When we returned from the hotel, things were only awkward for a few minutes. He started talking to me again after I offered to make him a cup of tea -- he grinned, and asked for two extra sugars. Rolling my eyes, I shimmied my butt while boiling the kettle. Burning on my back, I felt Harvey's stare graze over my body. A sudden shiver caused me to erupt in goose bumps. Enough with the shimmying.
We spent the majority of the evening on different ends of the bed, sipping our tea and tucking into room service. Nothing fancy, just omelettes. The small, silver box that we called a television was showing reruns of Jeremy Kyle. Most of the storylines were the same and had the same running themes -- drugs, sex, and incest. The kettle was boiling with overuse, since the only thing we knew to fill the awkward we-just-locked-lips space between us, as Brits, was to sip tea and pretend nothing happened. Multiple times, I glanced to Harvey and he was staring at me. Then, when he noticed the mutual stare, he would pretend to daze off behind me into a planned daydream. Whenever I spoke to him, for about 5 seconds, his gaze would drop to my lips, which were scarce of any product. Of course, I wouldn't register bringing make-up when something like this happened.
At 10 o'clock, the news came on. Luckily, there were no stories about us. Harvey's parents knew about the whole abortion adventure, although they weren't completely on board. Julia and Dad clearly didn't care. Maybe he didn't even notice.
"Well," I clapped my hands together and hoisted myself from the bed, as the 10 o'clock burst of news gradually finished. "I'm going for a shower."
"Can I join?" His voice was husky and deep; it almost made me want to say yes.
Scoffing, I pretended to be disgusted by scrunching my nose. "No, Harvey, no you cannot."
"We should save water," He teased, rolling from his back to his stomach, in order to face me. "By showering with your boyfr-"
Drop dead silence.
Nodding, I inhaled sharply and gestured to the bathroom door. "I won't be long."
Harvey nodded in acknowledgement of the awkward comment, before rolling back to the TV.
After grabbing my things from my bags, I slipped through the beige, wooden door. As I undressed and wrapped my naked body in a towel, I thought about why Harvey was being so... You know... Boyfriendy. Yikes. The thought of it made me shiver. What if he was using me just to hurt me again?
From a distance, I heard Harvey's phone go off. He answered with an overly loud and enthusiastic "HELLO MUM" but I couldn't tell what else he was saying. Shrugging it off, I twisted the shower knob and watched the water elegantly trickle -- down the tiles and into the plug. After a few seconds, I dropped my towel and jumped in. Closing my eyes, I directed my face up to the shower head and scrubbed. First, without soap, and second with soap. Then, I moved onto my other body parts. Arm pits, arms, stomach, gently skipping the crotch area (soap + vagina = no. an equation all girls should be familiar with), legs, thighs, and, finally, feet.
Spontaneously, I decided to wash my hair. How could I have a perfectly good source of water and not wash my hair? Closing my eyes once again, I wet it, as I ran my fingers through my long, thick mane. After lathering up with random shampoo, which came complementary with the hotel room, I gave myself a scalp massage. Smiling, I relaxed into the shower cubicle. The running, soapy water travelled down the rest of my body and gathered at the plug hole. Pitter pattering my feet in the puddle, I giggled to myself. Since Harvey and me had been flying solo (he basically kidnapped me), I had no access to hot water. The happiness inside of me glowed through my complexion and smile, as I scrubbed places in which were already clean. Just for the novelty.
Once I was done in the shower, I returned to the comfort of the towel in which I had abandoned. Listening to Harvey still on the phone, I whipped out my toothbrush from my bathroom bag, and began brushing my teeth. The wiggle in my step was back. Every time I brushed my teeth, I would sing songs in my head, to ensure that I brushed for the right amount of time. That night, I sang Somebody Else by The 1975 and almost burst into song. Once I had spit the toothpaste residue from my mouth, I swilled mouthwash for a few seconds, before spitting that out too. Steadily, I then got dressed into my run-away pyjamas. They literally consisted of an old Kings of Leon tour shirt from yonks ago, and two alternative bottoms -- a pair of run down booty shorts and some comfy Nike jogging bottoms. For this instance, I pulled the jogging bottoms over my freshly-dried legs, then dragged the tour shirt over my head. Sweeping my clothes and towel from the floor, I walked over to the door. Hesitantly, I clutched the handle with my free hand. But something stopped me from walking into the bedroom. Harvey was still on the phone, except he was now whispering.
"Yes, Laura, I know," Harvey coughed, causing my heart to sink. "I'm just helping out a friend. We'll be back within a week, I promise."
I got too impatient. Not waiting for him to finish his conversation, I kicked the bathroom door open with my foot. Revealing myself, I watched Harvey's distraught facial expression develop onto his face. Tears clutched my eyes; I begged them not to fall down. But they did. Heavily.
Instantly, Harvey finished up his conversation with Laura. Setting his phone on the desk, he started to explain himself.
"No," I snapped, through grit teeth. "I let you in again and you do this. This is a funny 'things didn't work out', isn't, Harvey? Huh?" He didn't have anything to say for himself. Instead of speaking, he looked to his feet. Infuriated, I stride to the chair Harvey's jacket was draped over. "You know what? You can have your jacket back." At that point, I catapulted it towards him. "A decent person would never treat another person like this. They wouldn't even dream of it." Tears coated my speech, causing my voice to unfortunately crack under the pressure. "How could you lie, Harvey? How could you lie?"
"Nothing is happening." Harvey crossed his arms, leaning up against the wall next to the TV.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Nothing is happening between us," He shamefully admitted. "On my part."
"What do you mean?" Mocking his body language, I crossed my arms too. "You're playing her too?"
"No," He denied my statement so fast that he almost cut me off. "I'm not playing anyone. She likes me, I'll admit that. And I'll also admit that I thought I liked her back. Hence the I'm-so-happy speech. I thought I was. And then you crept into my mind. My sick, stupid, pathetic mind. And I haven't been able to get you out ever since. Plus, how do I tell the girl who likes me that I kidnapped my ex-girlfriend to abort our baby?" I failed to answer. "You don't. Exactly."
"Keep me in your stupid mind." I spat through gritted teeth.
Ripping open the sheets of the bed, the fact that Harvey was trying to romanticize the situation made me angrier. He didn't care about me at all. And if he did, if he did, he would spend the rest of his life trying to prove it.
My body slid perfectly onto the mattress. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I closed my eyes and focused on getting to sleep. After a few minutes of sleeping alone, my eyes shuddered at Harvey turning the lights off. His warm presence lingered behind me for a few seconds, before I felt it pressing up against me. Smiling to myself, I shook away most of my anger towards him. He wrapped his hands around my stomach, hesitantly at first, and pulled me closer to him. My butt fit perfectly between his stomach and bent legs, causing me to snuggle closer to him. As I felt Harvey rest his head on my shoulder, and nuzzle in slightly, my breathing became erratic.
"Harvey," I whispered into the darkness.
"Mmhm?" He responded, tightening his grip around me.
"I'm scared,"
Silence.
"You have nothing to be scared of."
And with that, he kissed my naked shoulder and fell asleep.
YOU ARE READING
The Man on the Moon (The Man Duology)
Teen Fiction"If the man stayed on the sun for the entirety of his life and completely ignored the moon -- his happiness would soon burn out. If the man stayed on the moon and ignored the sun, his life would be dark and full of craters. However, if the man was t...
