Chapter 44
I shouldn't have gone to school.
Not only was the class boring as hell, but I also didn't have any energy to listen. I spent most of the three hour class on Google, looking for nothing in particular but finding very interesting articles on alcohol poisoning, body malformations and recent pictures of Kate Middleton with Prince William and Prince George.
According to health care sites, heavy alcohol poisoning would've caused Harry to completely pass out and stop breathing. In that case, he would have to be admitted to the hospital as soon as possible, because alcohol poisoning can cause death. In his case, he probably is just slightly in between a very heavy hangover and maybe a little alcohol poisoning. It could also be worse if he hasn't eaten close to drinking, and from what Niall says, he stayed locked in the room for hours after we came back from the restaurant. The site states that in case of vomiting, the person should lie on their side not to choke on the vomit, which is probably why Harry was coughing and choking so much before and after vomiting. Some of it must've stayed in his throat.
The only home remedy, according to the site, is Vitamin C and hydration. Taking small sips of something sparkling, like Seven Up, will definitely help spasms in the stomach that might make him feel more nauseous, but the best thing is water and sleep. The site was very helpful, but then it brought to the Extraordinary People page, which is why I looked at body malformations.
The Royal Family pictures were simply coincidental.
When the professor finally announced a fifteen minute break, I gathered my books and left the lecture. I figured that I'd be alright with the PowerPoints of this specific class for the final exam, and I'd just ask someone for extra notes in case I didn't feel ready when the time comes.
In other words, I wasted one and a half hours on a boring class instead of staying home like I feel I should've done.
The only positive thing in this little adventure is that I got to breathe fresh air, and not vomit-stained air, for a little while. It might be raining and it might be a very gloomy day, but nothing feels better than fresh-and slightly polluted-air when all you've been breathing in is puke. Car scent does the job as well, especially if it still smells of new leather like the Mini Cooper. It has to be in the top five best scents in the world.
I stop at Boots on the way home to pick up some Vitamin C and a six pack of Seven Up. I take the extra concentrated vitamins that have one thousand milligrams, hoping that it won't be too much for his system right now. If anything, I'll cut the pills in half and take the other half. Vitamin C has to be good for your body whether or not you're feeling fine, right?
The rest of the drive is quiet, and a relieved feeling lingers in my head that I haven't got any urgent calls from the house. Even though I told Niall to call me if anything happened, I doubt my first reaction would've been not to panic. But Niall is napping on the armchair when I walk into the house. The nasty smell has slightly dissipated, and I notice the windows in the kitchen and in the living room being open to aerate a little.
Harry is still in the same position on the sofa, the bin still by his side with a new garbage bag inside, and this time he's shirtless with his hair in a ponytail. It's half eleven, which means he's been sort of sleeping for four and a half hours, unless he vomited again and the bag is very new.
Carefully, I empty the bags from Boots in the kitchen and put the Seven Up in the fridge, and the vitamins on the counter for easy reach. He'll forget about them if they're not in his sight, like he does with almost everything.
I mean, he's not that bad, but whenever he's about to leave, he's always looking for his keys, his wallet, his hat-anything, really. He misplaces everything he touches and then spends more time looking for the items than the time it would've taken to put the items back where they're supposed to be.
A small noise erupts from the living room, like the sofa squeaking, and I imagine Niall waking up from the noise I've been trying not to make in the kitchen. However, a curly head appears in the in the doorway. The wall is supporting most of Harry's body as his hand rests flat on it, torso hunching over and face white with sickness.
"You shouldn't be up," I tell him quietly. Clearly he's sensitive to noise if I woke him up. "I read about alcohol poisoning online and it says you should get as much sleep as possible, even if you're wide awake. It's better if you-"
"You're giving me a headache," he mumbles, but a small smile turns the corners of his mouth up. "Why are you home so early?"
His voice is coarse and painful sounding. He clears his throat a couple of times, but it doesn't seem to soothe the dryness, so I offer him a bottle of Seven Up, even if it's not really cold anymore. "It's eleven and a half."
"Exactly," he says after swallowing the first sip. "Your lecture ends at half twelve."
