✓ lights /styles au/

6 Pillow

i didn't mean for everything to turn to shit like it did.

Harry worked as a counselor for the visually impaired. That was all Josephine got from him after they shared a bottle of cheap beer. They were a tangled mess of legs and arms on her largest couch. Both lying down, their legs were entwined and her arm was nearly numb under his weight. The rest of her body was free, though, and it wasn't until she finished talking about how she used to teach children their colors and elements of art that she heard him snoring.

She frowned then and tried to gently unhook herself from his grasp until she heard the faint sound of her phone ringing. Josephine looked around before finally concluding that it was under his arm and vibrating. Harry turned a little and she snatched it, her mother's picture and name flashing on the screen in white. She answered it and pressed the receiver to her ear. "Hello?"

"Josephine Small you should be ashamed of yourself."

"You think so?" She rolled her eyes and used her shoulder to hold the phone to her ear as her hands hesitantly went to the hair of the sleeping boy wrapped around her. She hoped he was sleeping, though she wouldn't have felt completely embarrassed if he happened to wake up at the exact moment her fingers worked out the knots in his brown mane.

"You open your door right now. This is ridiculous. I have been calling you nonstop and-"

"Yeah, well this is the first call I've received so." Joey bit down on her lip and her hands paused in Harry's hair. "What do you mean you're here? I have company, that's not fair to me."

"I'm sure your company would really like to-"

"He wouldn't like to meet you, actually, but there's a nice hotel on the next exit."

She knew she lost the argument when her mother hung up. Jo took a breath and dropped her phone to her chest. Harry's hand moved up to hers before taking it in his palm and turning his head to her. "Josephine?" He asked.

She looked at him but said nothing.

"You said Joey wasn't short for anything."

"My mom is outside of the front door."

Harry nodded and sat up slowly, letting her hand fall to the couch. She thought he looked really nice when waking up. He turned his head and stripped himself of his dark blue tie that was clung to the collar of his white button down that he hadn't taken off. She felt bad for having changed her clothes into a pair of sweats and her old uni sweatshirt. "I guess I should leave then. Don't want-"

Jo made a face. "It's about to be one."

"Bad neighborhood?"

"Really bad neighborhood." She smiled as she crossed him and walked toward the door, pushing her loose, unruly hair away from her face and struggling to push away a strand that went past her lips and into her mouth. She opened the door and awkwardly stood in front of her mother before the older woman pushed herself inside. There was a pause before she heard her voice.

"Oh god, Josephine, do you not care about keeping the place you live in tidy? Oh, this poor boy. What's your name, sweetheart?"

She closed the door and bowed her head, turning back to walk toward Harry. She hooked a hand around his arm and tried to steer him back toward the corridor. "Harry," he answered, small, clumsy smile tugging on his lips. He held out his hand, "Nice to meet you."

"Such a gentleman," her mother laughed, taking his hand and shaking it. Jo caught the scowl on her face as she glanced down at the many rings around his fingers. "Very nice to meet you, Harry. Call me Rachel, please."