That Summer (One Direction Fanfiction)

Chapter 8: Crawling Back

“Ufff,” I was startled awake by someone body slamming me. I slowly opened my eyes to see Harry’s flawless face centimeters from my own.

“Good morning.” He plopped a kiss on my nose before rolling off me and ducking under the covers. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me towards him.

“Ahhh!” I shrieked when his cold feet touched mine. “What were you doing standing in ice?”

He laughed and wiggled his toes against my legs as I tried to escape his grip. He tightened his hold on my waist as we rolled around, the covers falling off the bed in our tussle. A blast of cold air hit me and shocked me still.

I stopped struggling and rolled over to face Harry. He smiled at me and tangled his legs with mine. I felt weird snuggling with him knowing that he had been on a date with Amelie last night. Even though I loved him I didn’t want to be that girl, the one who messed up everyone’s relationships.

“When did it get so cold in here?” I asked, trying to ignore Harry’s hand on my waist.

“I can warm you up,” he winked cheekily.

“Stop Harry,” I went to roll away and I felt Harry fingers grip my leg.

“Babe what’s this?” his eyes were locked on the Band-Aid on my knee.

“Nothing, I just fell yesterday.”

The concern on Harry’s face nearly broke my heart. How could he care so much and yet so little? “I didn’t know you got hurt yesterday. Are you sure you’re fine?”

“It’s just a scrape.” I reached down and peeled away the bandage, revealing the slice in my skin. “Not a big deal.”

Harry brought his lips to my knee and gently kissed the injury. “All better?”

“Yeah, all better.” I smiled as he pulled me close, burying his face in my hair. He made it so hard not to love him.

“Good,” he whispered into my neck. “I missed you yesterday.”

I didn’t respond right away, causing Harry to look up in confusion. “Didn’t you miss me too?”

“Well of course I did, but we aren’t going to be with each other for the rest of eternity. We can have days apart you know.” Oh how I wished we could be together forever.

“Who says we won’t be? I told you all about our future yesterday.”

“I don’t think your wife is gonna like me living with you.”

He hesitated and for a second I thought he was going to say that I would be his wife. Instead he replied, “Well she’ll just have to learn to deal with it. We’re a package deal.”

Suddenly I felt Harry’s lips working their way up my neck, sucking gently on the sensitive skin. I sighed, partly out of pleasure and partly out of annoyance. I should have known something was wrong when he jumped on me this morning. Whenever Harry was feeling down on himself he liked to mess around with me, knowing I would go along with it and make him feel better. But right now I was not in the mood for his advances. It just made everything hurt more.

“Stop it Harry.” I shoved him away and sat up, rubbing my neck.

Harry pouted, but I could see from the playful glint in his green eyes that he thought I was joking. “I thought you liked it when I do that.”

“What’s wrong?” I crossed my legs Indian style and faced him.

“What are you talking about?” He lay down and put his head in my lap, looking up at me with puppy dog eyes. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“You always get like this when you’re upset. What is it this time?”

He sat up and glared at me, “What the hell does that mean? Like this?”

“Cuddling with me and stuff. You only do that when you are down on yourself.”

“Well sorry,” Harry’s voice dipped dangerously. “Didn’t realize me touching you bothered you so much.” He pushed himself off the bed and stalked out of the room, muttering something under his breath about me being rude as he slammed the door.

I dropped back onto the bed and screamed, bringing my hands up to cover my eyes. Sometimes I hated him so much, yet it only made me love him more. Why did he have to be like this? Why couldn’t I be the girl he went to all the time, not just when he needed a confidence boost?

The door opened a crack and I saw Marcus’s ginger head. “Hey Britt? Everything okay?”

“Yeah fine,” I mumbled.

“What did you say to Harry? He looked mad.”

“Nothing,” I flipped over and buried my head under one of the numerous pillows spread across the bed. “He just thinks he can use me and I’m sick of it.”

“Riley was really hard on him yesterday,” I felt Marcus sit down on the edge of the bed.

“So? That’s not my fault.”

“Yeah but you know how Harry is. He just needs someone to make him feel important when he gets like that.”

“Well he should let Amelia do that. I don’t want to be just the girl he looks at for a make-out session or whatever. I want to actually mean something to him.”

“You mean everything to him. Come on,” I peeked out to see Marcus offering me his hand. “Let’s go apologize to Harry.”

“Why?” I sat up and crossed my arms over my chest. “He should apologize to me. Do you know how bad it hurts that he only sees me in that way? It kills me.”

“Come on,” Marcus wiggled his fingers. “You two need to have a little talk.”

When I didn’t move Marcus grabbed my wrist and pulled me off the bed, dragging me to the kitchen where Harry was sitting shirtless at the table.

“What do you want?” he glared at me. We bickered way too much, which I was just starting to notice. One minute we loved each other and the next we hated each other’s guts. It’s been that way for years, I just never paid much attention.

“She wants to apologize for…”

I cut off Marcus, “No, I’m here for you to apologize to me.”

“For what?” he angrily scooped up a spoonful of cereal and chewed as he sent hate daggers my way. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yes you did!”

“No I didn’t!”

“God you’re so thick!” I flung the words at Harry before pulling out of Marcus’s grip and running out of the kitchen. I burst out of the house and scaled the fence, cutting towards Liam’s front door.

He opened it before I even knocked and let me in, not saying a word. I collapsed on his living room floor, letting a few frustrated tears fall as disappeared into the kitchen. He returned a minute later with a cup of tea and Susan.

I took the tea and accept Susan’s pity as she sat down next to me and wrapped her arms around me.

My phone rang immediately and I answered, not saying anything as Harry’s rushed apology filled my ear. “Babe I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Please don’t be mad. Come back.”

“I’ll be right there.” I hung up and thanked Liam for the tea.

Once again I went crawling back to Harry, prepared to have my heart ripped out and stepped on at least twice more this week. Our relationship was messed up, but it was still the only thing I had. So I just had to ride it out, hoping that the highs and lows would eventually lead to something more.