I roll my eyes but then remember that he's not in the mood to argue. "It's alright, Harry. I'm good in that class. Now," I scold and point at the couch, "go lie down. And I swear to God, you're never touching one ounce of alcohol again. I'm gonna drain all the bottles we have in this house and you're never even going near alcohol anymore. It's over for you."
Even sick, he manages to smirk cheekily like an idiot. "I promise to you that I'll never have another reason to drink this much, Elena."
I ignore the goose bumps growing on my arms. "Stop talking and go lie down! Jesus, do you ever listen to anything I say?"
"Not when I'm completely hungover, no," he chuckles, but it comes out as a rough cough. "Okay, time to lie down now. But do you have anything for my throat? It's killing me."
Since it has been a little more than four hours since he last had the Advil, I take two more pills from the bottle on the counter and hand them to him. He takes them one by one again, and almost winces at every sip. When I hand him one of the vitamin C pills, he raises an eyebrow but doesn't argue. He pops the pill in his mouth and gulps it down easily with the water.
As soon as he's lying on the sofa, I attempt to pull a blanket on top of him, but he whines that he's hot even with the windows wide open and the cold weather surrounding us. I huff and take the blanket for myself, and I sit on the floor with my back to the sofa.
Within five minutes, I feel my eyes closing lightly and dreams take over my body.
~~~
I wake up to the soft sound of the television playing in the background and a mug clinging to the wooden table. Through peeking eyes, I notice Harry comfortably lying down on the sofa, freshly showered and smelling pepperminty, with the arm stretched towards the television. He zaps from channel to channel, searching for something good playing on TV, until he settles on some reality show playing this early.
On the other hand, I'm still sitting on the floor with a blanket around me, my head resting on the sofa and my legs curled up to my chest. I don't know how long I slept for but I feel completely rested. It feels good after a restless night of worrying about Harry.
"Are you feeling better?" I ask him with my rather raspy, sleepy voice that makes me sound like a drunk man. Too soon to make jokes, I slap myself in the face.
Harry nods. "Much. Got a massive migraine and my tummy is feeling upside down, but I managed to keep down biscuits and tea," he says proudly, holding up his mug as proof.
The paleness of his face has slightly vanished, replaced by a little bit of color on the cheeks and sparkling green eyes. His hair is pushed back with a ponytail, still wet from the shower he's taken, and the house doesn't smell like vomit anymore. "How long have I been asleep for?"
"Couple of hours," he shrugs. "Niall left about an hour ago, and I've been up ever since. There's nothing on the telly and I've been trying to push back as much as possible the apology message I've got to send to Grimmy."
I wince. "It was so bad that it deserves an apology letter?"
Harry gives me barely a hint of a smile, just enough to confirm. "I mean, I'm sure he's already forgiven me, but it'd never been this bad before. I was pretty out of it rather quickly, to be honest with you."
From how out of it he was today, I'm not the slightest surprised. "I was serious when I told you no more alcohol. Ever. Not even rubbing alcohol if you cut yourself. I don't trust you around it. We'll use peroxide on your clumsiness."
"Are you giving me an ultimatum, Elena?" He chuckles, rubbing his stomach at the same time to soothe the pain. "Are you telling me I have to choose between you and the alcohol?"
"I might be," I give him a pointed glare, lifting at eyebrow. If the little piece of-if he picks the alcohol, I might have to go for desperate measures.
A loud laugh echoes in the room and Harry's stomach grumbles at the same time. The dimples slicing in his cheeks cannot conceal his smile. "Elena, you know I'd pick you, right? I've got nothing to lose by never drinking alcohol again, but I'd lose all if I lost you."
"Well," I compose myself, not letting his promises get to me this time. A small cough leaves my lips instead of words, and my entire face turns tomato red. "I guess you're making a good choice." My harsh gulp doesn't go unnoticed, making Harry snort while I try to hide my embarrassment and shyness. "I'm happy that even drunk, you were able to take the smart decision to come home, though. It's an incredible start, Harry."
He scoffs. "Please. I was practically hysterical at Grimmy's. I sobbed and screamed at him to get me to you, but for some reason the tosser took me to Niall's instead because 'it was closer'."
Hysterical Harry must've been an incredible sight. However... "How do you even remember? You were completely hammered."
