The Charade
The sound of steps on the stairs woke me up out of my daze.
I jerked my body up off my bed and waited for Harry to come into my room.
Just when I thought everything was going to be okay, I heard more footsteps on the stairs.
Great.
My parents.
I sat back down on my bed and decided to wait for all three of them to come in on their own.
In came Harry, my mom following right behind him, holding his hand, and then my dad, a worried look expressed on his face.
I stood and made eye contact with Harry, and Harry only.
I gave him a look. A look that I have been giving him lately. A look of concern, of caution.
I felt my stomach growl. It was starting to hurt.
I stood facing Harry, and my lying parents.
My mom's hand gripped Harry's forearm. She acted as if I was an animal that was about to attack him. She held him back, giving me a firm look of fear.
My dad stood next to Harry, on his left side. An angry look on his face.
He's not angry with me. Or with Harry. But, my mom.
From what I was listening to in the bathroom, my guesses are my mom is the reason of my father's anger.
Harry bit his lip, something he does when times are awkward or times when he is scared.
I held my hand out to him and grabbed his, feeling a smile form on my face.
He studied me and my strange urge of affection. His hand grew tighter around mine and he continued walking closer to me.
Once we found ourselves close, my arms wrapped around his body, his arms doing the same around my body.
"We need to talk." I whispered in his ear.
My parents didn't hear what I said and better yet, they didn't even notice that I was whispering.
A smile soon was created on my dad's face. "So, I assume everything is all right?"
The look on my mom's face was furious. She gave my dad a death glare. Such a glare that he had to look away, and when he did, his smile faded from happy to fear.
I found myself giggling. But the giggles were only fake.
Harry and I released each other and stood facing our parents.
"You guys can leave now. . ." Harry smiled while pushing them out the door.
Once they disappeared, we got down to business. Starting with what I heard in the bathroom.
"She had mentioned something about giving me away," I tried to hold back the tears.
Harry grabbed my hand and held it in his, "are you sure they were talking about you?"
"Who else would they be talking about, Harry?"
I was wrapped up in a blanket, my head resting on Harry's shoulder. We sat on the side of my bed, looking at the beautiful view of the Alaskan mountains.
Three minutes of silence.
"It is you," was all Harry had said.
I curled up closer to his body and shared some of my blanket with him.
"What are we going to do?" My voice sounding hopeful.
I could feel Harry's head shake, "nothing, we can't do anything."
"What do you mean?" I sat up and looked into his eyes, this time realizing how beautiful they were. His eyes meant more to me than they had in the past and I'm not sure why.
Three more minutes of silence.
"I guess the only thing we really can do is talk to mom and dad."
Our eyes still looking into each other's.
We spent the rest of the night sitting on my bedroom floor laughing and watching the stars.
Alaska is beautiful, especially at night when the sun is setting and the night time sky is starting to replace it.
As we sat together, I realized that I better enjoy Alaska now, before Harry's parents send me away.
