~They told me that to make her fall in love, I had to make her laugh. But every time she laughs I'm the one who falls in love~ A.N.
Harry-
My heart literally felt like it hurt, the intent pounding to it unfamiliar and uncomfortable for me. I knew it was because I'm scared, and absolutely fucking worried for my mother. I pick up my head, my nose accidentally nudging Joeys glasses as I pressed our foreheads together. Her hand still runs through the hair at the back of my head, and when she whispers to me that it will be alright, I shake my head absentmindedly.
"It will, Harry." She tells me again.
Instead of shaking my head again and thinking of just how terrible things are going to be, I mold my lips to hers. Her lips are unresponsive at first, and then I press my hips to hers, desperate to get my mind off things. She catches up quickly, but her lips are soft on mine and her hands are as well, when all I want, and all I need is for her to make me feel something.
I push my tongue passed her lips, and she lets out a soft sigh which makes me grind my hips against hers again. Her lips break from mine and I trail wet kisses down her neck, the last mark I left causing her to wince as I trailed over it. When I take the fabric of the back of her baggy shirt into my fists, pulling it up her back, I hear her mutter something but can't quite hear it over the pulse in my ears.
Holding the fabric up with one hand at the top of her back, my other explores the bare skin revealed there.
"Harry," I hear her say this time, and lift my head to look at her.
"Slow down." She tells me, her lips swollen and red, her hands on my back due to our close proximity.
"I don't want to. I need something, Jo....I can't...." I trail off. I can't feel anything, is what I wanted to say.
"We can't do this right now, you're upset." She says in a calming tone, her hand pressing against the side of my face.
"Please." I whisper.
She reaches an arm back, taking my hand off her back to hold it in hers, our intertwined hands between our chests.
"Just look at me." She utters, keeping her other hand on the side of my face.
I take deep breaths, focusing on her eyes until my pounding pulse left my ears and my fist at her back releases the fabric of her T-shirt.
"You will be okay." She tells me, making my heart ache even more.
"She won't be."
She nods her head weakly in protest, probably knowing there is no use of lying and saying that she will be out loud. So all she could manage was a small nod of her head in false disagreement.
"Can I stay here tonight?" I ask her in a tone which barely reached above a whisper. She nods her head, and I close my eyes with our foreheads still touching.
Josephine-
When I wake up that next morning, there is no pillow underneath my head and one leg is hanging off the bed. When I lift my head up, I see one of my arms is sprawled limply across Harrys chest. I retract the limb off his bare skin, my eyes scanning his face. An arm is behind his head, the other laid beside him. I've noticed that Harry often twitches in his sleep, his fingers curling at the moment.
When Harry releases a tired groan and rolls onto his side, his back faces me and I hang my feet over the edge of my bed so I can stand, grabbing my glasses off my nightstand. I tip toe to my bathroom and brush my teeth, rinsing off my face. I don't bother on trying to tame my hair. When I rest back onto my bed, I lay in the quiet room for quite a bit, waiting for Harry to wake up since it is only seven in the morning. When I begin to think that maybe I can fall back asleep, I see Harry lift himself onto an elbow, still facing away from me. He uses a fist to rub at both his eyes, before lying back down onto his back with a huff.
He turns his head to the side to face me, and when he does he has a smug grin on his face, making a confused look take over my face.
"What?" I ask him self consciously.
He shakes his head, and it makes me grow even more curious as he chuckles.
"What?" I ask him again, my hands running over my hair absentmindedly, thinking that maybe that's what he's laughing about.
"You don't want to know." He tells me, and my stomach does summersaults at his morning voice.
"But I do." I nudge his leg with mine under the covers.
"Really?" He looks over to me, a smug little smile still on his pink lips.
I nod my head.
"I had a sex dream." He says, and that makes my cheeks warm.
"About you." He adds on.
"And quite a good one."
I look away from him, trying to hide the embarrassed, but satisfied curve of my lips from him.
"Oh." Is all I can manage, and that makes him chuckle.
"Would you like more detail?" He asks me, and I know he only asks because he knows I'll say no.
"Not really." I mutter in embarrassment.
I hear his deep chuckle, and only look back over when I hear the mattress shift. He's out of bed, and he walks towards my bathroom across the room without a word. I hear the sink come on, and know he's brushing his teeth. I lie back down on my back, and shockingly find myself wondering just what his dream was like. I push it to the back of my mind as I feel myself getting sort of worked up and squirmy.
I stand, and walk over to my dresser to change while he's in the bathroom. While keeping my shirt on, I slip off my underwear and put on a new pair. And then glancing over my shoulder to the door behind me which is cracked open a little, I make sure he's still inside before taking off the oversized T-shirt I wear. I decide that I should just get dressed now, since I plan on going to work with the kids today. I'm beginning to dig out a bra when I hear a clearing of a throat, looking over my shoulder with a shock to find Harry standing in the doorway of the bathroom.
