camouflage [h.s]

31

I wake to light leaking through the windows, the room seeming frozen in time. An arm is draped over my waist, Harry lightly snores, still asleep. I carefully move his arm off of me, getting up and walking into a small bathroom which is built in at the front of the room. There's a packaged toothbrush sitting on the sink, and I quickly open it to brush my teeth. The taste of bile still lingers from throwing up last night.

As I brush my teeth I look in the mirror, an exhausted version of myself looking back. My long brown hair is sticking out at random places, cheeks still splotchy from all the crying I did yesterday.

I am such an idiot.

Instead of dwelling over last night and most likely crying some more, I get undressed and into the small shower. I laugh as I pull back the camo shower curtains before turning the water on. Everything in this place seems to be decorated for a redneck.

After a few minutes of standing in the shower the water becomes extremely hot, the way I prefer it to be. There are tiny bottles of shampoo and conditioner, I use all of what there is. Hopefully Harry doesn't plan on taking a shower as well.

Once my hair is decently washed and body clean, I get out of the shower and quickly dry off. Annoyed, I put on the same clothes I wore yesterday, tired of them. Looking in cabinets above the toilet, I find an unused hairbrush and comb the knots out of my hair until they fall back into waves. Instead of leaving it down, I put it in a neat bun just like how my mother taught me to when I was a little girl.

Stepping out of the bathroom, I look to find Harry standing in front of the windows, he's standing sideways so only half of his face is visible. Light seeping through the glass makes his eyes look a translucent green.

He looks beautiful.

"How are you feeling?" He asks without even turning around.

"A lot better." It's true, after showering I feel revived somehow. He nods as if pleased.

"Let's go get something to eat since we've already missed a class." He says, grabbing his keys before briefly making eye contact with me. He sighs before looking away, opening the door to our room and walking out of it and into the hall. He always seems to leave me behind when angry, and I hate it.

Catching up with him, we get outside to his range rover, no words exchanged between us as we sit in the vehicle.

"Where are we going?" I ask, just trying to get Harry speaking to me again.

"IHOP, if that's alright with you."

"As long as they don't burn the food there like you do."

"I had to take a piss, it's not my fault!" Harry says with a grin. We both laugh, but then it gets quiet again. Harry shifts uncomfortably in his seat, tightening his knuckles around the steering wheel. "I hate this." He says quietly.

"So do I."

"I don't think I can do this much longer." He says in a frustrated tone. My heart stops, is he talking about us being together?

"Do what much longer?"

He takes a deep breath, "Be mad at you."

"Then don't be."

"That's easier said than done." He says, parking the car. I hadn't even noticed that we'd pulled into a parking lot, too focused on him. Harry gets out of the car as do I, he waits momentarily before opening the door to IHOP for me, something he hasn't done in days. I thank him before walking inside, the smell of delicious food cooking invading my senses.

"Table for two please." Harry says to a hostess who nods and leads us to a small booth in the back corner of the diner looking IHOP.

The hostess puts two menus down on the table before walking away. Harry sits on one side of the booth and I take the other, picking up the menu and looking through it. Eventually I set it down, too overwhelmed by all the options.

A waitress comes by getting out drink orders, I get orange juice while Harry gets a glass of milk. "What are you getting?" I ask when she leaves.

"French toast, you?" He says a moment after putting his menu down.

"Blueberry pancakes." I finally decide. He nods his head, eyes scanning my face for a moment before looking elsewhere. I feel as if a weight is pressing down on me every moment we don't speak to each other. Even after the waitress takes our order we're both silent, so many words wished to be said between us.

"Can we please talk about yesterday, I'm tired of it being like this between us." I finally gather enough courage to say.

"We did plenty of screaming about it last night." Harry says, leaning back into the booth.

"I know that, but I want us to be normal again. I don't want it to be silent every moment we're together because I made a stupid decision." I say, not caring how desperate I sound.

"I'm not so mad at what you did, it's the fact that you put yourself in danger for me. I was so scared of what those men could've done, you had a gun to your back!" He says and now I can understand why he's so angry, it was because he could've lost me just as easily as I could've lost him.

"I swear to you I will not put myself in that position ever again, it was a mistake. It's just, I hate sitting back knowing that these people could kill you." I say, the word 'kill' sounding bitter coming off my tongue.

"You won't lose me, okay?" He reaches across the table, hand finding mine in a comforting gesture. My heart warms at our contact, and I genuinely smile for the first time in what seems like forever.

"Okay."

The waitress comes by with our food, and we both begin to eat quickly.

"We always seem to resolve our problems quickly, don't we?" Harry says as he takes a bite out of his French toast.

"I think it helps when we actually talk it over, not scream at each other." I say, cutting a piece of pancake before eating it. The blueberries give it an amazing flavor, probably the best pancakes I've ever eaten.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about how much I yelled yesterday, it was wrong." Harry says genuinely, and I quickly forgive him.

"If I was in your position I would be just as pissed, it's okay." I say.

Harry's eyes widen, "I don't think I've ever heard you cuss, Leah. This is like a milestone in our relationship."

"Pissed is not a bad word."

"For you it is, I'd never think I would see the day that you'd say a bad word."

"Why is that?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Because you're just so innocent, which is very attractive by the way." Harry grins at me, dimples showing. Heat rises to my cheeks, most likely turning scarlet. "Like right now!" He says, laughing. Okay, now my cheeks are most definitely bright red.

"Are you finished?"

"Eating or making you blush?" Harry asks with a crooked smile, something I've missed so much.

"Both!"

"Yeah, let me get the waitress back over here for the check." He waves our waitress over, quickly paying for our meals. I thank him as we get out of the booth, walking out and getting back into his car.

"Well we have the rest of the day to ourselves, what do you want to do with it?" Harry asks as he leans forward in his seat to turn the ignition.

"I'd say go home and watch movies, but that's boring."

"Maybe we could use a little boring?" Harry suggests, clearly referring to the night we had yesterday as eventful as it was.

"It's up to you, I'm no good at these kinds of decisions."

"You are indecisive, how about we go back to your place and finish that movie we started a few days ago."

"Sounds good to me."

Harry reached across the console, twining his hand with my own. We may not be back to what we had, but we'll get there.

(Wow, I updated three days in a row. And in case you haven't noticed, Monday's really suck.

Anyways, don't be a ghost reader. Vote and comment!)