"Jade, psst... Jade. We're here." I slowly blink open my eyes, and as I begin to come to, I notice someone gently touching my arm and I begin to panic until I realize that it's just Harry trying to wake me up.
"Oh sorry..." I apologize but trail off as I look around at my surroundings. "Um, I thought we were going to London?" I curiously ask, not sure why "London" is so different from what I was expecting.
"Oh yeah about that.., we are in two days, if that's okay, it's just that my mom and sister don't exactly live in London, we're in Holmes Chapel which is about two and a half hours out of London, we are at mums now." Harry quickly explains his story, and although I feel like I should be extremely pissed off at him right now for basically completely lying to me, I'm not the slightest bit upset, a little upset that I don't get to see London as soon as I would like, but not as upset as most people might be if someone just totally lied to them.
I hop out of Harry's vehicle after realizing that he was waiting for me to get out so that he can shut the door and lock it. "Yeah that's cool, I haven't been here either so it's basically just another place for me to say I've been." I shrug my shoulders nonchalantly to show him that I truly am cool with him bringing me here.
"Oh great!" He smiles down at me excitedly while grabbing our bags out from the back. "I was a little worried, I probably said this already but mom and Gemma are really cool, I'm sure you'll love them, you'll probably like them too. They're really nice, mom is such a good cook to, I'm so excited for you to meet them."
I smile up at Harry, I love the way he talks about his family with such love. It kind of makes me miss it, having a family, more, yet less at the same time. More because it makes me think of them more and just miss how much I loved them, but less because it reminds me of how even though they're gone, I will always love them the same.
"What?" Harry asks after a couple of minutes of me staring longingly up at him.
"Nothing I just," I pause thinking of how to properly phrase it. "I just love how much you love your family and how excited about them you get."
"Oh, well thanks." He turns away and I notice a light crimson creeping up his face. "Just so you know it's really early so mom might not be awake yet, so we'll have to be really quiet." Harry warns me as we make our way up to his front door. Or rather his mums front door.
Harry opens the door which thankfully is unlocked and we quietly make our way into his mums home. The instant I walk in I am met with the soft, comforting, sweet smell of sugar and dough that can only be associated with cinnamon buns.
"Harry!" I woman with long dark brown hair, slight, hardly noticeable wrinkles, and an apron currently wrapped around her walks into the entrance way, wrapping Harry up into a big hug. "I've missed you so much, I'm glad you could finally pay your own mother a visit."
She then turns to me with a huge smile on her face. "And you must be Jade, Harry might have mentioned you a couple times." She sends a wink in my direction as she looks between her own son and I, a look I've come to notice as Harry's deep in thought look on her face.
"Come on, in sure you two must be hungry after the long drive." She ushers us into the small kitchen, where I instantly notice French cinnamon buns on the counter.
"I thought you'd like some cinnamon buns, I don't know if you like them or not Jade, if you don't we can find you something else to eat, I just thought it would be a nice treat, I used to make them for Harry and his sister as a special tear when they were younger." She then pauses, again looking deep in thought for a brief second, she then turns around grabbing two plates out of a cupboard behind her and passing them to both Harry and I.
"Speaking of Gemma I think she is coming over tonight." Harry's mom continues to talk as she places a cinnamon on my plate and then one on Harry's plate.
"Thank you..." I trail off unsure what to call her, from what be noticed I think she's unmarried so I don't want to call her mrs. styles just in case her last name isn't even styles.
"Oh Anne! I'm so sorry for not introducing myself. I'm Anne." She drops the fork she currently has her hand to give me a proper handshake.
"It's really nice to meet you, thank you for letting me come with Harry." I thank her as I return the handshake.
"Well as much I'm looking forward to having you stay, Harry was rather persistent on having you over too, I don't think he would've taken no as an answer if I had even wanted to." She laughs, again letting her eyes curiously wander between Harry and I.
"Oh." My face instantly falling out of the smile I'd had it in since the minute we'd stepped into her house. "Sorry." I apologize, suddenly getting this feeling like I don't belong and the voice at the back of my head nagging at me to just leave and go somewhere else where Harry and his family won't be bothered by me.
"Oh honey I'm so sorry, don't apologize, I'm super happy that you're here, I just meant that I think Harry wouldn't have come of for whatever reason I had said no to letting you come here, I think he quite likes you." She assures me not to worry and a wave of relief washes over me, until she whispers the last part to me and I feel heat rise to my cheeks.
I nod and a silence then falls over the kitchen, interrupted then by Anne who thankfully seems to be doing most of the talking.
"Well," she claps her hands loudly either to get our attention or to disrupt the awkwardness, although I'm not too sure which reason it is, "you two eat your cinnamon buns and then I'll let you get settled into your room, I'll be doing some work in the living room if you need me."
"Thanks mom!" Harry calls after his mom as she turns to walk towards their living room.
"You're welcome Harry." She turns around giving him a polite smile, then making her way back to the living room.
