sitting pretty ∞ h.s

chapter sixteen

sixteen

We'd only just begun to eat and no one had said a word, the only sound to be heard was the high pitched clicking of our forks hitting our plates. Harry barely ate, stabbing his fork into his meat slowly and guiding his fork to his mouth even slower. I hit my knee with his and he looked at me. I pointed to his food with my eyes and he dropped his fork on his plate, causing another high picked sound. I clutched my fork tightly and looked at him with a hard frown on my face.

He cleared his throat, "So, Sheryl, how've you been? I haven't seen you in a while." Harry spoke nonchalantly. I looked down at my plate, rocking my legs in impatience. He was purposely trying to irritate me, although he knew I was already upset with him.

"Oh, Harry..." She laughed an exhausted laugh. Sheryl's eyes darted to her daughter, "This one here has been a bit of some trouble." She sighed.

"Bradley..." Harry trailed and looked at the young girl who wore innocent eyes. I looked at her too, as she rose her hands above her head in defense, but lowered them immediately when her mother sighed in frustration.

"Not at the dinner table, please." Spencer continued to eat his food and I nodded, agreeing with him. I looked at Brad, his face as bright as the color red in embarrassment. I glared at Harry, removing my eyes from Brad- I didn't want him to catch me staring and become much more embarrassed than he already was. He must've felt so helpless, his mother was sharing personal issues with her guest.

Harry looked at me, his eyes softening slightly when he saw the anger in my features. I waited for my outburst, but I felt myself holding the anger inside- I knew I'd ruin the dinner if I would've screamed at him now. But I couldn't continue to sit at that table, pretending everything was just fine. "Excuse me." I stood from the table, smiling at each of them- excluding Harry.

After I walked through the door way, I heard Harry repeat my words, along with the screeching of the chair scooting back against the wooden flooring. They must think that they've made me uncomfortable, Bradley was the only one who knew why I was behaving the way I was and I was sure she wasn't going to say anything about it. I would expect a subject that included Harry and what he'd been doing for the last four years wouldn't be a subject that was often talked about. But apparently, everyone in Harry's so-called family knew about his hobby that included taking girls off of the street and holding them hostage for an unknown amount of time.

I headed for the front door, I needed to breathe and to be alone for as long as I possibly could. I exited the house before Harry appeared in the door way, I walked down the pathway that led to the sidewalk slowly. My heels scraped against the cement and I took a moment to stop, take them off. I carried the heels by my side, my bare feet hitting the cement as I continued to walk at my slow pace.

I heard the front door open and close, I didn't bother to turn around. "Where are you going?" Harry's voice said over the barely-blowing wind.

"I'm just walking!" I screamed, he looked taken back. "Why? What do you think I'm going to do, run away? Of course you do, you've spent four years of your life watching girls run away from you!" I stressed, grabbing a handful of my hair.

Harry strode towards me, his body moving faster than I'd ever seen. I stepped backwards, almost tripping off of the curb. He grabbed my arms roughly and pulled me into his chest, I whimpered in fright. "It wasn't like that. Charlotte, whatever Bradley told you- she didn't know half of what she was talking about." He kept his voice calm, speaking lowly to me. I looked at the ground, feeling my tears build up in my eyes.

"I hate you for doing this to me. Did I really deserve this, Harry?" I question, flattening my hand on his chest to push myself back. He grasped my wrist, holding my hand flat against his chest- disabling me to move my body away from his.