Artwork [h.s]

sixty-one

I was sitting in the garden drawing the new plant of roses that my mother had brought home some days before when I suddenly heard a crashing sound come from the house.

I stood up quickly and pulled my earphones out of my ears by the wire, leaving everything but my phone outside and hesitantly walking inside the house to try to discover where the sound was coming from. I slowly closed the door and walked into the kitchen slowly and carefully, looking around the corner, instantly frowning when I realised what had caused the loud sound.

Harry was in my house, after having let himself in as I'd asked him to, and he'd just crashed his back against the book shelf on the side wall, his eyes wide as he stared into nothing, a multitude of books on the floor.

"Harry" I said as I rushed towards him, automatically putting my hand on his forearm to check if he was okay and furrowing my eyebrows when he didn't even look at me, his breath rushed through his teeth. "Harry?" I called his name trying to get his attention, but he completely ignored me. It was as if he couldn't even hear me, his pupils dilated and his eyes widened as he stared a point on the opposite wall that something told me he couldn't see. "Harry" I called him again, trying to make my voice firmer despite the nervousness I was feeling, grazing his cheek for a quick second in an attempt to get him out of whatever thoughts were stealing him from reality.

He gasped as soon as my finger touched his skin, pressing his back harder against the wall in an attempt to get away from the touch. He blinked fast, his gaze finally falling on me, a somewhat confused look in his eyes.

"What happened?" I asked him carefully, my fingers still wrapped around his forearm tightly, as if I was subconsciously fearing that he would've fallen to the ground at any second.

He shook his head and detached his back from the wall, a frown finding its way on his face. "Nothing" he just replied, the tone of his voice low, his gaze not being able to meet mine.

I pursed my lips, perfectly knowing that it wasn't nothing, but also knowing that I couldn't push him to tell me if he didn't want to. "Are you sure?" I asked again, just to make sure that he truly didn't want to tell me and that he wasn't simply being difficult instead.

"I'm fine" he replied again a bit quicker than I'd expected, and even though it was clear to the both of us that it was an open lie, I decided not to call him out on it.

"Alright" I said, giving a quick glance around before kneeling down to pick up the books that had fallen on the ground and putting back in their original space as Harry stared into nothing, a somewhat shocked look held in his eyes for reasons that I was yet to know. Once I was done with my task I stood up again, looking out of the window as I stayed there in silence for a couple of seconds. "We, uh, we should go upstairs, my mum will come home soon to get ready to go out and I don't want her bothering us" I said after some seconds, and Harry turned his head to look at me quickly, as if he'd remembered just in that moment that I was in the room as well.

He gave me a little nod, and I turned around, even though I didn't really feel like letting him out of my sight in that moment, and started walking upstairs, mentally counting each step I took as I tried to understand what had just happened. It was clear that he'd panicked about something, but I had no idea of what it was, and especially of why it'd happened in that moment, inside of my house, just like that. I was pretty sure that it wasn't due to whatever had happened with Niall's family after he'd brought me back home, because he wouldn't have felt like he couldn't - or didn't want to - share it with me if that was it.

I entered my bedroom and sat on the couch, knowing that Harry would've taken his usual spot at the bottom of my bed. I turned my head to glance at the white-bluish light that was coming in through the window. It felt like yesterday when he'd stood in front of that same window wearing only his boxers as I'd taken the picture that had ended up being one of the best drawings I'd ever done.