Hearts Of Gold h.s

Chapter 20*

H 

"Okay, are you sure you have everything you need?"

"I'm sure, Harry. If I forgot something, then it must not have been that important" she laughs, brushing her dark brown hair over her shoulder.

Yesterday afternoon, she forced me to take her to Target for an unknown reason at the time. The unknown reason was cleared up after she spent nearly an hour and a half in the bathroom and then came out with dark brown hair rather than her faded blue.

I think she looks beautiful either way, but there is something about her hair color matching the pretty brown in her eyes that had my heart nearly stopping. It literally felt like I was looking at an angel.

It was currently 6:25 in the morning and we were finally heading to the airport to go to England. I haven't seen my mum in way too long, so to say I'm excited is an understatement. I know El is a little nervous, but I also have a feeling she will feel a lot better once she actually meets both mum and Gemma.

I let both of them know that El is a bit of a socially anxious person and struggles with meeting people for the first time and both had a good reaction. It didn't change their excitement with meeting her. My mum has texted me nearly everyday for the last month about how happy she was about meeting El. She knows how happy I am in life right now and she finally gets to meet the cause of my happiness.

"Okay, let's go" I motion my head towards the door and she nods her head before grabbing her suitcase.

We both roll our bags down the hall and past the living room before trying to maneuver them through the tight entry hallway.

When we both are out the door, after a mild struggle, and then we hit yet another obstacle.

"Well, this will be fun" El says from next to me, looking at the steep staircase that leads to the exit of her building.

Her suitcase is huge. It comes to her hip and easily weighs over 50 pounds, so her carrying it down these stairs is unlikely.

"Take mine and I'll take yours. Mine will for sure be lighter than yours" I tell her. She just nods and we switch bags.

She is able to carry my suitcase down the stairs without too much struggle and I try not to show how heavy her bag is, but it is a lot harder to carry than what someone may think.

"Did you pack a ton of fucking bricks in here??" I ask, heaving out a breath by the time I make it to the bottom of the stairs.

"A month is a long time to be gone." she shrugged.

We called an Uber a few minutes before actually walking down here, so the wait wasn't long at all.

The drive to the airport was pretty quiet. El had her head leaned against the glass window and her eyes were focused on everything we passed. Every building, street lamp, even plants. I could see her deep focus on the outside world. Either she was really enjoying looking out the window or she was just completely zoned out. I could see her fiddling with the few rings on her fingers and every once in a while, she would break her gaze from the window to watch her hands.

She has been quiet since yesterday afternoon. She'll talk when she's being spoken to, but other than that it's just a blank kinda stare or she just minds her own business. I can't even begin to imagine what it took for her to tell me the things that she did.

I don't want to be selfish and say how badly it hurts me because this simply isn't about me and I won't tell her how upset I was, or still am, but the unease is there. It can feel it in the pit of my stomach, I could feel my heart aching as she laid completely unconscious in my arms due to stressing herself out so much, I felt the sensation of a knife stabbing into my chest with every ragged breath she took. I can't sit here and make this about myself, but I also can't help but feel some kind of pain with everything.