not in love! | THE SIDEMEN

xxv. pile driving to the a team

"OH!" Was the first sound to leave Sue Lewis' mouth when the two finally ventured downstairs, cheeks flushed red and hair damp. The shock of seeing a woman by Harry's side was surprising enough, but once it subsided, the brunette's eyebrows furrowed with confusion as she took in their freshly washed appearance. "Um... hello there!"

To make matters worse, she wasn't alone in her visit to London - with Harry's father and younger brother lounging on the sofa wearing similar expressions. His father appeared to be trying not to laugh, immediately clocking on to the reason his son was taking so long in the bathroom, while Josh Lewis was staring with an open mouth. Once the scene before him finally began to settle in his mind, Josh's agape mouth rose into a wide grin as he bellowed a booming laugh that cut across the otherwise silent living room.

Dramatically, Josh rose up from his seat and ran into the kitchen as if the scene was too much for him to handle. Harry and Lennon wore identical expressions of humiliation, but to their absolute luck it didn't seem as if Sue had copped on yet to what had tickled Josh so much.

"Hey, nice to meet you!" Lennon greeted, voice embarrassingly squeaking halfway through speaking. "How are you?"

"Good, yeah! We're all good!" The dark haired mother awkwardly replied, raising her eyebrows teasingly at Harry when she thought Lennon wasn't looking - unfortunately for both women, Lennon had indeed saw the interaction. Leaning in to hug her son, Sue kept a grin on her face while she spoke. "Are you a friend of Harry's?"

"Yeah, we're friends!" Lennon unconvincingly answered, coughing shortly before gesturing toward the front door in a departing motion. "I didn't realise you were coming to visit, I'll leave Harry to you all and catch up another time!"

"Aw what-" Harry started to protest, cut off by the gaze of every person in the room suddenly being fixated on him. He swallowed thickly, further redness arising in his cheeks as he collected himself and waved goodbye to the woman. "I'll text you later, yeah?"

"Yeah!" She responded happily, waving once again to his family. "So nice to meet you all!"

With that, Lennon was gone from sight and the most awkward thirty minutes of Harry's life had finally come to an end. Or at least, he had assumed it had until Josh had made a reappearance, a grin still across his face.

"You dirty dog," he barked a laugh, "I've got to move to London."

And with that comment, realisation finally settled onto Sue Lewis about what had transpired in Harry's bathroom prior to her abrupt arrival.

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