Limitless

Chapter 18

When I finally woke up, sunlight was pouring through the window.  I was still exhausted though.  For as much as I stayed up into the early hours of the mornings, I hated doing it.  For as much as I slept in, I hated doing it.  It always left me just a little more tired than I would have been going to sleep and waking up at normal times. Dazed, I picked up my phone and looked at it.  I had 17 missed calls, three voicemails, and 23 texts all from my father. I held my phone up to my ear to listen to the first voicemail.

“Lou, I would really like for you to come back home. We need to sit down and talk.” I didn’t want to talk though.  I was done talking to him. I moved on to the second one.

“Young lady, you need to come back home. At least give me a call and let me know that you are okay.”

And the third: My dad was crying. I couldn’t understand half of what he said. Something about “keeping you safe” and “being overprotective” and “losing you like I lost your mother.”

I looked through a few texts, first demanding that I come home and eventually pleading for me to come home. I put my phone back down and flipped over to face Harry.  He was awake and staring at me.

“Where you staring at my dirty hair?” I whispered.

“It’s not dirty,” he whispered back, picking up a piece of the red locks and pulling on it lightly.

I grimaced. “But it is. Sorry about my morning breath,” I whispered, covering my mouth with the sheets.

“I can’t smell it.  Plus it’s not morning.  It’s four in the afternoon.”

“Oh shit.”

“I know.”

“How’s your stomach?”

Harry lifted the sheets and looked down at his stomach where the large butterfly was. I grinned when I saw it.  The more I looked at it, the more I loved it. “How’s your back?” Harry reached for the hem of my t-shirt.

I swatted his hand instinctively. “It’s fine!” I blurted, a little loudly as I hugged the covers to my body.

Harry cocked an eyebrow at me.

I stuttered as I tired to recover. “I’m sorry, I’m just really ticklish… you know…”

Wrong choice of excuse.

Harry grinned mischievously. “Ticklish?” His hands slid closer to me under the covers.

“NO. No, Harry don’t-“ I began to try and kick him away under the sheets as he reached for me.  He crawled over to me and laid on my legs, grinning as I struggled to get away. I tried to push against his face and his chest but he was too strong.  He lifted my shirt under the covers and began to tickle me, thankfully all the while he was still watching my face.  I was laughing because it did really tickle but was also trying my best to get him away.  At any moment, he could look down and see my tattoos. I just wasn’t ready to tell him. Not yet.

I shrieked. Finally, someone burst into the room.

“Cripes Harry, what is going on in he-“ Louis stopped when he saw us and laughed shortly. “Bella, come look at this. You won’t believe it, Love.”

I felt my cheeks begin to burn as Isabella ran down the hallway to Louis. She cautiously peered into Harry’s room as if she were scared of what she might see. When she spotted Harry laying on top of me, she laughed.

"Oh my dear god, it’s happened," She hollered down the hallway. 

"What has?" Niall called back.