"I don't know, really," he frowns. "It's weird. I remember everything from the moment I dropped you off to right now. And I know I puked myself and screamed and wailed like a twelve-year-old girl, but I know that I was too drunk to feel and to stop when it happened. It's quite strange."
"It sounds freaking strange, indeed," I chuckle with him, even though his laugh doesn't sound one hundred percent genuine. He watches me hesitantly, looking for answers in my eyes that I might as well give him out loud. "You know I'm not angry, right? Like, not mad at all, I swear."
A small sigh escapes his lips and he crosses his arms over his chest. "How? I'd be a bit upset if I were you."
With anyone else, I'd probably be furious, but I guess it's the kind of thing that you get used to even if you shouldn't be getting used to it. The thought of it doesn't even make me sad, I'd be in a worse position if I wasn't here, so I embrace what I have even though I have to work hard for it. In the end, everything I work for is entirely worth it.
Harry waits for my reply, but I take a couple of seconds to register how I can possibly explain this to him in other words than all the times I've previously explained it. My guess is that deep inside, he wants reassurance, because Harry has trouble trusting people and he needs to be comforted, but it could also be the fact that he's always angry at himself, so he doesn't understand how someone wouldn't be angry at him for something like that. He doesn't quite grasp the concept of love, yet.
So in order to put my point out there, I rise from the floor and lie down in the tiny space left between Harry's body and the couch, one leg thrown over both of his and locking them in place, and I put my head on his shoulder while he carefully snakes his arms around me. "When you love someone," I start slowly, picking simple words because he might also be still a little out of it to understand big ones, "you don't forget the mistakes, but you forgive. And when you're worried about that person, you temporarily forget the importance of those mistakes because they're not what count the most. What counts the most is that you and me are gonna work on them together. And if you want to go see a therapist, then you will and you'll start trusting yourself a little bit more.
"You know, babe, you have the entire world at your feet, and yet you freak out over one little thing. Our little fight is one little drop of water in the whole ocean, and to you it sounded like it was the end of the world when really, you should've seen that I was shaken, not angry. So instead of running, you should've stayed and talked instead of assuming the worse. You're allowed to be angry at yourself, but you can do it with words instead of throwing yourself in alcohol when you know the results aren't gonna help at all. Were you feeling about all of this when you woke up?"
He shakes his head, pouting like a little baby. I press my lips to the corner of his mouth repeatedly until his lips curl up a little. "I love you, Harry. And it's not what happened that's going to make me go away, because then I wouldn't have come back last year."
A chill runs through his body at my last sentence, causing goose bumps to prickle on his skin. I wrap an arm around his torso and pull him against me, loving the scent of his shampoo and body wash as I breathe in his hair and skin. "You're talking to me like I'm a baby."
"You're my baby," I coo, nuzzling into his shoulder. "And I feel like nothing I say gets in your head, so I might as well try something new, so now you're a little baby who needs to be talked to slowly."
He smirks. "The massive penis in my boxers begs to differ."
Silently, I thank God, or whoever is listening, that he's finally managed to lighten up. The cocky smirk doesn't wash off his face, and he slowly waits to see if the comment was too much or just right, so I giggle against his chest and kiss the skin right there. "Yeah? Well, you might have to show me again soon. I wouldn't want to forget that while you're in America."
"Please, Elena. If you think one minute that we're not gonna Skype and Facetime and any phone sex available," he winks. My heart does jumping jacks in my chest. "And I do want to go to therapy. Not just for this, but for everything in the past. And for our future."
"The fact that you just said 'our future' is so cheesy, I might die of an overload of cheesiness," I squeal, burying my face in his chest. He laughs loudly, his abdomen shaking beneath me uncontrollably. "Jesus, what have I gotten myself into?"
His laughter doesn't cease. "Nothing, but I know what's gonna get into you soon," he adds with a wink.
And all the doubts I had yesterday are now completely washed away, replaced by little butterflies in my tummy and rainbows shining over me. This is the Harry I fell in love with, and no one is ever going to take him away from me.
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Chapter End Notes:
Hello!!
How cheesy is this chapter though I can't 😍
Harry is finally going to take therapy! Any thoughts? And any future predictions?
I love hearing your thoughts❤
Don't forget to comment and Vote!!Thanks!:D
-Katexx