Petal [h.s.]

Chapter 39

"When his mother died?" I finished for her and she nodded. "I'm sorry, I wasn't sure if you knew that already. But yes, Harry was 17 then and Louis was 19. I had been dating him for just a few weeks at that point. He changed completely after that and it took Louis and I quite a bit to get used to his new personality. But he always confided in us. We have a bit of a brother-sister bond to be honest. Ultimately, he's by far one of the best people I've met." Eleanor concluded and I smiled at her nice description of him.

Harry had told me about his hardships earlier that week in a tearful confession and even though I was glad to know, the information felt extremely heavy.

There were questions I wanted to ask him, conversations I wanted to have, but I wasn't sure if he was up for that. After all, I was holding back details from him too. Harry thought he had made his peace with the situation until he got sober. I knew the talks with Marcus were helping but he could never be a hundred percent open with him and had to alter certain topics, such as his line of work and the circumstances in which his mother died. Still, I was glad he took the therapy seriously.

"You ready? There's a few more stores I want to see." Eleanor asked and I nodded, taking my bag from the floor and following her outside. 

My jaw parted slightly when Eleanor tugged me into a lingerie store. I was about to protest but I knew I needed new underwear as mine was old and worn down. I used to have two bras which were a simple black and grey. Cotton and timeless, same went for my underwear.

Ever since having been attacked in my apartment, the grey bra had gone in the trash since it had been completely stained in blood.

"Eleanor... I'm not sure..." I started but she cut me off with a wave of her hand. "Trust me, they are so nice here, they'll help you out with whatever you need!" She smiled at some of the women working in the room, clearly a regular customer here.

She stood behind me, hands on my shoulders as if she were presenting me to them. "Ladies, this is Violet. She needs everything new."

I could see the enthusiasm on the women's faces as one immediately motioned for me to follow her into a dressing room before she asked me to strip down to my underwear so she could take my measurements. She was a nice, middle-aged women with a warm touch and a soft voice, named Betty.

She made me feel comfortable immediately as she instructed for me to reach my arms up and she sized up my bust and then my hips. Her co-worker joined us in the dressing room, holding an immense variety of bras in her hands. I gasped at the sight, seeing the different fabrics, shapes and colours on them.

I felt slightly self-conscious with all my scars being on display for these women, and Betty's eyes lingered slightly on the one on my belly but nobody made any attempts to ask me anything about them.

"You seem like someone who enjoys simple basics, so we've got some here for you to try if you'd like." Betty held up a red bra that didn't have any frills or pattern on it, but that was indeed the way I liked my underwear. She had the same one in white and in black and I tried them on before she checked if the size was fitting for me.

"Do you have anything in a dark green?" I asked, standing in front of the mirror in another black bra that had more lace details. It was definitely more sexy and daring than anything else I owned.

Betty nodded and disappeared for a bit until she came back with a beautiful dark green bra that had slight bits of lace on the straps and a small bow in the middle in between the cups. I was immediately sold on it and ended up picking five bras in total and a huge amount of knickers.

They were mainly white, black and red to go with the colours of the bra's I had picked, and some were a bit more on the thong-side and were made out of lace.