Ever Since New York // H.S. - ON HOLD

CHAPTER 16 - TPWK

The dish turned out absolutely delicious. Ginny's stitches are already starting to come out, so she has had a much easier time eating today than she had before. I am in no way surprised when Ginny ends up scarfing down her meal faster than both Harry and I. It causes him to laugh this most contagious belly laugh, which somehow I find extremely attractive. Keep it up, Ginny, because I love that sound. We spend the rest of our meal catching up on the past week considering we haven't talked or seen each other since Monday. I tell him how I have been working from home and keeping Ginny from going insane, while he tells me about all the boring meetings he has had in effort to plan events and promotion for his album.

Giving Ginny permission to go play, Harry and I start cleaning up the mess made from dinner. As we work in silence, I can't help but let my thoughts get the best of me. To my own dismay, I find myself verbalizing my questioning thoughts.

"Why are you so kind to me? I haven't done anything to deserve this..." I really haven't. If we're being honest, I've done more to not deserve his kindness, but he is completely unaware of that.

"Because everyone deserves to be treated with kindness. We're all human. We all go through things that nobody knows about, so it's just easier to be nice. It's like that one quote, 'be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle'." There he goes again, reading my mind. I know he is speaking generally, but it feels like he is aiming straight for my heart. There's no way he suspects that something is wrong with me, right?

"Oh...well, yeah...I guess that's one way to put it." I can't help but be awkward at this moment. "But...I really don't deserve all of this from you. It's one thing to just be nice to me, but you've really gone out of your way this week for me and Ginny...I really appreciate it, but it's not necessary." I am more than capable of being independent, I've been doing this whole mom thing solo since the very beginning.

"I know I don't need to, but I want to. You're just-I really enjoy spending time with you. I guess it just seems that every time I see you, I unravel more about you, and I love that. Every day there is something new to learn and more to enjoy." As blood rushes to his face causing his cheeks to blush, he smiles that soft smile I have grown to adore. His dimples are prominent, his pupils dilated, and his emerald eyes a deeper shade than normal. I feel myself growing extremely uncomfortable.

No, no, no. This cannot happen right now. I don't want to talk about this anymore.

"Well that's really, uh, nice. Uh-I mean, thank you?" Backing away from him, I break myself from his gaze as I try to escape this uncomfortable feeling. "Ginny really needs to get ready for bed, but um, you can stay unless there's somewhere else you need to be, then by all means go ahead, it's alright." Grabbing Ginny and heading toward the stairs, my anxiety is evident from my quick rambling as I rush out of the kitchen..

I know that was extremely awkward, but I needed to get away from that conversation and didn't know what else to do. He blatantly admitted that he loves getting to know me, which I don't know how to take that. Clearly he didn't mean it in a bad way, it's just my walls tighten when they feel like someone is chipping away at them. And Harry is doing just that. Very slowly chipping away at the rock solid walls I had built around myself long ago.

And the look on his face. His eyes. I've never seen that kind of look before. It wasn't a scary image, but it frightened me. What was he feeling? Is he attracted to me? Oh my god...I don't even know.

As I am shuffling around Ginny's room trying to find her a pair of pajamas to wear, I hear footsteps coming down the hall and somehow I knew Harry wasn't going to leave. Damn, persistent man.

"Do you need any help, love?" Fuck, why does he have to be so freaking kind all of the time. Why can't he have a single angry bone in his body? Glancing up quickly, I see him leaning against the doorway as Ginny goes running over to him. He picks her up swiftly and holds her to his chest.