Songbird [H.S]

TWENTY-FIVE

Saturday mornings were Marley's favourite.

Without the stress of having to go to work, Marley took full advantage of sleeping in without an alarm interrupting her peaceful dreams. Usually, she'd wake up with the golden sun filtering through her curtains, snuggled up against Harry's warm body as he continued to snore softly in her ear. Her boyfriend was always a very deep sleeper and he loved to cuddle so she would always spend the rest of the morning lazing about in bed, getting lost in the feeling of her baby fluttering about inside her stomach while she waited for him to wake up on his own.

Once the couple was awake and dressed for the day, they would stumble their way into the kitchen to make themselves breakfast. Sometimes it would be pancakes, other times it would simply be a few slices of toast but either way, they would do it together. Since Marley had found out she was pregnant, she'd been determined to learn how to cook and so her mother had put her in charge of making her own meals and at dinner time, Marley would be in the kitchen helping Johannah make a meal for the whole family. It was good practice and the teenager often enjoyed cooking, especially when Harry got involved to help her.

However, that morning was a little different.

Marley woke up snuggled in her duvet alone after Harry had chosen to stay the night at his house. This had been quite common since Josephine had passed away, especially over the past few days as the boy locked himself in his room and spent all hours of the day painting on canvases and sketching in his sketchbook as a way to distract himself from his grief. The boy was very particular about not letting anyone see what he was working on but he would still let Marley in the room when she visited him. He was still understandably sad but it seemed that this new way of coping was working because she was seeing glimpses of her Harry shining through his sadness every day.

All he needed was a little more time and Marley to help him through everything.

Even though Harry wasn't with her that morning, it didn't mean it was any less relaxing. She continued to enjoy her lazy morning and instead of having breakfast with Harry, she went downstairs a little earlier and helped her Mum as she made pancakes and fried some bacon.

Breakfast in the Tomlinson house tended to be quite chaotic as the three siblings often argued over who got the last pancake or who had to get up and make everyone another cup of tea. But it was little moments like this that Marley now savoured, knowing that she'd soon have her daughter to create similar memories with.

The girl had originally planned to spend the morning with her Mum who was going to be planting flowers in the garden before making her way over to Harry's in the evening. However, she hadn't been helping her Mum for long when Louis announced there was someone at the door waiting to talk to her.

His expression was serious and it made Marley a little nervous. Who the fuck was at the door?

She silently followed her brother through the house to where the front door had been left wide open and the boy she hated most was reluctantly leaning against the door frame as he waited for her.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" She hissed at Louis, slapping his arm as she glared at him. She knew full well Louis and Ben had been plotting together to force Matty into accepting responsibility for his mistake - even after the teenage girl specifically asked them not to. They always thought they knew better just because they were older but all they'd really done was create a huge fucking mess that would be a nightmare to fix.

"He's here to talk." Louis snapped back, his harsh tone grabbing the attention of Matty and Marley watched as the boy instantly straightened up at the sound of them approaching. "Isn't that right, Matthew?"