Harry and I almost instantly eat all our cinnamon buns as soon as Anne leaves. I have to admit, Anne from my experience so far, is an extremely good cook.
"Well if you're ready, I can show you the room now," Harry offers, breaking the silence that fell over us since we had started to eat, it was awkward though, it was a comfortable silence.
"Sure, thanks." I nod and smile at Harry who stands up the instant I begin to talk.
I stand up as well, following Harry up the stairs to a medium sized room where he places my bag that I just now realized he was carrying.
"Wait Harry where are you sleeping then? I just feel like there's probably not a lot of rooms in here." I quickly ask Harry before he can walk away, thinking back to the conversation with Anne in the kitchen I'm pretty sure she had said that We could get settled in the room.
"Well I was just going to sleep on the couch or something probably, or I could set one of those air mattress things up too." Harry shrugs as though it's not a big deal that he's letting me sleep in the actual bed at his mums house and he's just planning on taking the couch. I get that he is just being a gentleman and that he was probably raised that way, but no matter what I still feel bad.
"Well if you need me I'll be downstairs, I'll let you get settled." Harry turns around beginning to walk back out of the room.
"Harry!" I surprise myself by calling out to him. Harry turns around looking at me curiously.
"Yeah?" He asks.
"You can um... you can sleep in here with me...I- if you want." I nervously tell him and he looks at me with what I believe to be a genuine look of sympathy.
"Jade it's okay, I've noticed you don't like to be touched, for reasons I don't know, and that's okay, but I don't want you to feel like you have to let me sleep here." Harry politely declines my offer giving me a two second awkward grin.
"Please. It's okay, I mean, I've fallen asleep on you on your couch, the only difference is this is a bed. It's okay Harry. Really." I insist, no matter how much he declines and insists that it would be okay, I would still feel bad, and I wouldn't want his mom to think I was being impolite or something.
"You're positive?" Harry asks after a few short moments.
"Yeah." I nod, although I definitely don't feel sure at all.
"Well, if you're cool with it, then thank you." Harry smiles.
Before either of us can say anything Anne yells up to us to let us now about how she's going out to get groceries.
"You want to go for a walk?" Harry asks me after both of us obviously are not coming up with any better ideas. " I could show you some of the places that I used to hang out at when I was younger."
"Sure, that would actually be really nice, it's actually quite lovely out right now." I nod in agreement at his idea, nodding my head towards the sunlight that is slowly beginning to peek through the curtains.
"Cool, let's go then." He motions for me to step out into the hallway and I thank him for his humbleness.
"So, what was it like growing up here?" I ask genuinely interested in his childhood.
"Honestly, it was kind of boring, there isn't really much to do here if I'm being completely honest." He chuckles as he opens the front door, again casually letting me go first. When we reach the sidewalk I notice that he automatically starts to walk on the side closest to the road.
"Come on, I'm sure you had friends, what type of stuff did you do for fun, like, did you play any sports, you know." I laugh at my own awkwardness and Harry lightly laughs along with me.
When he doesn't answer I look over at him, well more like up and over at him, to see that he has his eye brows crinkled together, his lips are pursed and his eyes are tightly pinched together, he is squinting so much that it almost looks as if he has his eyes fully closed.
"Well, actually," Harry begins to speak after a couple seconds in silence. "When I was in high school I was in a band."
"Wait actually?" I ask in surprise. I guess I could see him actually being in a band, even if it was just a high school band, I guess I'm just more shocked at the fact that he was in a band, most people I know weren't that into music, so it's kind of neat to be able to hear what people who grew up outside of my small town did for fun.
"Yeah. It was actually pretty fun, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but we were actually pretty good." He smiles to himself and happily sighs, the thoughts of his carefree teen years filling his head.
"That's pretty cool actually." I lightly laugh. "What did you do?"
"I was the lead singer." He laughs to himself while shaking his head, causing his curls to flop loosely around his head.
I smile up at him in slight admiration. I have to admit, the few times that I have heard Harry singing, I thought that he was quite talented. I feel like he is so good that he could maybe even doing singing in a bar or something on the side for extra money, maybe even some busking in the streets of London.
"Jade?" Harry softly whispers interrupting me out of my thoughts.
"Hmm? Yeah?" I ask embarrassed, I've noticed that I tend to completely zone out a lot when I am with Harry lately, I go off into my own thoughts and tune out anything he says to me. It's a horrible habit that I developed when I was still living with my mom and step dad. I would zone out a lot so that I wouldn't have to constantly hear the insults he would throw at me.
"Are you okay?" Harry, once again, asks.
"Yeah I'm fine sorry, I was just thinking." I shrug with a light, forced laugh.
"What about?" Harry curiously asks.
"Well, I don't know, it's kind of embarrassing to say out loud but I was just thinking that, I thought that maybe you could busk in London, or anywhere really, because I think you have a really lovely voice." I explain my own thoughts out loud, the familiar feeling of heat and redness, once again, rising up to my cheeks.
