“Harry c’mon! It’s a plus one party and I want you to come with me!” I jutted out my lip and gave him puppy dog eyes, pleading with him.
“What’s it for anyway?” he asked, seemingly uninterested.
“A coworker’s birthday.”
“It’s not that one that always flirts with you is it?” he said, one eyebrow raised.
I parted my lips in a cheesy, toothy smile for a minute before my lip jutted out again and the puppy dog eyes were back, “Pwease?” I bat my eyelashes a few times.
He sighed heavily, “Oh alright, I’ll go with you!”
He stood and walked towards me as I jumped up a little, “Yay! Thanks Haz.”
We arrived later than the time Aaron said it would start, but it still seemed as though the party hadn’t kicked in yet. We walked in the open front door and my eyes shot around the room at the familiar faces of my coworkers and the not-so-familiar faces of their plus ones, searching for the host. “Ah, there,” I pointed with one hand as I grabbed Harry’s with the other, leading the way. “Aaron, hey!” I said as we got closer.
He turned around with a smile that soon fell when his eyes landed on mine and Harry’s joined hands. “Hey, Natalie. Who’s uh… Who’s your friend?” he asked, less than thrilled.
I glanced sideways at Harry as I answered, “This is Harry, my best friend and roommate.” I smiled at Harry as I released his hand.
“Hi.” Aaron said curtly.
“Hey mate, happy birthday by the way,” he said with a smug smile that I didn’t understand.
“Thanks,” he still sounded irritated.
I felt an uneasy, awkward tension in the air as we stood silent, Aaron assessing Harry and Harry still smirking at Aaron. It made me extremely uncomfortable so I found an excuse to walk away, “We’re gonna go get some drinks. Catch ya later.” I said tugging Harry along with me towards the kitchen.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Harry chuckled, “What was with that guy?”
“Haz!” I smacked his arm as he pulled a couple drinks out of the cooler, fake scolding him. We wound up laughing with each other at the whole situation.
The night seemingly drug on as I introduced Harry to everyone and had to explain that we weren’t a couple numerous times as we mingled with the partygoers. I noticed Harry losing interest and getting antsy as it got later, so I decided it was a good time to go. We made our rounds of goodbyes as we made our way out. We got in the car and pulled away from the bustling house.
Harry sighed, “Well, that was fun!” he said with sarcasm drenching his voice.
I rolled my eyes and chuckled at him, “Thanks for coming with me Haz.”
“Anything for you.”
We walked in the front door and I yawned, “Ah, I’m going to bed.”
“I think I’ll stay up for a bit; maybe clean the kitchen.”
“Alright, good night Haz.”
“Sweet dreams Love.”
I made my way to my room and quickly changed into pyjamas. I pulled back the covers and crawled into bed, too slowly falling into unconsciousness.
It seemed like I had been asleep for only five minutes, when in reality it was actually a few hours, when I was stirred awake by movement on my bed. I felt the covers being pulled back as well as the dip in the bed as Harry crawled in behind me. I didn’t move nor did I open my eyes as he closed the distance between us. He wrapped his arms gently around me and nuzzled into my exposed neck.
I heard him sniff followed by an awkward intake of breath and felt a couple drops of warm liquid on my neck. He sniffed again and I gently rolled my body over so I was facing him and my suspicions were confirmed. He was crying.
My caring instinct kicked in and I raised one hand to stroke his curls in an effort to soothe him, the other attaching to his back, rubbing small circles. “Haz, what’s wrong?”
“I-I’m sorry Nat. I didn’t mean to wake you,” he sniffed.
“Nonsense Harry,” I gently scolded. “Why are you crying?” my voice softened as I continued to stroke his hair.
“Just a bad dream.” I wiped a few of his still falling tears as his eyes closed and he sniffed again, nibbling at his lower lip in a pout.
“It had to have been pretty bad for you to be this upset.” He nodded slightly opening his eyes and looking into mine, teeth still working at his lip. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
He sniffed again releasing his lower lip and letting out a shaky breath, “Well it was always the same-“
“Wait,” I cut him off with concern in my features, “Always? Haz how long has this been going on?”
“Well, remember when we had everyone over when your sister was visiting?”
“Haz, that was three months ago!” I exclaimed in a distressed tone.
“It wasn’t bad then, it wasn’t good but it didn’t start waking me up until about a week ago.” His tears had subsided for the moment.
“Okay,” I said with a slight sigh of relief. “So you were saying? ‘It was always the same with…’”
“You.”
“Me?” I squeaked.
He chuckled and I smiled at him, “Yes, Love, you. It started out fine. You and me taking a walk in the park and just talking. It was peaceful. Then it progressed into you telling me you were going to see Chad again, which I hated,” he paused and frowned a bit and I chuckled at him. “And he convinced you he was different, I didn’t buy it at first, but then you convinced me after a while. Then the dream stopped for a couple weeks before it started again.”
“That night,” I said with sudden realization. “When I was up late doing my homework and you came in at 2 a.m.”
He nodded in approval, “I knew you would overreact, so I didn’t tell you.”
I scowled at him, “What happened in your dream that night?”
He was silent for a minute, looking over my head, “He hit you… right in front of me. That was the first time I woke up. And in the next one, I found more cuts and bruises on you. Then chad showed up again and I forced myself awake. Then tonight…” he trailed off and we were silent for a minute, just watching each other.
I started playing with his hair again as I noticed more tears forming, rubbing his arm gently. “It’s okay Haz. It was just a dream,” I nodded for him to continue.
“Well tonight, it was worse. I found you-“ tears fell down his cheeks faster now, “I found you… beat… bloody…” he started sobbing. “You were dead.” Sobs racked his body as his breathing became uneven.
“Okay Haz, it’s okay.” I pulled him into my chest and rested my chin on his head as I comforted him. “It’s okay. Shhhh, it was just a dream, sshhhh. I’m right here.” I rubbed his hair and his back as cried into me.
“I just don’t want you to go back to him.”
“I won’t Haz.” I pulled him away to look into his eyes. “I’m done with him. He’s never going to have a part of me again. Okay?”
He nodded as his face contorted in sadness as another sob ripped through him. I pulled him into me once more and held onto him tightly, rubbing small circles into his back and a hand tangled in his hair.
He cried just as hard for a bit longer before it started to soften. I kept up my actions as he drifted off to sleep, no doubt exhausted from all the crying. His arms went limp still wrapped around me. I ceased my hand movement as I wondered why he didn’t tell me. I soon drifted off to sleep as well. We woke up the next day still tangled together.