Meet Me in the Hallway (HS AU)

seventy nine.

June 26th

"Harry, I'm so nervous." The skin on my upper arms was incredibly itchy as nerves overtook me.

He stopped walking and turned to face me, "Nervous about the flight or nervous about meeting them?"

My hands rested on my hip as I huffed, he knew the answer to that question.

I was absolutely shitting my pants, this is the most nervous I had ever felt in my whole life. Not only was I about to board a plane and fly over twenty three hours, I was about to meet Harry's entire family for the first time. Sure we had spoken on the phone a few times since Christmas but this was a whole new level.

This wasn't just meeting his parents though, oh not that wouldn't be overwhelming enough. Because god knows when we would be back over, we had to meet everyone in the two weeks we were going to spend in England. Parents, grandpa, cousins, aunties, uncles - the works.

I was certain his whole family was going to hate me and that I would be on the next flight out of London within a few hours of them meeting me. If this is how Harry felt when he met my Nan and Pa, then I felt so bad for him. The fear was stabbing me in the chest and it forced me to actually almost have a breakdown in the car on the way to the airport.

"Don't play dumb, Harold. You know I am shitting literal bricks right now, I would appreciate some support or perhaps a swift kick to the head. It would knock me out long enough to get me there."

He looked far too good for someone who was about to be stuck on a plane for an entire day. The winter air of Melbourne required many layers to not freeze to death, so Harry donned a pair of navy tracksuit pants that clung to his legs in the most addictive way and a hot pink hoodie that made his tanned skin appear even richer in colour.

A huff of annoyance left his lips as he pushed our suitcases, that he insisted on wheeling by the way, out of the way and pulled me into a tight hug. I'd be lying if I said the hug didn't relieve the stress I was feeling, he always knew how to stop me from worrying.

"You wanna know how I know they'll like you?" I nodded against his chest, "because they told me they already do. My Grandpa is so excited to meet you that he knitted a 'very special scarf for the sweet girl'. He hadn't picked up his knitting needles since my Grandma died."

The words tugged at my heart strings, he hadn't even met me but he was so sure he would like me that he turned back to the hobby he left behind a long time ago. That mental picture alone was enough to make me tighten my big girl boots and march onto the plane. Harry had opted for the aisle seat, wanting to be as far away from the window as possible. I was very appreciative of this because I, one, enjoyed looking out the window and two, being a bigger person made the aisle seat a very uncomfortable experience. Parts of yourself hang into the aisle and are constantly bumped, nudged and rammed into by passing passengers or flight crew.

It was fairly late in the day, around 5:00pm when they asked us to fasten our seatbelts and prepare for takeoff. When we landed in London it would be early in the morning, so if I wanted to be a decent human being to his family, I would need to sleep on this flight. The plane shook as it sped down the tarmac before starting its ascent into the sky.

Harry's hand gripped mine firmly until the shaking stopped as we reached altitude. As soon as he felt comfortable enough to let me go, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a book he had taken from his little library to keep himself awake a little longer.

Watching him read had become one of my favourite pass times. I think it started to grow when I spent all that time sitting in his office with him while he worked. It was like a work of art, the way he seemed to both open up and shut down while he scanned the pages.

His hands would cautiously hold the corner of the page as he read its final lines, his shoulders relaxed and he slid forward in his seat so he could slouch back, occasionally he would bring a hand to run and brush his hair away from his face and he maintained firm eye contact with the pages that held his full attention.

He was completely engrossed in the text and could never be disturbed, I could scream right now at the top of my lungs and there's a fair chance he wouldn't notice. But one thing he always found spare attention for, was pressing kisses to my shoulder before turning back to his book.

Personally, with how tired I was, I opted to scroll through the planes in flight entertainment system. I had formed a habit recently of picking a movie I had already seen before, putting it on and falling asleep to it. So as soon as I saw Crazy, Stupid, Love appear on the display, I knew I had to watch it.

The headset, that never really seems to fit on anyones head properly, sat half on my ear and half in my hairline. But no compromised audio would take away from one of my comfort films. So regardless of the slight discomfort, I pressed play and nuzzled into Harry's side.

*

"Jo, baby. We're gonna land soon." Harry's gentle voice, paired with his gentle caress on my upper arm, pulled me from my sleep.

For a brief moment, I had no idea where or who I was but quickly got my bearings when my eyes caught sight of the sun rising over a plane wing. The realisation set in that in a matter of minutes, we would be on English soil and just a few hours away from meeting his family for the first time.

Clem had already made her way over a few days before Harry and I finished work for the term, so at least I had the comfort of knowing her extremely well. It meant that I had two people who knew the real Josephine Cook and loved me, no matter how fucking nervous I was about to act in front of their entire family.

*****

1 CHAPTER TO GO!