Page 91 of House of Bass

Scarlett narrowed her eyes in false anger,“Not too much, I almost never let anyone in here. Very sacred grounds.”

“Wow, consider me special.”

“You are,” Scarlett replied without missing a beat and that had Harley staggering for a minute as she looked at her, their eyes holding for a moment. Harley wasn't stupid she knew she felt something for Scarlett but she was her friend. It would be stupid of her to try to risk a sure thing for feelings she didn’t understand.

So she looked away, refusing to acknowledge the way her friend’s face fell for a brief second.

“Tell me how the visit to the lion’s den went.” Scarlett patted the bed next to her and Harley did just that, briefing her on everything that happened and she had to basically hold Scarlett back from getting her shoes on to walk the distance to Astaeris and give William a piece of her mind.

“That bastard.” Her face wholly transformed, reminding her greatly of the girl she sees when she’s around the people at the university. “How could he say that to you?”

“I had low expectations going in so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised,” Harley said, laying back on the wall with a sigh. “For some reason I expected him to be more. I think a part of me just wanted to think there had to be some redeemable quality to the man my mum seemed to have loved.”

She was naive to think this because she remembered how she had dealt with two decades of the result of his callousness. But like he said to her that morning, there was no escaping him.

“He doesn’t deserve you, Starley. You’re my shining star, and that’s all that matters.”

Harley smiled at this, secretly delighted that the outrage led her to saying this. Scarlett locked their hands together, gently rubbing hers with her thumb, in circles. “Are you going to tell Annabel about the cancer?”

She recalled their conversation in the kitchen and couldn’t help but wonder if this was Eleanor’s way of punishing her for her mother’s misdeeds.

“I should but…I know you don’t want to hear it but she walks around like every issue that arises with her father and her life will pass by pretending it doesn’t exist. Yet, I see the shadow cast in her eyes. Sometimes, I’ll catch her in heavy disassociation and you can tell there is an emptiness between them. I don’t know, I think this might send her over the edge.” Harley didn’t say it out loud but in spite of the recent changes with Arden, she worried she would come home one day and find Annabel…maybe she shouldn’t even think it .

“Speaking of mothers,” she said instead, changing the subject. “I almost turned back around when yours opened the door. I thought I had the wrong house.”

“Did you think my mama was white as well as my father?”

“Definitely not. I thought you were part of the one percent of latinos in the UK but I actually see it now,” Harley confessed with a laugh.

“Well you’re not far off actually. Mum’s mum was Brazillian, where I was born, and mum’s dad is Ivorian, but generations of Argents were raised in France which was how mum met dad. The Irishman that stole her heart.” There was a fondness in her eyes when she spoke about her parents meeting. “You know, Bloss and I, both being Ivorian, is how we became friends in the first place. Anyways, you should see me in the summer. I tan exceptionally well but unfortunately winter washes me out.”

“The hair helps, I like it this way.”

Harley gestured to her curls being more prominent. She reached out to push a curl back for Scarlett and her hand just rests there, cradling her face. She didn’t realise she had left it there for too long until she noticed Scarlett had stopped talking. When she tries to drop it, Scar grabs her hand and just covers it with hers.

“You think?”

“Absolutely,” Harley said with conviction, trying desperately not to focus on the fact that Scarlett was moving closer to her. The room felt still but it wasn’t until Scarlett kissed her that the world really did stop. Harley was certain the earth stopped rotating and the only thing moving was their lips once she kissed her back after the initial shock had worn off.

They gravitated closer to one another, every touch of their skins was like a fire being ignited in her. Her hands reached under her shirt, wanting to feel even closer than they already were.

“Lottie!” They sprung apart, the moment fizzling between them as they simply stared at one another. Realising and processing all at once, trying to gauge what it all meant. Of course she knew what it meant. They had kissed. And it was the best thing that had ever happened to her in her entire life.

“I should go, Annabel is probably wondering where I am.”

“Harley, wait–” she heard Scarlett call out but she had already bolted out the room, out the door and down the street, not even catching her breath.

Holy fucking shit.

33

ST. ANNABEL

When we were in school Arden always had a multitude of sports that he participated in; rugby, tennis, football etc. Like I said he is an overachiever. My personal favourite is football (my family are Arsenal supporters), I find tennis much too tedious to pay attention to and there was a lot of grabbing going on in rugby.

I went to every football game. Even the away ones. After we stopped speaking, I’d watch in the crowd at the very back hoping he wouldn't spot me. There were times when I succeeded but when I didn’t, I’d wait by his car and he drove us back to school. All without a word uttered between us.

It was strange. The way we existed and danced around each other. We always found a reason to infiltrate the other’s orbit, the excuses I gave myself for how I had magically ended up in his vicinity felt thin even to my ears.