Chapter 8: Those are my friends (see how they glisten)

I'm not always the brightest crayon in the box. Actually, I'm normally the dullest. So when I heard his voice right behind me, I jumped so high I ended up sitting on my butt in the floor with him over my legs. When I could rearrange myself, I clinched to his neck and hugged him so tightly that I even heard him choke.

"Oh my gosh, Har!! Are you ok?!" I yelled, standing up and helping him stood up too.

It was almost surreal. Harry looking at me with his gorgeous smile, grabbing his neck where I had almost choked him.

Ladies and gentlemen, please let me introduce you to Harry Douglas Clark. Otherwise known as Harry, Har, or even Dougie (but that's only when you seriously want to annoy him). My best friend in the world and in the universe.

I looked at him for a second or two, and then jumped to his neck once more. I had missed him so much; we were used to see each other everyday.

"Yeah, Tabby, I missed you two." He smiled, tapping my head with one hand, and hugging my waist with the other.

I guess you want to know where the Tabby came from, right?

Well, my full name is actually Lyra Tabatha Carroll. So, there.

"What are you doing here?!" I snapped to his neck, because I hadn´t let him go.

"Mell brought me here. She said it would be good for you having your lovely knight near you when all this happened. So I'm staying with you for the whole week. Lex, Alex, Dan, Ry and Trent are coming to the engagement banquet."

Call me stupid, but I had forgotten about the banquet thing.

And it was going to stayed that way, because with Harry hugging me and the promise of my best friends with me in a short period of time was too fantastic to think on other things.

"How are things here? Mell said something about a date." Harry started, glaring at me when he said the last part. I smiled, but before I could answered him, he spoke again. "And since I came here earlier than I should, we'll have to share the bedroom. So I'll sleep on the couch but I'm going to keep the pillow."

I looked at him dumbfounded.

"Don´t be stupid, Harry. You're going to sleep on the bed with me. As we always do back home."

He shrugged. "Well, since now you're going to have a step-father and other step-siblings annoying, I thought it wasn´t appropriate."

"Har…" I began sweetly, kissing his cheek. "You don´t think."

"Hey! I came here and that's how you treat me? Not cool." He said, pouting at me. "Anyway, what's about that date?"

"Har, do you-?"

"I want the whole story, so, spit it out." He demanded, no even letting finish what I was going to say.

So… Yeah, I told him everything. Everything. About Mike's stranger behavior, and about the twins. About Cam, about Ash, about the shopping spree, about all. Even about the kiss. That was the part where he scowled at me. But, much to my surprise, didn´t say a thing.

When I finished, we were laying on the bed with the lights off, just staring to the ceiling, with my head on his chest and his arms around my waist.

"So that's all that happened these days." I stated.

"Hum…. And your date it's the reason you're wearing this?" He asked, sounding disgusted. Even when I didn´t quite enjoy wearing that, I didn´t like what he said.

"You don´t like it?" I asked, and I couldn´t help but pouted at him.

"It's not that. I love it, and you look amazing in them." He assured me, playing with my hair. "But you never wore something like that before."

I nodded. He was right. "It's actually Ashley's idea. She practically forced me into them."

But what had caught my attention was what he had said. That I looked amazing, that is. Ryan had told me that too, but he could have said it out of politeness. If Harry say it, it was true. And I wasn´t used to being told that.

I turned around and hugged him.

"What's wrong?" He asked worried. "I'm not going to beat him to a bloody pulp, I swear!"

"It's not that, you moron. You said I looked amazing." I smiled, kissing his cheek just in time to see him blushing. Isn't he cute?

"Well… You do. But you don´t need those clothes to look amazing. You know that you're perfect to me." He smiled. Now, before you get any ideas. We're just friends. Really. "And anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something." He added, kissing my forehead.

"I love you too." I laughed.

"Yeah, good. Now, why don´t you change your clothes, put that Sharks shirt on and we go to sleep?"

"Yes, my captain." I said mockingly, standing up of the bed and grabbing my shirt and the pair of boxers.

