Dealing With Absence » h. styles au

EPILOGUE

He keeps blinking lazily to fight off the need to sleep, catching himself between slumbers every now and then as he rocks slightly, head hanging down and abruptly lifting up again on the verge of sleepiness and awakeness. It’s depressing, maybe. Shouldn’t be, she says to Harry at some point, but also confesses that the only reason why he’s here it’s because his days are becoming short enough to start being counted down on fingers, and her father doesn’t want his father to pass away lonely and miles away from the whole family.

This is for sure his last Christmas.

Both the words and sentiment are shadowed by the loud cheering from the kitchen as all the women come out with one more bottle of wine and the statement of finally being able to have dinner, and as they all rise from their seats, their souls blend into one.

The father of Elisha’s father can barely move, staring down at his plate with nothing but  a few grunts leaving his mouth every now and then, although the mother of her mother is still one of the most cheerful old ladies she’s ever seen – the spark of youth livid in her eyes even after so long.

All in all, dinner goes great. Her family loves Harry – has been waiting to meet him since she mentioned him the year before, and her mother looks at her with that superior gaze of ‘I told you so’. Afterwards, they turn all lights off and go back to the living room, Leesh and Harry taking the carpet as they wrap around each other and leave the couch for the elders. They chat until one in the morning, but there’s only so much talking you can do before feeling exhausted and demanding sleep.

It’s weird being all over each other in Elisha’s childhood bedroom, trying to be quiet with their touches and gasps, but it’s a good kind of weird, and they fall asleep easily with their limbs all fusing into one unique body rather than two distinct ones.

The morning after they leave the house and catch the tube yet again to Holmes Chapel, where they have Christmas lunch with Harry’s family, a much more pleasant one. There’s more people their age to talk to, with Gemma’s easy provoking and Harry’s cousins’ loud bantering, his grandparents sitting by a corner sharing their love stories with Leesh, even though everyone around seems to be saturated with it.

They stay for two more days before they go back to London, and New Year’s at Zayn’s. It’s loud and filled with friends only, much drinking and no need to hold back because neither Harry and Leesh are leaving the day after, having sort of a sleepover instead.

With January, comes Harry’s gallery opening, and Zayn’s first exposition in it. It isn’t Harry’s first because his art is ‘still incomplete’, as he says, and so he lets his best friend open it for him instead. It becomes successful, then, and throughout the month Zayn exposes his own art a few times.

On February first, it’s Harry’s turn. The crowd isn’t as big as Zayn’s – mostly because he hasn’t gathered too many (or any at all) admirers with working on his paintings, drawings and photography in private, but he starts then. Leesh knows that from there on his reputation will only grow bigger and better, and Zayn’s also a very supportive friend, so part of his crowd tags along and becomes incredibly supportive.

To celebrate Harry’s twenty-ninth birthday and ninety percent of his art being sold, Harry, Leesh, Zayn and Perrie gather at the last floor of the gallery, staring up at the glass ceiling with glassy eyes and light heads, smiling and laughing for no other reason rather than they can.

With Harry’s arms around her shoulders and his scent so mixed with hers to the point they became undistinguishable, neither he nor she thinks the night – and life in general – could get any better.

March means Harry’s career sudden spurt of growth, both he and Zayn working on shared expositions that each time attracted more and more people. In a short period of a few more months, they would have tickets sold out in a blink of an eye.