Cards Against Us All {HS}

-Chapter Forty Four-

Chapter Forty Four:

Harry

The aftermath of Christmas night when Clara told me her story was fragile. I made sure to hug her a little tighter and kiss her a little more. I also made sure to give her dad a hug. He went through a lot as well. From having to find his daughter in such a vulnerable position to having to give up the only place he had left that linked to his wife.

When I hugged him, he knew what had happened automatically. His eyes softened and he placed a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it. There was a silent conversation and I walked away as Clara came down the stairs.

"Good morning, pops." She said, smiling and she hugged her dad. I wished that I had a relationship with my father like she did with hers. "Are you okay?" She asked him, heading over to the kettle.

"I'm good. Did you sleep well?" Mike asked her and I took my seat at the dining table.

"I had a nightmare but I'm okay. I told Harry everything." She said, not looking at her father but me. I smiled at her and winked. She grinned back and looked at her dad.

"Did that help at all?" He said, pouring himself some cereal. "Harry, do you want any?"

"Yes please." I nodded and he grabbed me an extra bowl.

"It did actually. He found me on the balcony and I just said it. I felt a lot better afterwards." She was talking to her dad like I wasn't there but it was okay. I didn't mind. This matter was something that they had been experiencing for over four years.

My mum and sister came out of the bedroom and they were fully dressed. They also had their suitcases trailing behind them. "Are you two leaving now?"

"We are." My mum said. I was kind of hoping that they were going to stay for at least another day.

"Can't you stay for another day? I was hoping that the three of us would be able to hang out for a bit." I hadn't really been able to spend time with them but I thought it would be nice to look around Clara's home town.

"I have work tomorrow night, H." My sister said, resting her hand on her hips. "I suppose we could spend the rest of the morning and leave this afternoon. I don't want to have to drive too late."

"That would be nice." I said to her and then I turned to Clara and Mike. "I'm going to go out with my mum and sister this morning so I'll be back this afternoon."

"Okay. Are you going to leave now?" Clara walked up to me and kissed me.

I glanced at my mum and she nodded. "Yeah, is there anywhere you recommend seeing?"

"Just explore. Go to the beach and have lunch somewhere. We'll be here. We don't do anything on Boxing Day." She told me and I hugged her. I headed upstairs with my bowl of cereal and I got changed.

I kissed Clara on the way out, whispering "I feel bad for bailing on you after last night." She told me not to be silly and she moved on to hug my mum and sister goodbye. I knew that I wanted to take Clara up to my hometown at some point soon so that she could meet Bowie and see where I grew up. My mum and sister were probably just going to dump me outside Mike's house and shoot off so my girlfriend wasn't going to be seeing them again for a while.

I plugged the location of the pier into my maps app and my family were on our way. We found parking pretty close to the pier, with it only being a little walk away from there. We locked up and hid the suitcases under a blanket. I didn't know what it was like where we were so I wanted to be as safe as possible.

We wandered towards the pier and it was free to get on. It was nice but it was cold and windy. I underestimated the December weather by a mile and I was pretty cold but I just sucked it in for the sake of my family enjoying themselves.