Harry himself zones out for once, but he quickly comes back to reality, and turning to me he smiles. "Well thank you Jade."
Before I can even say anything Harry jumps up excitedly, grabbing ahold of my hand and practically dragging me towards some trees and a stream that run through a field.
"What's so exciting about this place?" I laugh as I look around, it's literally a clear looking stream that's lined with some bigger boulders and some birch trees.
"This, Jade, is probably where I had the most important moment of my life." Harry sighs, a hint of cheekiness twinkling in his eyes.
"And what would that be?" I ask monotonously.
"This, right down there," He leans over pointing aways away at a tree. "That, is where I had my first kiss."
"Wow Harry." I instantly burst out into a fit of laughter at his mere stupidness. "Really though, the most important moment of your life?"
"You know, my ten year old self that it was pretty amazing thank you. And I have to admit, it was pretty steamy." He argues with me, actually looking genuinely insulted at the fact that I am laughing at him.
"I'm sure it was." I continue to laugh, grabbing my sides and trying to steady my breath so that I can actually talk to him normally.
"It was" He insists defensively. "It was all up against a tree and everything." Harry continues trying to prove his point and he honestly seems to be getting more and more insulted with every second that passes.
"Okay, okay." I lightly laugh, finally able to breathe after what felt like an eternity. " I believe you, I'm sure that it was pretty steamy" I add extra emphasis to the pretty steamy to show it in a mocking way.
"Thank you." He sighs as he shakes his head.
"For a ten year old." I laugh as I quickly walk away, farther away from the road and closer into the field.
When I look back I notice Harry sigh as he begins to run towards me, I laugh as I run further away from him, just as Harry seems to think that he is catching up to me, I quickly make a sharp left turn and run into the trees. I then quickly lean up against a tree, forcing my body as close to the tree as it will go, so as to hide myself from Harry. I peek around the tree to see if Harry is gone, or at least how close he is to me. Smiling to myself when I see that he isn't there I quickly turn back around thinking that I've won this, only to smack into Harry whose arms are wide open. He immediately traps me in a hug and rests his chin on top of my head.
"Gotcha." He laughs as he tightens his hold on me. I laugh along with Harry, sighing in defeat. All of a sudden it gets insanely quiet, so I look up at Harry to see him staring down at me with a slight smirk on his face.
"What?" I awkwardly laugh, afraid that I have food or something on my face, or that I smell bad.
"Nothing, nothing." Harry is quick to reply, he shrugs as he continues to keep his hold on me.
"No what is it? You can't just act all serious like that and not tell me what you were going to say." I press for him to finish whatever it was that he was thinking of. I have to admit, sometimes my curiosity gets the best of me and I get a little too nosy for my own good.
"Well um, I was just going to say that I could show you how steamy it was." He replies, his now familiar smirk once again appearing on his face. The minute the words were out of his mouth my stomach instantly does a bit of a flip flop.
"You're such an idiot." I force out a laugh, trying not to let him see just how much that one little comment affected me. I feel almost happy and giddy, yet at the same time I'm reminded of a time that just the mere mention of a kiss would make me sick to my stomach, or how even the slightest touch would make my skin crawl. I try to push the thoughts out of my head as I look up at Harry whose eyes instantly meet my own, and then slowly trail towards my lips, then coming back up to meet my eyes once again. I force myself not to move as I draw in a sharp breath as Harry slowly lowers his face towards mine, tilting his head ever so slightly.
I don't even know how to begin to describe the feeling I get when our lips connect, my shoulders instantly relax, and I feel so much happier. My stomach keeps doing flips over and over again, it feels as if time is standing still as Harry loosens his grip on me to lightly place his hands around my waist, without thinking about it my hands immediately wrap loosely around his shoulders. We stay kissing for what feels like an eternity, but eventually, Harry pulls away and I automatically feel like I am missing something, almost the second we part from each other.
"I know you said I'm an idiot, but I still had to do it anyway." Harry grins down lazily at me.
I shake my head with a laugh as I look up at him. "I guess I can forgive you this time." I jokingly tease him.
"Just that one time?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe." I shrug adding in my own smirk.
"So can you forgive me for this then? Or no?" He asks as he quickly gives me an extremely quick peck on the lips.
"Definitely can't forgive you." I teasingly laugh.
"Too bad." He shrugs, I notice a twinkle in his eyes that automatically makes me want to smile.
I take my arms around from Harry's shoulders and tightly wrap them around his torso and lay my head on his chest. Harry places his arms higher up around my torso so that he is now hugging me too. I let out a long sigh and then proceed to inhale deeply through my nose, letting Harry's familiar scent of cologne and mint fill my lungs. We stay like that for a while but I eventually pull away and begin to walk back towards the road.
"We should probably get going." I say as I slow down to let Harry quickly catch up with me.
