(corona isn't happening in this story!)
March 2, 2020
SELENE GOT HER STITCHES OUT AFTER TEN DAYS.
Harry kept his promise of coming back to California after the Today Show. Selene was glad to have him. He helped her when she needed it— no questions asked. Selene barely got into cars unless she needed to. Both Harry and her knew what she was doing wasn't necessarily normal but the two avoided the talk for various reasons.
Selene had a few nightmares every now and then, the worst ones being when Harry was gone. She would wake up most times crying, the woman reliving the events of that night. Harry was worried. She wouldn't talk about it at all. She would get upset if he even tried to bring it up.
Her manager felt horrible. The only reason why she was in California was because of him. She told him not to blame himself but deep down he still did. He called to check up on her every once in a while, Selene grateful for it.
Harry and Selene both arrived in New York two days before they needed to along with the rest of the band. The very first day that Selene got in New York, she ended up letting Charlotte dye her hair a shade of blond. It was a good distraction considering that it was one few times Selene laughed a lot while talking to someone.
She also got her nose piercings redone since they had closed while she was in the hospital.
Selene stood in the door frame of the bathroom— watching as Harry fixed his hair. She was wearing one of his shirts that wasn't too big on her and a pair of baggy ripped jeans. His outfit consisted of a blue sweater that had a floral-laced, white collared shirt under it. His baggy pants were green. He turned around towards her and smiled softly.
"Are you okay?" he asked, the singer taking steps to reach where she stood. Once he was close enough, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She gladly wrapped her arms around his torso and dug her head into his chest. She had woken up to another nightmare during the night. It was a tolerable dream, the woman not that troubled by it.
"I'm fine," she muttered into his chest. "I'm trying to get better I really am. Cars aren't really the problem anymore Harry it's the nightmares. They are fucking up my mind."
He rested his head on her head. "I know Le. Have you tried talking to your therapist about it?"
There was an uncomfortable silence before Selene spoke up. "Can we change the subject?"
"Are you ready to go?" he asked. He let go of her and placed a kiss onto her burgundy, red lips. She smiled as he pulled away— the singer left with lipstick on his mouth. Selene wiped the lipstick away from his lips delicately.
"Let's go."
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selenesage: first step
Howard Stern was... something. They weren't even twenty minutes into the interview and Selene was already annoyed by the misogynistic man. She sat in between Sarah and Nyoh— Nyoh on her left and Sarah on her right. Her chair was comfortable enough for her to slump slightly, her right hand in her lap while her left hand kept her head up. Her guitar was propped up on a stand behind her.
She was glad that Harry was the calm one out of the two. She would have already said something bad to Howard by now. Harry did although look annoyed. His eyebrows would furrow for a quick second after Howard would ask a borderline inappropriate question. He did avoid most questions by taking about something else.
Howard was invasive to say the least. He didn't have a filter on what he asked either. It was almost as if the interviewer wanted Harry to slip up. Selene wasn't even paying attention to Stern until he spoke invasively again. "Where was your dad in all this— you said you lived with your mom, your dad out of the picture?"
Selene eyes widened for a quick moment before they went back to normal. She looked at Harry and then Mitch, who had the same reaction as her. "Yeah my parents divorced when I was... seven," Harry answered.
"Was he one of those guys who like, had nothing to do with the family once he was out of the picture?"
What the fuck was wrong with him? Selene sat up in her chair, the guitarist intertwining her hands together. How was Harry going to do this for another hour? Harry did answer the question as calm as he could, Selene glad that he wasn't like her in the sense of being defensive. With every second passing, the questions just seemed to get worse. How did he still have a job was the question.
Selene zoned out pretty much until Stern started talking to Mitch. She heard a few words along the lines of "open D" meaning that they were probably talking about the engineering of HS1. Howard turned to Selene, a smile on his face. Oh no. "Let's talk about you two."
Harry turned his head towards Selene who adjusted her posture in the seat. "I've seen you two in a lot of articles. You two met where?"
"We met at a coffee place in La. It was when I recruited her in the band for tour in 2017," Harry answered. Howard nodded. "Selene, how do you balance you two's life? You are doing your own thing while your in a band with him and he's this pop star who every woman loves."
Selene wanted to roll her eyes as she stood up to talk into the mic. She placed her ring encased hand on the mic stand before speaking. "It's fairly easy for us to separate our music and band life from our person life. We have our boundaries that we both respect equally. Harry's pretty loyal so I don't have to worry about what every other person sees him as," she said into the mic, Harry watching her the whole time. He eyes flicked to his— Selene showing that she was just as annoyed as he was.
