Night Shift [h.s]

eighteen

☁️ ALANNAH ☁️

It had been a whole eight days since Harry had met Harmony for the first time and since that very day, Harmony had mentioned him a total of eleven times. I had been counting each time his name came out of her mouth and each time it did, something within me just sank. I'm not really sure why, though it could be something to do with the fact that she's mentioned Harry more in the past week than she's probably mentioned her own father in the past month.

Harry wasn't supposed to be in our lives like this. He wasn't supposed to be in Harmony's drawings, she wasn't supposed to mention him and ask when he's next picking her up from school or coming over to have a picnic with Paddington. The two of them had met for approximately seven minutes and yet Harmony already seemed so captivated by him.

I was thankful when on day seven, yesterday, she didn't mention him once and finally he could stop haunting my every second. She hadn't mentioned him at all today either. She didn't come running out of school with a picture she had drawn of Harry and Paddington, she simply came running out with some kind of junk model creation that consisted of a few toilet tubes and a cereal box taped together. She didn't even ask if Harry had come to pick her up and I was hoping to god that she had forgotten about him just enough for us to return to our usual lives. I could hardly cope with her talking about him all of the damn time.

Harry hadn't mentioned much about Harmony either which is was incredibly grateful for, especially due the fact that we hadn't seen each other outside of work for a whole week now. I didn't really need him bringing up Harmony in front of everybody else, I liked to keep her my little secret. I didn't like to have other people nosing in and thinking they knew everything just by a conversation they overheard. Though Harry had caught me a few times to ask if I was okay and to ask if Harmony was okay too.

He mostly seemed worried that I was overworking myself but I was feeling a whole lot better just recently. It had taken me just a day or two to recover from the initial exhaustion and the sickness, but in no time at all I was back to my usual self. I think it purely was just exhaustion and anxiety all mixed together, it was messing with my mind and sending all the wrong signals out to my body, I don't think it was a bug, I think it was my body crying out for a break.

"What's on your mind today Blondie?" Niall's accent fills my ears just before his arm snakes around my shoulders and his hand settles upon my arm.

What I had very quickly learnt about Niall was that he was perhaps a little too friendly sometimes. He just treated everyone as if they were already his bestest friend and whilst it was refreshing to be treated as though I belonged here, sometimes it was a little overwhelming to have him throw his arm around me and call me by nicknames that Harry had assigned.