I changed behind the screen, and then went to the bed and lay next to Harry. He snaked his arms around my waist and pushed closer to him.

"Goodnight, midget."

"Sweet dreams, Indiana."

I called him Indiana since his 4 birthday, when he developed a liking for Indiana Jones. Someone had told me that Indiana was actually Harry Ford, but I understood Harry Clark, so for an entire week I thought that Indiana Jones was my best friend and I was sure that the make-up did miracles. That's actually one of the reasons I hate wearing make-up.

The next day, I wake up with the pillow over my stomach and Harry's head over it. Even when his head was heavy and I was a little uncomfortable, I smiled. Gosh, I was going to miss that. Harry, Danny, Lexis… All of them. Even the rest of the football team. I was going to missed them all, no matter how many Walkers I had now.

"Lyra!"

That took me out of my thoughts. Ashley was yelling my name and knocking the door to my room.

"Lyra, darling! Wake up!!" She squealed. I winced, and Harry buried his head deep on the pillow. "I want details!"

"Tell her to shut up…" Harry babbled trough the pillow.

"Lyra. It's already ten in the morning!"

Precisely! It's an ungodly hour to WAKE UP YOUR SOON-TO-BE STEP-SISTER!!

"I'm going in in 5…" Ashley started. I panicked.

"Har… Har!...Harry, wake up!" I whisper-yelled to Harry, trying to take him out of me. He winced and hugged me closer.

"Be quiet…"He muttered, trying to get back to sleep. No way. If I don´t sleep, no one in my bed sleep. It's a law.

"…3…"

"Harry, Ashley it's going to get in the room!"

That wake him up, just enough to take his head off my tummy and look at me. "You said it was ok."

"I said it was ok with mom. Ash is the kind of girl that would imagine a romance and tell all about it to everyone."

"And 1!"

With that, the door opened with a loud stud and Ashley bounced inside the room, smiling inhumanly for a morning. Harry looked at her still sleep, taking his bed hair out of his face with both hands. This was going to look so bad to Ashley…

"Lyra, you have to…!" She stopped. I was sure she had just spotted Harry because she smiled knowingly and smirked. "Hi. I'm Ashley."

"…Harry." He said uncomfortable and it ended up sounding like a question.

"Yes, I know."

He wasn´t Ryan, I should told her that. And maybe told her that it wasn´t a waiter either, because that was…

WHAT?

"What do you mean 'you know'?!" I snapped.

Ashley smiled sweetly at me. "I told you your boyfriend has called. Melly ask me to tell him to come as fast as he could, and I picked up the phone when he called to say he was on his way here. You lied."

"I so didn´t." It escaped my mouth. I'm not the kind of girl who said those kinds of things.

"But he is! Your boyfriend, I mean. You're sleeping together! Poor Ryan, what did he say when he found out?" She didn´t seemed sorry for Ryan at all. In fact, she looked kinda pleased with what was happening.

"He's not my boyfriend. We were just sleeping. And why were Ryan found out about a friend?" I asked curious.

"Well, duh. When he came to your room."

Ok, that confused me.

"And why would he come to my room?"

If you want to know, Harry had grabbed my pillow and covered himself with the blankets, and was sleeping peacefully.

Selfish brat.

"Why, to have sex with you."

"WHAT?!" I yelled.

She wasn´t supposed to say those kinds of things, she was a child! And, besides, I wasn´t going to sleep with a guy after the first date! Who does something like that?! It's just wrong!!

"I said, he was going to come here when he-"

"Lyra doesn´t fuck around." Harry stated bluntly, getting up of the bed and glaring at Ash. she smirked.

"Oh, right. Because she's with you. Well, then. Maybe you-"

"She's not with me. She's my friend. She's… like my sister."

Ashley smirked again, playing with her hair. "I don´t sleep with my brothers. Nor with my friends."

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"Look, Ash. He's just a friend. And so is Ryan. Don´t imagine things, please." I asked, walking to my luggage to grab something to wear. "They're just friends. Nothing else."

