Lone [MATURE HS]

Chapter 37 (Part 2)

"Tara..."

"We have to," I insist softly, grimacing, my eyes still closed as I try to avoid getting sick again as these moments of painless symptoms is relief. "We have nothing up our sleeves. We've been following her rules, and she expects us to. I think the one thing she doesn't expect is that we tell everyone everything."

Harry doesn't say anything, hesitant to respond. "I've been thinking about it," he confesses quietly, and I squeeze his single hand on my lap with my two clammy ones. "There's nothing else we can do. Nothing else is more help."

"We can tell them as soon as I stop getting...sick," I gag again, though the feeling dissolves quickly right after, Harry already sitting up and bending to grab the container from the floor. Raising my hand, I shake my head, beckoning that I don't need it. Harry sets it back down, alerted now and observant. Grunting in annoyance, I sit back against the chair, praying that the symptoms of whatever stomach bug I have retreats into non existence.

Time seems to flow rather quickly, but my hazy state allows me to not be lucid throughout the long minutes. Harry calls Erin about picking up Nathan at my place, and then continues to notice his coach about not being able to attend a meeting the team was having. My mind travels towards finishing my term paper that would conclude my junior year of college as an English major.

"Harry...you're graduating soon," I randomly think out, blindly reaching for his shoulder, grasping the fabric of his jacket there.

He nods. "Yeah, in the Spring."

"Are you excited?" I try to distract myself with conversation, about something motivating and light hearted. Leaning my head onto his shoulder, I inhale the menacing smell of sanitary and cleaning products, the stench discomforting that gives hospitals that weird aroma of peril. I shut my eyes again, clearing my throat while Harry bends his arm latched to the shoulder I rest on, reaching to cup my cheek with his wide hand, stroking his thumb across my cheek. I hum, smiling faintly at his sweet, comforting gestures.

Again, he nods, pale eyes wandering the waiting area and the moving bodies occupied with other matters. "Yeah, I am. Just glad to be finished, really. I was going to talk to you about doing my graduate somewhere else, for legal psychology."

"Really?" I open my eyes, aimlessly watching a nurse write down a last name on a white board hung across the door of a patient room.

"Yeah. I'd like to be in a court of law, make sure jurors aren't misguided. It's...close enough to home," he points out, feeling his hand over my forehead. "You're not warm anymore. You'll heal before we get help over here," he grumbles with agitation.

"Yeah..." I huff. "I think I'm going to settle for editing. My mom knows a woman in Seattle who works for a publishing company. But I don't want to move to Seattle right after graduating..." I mutter aimlessly. "You'd be so good at legal psychology. You're straightforward and charming."

Harry laughs softly. "You're all over the place, baby. But Seattle? We could do it. I'll take a year off while you finish your last year. There's plenty of opportunities in Seattle for both of us."

"Really?" I breathe out, hopeful, my voice higher than needed.

"Yeah, why not?"

"My mom will follow us. She'll dictate everything. And we'll take Erin and Nathan with us. Everyone, we'll take everyone," I ramble off without care, our plans suddenly become wishful thinking. A dream, and a beautiful one at that.

Harry chuckles softly at my soft, hazy babbles. "Yeah, exactly," he coos, coddling my sick idiot feelings. He presses a kiss to my hairline, grinning to himself, the curve of his mouth felt on my skin.