"Yeah, I still have lots of places to show you," Harry begins to tell me his plan but he abruptly stops about mid sentence. "Well not that much actually, I'll show you where I used to go to school and where I used to work."
"Where did you work?" I ask him. Come to think of it, I'm curious how Harry just seems to have endless amounts of money but yet he never goes to work. I'm not going to lie, it does seem a little sketchy.
"I worked in a bakery!" He smiles, truly seeming to be proud of himself.
"Actually?" I ask in disbelief. I don't know if I could see Harry working in a bakery. Maybe it's just because he doesn't seem like the type of person to be super into baking. The only time I've seen him bake in the two months that I've been living with him was when we were making the cupcakes a while back, which weren't actually that bad, but I don't think I've ever seen him actually cook something other than Mr. Noodles, kraft dinner, soup and all that type of stuff.
"Yeah, it was actually pretty fun. I worked with a bunch old ladies. They were really nice! I'm sure you'll love them just as much as they'll love you!" Harry passionately goes on to explain the types of things he had to do and tell me all about the ladies he worked with and about how 'the chicks dig a guy who can bake'.
I smile to myself, oddly happy over how passionate Harry is getting over his old high school career.
"Oh here we are!" Harry abruptly stops walking, turning to face a little bakery.
He grabs my hand and pulls me inside and instantly I am met with the familiar smell of fresh bread.
"HARRY!" A chorus of ladies voices fill the room as soon as they notice Harry.
"Barbra! Susan! Betty!" Harry grins as he takes each of them into a hug one by one. "It's so good to see you ladies."
"It's lovely to see you to Harry." One of them smiles at him.
"And who's this?" One of the other women asks as soon as she notices me.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Harry apologizes. "This is Jade, Jade this is Susan, Betty and Barbara." Harry introduces us to each other, pointing out each woman as he says there names.
"It's nice to meet you." I say as I shake each of their hands.
"It's nice to meet you too dear." Barbara smiles as she shakes my hand.
"So Harry, what brings you back home?" Susan asks in curiosity.
"Just paying my mom and Gemma a visit. It's a little overdue. And since I'm here I thought I should show Jade around, introduce her to some of my favourite women." Harry cheekily smiles, chuckling a bit at the part about his favourite women.
"Well it was really nice to see you Harry, and it was nice to meet you Jade, but we do have to get back to work. Stop by before you leave if you remember, maybe we'll have a little something for you." Barbara smiles at us.
"Thanks Barbara." Harry smiles as he reaches down, his large, broad frame completely covering her up as he gives her a hug. "Bye ladies."
"Bye dear, it was lovely seeing you." Barbara smiles as she pulls away from Harry.
Just as I'm about to walk away, all three of the older women come over to give me a goodbye hug.
"It was lovely meeting you Jade, I hope we can meet again sometime." Betty grins as she steps away from me.
"And sometime soon!" Susan adds to Betty's previous statement. "This one's definitely a keeper Harrold." Susan nudges Harry with her elbow, sending him a small wink as she glances between the two of us.
"Oh we're not -" I begin to tell her how we aren't in a relationship but Harry cuts me off.
"Thanks Susan." Harry politely replies to her, taking my hand in his.
"Again, it was really nice to see you all but we should probably be going now. My mom should be home by now and she usually gets pretty worried, you know she is." Harry lightly chuckles at the end of his sentence, slowly turning around and walking towards the door, still holding my hand.
"Bye Harry! Goodbye Jade!" Susan,Barbara and Betty all call out as we close the door behind us.
"Wow!" Harry pouts jokingly. "You get a goodbye and all that I get is a plain old, simple bye."
"What can I say. People just like me better than you." I joke as lightly bump his hip with my own. We'll more like his thigh due to his height on me.
"Mhm! I'm sure they do." He sarcastically laughs as he begins to skip forward, swinging our arms light heartedly.
"Who knows." I joke as I begin to skip along with him, swinging my arm along with his as well. "You know, your mom seems like a really nice person actually." I tell him from a little bit ahead, as I begin to gain speed on him due to the fact that he has started to slow down.
"Wait, wait, hold up for a second." Harry abruptly stops and the tug on my arm from his causes enough force to pull me back, so that I am falling into him. He moves a bit and for a second I think that he is being an asshole and just going to let me fall on to the ground, but then I meet his arms, and he helps stand me back up again.
"Sorry, you okay?" He laughs as he straightens out the sleeves on my jacket.
"Yeah I'm good." I laugh lightheartedly. "Why did you stop so suddenly though?" I curiously ask him as I fix my now messy, thanks to a mixture of Harry and the sudden wind, hair.
He stares off into space looking deep in thought as he light rubs his chin and ruffles his curly hair. "Honestly I don't even remember." His eyebrows knit together as he attempts to think even harder. "Hmmm..." He pondered as he scratches the side of his head, again ruffling his hair.
"Harry it's okay if you can't remember, it's not even that big of a deal to be completely honest." I purposely shrug to show him that I truly don't care and that I'm not just saying that. "Plus you said yourself that your mom is probably wondering where we are."
