come near me,” he said, taking a step back, hiding behind the tree on the sidewalk. His chest was heaving up and down and he squinted his eyes shut as he leaned his head against the trunk of the tree. He opened his eyes again when he heard Serenity speak up again. Was he okay? He swallowed hard. Harry really wanted to believe that this was actually her being concerned; that she was still the friend he had grown to care about, but there was a little voice at the back of his mind that reminded him: she had magic.

Harry moved out from behind the tree and moved to the closest building on the side walk. He put his hand up, leaning against the building as he watched her. “Please…don’t – don’t do anything to me. I’ll do…I’ll do whatever you want,” he said, shaking his head.