"I just am dying to know if any songs are about Selene on Fine Line."
I'm sure you are. Selene looked over to Harry who was already looking at her. "Um... I think I leave my songs up for interpretation. My life experiences and event definitely effect the way I write and what I write about. I like to keep majority of my life private so that's all i'll say," Harry concluded.
"And there's nothing else going on in the band? Harry's not secretly seeing anyone?"
If Selene could strangle him she would. "Um, Sarah and Mitch are together," Selene said, avoiding the second part of the question.
Selene sat down as Howard started rambling on about to other two— the woman letting out a small sigh that went unheard by everyone but Harry. Her eyes found his once again, Selene giving him a reassuring smile. As the interview went on, Selene got more and more annoyed by every single question that Howard asked. He even perpetuated that Harry was fucking his therapist— which he wasn't. His therapist was literally married with children. And if Selene wasn't wrong, she was also pushing fifty.
They had a few songs to perform after, Selene glad that Howard wasn't doing anymore fucking talking. Once they were completely done with the interview, Harry reluctantly said goodbye to Howard, Selene already out the front door the building. The band didn't even notice until the looked around for the shorter woman.
"Where is Selene..." Harry trailed off, his green eyes looking for his girlfriend in the lobby. Mitch walked over to the door, Harry's car parked directed outside of it. Mitch sighed as he saw her sitting in the passenger seat.
"She's in your car already," Mitch muttered. Harry tucked his hands into his pockets. He already knew that she was probably pissed off. "Okay, I'm gonna get going. See you all in a few days."
He heard a few byes as he walked out the doors, his eyes pinned on the car. Once he got to it, he opened the door and carefully eyed Selene. Her head rested on her hand that was propped up on the door. She was staring at the window with an expression on her face that Harry couldn't tell. The keys were already in the ignition since she was the one who already had them. Harry placed his seatbelt on and took the car out of park.
"Are you okay?" he asked. She took a small glance at his before sitting up. "I'm annoyed..." she trailed off as she picked up her phone. Harry nodded. "Because of Howard?"
"He's a dick."
"I know."
"And a bitch."
Harry softly smiled. "That too. I'm sorry about him asking you questions, didn't think he would go that far."
She shrugged as she scrolled effortlessly on her phone. "It's fine, wasn't really mad about that though."
Harry furrowed his eyebrows. "Then what were you mad at?" he questioned. Selene placed her phone down and looked at the green eyed- singer. "He asked you so many invasive questions. Most of them were fucking stupid and misogynistic too. I just wanted to... say a few choice words because of the way he was treating you."
Harry smiled. "I'm fine. I'm used to people like him," he assured as he placed his hand on her thigh. Selene let out a deep breath as she looked at him. "We are cooking an actual meal tonight," she pushed, her hands moving towards his rings that were on his hands.
Harry nodded. "I guess we need to go to the store then because we don't have anything at the apartment since we are always ordering to-go."
"Yes. We aren't cooking pasta."
Harry scrunched up his face. "Why not," he whined.
"Harry it's literally all you eat. Seriously. You need to lay off and try new things."
He pouted his lips as he quickly glanced at Selene. She smiled before rolling her eyes. It didn't take long to get to a small, family owned grocery store since they were already in town. Harry parked the car in the parking lot— a bit closer to the entrance so Selene wouldn't have to walk as much she was still technically in recovery. It was dark outside so Harry hadn't felt the need to put on his sunglasses that still rested on his head. There wasn't much people inside either since not a lot of people bothered to go the smaller place.
"Since we can't have anything related to pasta, what are we eating tonight?" Harry asked as he opened the door, the singer letting Selene go in first. "I don't know..." she muttered. The two decided to venture off onto two different sides of the store, Harry hoing left and Selene going right. Selene looked around the store— her hands pushing the cart. She really did not know what to get. All she knew what that she did not want anything that dealt with pasta. The guitarist moved away from the cart and picked up a produce bag. She opened the bag fully and placed the red and yellow bell peppers inside.
Stuffed Bell Peppers it was. Selene tied the bag and placed it into the cart. She turned the cart around to look for a bag of frozen shrimp. Her eyes caught Harry's body who was two aisles away. His eyes were already set on her. The singer quickly covered his cart with his body— a smile on his face. "What did you get?" she asked.
"Nothing," he quickly answered as he pushed the cart from her eyesight. She raised an eyebrow as he slowly disappeared onto a different aisle. She wondered what he had in his cart. Knowing him, it probably was pasta.
