Project: CA, U.S.A. | Harry Styles AU

Chapter 18

One week later.

"Oii! No, stop that, Eddie." I put my own knife on the table and reached down to the floor to pick the squished piece of bread and cheese up. "What's that about all those shenanigans today? You haven't eaten anything all afternoon besides the chocolate, you must be hungry." I couldn't hide a little frustration lacing my tone. But as I looked with a slight frown at the toddler, sitting next to me in his high chair, I was greeted with just the same expression.

I huffed and looked at the mess on the table. There were several groceries spread and smushed all over the place. I glanced at the clock above the door. 18.13 pm. I really had to go. But Ed had barely eaten anything and this whole chaos is not something I want to leave behind for Anne to tidy up. Besides, speaking of her, she isn't even already home again. Just today of course, when I wanted to be punctual, she had to be late. She had an earlier shift this Friday and so I already got here after school to look after Ed, which gave me the chance to have a free evening. As if it wasn't exhausting enough that Ed really was in a bad mood, throwing tantrum after tantrum all day, I'll have to hurry as eff if I want to stick to my plans for this evening. I don't even know why he was in such a bad mood, because he would rather be grumpy than talk or play with me. I tried to cheer him up as good as I could but it didn't help much..so, I guess everybody just has a bad day once in a while.

Sighing, I settled my gaze on him again and tried to sound as friendly and not-frustrated as I could. "Do you want something else to eat, love? Maybe some ham?"

"No." He shook his head.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"No." Again, head-shaking.

I pouted playfully and leaned over to him. "But if you don't eat anything else besides the chocolate earlier, I bet you, your mommy won't let us have exactly that next time before supper..." I could practically see the internal struggle in Ed. He looked at the bread again and then his puppy eyes came up to me again.

"Bwut I'm really not hungry, Awli."

I sighed again and leaned back. "Fine, then." I huffed, giving in.

Just then a familiar figure made it's way into the kitchen and my eyes closed in resignation. Now also even him. Great.

At first he didn't notice us and he poured himself a glass of water but when he turned around he gasped surprised and almost slipped and fell. But he steadied himself with a hand on the counter again soon enough and just stared at me, a light tint on his cheeks. "I..uhm. Hi?"

"Hey." I answered politely but didn't even try to mask my mood with a smile. Instead, I just began to clean the crumbles off the table onto my plate, obviously not interested to take things any further with this conversation. The last time I saw him was in the park a week ago (if you don't count the school hall encounters when we would just walk by without saying anything). And yes, it was fun to make him a bit uncomfortable (judging from his faces) when I was with Luke but I soon saw a few recent party pictures of him and Ruby on Leah's twitter so I finally forced myself to really forget about what had happened.

But Harry surprisingly and annoyingly didn't think about just going away again. "I didn't know you were here."

Seems like you never know. I thought, thinking of the day he was in the basement.

"Well, I am." I replied matter-of-factly, though.

Harry took another sip out of his glass and continued to watch me. When I noticed, I couldn't help but grow uncomfortable and nervous under his gaze. So I looked shortly at the clock and occupied myself with the mess that was the table again. Why is he staring at me like that? Doesn't he have anything better to do? Is there something wrong with me?