The Step Brother

Chapter Fifteen

I stand in the same spot in my room for God knows how long. I don't know if I was waiting for Harry to come back, hoping to wake up from this nightmare, or simply to shocked to move, but I couldn't. My feet were planted on the carpet as I tried to process in my brain what the fuck just went wrong.

I'm so angry that Harry would jump to conclusions and assume something more was going on, but I know why he did. He completely overreacted, but after putting myself in his shoes, I understand why. I don't know why the fuck I thought calling Grant would be okay, but I did it, and now I'm paying for it.

After about ten minutes of contemplation, I forced my legs to move and walked over to Harry's room, where he had been hidden in since he walked out on me.

I pressed my ear agasint the door, hoping maybe I could hear any sign of what he was doing, but there wasn't one. I lightly knocked on the door, but I didn't get a response. "Harry," I sighed. "I'm sorry. Can we please just talk about this."

"Go away, Chloe."

He has every reason to be angry with me, but now he's just acting childish. I deserve the chance to explain myself.

"Harry come on." I lean forward and press my forehead against the door while I impatiently wait for him to give in. He doesn't. All he does is turn on his music... and he turns it as loud as it can go.

I give up. I don't know what to do, and Lord knows how stubborn Harry is. I decide to give him space, and hopefully tomorrow we can talk it out, but for now (even though it's seven at night), I need to sleep.

I wake up at four the next morning, still dressed in the clothes I was wearing yesterday. I groan looking at the time, but it feels nice to have gotten nine hours of sleep that I desperately needed.

It's Thursday, so I decided I would get ready for school and then finish up the homework I gave up on yesterday after Dad came in to talk to me. Ugh, I still haven't thought about how I want to feel about that. First things first though, I need to fix things with Harry.

Once it's time to leave for school, I open Harry's bedroom door hoping we can talk before we go. But he's not there. I check his closet, bathroom, the kitchen... pretty much every room in this huge house, but he's already gone. Just great.

I reluctantly go to school after he ignores every single one of my texts and calls. This is going to be more difficult than I thought.

Thursday and Friday pass slowly with still no word from Harry. He hasn't come home, answered any of my calls, and I have not seen him at school. I was angry at first, but now I'm just worried. Especially after I called all of his friends, and they promised they didn't know where he was.

All I can wonder is why. Why is he taking this so far? I understand he may be hurt, but disappearing for two, almost three, days? It's selfish.

It's Saturday morning when I finally confront Anne. She hasn't mentioned anything about Harry's absence, so I never brought it up. Either she knows where he is, this is typical for Harry, or she doesn't care. I don't know which one it is, but it's time I spoke up.

"Hey Anne... Have you seen Harry lately? I was going to ask him if he could help me with something for school." I ask her as she looks at wedding dresses on her iPad.

She turns off the tablet, sets it on her lap and looks up at me. "Well, he said he was staying at a friends from school because they have a big project to work on. You haven't seen him at school?"

"No," I shake my head. She frowns, and I realize he must be lying to her about staying at a friends house too. And I'm not about to tattle on him, even though I am worried about him. "But we don't have any classes together so I usually don't."