Criminal

Chapter Seven

I ambled into the kitchen, my bare feet freezing on the hardwood of the floor as I pushed the hair out of my face. I yawned and rounded the corner, my eyes shutting breifly as I inhaled the scent of coffee. 

When I opened my eyes I almost screamed my head off, jumping so hard that I smacked against the wall and felt my heart stop for a second. "Ouch!" I snapped, cradling the side of my shoulder in my arm from where I'd rammed into the doorway, causing Harry to look up from his place at the counter where he was flipping through a newspaper, coffee cup in his hand. 

His green eyes were wide, but he didn't jump or make a scene like I had. He looked a little startled, but I would too if a girl ran into a doorway and screeched first thing in the morning. 

My heart was going haywire as I ducked my head and beelined for the coffee pot, neither one of us saying a word until I broke the silence and greeted him good morning. Silence lapsed between us again as I made my bowl of cereal, and then sat at the island, a few seats away from where he was looking at a story. 

"How was your friends' house?" He asked, surprisingly, and I stopped chewing to look at him. He didn't look particularly mad or upset, in fact, he wasn't even looking at me at all. I swallowed the peanut butter crunch and shrugged, swishing the spoon through the milk. 

"It was fun. Thanks for leaving the door unlocked." I said softly. I was still half-expecting some angry comment or a fight or something, but instead he just looked up at me for the first time that morning. 

He looked like he'd just woken up, still soft from sleep with tired eyes and chapped lips. He'd donned a white t-shirt, and he was still in his blue pajama pants from last night, bare footed. His green eyes were quite vibrant in the morning light, and I was so relived when he just looked....normal. 

"So that's how you got in. I was still up and I thought I'd locked the door, so I was going to wait for you to get home, but I guess I fell asleep. I got home early last night." He said, putting his chin onto his fist and looking back down at the paper. 

I couldn't reply for a second, because this was the most normal conversation we'd ever had, and probably the longest response he'd ever given me. It felt weird and unnatural, and I found that surprising because this was a conversation people had with friends. This was the easy exchange between people who liked one another. 

"Oh, okay. Well then thanks, I guess. I'm glad you got my note." I told him, taking another bite of cereal. He smirked a tiny bit into his hand, and I slowed my chewing down a bit because why was this so normal? 

"Yes, I got your very passive note about exactly where you were going. You know you don't have to do that, right, Claire? I don't need to know every little detail." He said, and I blushed into my cereal bowl. I didn't want to reply, because after last night I realized why I'd been paranoid and concerned about getting back to Harry's place. 

I thought he was going to do what I knew Cole would have done. 

 "But...you did leave. That's pretty dangerous." He said, but his voice was steady and even. I still froze, wondering if he was going to add anything onto it. After a few moments of silence lapsed and he said nothing, and then he lifted his eyebrows slightly, as if he were asking me to say something. 

"Oh, um, yeah, sorry. I just, needed to get out, and she wanted someone to come over, so..." I told him, stalling and moving my spoon around and around the bowl again. 

"Okay. I'll make you a key then." He said, and I nearly got a crick in my neck from looking at him too quickly. He was still reading the newspaper, so I chose to just leave it alone, afraid I'd tell him the real reason why I was acting so weird, because I could see that he wanted to ask. I smiled into my cereal, oddly happy that there was some sort of progress here. Even if it didn't last.