Can you love me now, Zayn?

Chapter 15

Dinner with the family was another loud affair, but there was also an undertone of tension in the air. Harry remained silent, only saying "yes, please", to the offer for a second helping, and "no thank you" to the offer of a third.

Zayn still didn't know what had gone on between Harry and his mother, but he was feeling angry about whatever it was already, so he had little to say as well.

When dinner was over Harry said he had a bad headache and went upstairs to Zayn's old room. Zayn followed him.

"What happened today?" Zayn asked, "Did you and my mom have fun?"

"Yeah it was ok", said Harry, lying on his back on the bed.

"Are you alright?" asked Zayn.

"Just a headache", said Harry.

"Do you want to take something for it?" asked Zayn.

"No, I'm just going to stay up here for a while", said Harry with his eyes closed.

Zayn looked at him, something had obviously happened between his mom and Harry. He didn't understand what was going on, but he wanted to get to the bottom of it. "If something happened today, you need to tell me. I want to know".

Harry opened his eyes and sighed as he sat up and leaned with his back against the headboard. "It was ok at first, she was talking and stuff....it was fine....then...we went to lunch...and I guess...I snapped at her when she....she started asking questions about stuff...so now she's probably mad at me. I said I was sorry....but it was weird after. I told you I didn't want to go...I tried to make her like me...but, I can't, so....that's what happened", said Harry as he picked at the comforter so he didn't have to look Zayn in the eye. "I'm sorry, I really did try to make her like me...but, I knew it wouldn't work".

Zayn sat on the edge of the bed, "What exactly did you say? What was she asking you about?"

"She just....she kept asking stuff, about....my mother...like if I saw her after she left and....I just didn't want to talk about it....so finally I just told her that", said Harry, glancing up briefly at Zayn before looking away again.

"You just told her you didn't want to talk about it?" asked Zayn.

"Yeah, basically. Then I knew I sounded mean so I told her I was sorry, and that it was hard to talk about....and she said she was sorry about stuff....and she hugged me...and I thought it would be ok again with her...but, I don't know....somehow it wasn't. We stayed at the museum for longer and we still talked about art and sculptures...but it wasn't the same. So, I know I blew it...and I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...I tried to make it better, but I didn't know how...so now...it's just...I fucked up and she hates me".

"That doesn't sound like my mom. She's a forgiving person, if you apologized and then you tried to make things right, she would have overlooked it", said Zayn, suspicious of Harry's version of the story.

"Well that's what happened", snapped Harry.

Zayn waited a minute before saying anything, he didn't want to have an argument. It was obvious that Harry was upset about it. Zayn was sure he could smooth things over with his mom. He'd try to make her understand that Harry often had a hard time communicating and that he'd been nervous about spending time alone with her. He was confident this was no big deal and that it would blow over. Harry was probably making it sound a lot worse than it was, he tended to do that when he thought he made a mistake, always blowing it out of proportion.

"Alright, I believe you", said Zayn, "I don't think there's anything to worry about, ok? So stop feeling so terrible about it, it doesn't seem like a big deal".