Reconnecting

Chapter 3

Thankfully, no one had arrived yet, so I could go straight to my room. My mom was there too, but she knows not to ask when I come home in tears. I looked into my makeup mirror, to see a raccoon staring at me. My eyeliner and mascara dripped down on to my face, so I grabbed a wet towelette and wiped until I had an empty canvas. Right as I was adding finishing powder, the doorbell rang.

“I’VE GOT IT!” My mom yelled up. “THE STYLES’ ARE HERE!”

“COMING!” I pinned back my blonde curls and went downstairs. 

“Darling!” Anne embraced me warmly.

“Hello, Anne!” I hugged her back. 

“Tara,” Robin smiled and shook my hand.

“Hello, love,” Harry kissed my cheek, close to the mouth. His breath lingered on my neck.

“Hi, Harry,” I forced a tight smile on to my face.

“Why don’t you show Harry your room?” My mom urged.

“Mom, I’m sure Harry doesn’t want to see my-”

“I’d love to,” Harry interrupted as he tugged me upstairs. He opened the door to my room, and a deep chuckle escaped his throat. “Glad to see it hasn’t changed much,” he rubbed his fingers along the paintings we made on my wall when we were thirteen. “So are you going to show me around?”

“I hate you,” I muttered.

“I did it because I love you,” Harry pinned my arms against the wall and forcefully pressed his lips on to mine. He finally released me, and I swung my palm into his cheek.

“I hate you,” I side-stepped him and headed downstairs. “Mom, I’m going for a walk!” I grabbed my winter coat and went outside. I walked a couple of blocks, until I reached the abandoned house at the end of the street.

When Harry and I were little, we would go to the house when my parents were having one of their classic blowouts. We found it when we were seven, and by the time we were thirteen, it only looked abandoned from the outside. We had fixed up the creaky floorboards, and painted the walls. It was a place where we did homework, talked, and became close. Sometimes we even slept over. It was just our place, to escape from everything else.

I unlocked the back gate, walked up the porch steps, and into the house. Memories flushed through my head. My favorite was when we stayed in from prom, and spent the whole night watching movies on his laptop. The more I remembered how he was there for me, the less I was mad at him.

“I thought I’d find you here,” a deep voice came from behind me.

“I haven’t been here in ages,” I sat down on the carpeted floor.

“Neither have I,” Harry sat next to me, and pulled me into his chest.

“Do you remember when the police almost caught us in here?” I laughed. “We were stupid enough to light a fire.”

“There’s the laugh I missed. And, to be fair, it seemed like a good idea at the time. We were freezing,” Harry chuckled.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you, and told you I hated you,” I hugged him. “I know you were trying to protect me.”

“It’s fine,” Harry stroked my hair.

“I was in denial, and you were right,” I admitted.

“Wait, in denial about what?” Harry wrapped his hands around mine.

“When you left, even though we weren’t, you know, romantically involved, I still felt like something was missing. This sounds really bad, but I guess he was my rebound guy,” I bit my lip.