Written

Chapter 25

HARRY

   In spite of the circumstances, it has been the most normal weekend I’ve had in three years. Hayley has done a kickass job of keeping me out of the public eye, and surprisingly I’ve had the best time doing next to nothing. Saturday night we stayed over at her mom’s house. There is a completely furnished guest bedroom in the basement, almost like a split-level apartment, complete with a kitchen. I was supposed to sleep there while Hayley slept in her old bedroom, but when I came upstairs in the middle of the night for a drink of water, she was curled up on the couch, sleeping with a half-open book in her hands. I wanted to pick her up and carry her up the stairs to her bed, but we had said nothing to her family about our…situation. I suspect that Ryan knows, he is perceptive. So instead of taking care of her the way I had wanted to, I just took the book from her hands and covered her sleeping form with a blanket. I lingered for a moment, brushing her hair back and kissing her face, before I headed back downstairs.

   This morning she had woken me up by jumping on my bed and then collapsing in a fit of giggles, having taken the stairs at a run to launch herself on top of me. I am not a morning person, but seeing her like this could make me into an any-type-of-day person. I pulled her head under the covers and kissed the corner of her mouth softly. She had squeezed her eyes shut and kissed the tip of my nose before announcing that breakfast was ready and abruptly leaving me on my own. We had spent the rest of the morning with her family before she wished them goodbye and we drove back to her apartment.

   Hayley is driving, one hand on the wheel and one hand absentmindedly twisting through her hair. She is worried about something or focusing on something inside of her head, I can tell. I take her hand from her hair and lock her fingers in mine. She gives me a sad smile, but returns the reassuring squeeze I give her. “What’s wrong?” I ask softly.

   “Nothing,” she murmurs. I knew she wouldn’t tell me. Hayley checks to make sure that no one is coming before we take the stairs to her apartment. Still lost in her own thoughts, she lets me in the door in front of her before closing it. I take the opportunity and press her back to the door, kissing her at long last after a day of subtle smiles and brushing hands. She sighs into the kiss and her fingers find my hair again, I love when she does that.

   “What’s wrong?” I breathe against the side of her neck. Maybe she will tell me with some coercing. She sighs.

   “We have to go back tomorrow,” she says simply. We haven’t said a single word about how we will act when we get back to the tour, but we both know it can’t be like this. I have no words of comfort to offer her, so I just hold her close to my body.

   Hayley calls to order a pizza and we spend the rest of the evening watching some dumb TV show on Netflix. Hayley insists that it’s the funniest show ever, and after a few episodes I start to secretly agree. Around ten o’clock, her eyes start to get heavy. I am tired too, it’s been a long and emotionally draining few days.

   “You can take the bed,” Hayley says. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”

   “I am not sleeping in your bed while you sleep on this hard ass couch,” I say. I want to tell her that we can both stay in the bed together, but I don’t want to push her.

   “Well I’m not making you stay on the hard ass couch either!” she protests.

   “Too late,” I say. I grab a blanket and a pillow from the floor and stretch out on the couch. “This is where I’m sleeping.” I close my eyes but grin triumphantly in her direction.

   “Fine,” she huffs before stalking off to the bedroom. I am still laughing at her stubbornness when she turns off the light in the room and closes the bedroom door behind her. I do not hear her return, but when I open my eyes I see that she has stripped the comforter off the bed and grabbed several pillows that she is now laying on the floor. She wraps herself in the comforter and plops down in the nest of pillows on the floor.

   “What are you doing, Hales?” I sigh.

   “This is where I’m sleeping,” she answers smugly. I groan and throw my pillow at her, but she just laughs. Predictably, she is asleep within minutes. When I am confident that she will not wake up, I lift her from the floor and carry her to the bedroom. I gently tuck the comforter in around her before crawling in the bed next to her, hoping she won’t mind.

   She shuffles in her sleep and turns into me, wrapping one arm around me and lying her head on my bare chest. A few minutes of silence go by before she whispers, “Goodnight, Harry.” I can feel her smiling against my chest and I can’t help but chuckle and hold her tighter. She had been awake the whole time, and she had probably predicted that we would both end up here. I fall asleep to the terrifyingly beautiful thought that this girl already knows me better than I know myself.