"No it's just that I had something actually kind of a bit important to tell you I think." He pauses for a brief second before throwing his hands in the air completely elated. "Oh!" He shouts out. "I was going to ask if you were nervous to meet my mom or something? I'm only asking because earlier you seemed like, extremely relieved at how "cool" He pauses to put air quotes around the word cool, using his fingers. "I don't know, it was probably just me, but still." He chuckles towards the end of his sentence.
I look away embarrassed, taking my hand out of his as I awkwardly rub my arm from nervousness. "No, I mean a little I guess," I reply truthfully, averting my eyes towards the ground so that I am still looking away from him. "I mean, I don't see anything wrong with that though." I quickly add in defensively.
Harry begins to laugh at me and I instantly feel a surge of mental pain surge throughout my body. I feel a lump begin to form in my throat and a tear forming in the corner of my eye. I attempt to hold it back, rapidly blinking to get rid of the tears that are rapidly forming in the brim of my eyes. However, much to my attempts, the tears begin to stream down my face.
"Hey you okay?" Harry asks as he lightly grabs my arm. I attempt to shrug it off but he obviously doesn't get the hint as he keeps his arm there, stopping me from walking, he places his finger under my chin, tilting my head up to look at him so that he can see me clearly.
"Did I offend you?" He asks, sympathy clear in both his voice and in his eyes. "I didn't mean it mockingly. I shouldn't have laughed at you, I'm sorry, I was just laughing because I was picturing my mom as some intimidating person. I wasn't laughing at you, I'm sorry." Harry truly sounds genuine as he apologizes and I sigh as I feel a wave of guilt wash over me, feeling bad for crying. Without saying anything I walk closer to Harry, pulling him in for a hug. I rest my head on his chest and he wraps his arms around me, slowly and softly rocking back and forth.
"It's not necessarily that you laughed at me, so much as me being upset with myself." I mumble into his chest, taking a deep breath as the smell of his cologne fills my nose.
"What do you mean?" He asks softly, the tone in his voice being one of comfort mixed with a tone of confusion.
"I mean, I don't really like talking about it, but you obviously know that I didn't have a super good childhood and I guess I just didn't have a super good experience with parents when I was growing up." I shrug, clearly surprising him and myself when begin to open up to him, I'm sure everyone knows that I'm not really the type to open up easily to people. "My parents and others." I quickly add, mostly just so he doesn't think that my parents were huge assholes or something.
"What do you mean other parents?" Harry surprises me by asking about the one thing I didn't think he would ask about.
I pull away from him after I realize that we are still hugging, and as soon as I do I begin to miss the familiar warmth he was providing me with.
"I just mean that after some shit," I pause to correct myself when he gives me a look of disapproval at my choice in words, "excuse my language, after some stuff went down there was a lot of parents who didn't want me to hang around there kids, especially when my mom became depressed, her and my step dad weren't really the best influences and I guess no one really wants to expose their kids to that kind of lifestyle. Which I totally understand, it's just that as a kid it really hurts, you know?"
"I'm really sorry Ja" Harry begins to apologize but I am quick to hold my hand up so as to silence him.
"Don't apologize, and don't take this too harsh, but I don't want your sympathy. As much as my life kind of sucked, there are so many people who have it so much worse that I ever did." I explain to him, making sure to add extra emphasis to the so, mostly just to get my point across.
We sit in silence for a couple seconds until Harry begins to walk and I follow him. Then we walk in silence for a few minutes. I place my now cold hands into the pockets of my coat trying to warm myself up. I look over at Harry who is currently walking, also with his hands in his pockets, a grimace on his face that is tilted towards the ground causing his hair to whipped around even worse than usual in the wind. I gaze at his face taking in all his features from the shape of his nose and every odd angle on his face, to the way he always slightly crinkles his eyebrows when he is confused or deep in thought.
"You know, it's not polite to stare." Harry surprises me when he speaks up, continuing to look towards the ground but instead of a grimace on his face he has a smirk.
I look away embarrassed as I feel the heat rising from my chin all the way up to the top of my forehead, embarrassed that Harry caught me staring. If I'm being honest, I didn't even think he noticed me at all.
"Hey," Harry interrupts my thoughts as he begins to speak and giving me a slight hip bump. "If it makes you feel any better, even if my mom said no, I would still hang out with you." Harry gives me a goofy grin and I smile back up at him.
"Thanks Harry." I laugh.
Harry smiles back at me again as he turns right and walks up to his mums house that, to be completely honest, I didn't even realize we had reached already.
Harry walks ahead of me, making sure to hold the door open for me, and closing it after I get inside.
"Mom! We are home!" Harry calls out as he takes my coat from me to hang up in the closet for me.
"Mum!?" Harry calls out again after a few moments of no answer. Again. The only form of response we get is completely and utter silence.
"Weird." Harry ponders, crinkling his eyebrows in confusion.
