Twisted

Chapter 25: Close call

My eyes stirred as it got settled to an unsettling white light reflecting on my face. I opened them and found the camera opened on a phone, and a shutter click vibrated through my ears. I turned to my right and saw Harry grinning widely at the phone, which has just captured an image, presumably mine. It took me a few moments to fully awaken and then think about what's going on. 

I felt better after a good few hours' sleep, and peeked at the windows and realized it was morning. I looked back at Harry and saw he was still laughing at the picture, and he stopped smiling once he met my eye. 

"What did you do?" I asked, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand. It was too early for this. 

His lips curled into a smirk and he answered, "Morning sunshine," My stomach flipped at his morning raspy voice, but I ignored it and raised an eyebrow, giving him a questioning look.

"Nothing," he murmured, biting his lip to control his smile.

"Harry? What have you done?" I asked, glancing at the clock. It was quarter to eight. He pointed the phone to me for a millisecond and turned it back to him. I gasped at the photo he took of me, which made my face turn beetroot red in embarrassment. 

He took a selfie of us, with me sleeping in a weird position, my mouth open and drooling into his shirt, my hand on his tummy, my head in the crook of his shoulder, while he pulled an awkward face at me, clearly controlling his grin. 

I saw a tinge of pride in his face as he looked at the photo, and it made me even more embarrassed. 

"Harry, give it to me." I said, as calmly as possible. I held out my hand, but he pretended to give it a thought and shook his head. 

"No. What's the purpose of taking the photo if you are simply going to delete it?" 

"Harry. Please. I am requesting you." I pleaded.

"What's in it for me?" 

"A punch on your nose if you don't hand it to me in the next 3 seconds!" I retorted, and he looked taken aback from my statement and pouted.

"I'm sorry Clara, I can't give it to you. There is too much personal information in this phone, and I can't afford to take the risk. What if you work under a secret company of aliens, and you are an undercover human-like-robot for them, and you are just one phone call away from kidnapping me, blackmailing me, dragging me to your planet, holding me hostage, and my freedom remains at the cost of control over the world?"

I rolled my eyes at his crazy theory and tried to snatch the phone out of his hands. He lifted it high up, above his head, and I raised my body up to grab it, but his hand was like a giraffe's neck, and I wasn't able to grab a hold of it. He burst out in laughter at my unsuccessful attempts of seizing the phone.

I pushed myself up by the elbows and raised my right hand to match the height of his hand. I put my hands on either side of him and caught his arm. All of a sudden he stopped swiveling the phone, and he stiffened under me. 

I took this as an opportunity to snatch the phone and caught it in my hand. "Yay! See, now who's the winner, Styles?" 

I wriggled my eyebrows and smiled, looking at that dreadful picture. When he wasn't saying anything, I looked down at him and saw the intense look in his eyes. I realized the position we were in right now, my hair was brushing his cheeks, our bodies were almost touching, and the proximity of our faces was very close. 

We stared at each other for a moment. He lifted his head up and closed his eyes, while his lips brushed my bottom lip. I was perfectly still while my heart was pounding and my eyes were widened.