Strict | H.S.

Chapter 6.

[Ava]

When Harry lightly patted my shoulder, I lowered my hands from my tear-filled face and sniffled. His right hand guided me toward the automatic sliding doors, while his left hand pushed the cart that contained Emily and our groceries. No one said a word, not even Emily. She just smiled and hugged her stuffed giraffe toy, totally oblivious to the world around her.

Waiting on Harry to get done with packing up everything into the car, I silently climb into the passenger side, anger bubbling up in my gut. I was so upset that he didn't buy the nail polish for me, but yet he got Emily the toy she had wanted. That's the same way mom always treated me. She absolutely adored Emily, but I was treated like I was evil. I could never figure it out.

Harry climbed into the driver's seat, attached his seat belt, and turned on the Rover. He glanced over at me, but I avoided his emerald eyes by staring out the windshield instead.

"Why are you not talking?" Harry asked, his voice calm and slow.

Ripping my vision from the windshield, I glared at him. "It's obvious," I seethed.

He sighed, looking away from me. His focus went to the road now, putting the car into drive and exiting the parking lot.

"No, it's not," Harry replied with a slight edge to his voice. "Ava, you were upset before I told you no to buying the polish."

"And I told you that I didn't need you buying me things!" I yelled, making fists in my lap.

Harry noticed Emily looked kind of scared in the backseat because of my yelling. "Hey! Bring that tone down," he scolded.

I flinched when he raised his voice.

"How am I supposed to talk to you if you keep yelling at me?!" I cried out, breathing heavy.

We stopped at a red light.

"I've not been yelling at you," Harry said in a much quieter, but still irritated tone. He turned his head to look at me, hot green anger boiling in his eyes. "And you don't need to raise your voice to talk to me."

The light went green and we drove.

"Y-you just y-yelled at me," my voice cracked, tears welling up in my eyes again.

Harry sighed and his voice softened. "Ava, I didn't yell. I just raised my voice because you're making Emily uncomfortable."

"Everything is a-about Emily!" I hiccuped and sobbed a few times, wiping my eyes.

"Ava, that's not true. You need to settle down," Harry replied more gentle. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Y-you made me f-feel like a child when you offered to b-buy me something," I admitted.

"That's why your mad?" His dark eyebrows furrowed, "Ava, that was not my intention when I offered." We exited the busy highway, driving into town. "I was trying to treat you and Emily equally."

I wiped away my tears, feeling stupid now. I shouldn't have been mad at Harry for trying to be nice to me. This whole ordeal could've been avoided if I hadn't been rude to him in the first place. It was just a misunderstanding on my part. All my fault. Like everything. Was this why mom was always mad at me?

We pulled into the driveway and Harry shut off the engine. He reached into the backseat.

"Open your hands," he said, taking a small object out of one of the bags.

"W-why?" I hiccuped, opening my hand.

Harry placed a small object in my palm. When I looked down, tears filled my eyes. It was the periwinkle pink polish bottle that I wanted.