"I thought that she'd be back by now. Maybe she's just having a nap, you can go into the kitchen and look for something for us to eat while I go and check her room." Harry instructs while he begins to race up the stairs, slowly gaining speed after every second that passes.
"Okay." I nod uncomfortable even though he can't see me considering that his back is turned against me.
I walk into his mum's kitchen and linger by the doorway for a couple seconds, unsure of what to do. It's not that I don't want to eat, because now that I'm thinking about it I am quite hungry, it's just that I don't feel super comfortable with going through someone else's cupboards to look for food, let alone someone I have only met once. Awkwardly, I walk over to the cupboards opening them up to be met with a ton of food, I take it that Anne must be back from grocery shopping after all.
"Hey, I have no idea where my mum is, I'm thinking she must not be back yet." I hear Harry call, followed by the loud thud of his feet smacking against the stairs.
"No, she has definitely come back," I announce.
"What makes you say that?" He calls from what I believe to be the living room. Before I can answer I'm meant with an oh that Harry drags out for just a little too long. I turn around to see him staring at something, I follow his gaze to see a piece of paper sitting on the counter top.
He walks over and picks it up, reading it and then once again ohing.
"She's out at a friends house, by the sounds of this letter she just left. She said to find something for dinner for ourselves and not to worry about her." Harry places the letter back onto the counter and turns to look at me with a lopsided grin. " I was actually a little worried there for a second." He lightly chuckles as he shakes his head at himself. "Anyway, we should probably look for something for dinner." Harry walks up beside me, peering into the cupboard. He moves a few things around, staring at something I'm unsure of, a look of contemplation on his face. Eventually he snaps out of his gaze and reaches his hands back into the cupboard to grab his food of choice, pulling out a jar of spaghetti sauce and spaghetti noodles.
"You like spaghetti?" He asks while holding up the two ingredients i each of his hands.
"Yeah of course! Who doesn't?" I laugh while walking over to the refrigerator, opening up the freezer part. I look around for a couple seconds eventually pulling out what I was looking for. "Do you think your mom, or Anne I guess, would care if we used her ground beef?" I ask.
"No I don't think so, I mean, she did say to use whatever we wanted." Harry says as he passes me a bowl and a cookie sheet. "You're making meatballs I'm assuming?" He asks in a tone like he was stating it rather than posing a question.
"Yeah if that's cool with you." I nod as I take the bowl and cookie sheet from him.
"Yeah definitely, do you need a recipe, I'm sure mom has one." Harry asks me as he begins to walk over to what appears to be recipe books.
I shake my head forgetting for a second that he doesn't have eyes on the back of his head. "No thank you, I think I should be okay."
"Cool, well if you decide that you need one they are right there." He motions towards the cookbooks. "Now, let's get down to business."
"Okay!" I smile happily.
"To defeat the huns." Harry whispers to myself, so softly that I almost don't even hear it.
"What?" I laugh in confusion.
"I said to defeat the huns." Harry chuckles as he shakes his head. I stare at him in silence, still confused as to what he's talking about.
"You know, from Mulan?" He states like that would make anymore sense to me.
"I have no idea actually." I sigh a look of disdain written onto my face.
"How have you not watched Mulan?" He asks completely horrified. "Well, I know what we are doing tonight."
"Um, okay.?" I say confused as I walk over to the sink to wash my hands, I then walk over and put the ground beef into the bowl along with some eggs, oatmeal, onion and a few select spices such as garlic, oregano and parsley. I throw in a few other ingredients while Harry heats up the water for the noodles.
"Look, all I'm saying is that Mulan is like one of the best movies ever created, it's mostly an action movie with a slight twist of la romance." Harry shrugs as he places the spaghetti noodles into the pot of boiling water.
"What is it even about?" I ask while I begin to form the meat into little ball shapes and place them on the cookie sheet and then proceeding to place them into the already warm oven.
"Well, I obviously don't want to give too much away, but it's about this girl from China whose old dad is like summoned to war but she takes her dad's armour and all that type of stuff and disguises herself as a man so that she can take her father's place in the war, at first she sucks at it and they try to send her home but long story short she ends up actually being a kick ass warrior." He explains the summary of the movie while stirring the canned spaghetti sauce that he has now put into a pot. "Oh also she has this cool little dragon friend!" He quickly adds. Out of excitement Harry absentmindedly lifts hand that is holding the spoon into the air, managing to get spaghetti sauce all over the small kitchen.
"Harry!" I gasp attempting to hold back my laughter, yet miserably failing to do so.
"Oops?" Harry shrugs with a laugh.
"What am I ever gonna do with you." I absentmindedly say as I shake my head while also attempting to hold back my smile.
He shrugs as he grabs a rag and begins to wipe off the counters, cupboards and lastly the floor. "I think the real question Jade," Harry surprises me when he finally begins to speak after about five minutes of silence. " The real question is actually what would you do without me?"
