Artwork [h.s]

fifty-three

My mother had just made tea when the doorbell suddenly rang.

I furrowed my eyebrows but stood up anyway. "I'll get it" I said, already making my way out of the kitchen and into the hallway. I walked towards the front door and opened it, a sudden blush spreading through my cheeks when I took in Harry's figure. "Harry?" I said confusedly, not understanding what he was doing at my house. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged, taking one of his hands out of his pockets to pass it through his dark hair. "I needed to get away for a while" he simply replied. "I can go if it's a problem."

"Not at all" I said quickly, taking his hand and pulling him in, frowning when I realised how cold it was. "Harry, you're freezing."

"I walked here" he replied, a pinkness colouring his cheeks in the second he stepped inside, taking off his coat and hanging it next to the door.

"Oh darling, you walked? But it's really cold today!" A voice said behind me, and I turned around quickly, noticing that my mum was standing in the hallway, probably drawn in by her curiosity. "I just made tea, do you want a cup? It should warm you right back up."

Harry gave her a little nod. "Thank you" he said faintly, as we followed her into the kitchen.

Before I knew it, I was sitting at a table with my parents and Harry, the potential destructiveness of the mix concerning me to no end.

I wrapped my fingers around the warm cup of tea in front of me, pretending to blow the steam coming from it away as I nonchalantly glanced around.

My dad was sitting on the chair in front of me, shamelessly staring at the boy sitting next to me while slowly tapping on the wooden table, ignoring the cup that was next to his hand. Not a word was being spoken, and an awkward silence had filled the room, in which everybody seemed to wait for someone else to say the first word. Sensing his stare on him, Harry looked up, returning his gaze without fear, seeming more curious about why he was glancing at him than squirmy under his scrutiny.

They stared at each other in silence for what felt like minutes under my mother's worried gaze, before my dad suddenly spoke, immediately shattering the tension that had been created.

"I like you" he said, looking away, and Harry gave him a slight nod, quietly lifting his cup and taking a sip from it indifferently.

I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding and looked down at the table, being immensely glad that nothing too embarrassing - and nothing that would've ended up with Harry running away too - had happened.

"So..." my mother said, letting her voice drift away and putting the cup that she'd been sipping from for the past five minutes down. "Finally we know your name."

I widened my eyes at her words, quickly standing up, the chair loudly scratching against the floor, making everyone look at me. "Okay, let's go" I said, quickly taking Harry by his wrist and pulling him out of the room with me, not wanting the conversation to get any more awkward.

Almost by default, we walked into my room, and Harry took his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and put it on my nightstand before sitting at the end of the bed.

I sat next to him, glancing down at the floor, thinking of something to say that would've broken the silence. I furrowed my eyebrows when I suddenly heard a buzzing sound coming from my nightstand. I turned my head, discovering that Harry's black phone was vibrating with an incoming call. "Someone is calling you" I simply said, turning around again, just in time to see him shrug.