18 - h.s

thirty nine

Sophia Elliot

We all sat at the dining table in silence, the sounds of cutlery scraping the crockery bouncing off the walls, creating a deafening echo of the awkwardness in the room. I cast my eyes to josh to see him staring Harry down, making him visibly uncomfortable as he shifted in his seat next to me. Harry and I made eye contact and I raised my eyebrows to question if he was okay to which he nodded subtly in response.

The silence broke with the sound of my father's voice, making us all look to him at the sudden lack of quiet we were all growing accustomed to. "So Harry," he cleared his throat and looked Harry up and down, "Tell us about your family."

Harry froze at the comment, almost choking on air as he was shocked at my father's words. He placed the cutlery down and looked to my father, then at me before turning back to him. Harry's eyes darted around the room in a panic, seemingly racking his brain for what to say, which I found odd, but tried not to question it. 

"Well, uh," he choked before taking a deep breath and diverted his eye contact from my father and looked downwards, chewing the inside of his cheek. "Nothing much to tell," he forced out a small chuckle, getting an unimpressed look from my father in return. "They're away a lot so I just tend to spend a lot of time alone." 

My father just nodded and hummed before he just continued to eat and didn't ask any more questions. I could feel Harry let out a deep breath next to me as if he was holding it for a long time.

"Harry," Josh spoke up,  staring Harry in the face. Damn, if looks could kill. I held my breath at whatever was going to leave his mouth next. My brother pointed his knife at Harry,  and honestly, at this point, I was begging for Josh to just leave it alone. "Don't you fucking dare hurt her. Or you'll get more than a punch to the face next time." 

I looked over at Harry and he just smiled, holding his left hand up and grabbing mine on top of the table with his other hand, flicking his eyes between my father and my brother. "I promise I won't hurt her. I care about her far too much." 

As he spoke the last words, his gaze landed on me and our eyes met as he squeezed my hand ever so slightly for reassurance. I couldn't fight a smile that tugged at the side of my lip and I looked into Harry's eyes, as he smiled back at me. 

I was enjoying this moment more than I thought I ever would have. If you would have told me a few months ago that I would be sitting in my dining room, holding Harry Styles' hand while having dinner with my family, I would have asked you if you were on drugs, but now, it feels so... right. 

There was that voice in the back of my head yelling at me profusely to get a grip and it snapped me back to the reality that this wasn't real and it would have to end at some point soon as I remembered the deal. I just wish-

"Sophia," My mother's delight-filled voice cut through mine and Harry's moment, and both of our heads whipped round to the sudden noise. "I can't believe this." She spoke with a smile and almost a teary expression and I was immensely confused at what the hell she was talking about. "You're fixed. You're finally fixed." She spoke as she clapped her hands together once and turned to smile at my dad.  "Billy, she's back to normal again." She touched my dad's hand that rested on the table and smiled at me, which I certainly did not reciprocate. 

Oh, brilliant. Here we fucking go.

"Honey, this is fantastic." My dad flipped his hand round from having his palm rested on the table and now had the back of his hand resting against the white tablecloth and grabbed my mother's hand, squeezing it tightly.

I took a deep breath and hung my head low and let go of Harry's hand, the sudden cold at the lack of his touch swallowing my skin. I knew Harry would be confused at this and I decided not to look back up at him for the moment. I saw in my peripheral that Harry looked at Josh and then back at my parents, inaudibly asking what was going on and what on earth they were talking about.