𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐑! | harry styles

𝐕𝐈𝐈

IT had been one week of Harry being on "lockdown" on school nights, and Desmond was being driven insane by his son's behavior. Though he abided by the rules and stayed home on weeknights, Harry made sure that no one was comfortable in his presence. When the telephone rang, he'd pick it up and hang it up without even finding out who was on the line. He blared his stereo until the windows shook. He disconnected the modem and fax machine in Desmond's office and for three hours Desmond missed out on very important emails and faxes. Though there wasn't hard evidence of the latter, Desmond was sure Harry had been behind the "odd happenings" in the home.

"He is out of control," Desmond admitted in frustration late Tuesday night. "I have a pharmaceutical consultant coming over on Thursday and I don't want to risk my professionalism by having Harry pull one of his crazy stunts."

"You're having a consultant come here?" Anne asked as she snuggled up to her husband in their over-sized bed.

"Yes. Remember, I told you that I'm going to try to handle more meetings from the home office. It's the reason I had the separate entrance put in," Desmond explained.

"Oh, yes, that's right." Anne nodded against his chest. "Well…Harry wasn't too bad on Monday…"

"What's one night?" Desmond stated in exasperation. "Anne, what are we going to do about him? He is seriously running me ragged."

"He's a teenager. And don't worry about Thursday. I'll take care of it."

"How?"

"Don't worry about it. Just leave it to me. What time is your meeting?"

"Four o'clock. Trust me, I tried as hard as I could to schedule it to happen while Harry was at school, but it didn't work out."

"Four o'clock. Got it. Trust me. It'll be fine."

As much as he loved his wife, Desmond did not trust that she would be able to control Harry, and that was unfortunate, because this "client" was offering Desmond a huge commission to undergo studies on a new medication. If everything worked out, it would be the edge Desmond needed to start his private practice. All that was standing in his way was the hefty sum the insurance company wanted to secure his malpractice policy. It angered Desmond that such an important stepping-stone hinged on Harry's behavior. He had considered sending Harry to a friend's house, or on an errand, but he'd decided against it for two reasons. First, Harry was way too irresponsible for an errand, and if he made an exception to his rule of staying in on school nights, Desmond knew Harry would be unrelenting until he got him to relax his position again. Desmond knew he had to stand firm, even if it meant he had to sacrifice a little bit. After all, that's what being a parent was all about…right?

* * *

It was a rare sunny day in Lockridge Falls and Bree found her spirits to be lifted slightly by the sun. And she wasn't the only one. Daisy had found her after history class and had begun speaking to her about something other than schoolwork. That was a good sign that the 'nerd façade' was fading. And then, a tall lanky guy walked up and joined in on the conversation as if he'd been standing there the entire time. At first Bree was nervous. Who was this guy, and what did he want?

This guy turned out to be Shane and he looked like he was slightly-more-than-a-friend to Daisy. And he was hilarious. It was the hardest Bree had laughed since she'd moved from Phoenix. It felt nice to laugh.

Suddenly Harry walked by and Bree's laughter ended abruptly. She didn't even know why she'd stopped. He didn't really do anything. He didn't bump into her – he wasn't close enough to touch her. But he wasn't far enough away to go unnoticed. In fact, his proximity to her had been almost calculated; more than a casual passing, but nothing he could ever be held to if accused. Even his facial expression…he'd stared straight ahead, but there was a slight smirk on his face. Bree turned to see if he'd turned around or headed for her locker. He didn't. He just kept walking. Huh. Maybe I'm imagining things.