I subconsciously frown as I begin to think of how my life would currently be without Harry. To be honest, I would probably be lying dead on the side of the road. I don't mean to be so vague about it, but when Harry found me I was in pretty rough shape, at that point I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, even if that event hadn't happened, or I had somehow managed to live through it, I feel as though I would probably still be in pretty rough shape, poor and homeless. Ever since I lost my father and most recently my mother, I didn't think that I would have much motivation to help keep me going through the days, if any at all, but surprisingly I have found that missing motivation in Harry. He's my something to live for. I know that might seem strange seeing as I've only known him for about two to three months, but he makes me happy, and I think it's okay for me to be happy, I'm terrified of finding that kind of happiness because I don't want to lose it again, even if it's technically a different happiness, but no matter what kind of happy he makes me, I don't want to lose it, or him, and that might be selfish of me to say in a way, but I truly mean it with all my heart, I don't want to lose him.
"Honestly, probably not a whole heck of a lot." I say after a while. Harry looks a little surprised with my answer at first, and I would be lying if I said it didn't surprise me to, but then I do something that surprises me even more. I walk over to Harry, resting my head on his chest and wrapping my arms around him. I feel him relax the minute I make the slightest bit of contact with him and he wraps his arms around me as well.
"Harry, promise me one thing." I softly say into his chest.
"What's that?" He asks with the same sort of softness that I had used.
"Promise me that no matter what, no matter what happens to me, or you," I pause taking in a breath. "Or us, promise me that you will never leave me."
"I promise." Harry whispers as he holds onto me the slightest bit harder.
I hug Harry harder, letting a few tears slip out and stain his shirt. We sit in silence, just hugging, and it feels like time and the world have stopped, like it's just the two of us forever. All of a sudden I'm interrupted out of my thoughts when I feel some form of a liquid drop onto my arm, at first I think it's Harry crying until it starts to get warmer and warmer until it's finally burning my arm. It takes me a minute to clue into the fact that it's the spaghetti sauce that is now rapidly boiling with a few bits flying out of the saucepan.
"Harry!" I exclaim as I jump out of his arms and rush over to the stove to take the boiling sauce off of the burner.
Almost as soon as I lift the pot up the other pot that has the spaghetti noodles in it begins to rapidly boil, more watering beginning to splash me on the arms. I place the saucepan down onto an unoccupied burner and quickly move the pot with the water. I bring it over to the sink and take a drainer from Harry. I then pour the noodles into the drainer, shake it around a little bit so that all of the water drains out of it finally placing the noodles back into the pot. I then proceed to bring the pot over to the counter, making sure to put a towel under it so that I don't completely ruin Anne's counters, I then finally place the sauce into the pot and begin to mix it around. With perfect timing just like destiny, the timer goes off while I'm in the middle of combining the noodles with sauce.
"Harry can you please grab those? I'm a little occupied." I ask Harry with a laugh while nodding my head towards the oven to show him what I was talking about.
"Yeah for sure!" He exclaims while walking towards the oven.
I continue to mix the sauce, even though I probably could have stopped about two minutes ago. I zone out for a split second but come back to reality with a bit of a jump when I feel a hand on the small of my back.
"Sorry." Harry chuckles at my little jump.
"Don't apologize." I lightly laugh. "I just zoned out and you surprised me is all." I shrug as I move the spoon out of the way so that he can place the meatballs into the rest of the food.
Harry grabs one about to drop it into the food when he stops.
"What?" I confusedly ask.
"Go wait upstairs, like in the bathroom or my room or something." He instructs.
I get an uneasy feeling of nervousness that washes over me the minute the words leave his mouth. He's not like everyone else Jade, that's not what he meant. I try to comfort myself, trying to the uneasiness from myself. "Why?" I ask cautiously, no matter what I tell myself you can never be too sure, you have to always remember that not everyone is exactly as they seem to be.
"Just go, I don't care where you hide, or wait, or whatever you want to call," He shakes his head and brushes a hand through his hair, his nose slightly crinkled and his eyebrows knit together, a look that I have come to recognize as one of frustration washing over his face. "But that's not the point. I'll call you down when I'm ready."
"But why?" I press, still confused, I mean I just thought that we were going to eat our dinner and then watch that movie that he had wanted to watch, Mulan or something like that anyway.
"Just go, it's a surprise." Harry sighs in frustration motioning his hand towards the stairs.
"Why can't I just wait down here?" I stubbornly ask, mostly just to annoy him.
"Jade, honey, seriously, just go upstairs." He sighs, running a hand through his hair.
"Fine, fine, I'm going, I can see that I'm not wanted here." I joke as I make my way towards the stairs. Out of the corner of my eye I see Harry sigh as places the tray of meatballs back onto the countertop.
