A Memoir, Harry Styles fanfic

Chapter 11

           

I hurry home to hide my suitcase in the attic before the step-dude arrives. I, then, unlock my window and make sure it is opened a crack, so I that I am able to get inside the house to sleep tonight. I decide that it is completely necessary for me to walk the half mile through suburbia into town. In town, I read in the library until it closes at eight, and I am practically starving. I barely had anything to eat because of the nervous state I was in all day.

               I make my way to a gas station to buy peanuts, water, and a lemon pound cake. I eat on a bench in the park nearby in a twilight glow. When I finish, I watch the remaining children and parents pile into their cars and pull out of the parking lot. Deciding it's time to make my way back, I heave myself off of the park bench and start the two mile trek home. I shouldn't have traveled so far away from my street.

               Taking in deep breaths, I try to keep myself calm in the sense of paranoia that Mitch has caused. But the first flash of headlights sends my racing over behind the bushes in someone's yard. The car passes, and I try to deepen my shallow breathing. I decide to travel in people's yards from now on to reassure myself that drivers cannot see me. Several dogs bark, but I just keep going until I reach an intersection which I cross with trepidation.

               Only half a mile away from my street, I start to run worried that the step-dude could drive by at any moment. My worries are fruitless, though, because he doesn't leave the house after dark. It's one of his weird habits. He sits at home and eats meals perfectly planned out and only has dessert occasionally. He goes to church every Sunday but never thinks that the rules apply to him. The TV is turned off at eight, and he sits and reads the newspaper while harrumphing periodically. He goes to bed at nine-thirty and expects my mother to please him and massage his feet until lights out at ten.

               If any of my siblings get out of bed, they get shoved back into their rooms, and the door is locked from the outside preventing any interruptions to his pleasures. Only he has the keys to the bedroom doors in the house. He permits my mother to have her set of keys during the day, and they have to be hung up when she walks in the door. He falls asleep with my mother locked in his arms, and she cannot get up even to go to the bathroom.

               It is a little before nine-thirty when I reach the house, so I climb onto the roof from a tree to wait. The view of Harry's house is exquisite from here and only marred by a few trees here and there. It is like waiting for time in heaven where there is no pain. But unlike heaven, this will all be taken away in a few days. But at least I will still get small tastes through out the day and when Harry is around.

               I lean into the crease of the roof and rest my head. The next thing I know is I am awake and the moon is high in the sky. I struggle to see my watch in the darkness. It reads a few minutes before three, and I can't help but to be surprised with myself. I am thanking God that I didn't slide off the roof while I was sleeping.

               Sleep seems impossible now after that shock, so I climb through the window after having a little trouble with the books that I had to balance just right. I had a good scare of almost falling smack into the tree making my nerves riled up even more. I don't know what to do, and I can't read anymore. So I am faced with turning on the radio once again.

I find a bottle of nail polish and do my nails under dim lamp light. After my nails dry, I decide to tidy up my room. I honestly don't know if this just plain stupid or not. But I trust that neither of them was in my room, and I doubt they will notice when I supposedly return from Grandma's house. Killing even more time, I scrub the bathroom across the hall spotless taking extra care not to make any unnecessary bumps and creaks.