Kiwi | Harry Styles

Forty-Seven

Jessi

"Hiya Love, can I talk to you for a second?" Des smiled, his fingers hooking in my elbow as he pulled me towards Anne and Robin's empty Dining Room.

"Sure." I smiled, curious what he wanted me for. "Oh, I've been listening to The Runaways, you were right, they're awesome."

"That's cool. Listen, you know what it's like to come from a broken home, right?" He looked me straight in the eye and I just stood there, blinking rapidly, the previous conversation falling from my head as my brain tried to grasp what the hell he was talking about.

"You mean because I don't know my biological Dad? Or do you mean because I have no family because my Mum's dead?" I swallowed hard, she was always on my mind at Christmas time, it was her favourite time of the year. She always had the tree up on the first of December and she'd leave it up for as long as she could, without incurring the bad luck of leaving it up past the 6th of January. My job was always to put the Angel on the top of the tree. Anne had a star on top of her tree, I missed my Angel.

"Well, the first one. Shit! I forgot about your Mum, you wouldn't do anything stupid like that, would you?" Des continued to stare at me as if he was appraising me for some unknown job. 

"What is this about? Why are you asking me these things?" I wanted to leave but my feet wouldn't move, I felt like they were sinking into the floor, pulling the rest of my body down with them. I didn't think of my family as being broken, sure I only had a Mum but we weren't broken, we were happy, weren't we? Maybe I was just delusional? Maybe we were always broken? Maybe that's why she was able to leave me? Maybe I was a giant fucking curse, everyone I love doomed to leave me? I grabbed for the table as I felt light-headed but I missed and it felt like I was falling in slow motion, the edge of the table heading towards me but there was nothing I could do to stop it, my limbs wouldn't move fast enough. The sound of my head smacking the wood echoed in my ears as my body tangled in a fallen chair and then everything went black. 

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Harry

The clatter followed by a thump woke me from my nap but assuming one of the cats had knocked something over I didn't pay much attention. I searched the room for Jessi but noticed she was missing along with my Dad. "Anne! Can you come here a second?" My Dad's voice called out from the Dining Room.

"How was your nap?" Gem nudged me. "Good." I yawned, stretching out my arms and legs. A nap was just what I'd needed after all the indulgence of yesterday and today. "A Boxing Day nap is becoming your tradition, you're such an old man!" Gem teased.

"Shut up! You're older than me." I bumped her with my leg.

"Yeah, well, I didn't have to go for a nap!" She laughed.

"Harry! Can you come here a minute, please?" My Mum's voice interrupted our squabbling, and I sighed. My limbs were still sleepy, I didn't feel like helping with whatever she needed me for, I was comfortable here. I looked up to see her whisper something in Robin's ear, he nodded quickly and then disappeared into the kitchen with his phone. What are they up to? "Harry?" My Mum repeated, the stern look on her face forced my body up off the sofa.

"Fine, what do you need me for?" I groaned following her into the Dining Room. My Dad was stood there like a statue staring at the floor. 

"Now, don't panic. She'll be fine!" My Mum's hand wrapped around my wrist. What the hell was she talking about? Who would be fine? But then I looked at my Dad more closely, to the spot on the floor where his eyes seemed to be glued, all I could see from here were Jessi's feet, clad in her fluffy Platform 9 3/4 socks she'd gotten for Christmas.