I make my way upstairs and into Harry's old childhood room. It's not until now that I realize how much of a teenage boys room it looks. The walls are painted blue with a blue bed spread, a pile of old cd's stacked on his brown dresser, awards from school on his shelf and a few other random objects like an old, worn out looking football. I'm a little surprised, I didn't think Harry had played football in school, or at least he never mentioned it to me, maybe he just played recreationally. I look over towards his closet where I notice what looks to be a giant sticker with the word X Factor and the number 19470 in a frame. Before I can look too far into it Harry calls me downstairs. I jump up from my spot and make my way downstairs, gasping when I walk into the kitchen. Harry has turned off all of the lights, the only source of light being a candle that is in the middle of a little foldable table, in between our spaghetti that has the meatballs placed nicely on the top on top of the spaghetti pile. There is a laptop sitting on another table beside our table, and of course, two chairs at our table.
"Care to join me for this meal Madame?" Harry asks me in what I assume to be his best attempt at a french accent.
"I would love to." I nod as I take his outstretched arm, wrapping my hand around his elbow, Harry following by putting his other hand on top of my much smaller one.
He stops walking when we reach the table, pulling out my chair for me and pushing it back in once I have sat down. He sits down in his chair and smiles at me.
"Sorry, I just thought I should try to do something nice for you." He shrugs while passing me a wine glass. "I hope you're okay with wine, mom doesn't really have anything else except milk." He explains while holding up a wine bottle.
"Well I can't say I've ever had it before so yeah that's cool." I nod as he begins to slowly, and carefully pour the red wine into my cup. "Thank you." I politely thank him.
"You are very welcome Jade." Harry responds as he begins to pour the red wine into a cup of his own. "A toast." He states while lifting his cup into the air.
"To what?" I hesitantly ask.
"To us." He says.
I smile, lifting my glass into the air. "To us!" The clinking of our glasses fills the room as we both take a sip of our drink. I'm a bit taken aback at first when the new, unfamiliar drink fills my mouth, the sweet aroma taking over my lungs. The taste is one of bitterness, yet still managing to be sweet, it has a great finesse to it, and although I have never had an alcoholic beverage before, I think this one is by far my favourite. And also a little out of my price range. "This is really nice." I tell an enthusiastic Harry.
"I'm glad you like it, it's hard to find a wine that everyone likes." He flashes me a quick smile.
"Where did you even get the wine?" I ask curiously once I realize that I never notice Harry having any wine with him at all and the fact that I literally have not left his side once, other than when I was waiting for him upstairs, this whole day.
"I asked mom to grab some when she went grocery shopping." He smiles teasingly.
"You little." I gasp at his secretive self. "I didn'teven notice you talking to her at all." I laugh in disbelief.
"Hey!" He holds his hands up in mock defense. "A man's got to surprise a girl every once in while."
"Thank you." I whisper so softly that I myself barely hear it, so I am a little more than surprised when Harry replies.
"For what?" He asks appearing to be confused.
"For," I pause, thinking to myself for what to say. "Thank you for everything, for this," I motion towards the food and the laptop, which to be honest I am confused about, "Thank you for taking me in, for rescuing me. Just, for being nice in general." I shyly and quietly tell him. When I say that he rescued me, I know he probably only thinks that I am referring to when he literally saved me from Jake and a near death experience. But if anything, of course I am still talking about that, but little does Harry know that he saved me in more ways than one, more ways than he, or anyone for that matter will probably ever know, but that's okay, like I have said before, and like I will probably say for the rest of my life, I think it's better this way, for people to not know some things. Sometimes it's just safer that way.
"Hey, sometimes you have to save a girl." He shrugs with a chuckle, and almost as soon as his face has gone into a smile does he suddenly turn serious again. "Besides, I think it's safe to say that I'd save a girl like, no, not just like, I'd save you any day of the week."
Immediately that feeling that has begun to feel so familiar washes over me. I can't decide if I like it or hate it, maybe I love it and hate it at the same time. I decide to change the subject when I blush and turn my head slightly to the right so that the laptop is now in my peripheral vision.
"Um, what is the laptop for?" I ask.
"Oh right! Thanks for reminding me, I'm using it cause I thought we could have a romantic dinner date." He cheekily grins at me while quickly hitting the play button on the screen.
"What romantic movie would this be?" I laugh while shaking my head at his sweetness.
"Um I said romantic dinner date, not romantic movie." He sasses back. "We, Jade Watson, are watching Mulan." He chuckles, shaking his head with a sigh. "I bet you thought you were getting out of it."
"Mm, no, can't say I did." I shake my head my eyebrows knit together.
"Oh." He oh's, his face falling, however he immediately sits back up straighter. "Well whatever, stop talking and enjoy movie and your spaghetti and meatballs." He instructs motioning towards the laptop with the movie that has just started.
"Fine." I sass as I sit back and pop a meatball into my mouth.
"You're so difficult." He shakes his head with a sigh.
I smile to myself, a happy with myself and him, and us, smile as I turn towards the movie that actually turns out to be quite interesting.
"Enjoy the movie Jade." Harry says after a few minutes of silence. And that I do.