One Plus One

Chapter Fifty-Three

The room emptied out leaving only Harry and myself. He helped me to clear away tables before dragging my tired body to his car. He helped me in, leaving me with a sweet peck before climbing in his side.

"You did really well today, Marlie." he spoke quietly, placing a hand on my thigh.

"I'm just tired now. Can we have a film and a cuddle tonight?"

"Of course we can. My place or yours?"

"Yours. I don't think I can go back to mine tonight."

My thigh was squeezed in reassurance. I smiled at him as a thank you before he turned back to watching the road ahead. I don't know how I would have coped without my curly haired boy by my side. He was the strength that I needed.

Once we pulled up outside of his, I was helped out of the car, my exhausted body collapsing into Harry's. I had hardly slept the night before and the emotion of the day had finally caught up with me. I tried to protest to Harry picking me up to carry me inside but he was much stronger than me and any attempt to wriggle free of him was in vein.

I dragged my feet along to hallway to his bedroom, ridding myself of the days clothes and into some comfier attire. Harry soon followed suit and dragged me into bed with him, holding me tight to his chest as my breathing became slower and slower.

"This next week is going to be hell." I breathed, my eyes already shut.

"Why?"

"We're not seeing each other remember? No contact for a week."

Harry fell silent. It seemed he was dreading it as much as I was. I knew Lily would love things going back to the way they used to be but I certainly wasn't looking forward to it. Harry had become a central part of my life and I couldn't picture it without him anymore. As I thought, my hair was picked up from my shoulder. Harry combed his fingers through it slowly, his head then resting on mine. I could feel his curls tickling my forehead. We didn't say anything more. We didn't need to. It was all said in the silence.

*****

Our parting kiss was heartfelt. When we began to part, Harry pulled me back into him, holding me closely, the warmth of his chest on mine. I inhaled his strong scent, closing my eyes to create a permanent picture in my mind. We finally went our separate ways, me into the dance studios and him into the sports centre.

"What's going on there then?" asked Lily as she leant against the door.

"We're not seeing each other for a week. I hate it already."

"Ah you'll be fine. You'll have me, you won't need him. In fact, why don't we have a girly night? We haven't had one in forever!"

"Ok, I don't see why not."

"The girls can come over and we'll have a proper catch up! They haven't seen you since you first started seeing Harry."

I think she could tell I wasn't as enthusiastic as she was. I knew that this night in would be an opportunity for the girls to grill me on mine and Harry's private affairs. That was all the girls were interested in.

When I arrived at Lily's, Katie and Maisie were sitting staring at me as if they had been deprived of conversation for weeks. Maisie's eyes scanned me up and down until she found what she was looking for. She saw the awful purple marks on my neck and began to quietly giggle to herself. I quickly brought my hair over my shoulder hoping to cover the marks as best as possible but Harry gave me such harsh marks that they were probably still visible no matter what.

"So...spill! Come on we want to know everything!" Katie finally gushed.

"Jeez I knew you were gonna ask but I didn't expect it to be the first topic of conversation. What's wrong with 'hi, how's things'?"