A Moment in the Crowd

Chapter 48: Rinse it clean

Lily:

A banging at the door wakes me from my unprecedented slumber.

"Ugh." I groan, expecting to see some sort of housekeeper at the other end. I should have put up a "Do Not Disturb" sign so that no one would wake me up.

I climb out of bed, still wearing my clothes from yesterday, and make my way to the door. The second I open it, I don't have any time to even see who it is before he's hugging me.

"Harry? What..." He's so quiet, so rushed, so buzzed on something I can't quite explain.

"Harry, let me see your face." He lets go from the hug, only to check out my own features. He stands there, eyes watered and drowned out with a glassy and dazed expression. The dark circles under his eyes are so prominent, I think that a makeup artist must have painted black and blue under his green irises. He's worn out, completely delusional and almost terrifying.

"Lily, I'm so sorry. I never ever should have left you." He's spouting these words mindlessly, muttering and mumbling every so often.

"Harry you need to sleep." I tell him, worry creasing my brows and the edge of my tone.

"No, I need you." He says and I shake my head in disagreement, leading him towards the bed.

Surprisingly, he doesn't struggle when I force him to lie down, and take off his shoes slowly. I wrap a blanket over his tall and lanky frame before turning to close the door that still hangs open, and briskly cut off the cold air from outside.

I look out the window to see a beat up car parked completely askew, and I assume Harry must have gone to the first car rental he found in Canada to drive all the way here. I'm not sure how he even survived the drive though, he could barely stand just two seconds ago.

I can hear him shivering and mumbling to himself as he pulls the blanket further up his body, closer to his face. His entire wardrobe seems mismatched, as if he just threw the first thing he saw on.

At first I wonder what I should do, go back to sleep? Leave him here alone to rest? Make my way outside to refresh my warm body with the icy cold? I don't know, and instead I just sit in the chair across from Harry, who I assume has fallen asleep by now.

I don't remember falling asleep too, but I think I do. The haze and the uncomfortable position I assume in the armchair haunts my half-waking, half-slumbering mind.

-

Harry is still asleep when I wake up, and I attempt to crack the kinks that have developed in my neck from the uncomfortable seat. I figure I should shower, change my clothes, do something so that I can be ready for whatever refreshed Harry will be like. I wonder if he'll still be as dazzed and desperate as he was. Or maybe he'll think more clearly when he wakes up, and realize he'll have to go back to England. I'm not sure which Harry I'll be greeting, but I make my way to the bathroom regardless and leave the door open just a crack before allowing my clothes to drop and the steam of the shower to envelop my grime-filled body.

The heat from the shower calms the tightened muscles in my neck, and I can feel them beginning to unknot under the steam. I use the motel soap bar to scrub at my body that hasn't seen the likes of a shower in over two days now.

I nearly jump out of my skin when the shower curtain moves, and I'm left standing, completely exposed, in front of Harry.

His shirt is already off, and he's standing in only his underwear.

I try to cover myself in front of him, but there's no use in trying. I nearly slip in the tub from the shock of Harry's sudden and completely unwelcome presence.

"Harry get the fuck out, I'm trying to shower!" I tell him, and his slightly lightened green eyes look up to my face.

"So am I." He says and pulls down his underwear so that he is completely exposed in front of me as well.

Within the small confines of the shower, both of us barely fit in the space. Our naked bodies are so close to one another, I can feel my heart continuously beating out of my chest cavity. Harry's tattoos ink his skin, and his toned and almost familiar chest causes my mind to stop working for the moment that he's in the shower with me.

"What are you doing Harry?" I look at him as he ducks his head under the water, and his light curls begin to untangle into a dripping mess of hair.

"I told you, I'm just trying to shower." But I see the smirk curl the side of his lips. Playful Harry. Playful Harry is clearly who I'm waking up to.

"What happened yesterday?" I ask him, meanwhile I nearly forgot we were both standing in a motel shower, completely naked.

"A lot of things happened. Too many things happened... What does it matter what happened?" He asks, and then cups my face before bringing his lips to mine.

I don't try to stop him, I can't bring myself to try to stop him. In the moment when he disrupted my shower, climbed in with me, starting cracking jokes and then kissed me, I couldn't find it in me to realize that I had tried to end it between us.

The water pools around our bodies as his lips move to open mine against his. I can feel him wanting to bring our unclothed bodies together, and his hands move to pull at the back of my neck as he makes his kiss more frantic, hot and desperate.

I don't know what to do but Harry seems to. He breaks the kiss to turn off the shower, grabs a couple towels, and throws them onto the bed from the still steaming bathroom.

I'm dripping wet, standing naked in front of Harry, and he grabs my hand and leads me out of the shower and into the darkened room. I don't know what time it is, but there doesn't seem to be much light outside. The room is quiet, and cold compared to the hot bathroom. He spreads out the towels on the bed and then moves back towards me, where he kisses me again. He hasn't seemed to lose the frantic edge that the kiss brings because his lips move so desperately in time with mine that I find myself wanting nothing but more than just this.