"Ookaay. Anyway… breakfast's ready." Ashley smiled, skipping to the door and closing it behind her. Yes, she actually skipped.

When we were alone, I turned to Harry, just to found him covering his mouth with the pillow, trying to hide his laughter. I snorted indignant at him (and very unladylike), and threw my white Converse to his head. A muffled humph was heard trough the room when he, trying to avoid my (missile) fell to the floor. I started laughing, I couldn´t help it.

"Ouch! Tabatha, you're so mean to me!!" Harry yelled, and before he could threw back my shoe, I hide behind the screen with my jeans. "That's cheating, you witch!"

"Oh, shut up, you ELF!" I yelled back, putting the jeans on while trying not to laugh. I stopped behind the screen, waiting for him to throw something at me.

"Elf?! Who are you calling elf, damn girly?!" He laughed. I counted to three.

1….

2….

3.

And ran all trough the room and out to the hallway. When Harry reacted, he followed me close behind, yelling profanities in between his and mine laughter.

"Come here, you witch!!"

"Catch me if you can, Indie!!"

I ran all down the stairs, and the second I opened the door to the kitchen and stepped inside, Harry reached my waist, dragging abruptly to his chest and lifting me up. I didn´t understand how he didn´t fall when we collided. He had that weird balance like that.

"HAH! Oh, hello Mell." Harry smiled. That was when I saw my mom and the Walker family sitting in the huge table in the kitchen. Ashley was smirking at us, and Toby was trying to hide his giggles. As mom and Harrison smiled at us and invited us to sit in the two empty seats in the table, I could feel Shane's glare on me. I, instead of acting like a good little girl, glared back.

At least until Harry pushed me to my sit.

"I'm Harry. The klutz best friend in the whole world." Harry introduced himself.

"Ptff! That's what you think." I snorted jokingly, but he smiled sweetly at me.

"Remember? I don´t think."

"Oh, yes. You don´t… I'm not a klutz." I corrected him, patting his head as if he was a dog.

"You sure seem one."

"But I'm not. Talks the guy who broke his arm because he was trying to get into the circus by stepping on a football." I said mockingly. It was true, he had done such a stupid thing. I was laughing so hard that I couldn´t get up to grab the phone and called 911.

"Mean, mean witch…" He said pouting. And then hugged me over my shoulders. "But you're cute, so I love you anyway."

"Oh, well. You're… right behind Cristiano Ronaldo, but, yeah, I love you too." I smiled.

"And you still want to make me believe otherwise?" Ashley asked out of the blue. I glared at her.

"Yes."

Mike said hi to Harry; they had always bonded, so it wasn´t weird seeing them acting civilized around each other. If it had been Alex, that would be another thing entirely. Sawyer introduced himself, and clicked almost instantaneously with Harry. But Shane…

Shane kept eating in silence, glaring at me and his food every once in a while. I was convinced it was for my last phrase yesterday. He was still mad at me; guys hate to being told they have the period. Because it was the only thing I could possibly think for him to be so angry. Because it couldn´t have a thing to do with the arm Harry still had around my shoulders.

No way in hell.

New chapter in so little time! This is the first time in my life that I write something that I actually like this fast (and just so you know, chapters 9 and 10 are already finished). So... make the most of it because it can come a day when I would not be updating in a while (I'm crossing my fingers not to). The next chapter it's from Shane's perspective, so if you want to read soon... R&R me!!

New character introduced, too. Harry, Lyra's best friend in the world. What do you think of him?? Tell me, please.

Thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed, and added me to either story alert or favorites. Love you all! And, of course, thanks to my lovely beta, hypa to hell and back. You're the best!

Now, with the anonymus reviewer:

Hang: Thanks you so much for reading this! Yeah, Mike was actually my first option. But then, Shane and Sawyer and all their friend appeared on my mind, and I decided against that. You'll be see more of Devon and Toby in a couple of chapters, because Toby is one of my favorite characters hehehe. Love!

j: Thanks a lot for reading!

That's all for now. Review for the next chapter!

Love!

XOXO

Maggie