She went to the frozen aisle and got two bags of shrimp. After that, she wandered around for the seasoning aisle. Her eyebrows furrowed as she saw Harry on the same aisle. "Harry what are you getting?" she asked. She moved closer to his cart to see two packs of pasta noodles. She covered her mouth in attempts to hide her laugh as he looked at her dumbfounded.
"Sel-"
"Put the noodles back" she snorted. "But-"
She walked over to his cart and reached into it, his hand grabbing hers. "No," he whined. Selene let out a breathy laugh— one that hadn't been heard from her in a while. Harry let go of her hand in defeat and watched as she placed the pasta box back onto the shelf. She scanned her cart in disbelief. Literally all he had was snacks and junk food.
"Never letting you shop on your own again," she said as she watched Harry pout.
"Why not?"
"Harry were supposed to be making dinner and you got haribo bears and gummy worms..."
"Pre-dinner snack."
"The goal of this was actual dinner but that's fine," she muttered. "We're making stuffed bell peppers."
Harry smiled. "Can we get ice cream while we are here?"
"I'm going to pinch you."
Harry watched as Selene cooked the rice— the bag of gummy worms in his hand. He took one out of the bag and wavered it in her face. "Stop that," she laughed as she moved her head. He only moved it closer.
"Eat it!"
Selene opened her mouth— Harry placing the sour snack into her mouth. "Thanks," she said, her voice muffled. "Can you stir the rice? I'm going to go use the bathroom."
Harry nodded and softly grabbed the wooden spoon from Selene's hand. "Add some cajun spice too," she told him as she walked to the bathroom that wasn't far from the kitchen. She opened the door and turned on the light, a small sigh escaping her lips. She didn't have to use the bathroom at all. Sometimes her scar tended to hurt even though she didn't even have stitches anymore. It was annoying— especially since Harry would worry too much about her.
She was also dizzy from the steam and humidity coming from the cooking they were doing. She placed her hands on the sink counter. The guitarist inhaled a deep breath breath before turning on to faucet. Selene could practically feel her heart beating out of her chest. She needed to calm down. Her hands made their way under the water— both of her hands cupped together so she could gather water. She leaned her face down and splashed it lightly.
It didn't take her long at all to compose herself in the downstairs bathroom. She walked out to see Harry turning down the heat of the stove so the rice could stay warm instead of cook further more. He turned around to her, his face immediately dropping.
"Why do you look like that?" he asked softly. She avoided his stare as she walked into the kitchen. "Thanks for the confidence booster Harry," she muttered as she grabbed a pan.
"Le i'm being serious. What's wrong?"
She grabbed the aluminum foil and placed it onto the pan— her hand reaching for the non stick spray. She knew that he wasn't trying to be annoying at all and that he cared about her but, she didn't want to talk about any of what happened. It was something that she'd rather forget.
"What's telling you that something is wrong?" she asked, the younger woman grabbing a red bell pepper and placing it onto the sheet. Harry didn't say anything— his eyes on her until she finally looked back up at him. "What?" she questioned.
"Selene you can tell me if—"
"Can you stop that!" she finally yelled, her eyesight blurry. "Please! You walk on glass around me now," she frustratingly said.
"No I don't."
She scoffed. "Yes you do. Your either over analyzing everything I do too see if i'm okay or acting like i'm a charity case. This is my first time cooking in forever because you deemed me as incapable bc I had stitches. You want to do everything for me Harry it makes me feel helpless. I understand your reasoning but I feel fucking awful because of it."
The tension in the room was heavy. Selene quickly wiped a tear as Harry opened his mouth. "I don't mean to do that Selene but you can't keep all that bottled up—"
"Yes I can! Every night I had to relive it in every nightmare that I get and it's hell. I'm the one who was stuck in the car. I- I cant talk about it yet."
Harry nodded. "Okay."
Selene didn't even mean to sound rude she was just tired of pretending like she was okay. She looked away from Harry— her hands fumbling together out of habit. "I don't have an appetite anymore... i'm just gonna go to the library," she whispered as she walked away, Harry letting out a sigh.
He knew that he shouldn't have pushed her or even brought it up so he understood why she was upset. She did need to eat though so he continued on with the recipe that she had previously written out for the two of them.
He wondered how bad her nightmares gots and how much she masked them away from it. She used the word, "relive." Did she see everything that happened? Even if he wanted to ask, he was going to respect her boundaries like she clearly stated earlier.
He just wanted— he needed her to be okay.