I know all he can see is my behind and bare back, but I feel immensely self conscious.
"Well turn around!" I exclaim as he doesn't make a move. My hands hold the bra I'd quickly grabbed to my chest.
"Harry, oh my god!" I complain, having no where to go as he still leans against the door frame.
So I clasp my bra on as quickly as I can, bending down to retrieve the same shirt I'd taken off to put back on, just to cover up.
"You're impossible." I tell him irritatedly as I pass him to go to my bedroom door.
But when I'm about to open the door to leave in embarrassment, his arm wraps around to prevent me, his forearm pressed to my upper chest to keep me from walking further.
"Don't be like that." He tells me.
"Like what?"
"Shy." He says.
I gulp, "It's kind of hard not to be." I tell him.
"Why?" His chin rests onto my shoulder.
"Because, you're the first boy that would ever see me like that." I speak.
"You can say the word naked, you know." He tells me, and I roll my eyes, feeling myself relax into him even though he's teasing.
His other hand wraps around me, resting onto my abdomen. It doesn't move, he just keeps it placed there.
"Don't be shy around me."
"It's easier to say then to be done." I laugh.
"There's no need to be anyways, since you've got such a great ass."
I can tell he's trying to ease the mood, because I hear a smile in his voice. I turn around, and place a peck to his lips.
"I just want coffee, okay?" I tell him to change the subject, and back away from him to open the door again.
"And peanut butter, right?" He adds.
"Right." I smile, looking at him over my shoulder.
As I make coffee I hear Harry talking to his mother on the phone by the staircase, telling her that he would be home later today, since he is going with me to teach the kids like I'd asked him to do while coming down stairs. I got quite an eye roll out of it, but he eventually gave in. I put coffee into two travel cups, and pass Harry by the staircase as I go up to get dressed. Right when I'm pulling a pair of jeans up my legs he open the door without knocking, gathering his clothes off my bedroom floor to get dressed. I offer him one of my fathers shirts, but he said, I quote, fuck no.
So by eight thirty we are sat in his truck (after bickering about whose car to take), and are driving to the tutoring center. Since Harry is in such a seemingly a good mood, I hadn't brought up his mothers situation. But he was the one to, asking me just how I knew. I told him how, and he didn't seem angry or upset about it, more like he was relieved. Right when we get inside the building Katrina points out children that should need some help, and Harry has his hands in his pockets looking as out of place as ever. I see Phillip there, the usual boy that I spend my time here with, and turn to Harry.
I raise my eyebrows at him, wondering if he's alright.
"Go ahead." He motions to Phillip.
My eyes flick down to his chest where his name tag is, his name in my handwriting along with a flower, which I had done just to spite him. He wasn't very happy about that, but kept it there.
"Okay." I tell him with a small smile.
I begin to walk to Phillip, and a smile grows on my face as he grins widely and sets his pencil down to hug me. He begins to tell me all about the book he is reading so I'm not lost when he starts to read to me, and tells me how much better he's gotten at it. And he's right, he has gotten better as I listen to him read. I look over my shoulder to see Harry with a little girl, his back to me.
Harry-
After watching Joey walk away I look around the room, trying to find an easy looking kid to waste my time with. When I spot the little girl that I had been put with last time I was here, I walk over.
"Lilly, was it?" I ask as I sit down across the little girl. She wears the same glasses as last time I saw her, round and big on her face.
"You're the giant." She tells me when she looks up from the paper she'd been writing on.
I manage a smile, and rest my elbows on the table in front of me. She looks back down to her paper, and I can see she is supposed to be writing down vocabulary words that are displayed at the top of the page. But she's drawing bees and flowers on the lines designated for writing. I don't bother on telling her that she's not doing what she's supposed to be going, and rest my chin against my folded hands, absentmindedly watching as she scrawls on the paper. All her fingers are curled around the pencil, holding it like I used to hold my utensils when I was little.
It's mostly quiet between us unless she looks up and asks me questions like, what's your name again?, and, do you like drawing too?
At one point I look over my shoulder to see Joey giving her attention to the little boy she's been with since we got here, listening to the story he reads to her. I smile at the way she smiles at him, and I can see the crinkle to her eyes when she does so from side profile. I release a small sigh as I'm reminded again of how she is way too good for me, and watch Lilly as she begins to draw people figures, which in my opinion look like they have feet as hands and boxes as shirts.
