Toxic

Left Alone

Did she feel okay about inviting Harrison to spend the day at her house?  Nope but he was here already.
Probably the person at the door. How did he get through security?  Mariah asked herself.

"Hi, you must be Harrison,  I'm Christy"

"Good afternoon ma'am" Mariah heard him say.

"Please call me Christy. Come in"

"Hi" she said when she finally saw him. He wore a black T-shirt and Blue Jeans with regular converses.

He smiled and held out his hands, Harrison was a hugger, everyone knew that.

She hugged him. She wasn't 5'11 like her mother, she was maybe 5'8 or 5'9 but she didn't come higher than Harrison's shoulder.

"Uugh" she groaned pushing him away playfully, "I was just reminded how tall you are, what are you? A palm tree?"

He laughed, "For a girl you are actually tall"

"For a girl you are actually tall" she repeated teasingly, "I hate when people say that. My mother is 5'11"

"You might want to check with your dad, from what I see he's not a very tall man"

"I'm  ignoring you" Mariah stated loudly as she dragged him into the kitchen taking her place on the counter, "if you see Sarah ignore her"

"Considering I don't even know who this Sarah is....  Oh your sister. Why should I ignore her?"

"Because she and my mother have made it their point of duty to... What are you doing?" she said noticing he was staring over the pot that Christy had brewing over the stove.

He picked a teaspoon out of one of the holders and tasted whatever was in the pot.
"Mmh" he hummed, "Needs a little... " he trailed off looking round the kitchen

"Christy doesn't like her recipes being messed with" Mariah warned him.  She wasn't going to say it more than once because he was just going to do whatever he wanted. Harrison loved food and he knew how to make it well regardless of whatever he might think.

He cut off leaves of what ever bush (technically not actually a bush,  Mariah was too lazy to find out what that thing was called) was growing in a jar full of water. He chopped some of the leaves up and added it to the pot stirred tasted and nodded.

"Better... " he trailed off again.

"What are you doing?" Christy asked as she walked into the room with a couple of items in her hand.

"I added cilantro" he said, "It needed something"
Christy ignored his pathetic attempt at an explaination. She took the teaspoon from him and tasted it. It surprised Mariah when her face didn't turn up in disgust.

"That is actually really good" Christy commented, "How long have you been cooking?"

Harrison shrugged smiling, "I haven't really been... I just dabble"

Mariah stared at him mouth agape,"I thought you said you could only reheat frozen food?"

"I never said that. I said reheating frozen food didn't count as cooking but I never said I couldn't cook." Harrison winked.

"Okay. You are good but you need to shoo out of my kitchen" Christy said.
"I'll call you when the food is ready."

Mariah ended up pulling Harrison away from the kitchen, upstairs to her  room. What they were going to do there she had no clue but Christy had driven them from the kitchen and Mariah couldn't think of anywhere else.

"You know for someone whose parents make almost a billion a year combined, I am surprised that your house is this small."
He was staring out the window, he took out his phone and took pictures of the landscape surrounding their home.
"Can I ask you something?" he asked turning to face her

"Okay?" she asked her eyebrows creasing.

"uhmm" he began, he cleared his throat and walked towards her bed sat on the floor beside the bed, his back resting in the bed.

Mariah was beginning to sense that whatever he wanted to say was important, she sat on the floor beside him.
She held his arm,  "Harrison... You don't have to say it now... "

"I like you a lot. I really like you" he continued

"Harr..."

"Wait... Uhmmm...  I don't know if you like me too you're kind of hard to read like that."

"I do. Harrison, I like you a lot too but it doesn't matter. Kami likes you and I'm with JJ"

He rolled his eyes, "Pfft. I went out with Kami to impress you,  because I didn't want you to be mad at me anymore. And frankly I don't care about JJ"

Sure they'd  been chatting a lot more recently much more than she even chatted with her own best friend,  but it didn't mean that she was ready to be that much of a Judas. There had to be some kind of rule against lusting after you best friend's crush or love interest and Mariah was sure she had broken it. She liked Harrison, so much that she didn't  care that her mother and sister were teasing her about it anymore.

"Kami. I can't do that to Kami, she'll be angry and she'll have a right to" Mariah mused

"I'll  tell her"

"No you won't. You don't know Kami like I do she's going to take everything the wrong way"

"Well I don't care"

"Harrison... " she drawled out, she was facing him and he was holding her hands. Her brain was working overdrive weighing the pros and cons of this mistake she definitely saw herself making.
She saw him inching closer to her, closing the distance between them and she knew he was going to kiss her. She suspected it,  she should have moved away but she wanted to be kissed.

When their lips finally came in contact with hers, it was nothing like she'd ever experienced before.
He kissed her.

Harrison had kissed her

Mariah couldn't  believe it. For once in her life a kiss wasn't forceful and painful. There was no hand holding her throat forcing her head to stay steady, there was no voice in her head telling her to kick the man in the groin that she constantly ignored, bile wasn't rising up to the back of her throat, and he pulled away when she'd wanted him to.
The more she thought about it, the more she realised that she'd never felt more deserved and beautiful in her life, and she found herself wanting to feel like that again.

She kissed him. Again. Pressing her lips slowly against his.

Harrison's forehead rested on hers when they broke away.
"JJ doesn't deserve you, I swear"