The Parent Plan » Harry Styles

Chapter 25

— Harry & Monica —

Ranting is a way to vent out feelings, and sometimes some people tend to rant more than others. It's more often for those who refuse to let their feelings out but when it comes too much, they just... explode. (Not literally, of course.) And this ranting could be because that person is angry, upset, frustrated or in this case, confused. Harry was currently ranting because of confusion to Miss. Kayla, hoping she could give him some of her mystical wisdom.

"I honestly don't see the problem, Harry," Miss. Kayla cuts him off, seizing her knitting to look up at the frazzled lad. After the lesson with Athena, Harry had asked Kayla to wait a minute so they could talk. He simply needed someone to talk to and something tells him that he shouldn't go to the lads for help. (He's had enough of those gossip girls.)

He is currently pacing in the kitchen, hair in complete disarray from tugging at it's ends — times like these he wish he still had his long hair so he wouldn't tug on it, rather, he would just run his hands through it furiously — and a frown on his face with eyebrows pulled down in thought. "Just ask her out again."

"It's not that simple." Harry bats away her suggestion without so much of a glance up to the woman. His eyes stay on the hardwood floor, too many thoughts flooding his mind to form coherent sentences — which is why Kayla Springs thinks this problem has a simple solution. Harry is awful at explaining things with his thoughts all jumbled up like this.

"You're afraid to move on," Kayla states, placing her needles down onto the table.

"No, I — "

"Let me tell you a story," She interrupts, urging him to take a seat across from her. Harry huffs but complies to her wishes, taking a seat on the cushioned chair and fiddling with his fingers. "There was this man named Toby — a dashing man, really, who could steal any girl's heart — "

"I've already heard this before — "

"Not if I say you haven't," she says with a narrowed gaze before returning to her story. "Anyways, this man was every girl's dream and I had been blessed with the privilege of being his - and for quite some time too. Our story starts off like any other cliché, with the cheerleading captain and the football player — the it couple, you could say, of the school. We were meant to grow old together and peacefully pass away next to each other in our sleep."

"Kayla, you don't have to..."

"But before we could, Toby was diagnosed with cancer," she continues anyway, knowing that even though the story hurt saying, she felt okay. When she would think of that bad time, it would be overcome by a better one. "He passed away at the age of twenty-nine, simply too young to ever go through that."

"I'm..."

"Hush, child, let me finish." She looks up from the table and meets Harry's eyes. "The truth is, our story is one of happiness and I choose to look at that when things become hard — when I just miss him so much I just think, I will see him again and when I do, boy, will I have a lot to tell him. It took me quite a while to find the courage to start looking for someone new — I know that no one could ever replace Toby but I also know that he wouldn't want me to be alone."

"You didn't have kids, did you?" Harry seems almost scared to ask.

Kayla shakes her head and drops her gaze, letting a tiny smile graze her face. "I didn't want to have children with anyone, but Toby and we tried many times to but never succeeded, no matter how much I wanted one of my own. But I realized that I could still be with kids if I become a teacher and it's been quite amazing."