About an hour later Lilly actually begins to read me a book, but I'm not really listening as she stammers over her words. Her blonde hair is poking into her face from all directions and makes me wonder how that can't bug her. And then, I realize she's like Joey. A younger one of course. With the crazy hair and glasses, and the stutter. I look over my shoulder at Jo again, and she does the same at just the right moment. She smiles, and when I give her a subtle wink she shakes her head and looks away from me.
When ten o'clock rolls around Lilly is gone. I walk up to Joey who still sits with Phillip, and rest my hands onto her shoulders. She looks back at me in a little bit of surprise, before turning back to Phillip. My hands gently massage her shoulders absentmindedly as I stand there to wait. The boy looks up at me and I raise my eyebrows in return. And then, he looks to Joey, and then back up to me.
"Is that your boyfriend?" He asks her.
My hands stop moving on her shoulders, and I can see the confusion on Phillips face as neither of us answer him.
"How many pages is there left?" Joey asks him instead.
"Three." He answers.
I take a seat next to Jo as I wait for him to finish what seems like his third book, and when it is finally over, Joey tells him goodbye and we are left walking out of the building in silence. I rip the name tag off my jacket, toying with it between my fingers as I listen to her boots scuff the asphalt in the parking lot. I can tell what Phillip asked is bothering her, and I'm trying to figure out how to bring the topic up.
"That wasn't too bad, was it?" Joey asks to ease the silence.
"Just as bad as the first time." I joke, and we stop as we reach the tailgate of my truck.
"About what Philip said..." I start.
"We don't have to talk about it....if you don't want to." She tells me, shifting on her feet.
My eyes flick over her face, and she seems to truly mean it. So I give her a nod of my head, and I see her bite the inside of her cheek as she turns to walk to her side of the truck.
"Wait, I want to." My hand wraps round her elbow, and she turns back to me at the touch.
"You do?"
"Yeah, I want you to...."
My lips are left parted and her eyes are trained onto me, making me have to work to get the words out.
"I want you to be my girlfriend." I state.
The smile she gives me is worth the weird feeling I have, and when she hugs me, I don't have that feeling at all.
"I want to be your girlfriend." She speaks against my chest.
"Yeah?" I breathe out.
"Yeah." She states.
I give her a squeeze and she backs away from me. When I move a piece of hair out of her face, she reaches up and pinches my cheeks as if I am Phillips age, making me groan and swat her hands away from me.
She giggles, and I roll my eyes.
"You're lucky I like you." I tell her, and turn around to go to my side of the truck.
After getting in, she slides into the passengers seat shortly after, fastening her seatbelt; what a shocker.
"So you like me, huh?" She asks jokingly, wiggling her eyebrows at me. I like this side of her, it's playful.
"Enough to have a hot sex dream about you."
That shuts her up, and her cheeks brighten a shade. She rolls her eyes besides her embarrassment, and I laugh as I start my truck engine.
Josephine-
"I'm going to start taking her." Harry tells me as we sit in his truck, parked in my driveway. He's telling me about his mother, everything the doctor told him yesterday, saying he's going to start taking her to her chemo appointments.
"That's nice of you." I tell him.
He gives me a look, and then rolls his eyes a little at the compliment. He ashes his cigarette out the cracked window, and I can tell by the smell of it that it isn't marjiuana. I haven't seen him smoke that in quite a while, and I somehow find that I like that he hasn't. The feeling it gave me when I did it the one time was weird, it made me feel weightless and I didn't have a care in the world. And for him to be like that all the time, I don't think that's a good thing.
"Why'd you quit?" I ask Harry, knowing he will catch what I'm talking about.
He shrugs his shoulders, "Don't know." He tells me.
"I thought that maybe you didn't like it." He finally confesses.
"Well I shouldn't speak, I tried it." I tell him.
He chuckles, inhaling some smoke.
"And I 'touched the butt'." He makes fun, making me laugh by his infectious smile.
"I was so out of it." I pick at the lint on my jeans, looking back up when he takes my hand in his.
"I'm going to go home to my mum." He tells me.
"I'm thinking I should sort of try and not be an ass to her all the time." He says, smiling a little.
"Good idea." I laugh softly with a smile in return.
I give him a chaste peck on the lips, something that still takes him aback, just a simple gesture of affection that he never does.
"Hey, tomorrow....do you want to go?" He asks me.
"To the doctors? With you and your mom?" I ask him.
He nods his head, biting the inside of his cheek. Our faces are still close, and I know it must've taken him some courage to ask me that, so I nuzzle my nose against his which makes him chuckle, backing away from me with an adoring smile.
"Yes." I tell him.
"Okay." He answers.
I give him one last look of happiness before hopping out of his truck, ignoring him when he calls me a clutz for almost tripping.
Omg, I just realized this story has 1M reads!! :D
And Heartbeat has 26.4M.....oh my goodness that's crazy for me!!! Ily guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter!!