How It's Going To Be [h.s.]

Chapter 8

{Harry's Point of View}

I stood in the kitchen of her flat leaned against the counter lazily. I was reading through a long collection of unread text messages on my phone. Most of them were from the boys and management asking about Kate. A few messages were from friends about going out while I still had free time. I quietly laughed at the thought. A week ago, I would have jumped at the possibility of going out with Kate and my friends and having a good time, but those days seemed so far behind me. Now my focus was completely on my girlfriend and getting her health back in order.

Kate was upstairs packing to stay at my country house for a week. We had decided to get out of the city for now. Though she wouldn't admit it, she needed more rest than she was getting. Kate never complained, but I saw her eyes squint in pain when there was bright light and I saw her rest her head in her hands when a wave of pain took over. And earlier I saw her back was still blue with bruises when her shirt rode up.

It had been nearly twenty minutes and Kate had promised to be faster. If we didn't leave soon, we would hit traffic coming out of the city. I put my phone in the pocket of my jeans and slowly walked up the stairs.

"Hey," I leaned against her doorframe.

"Hi." She was standing by her dresser looking in a jewelry box. In her hand was the gold charm bracelet I had gotten her ages ago. There were several gold charms dangling from the chain. She placed it back in the box. "I'm ready to go."

"Okay." Kate took a few steps toward me and handed me her bag to carry. "Why don't you go downstairs and put your coat on. I've got this."

"Sure," she smiled and walked right past me on her way to the coat closet.

I quietly walked over to the jewelry box and removed the charm bracelet. I examined it for a moment. Without a second thought, I dropped the bracelet in my coat pocket and shut the jewelry box. I turned the bedroom light off and headed down the stairs to where Kate was waiting for me.

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{Kate's Point of View}

As we drove out of the city, Harry turned the radio on. A song he knew started playing and he sang along quietly. I had no memory of Harry singing and to finally hear him gave me chills. I tried not to stare as the words fell from his lips. Each note was carefully sung with the deepness of his voice that I loved. Sometimes, his riff would deviate from that of the singer's, making a soft harmony. I was completely consumed by the quiet melody coming from Harry.

"Did you hear me?" Harry reached over and turned the radio off.

"Huh?" I had been so distracted by thoughts of his singing that I missed that he had stopped singing and started talking to me.

"Do you want to see some of the town?"

"Sure," I nodded.

Harry's country house was nestled along a rural road that led to a small town. There were very few people that lived in the town making it easy for Harry to walk around freely without crowds following him. He had mentioned sometime before that he loved the town's charm.

We parked along a cobblestone street where a thin layer of snow had covered nearly every surrounding surface. People walked along the road seemingly unaware of the freezing temperatures.

Harry came to my side of the car and opened the door to help me out. As he locked the car, he took my hand and led me to a small shop. "We come here quite often."

"What is this place?"

Harry didn't answer, but instead opened the door to the shop and followed me inside. There were brightly colored walls and black and white tiled flooring. Tables were scattered around the small shop and there was a counter where a young girl was perched behind it.