Daddy issues || h.s

3.6

The early summer breeze took a hold of the window, the hinges whispering as it flew open. The plants in the windowsill rustled their leaves, playing in the wind, but Harrys mind was buried within a hundred pages, tales from his childhood opening up in front of his eyes as she flipped through the book. 

Snow white, sleeping beauty, Cinderella, they were all stories he knew by heart, his mothers voice playing in his ears as he remembered how she had read for him every night before he went to bed. They clung to his memory, the happy princes and princesses smiling and dancing as they lived happily ever after. Oh how he longed for those words to be said about him; And then he lived Happily ever after. 

It was the most beautiful combination of words he could think of. Happily ever after. It was not the never ending aspect of time that appealed to him, it was the happily that had always tugged at his heart strings. Happily ever after.

He wondered if that meant they would be happy every second of every day, or if it meant that no matter how shitty their day had been, they would always be able to go to sleep with a smile on their faces. He didn't know it at the time, but one day, he hoped he would find out.

The front door slammed open, the sound ripping him out of his thoughts. His eyebrows knitted together in a frown, he wondered who it was that had opened the door so abruptly, and why they were home so early. But as the sharp sound of five-inch heels clicking against the hardwood floor reached his ears, he knew it was not the light summer breeze, but rather the cold winter morning that would sweep across his skin.

"You're home early." He said as Abigail walked into the room. She was wearing a black pencil skirt, the two top buttons of her red blouse undone, a subtle cleavage visible beneath it.

"I was going for lunch, but then I realised I was hungry for something else." Abigail said, kicking her shoes off as she made her way towards Harry. The couch dipped as her knees found their place at each side of his hips. Her weight rested upon him, her hipbones pressing against him as her lipstick stained his lips. 

"Did you miss me that much?" He said, the words drowning in her red mouth.

"Oh shut up," she smiled, her nails digging into his shoulders as her lips moved down his neck. His eyes hung half open, her touch paralyzing him, every kiss draining him for energy.

Her hands moved to his chest, her painted fingertips moving quickly as she unbuttoned his light blue shirt. As the buttons came undone, the heads of the two lovebirds on his chest peeked out, their black feathers rustling in the wind. Abigail's mouth fell open, her lips forming a smudged 'O'.

"What have you done to your beautiful skin?" She asked, a terrified look draping across her face.

"I found something I liked so much I decided to carry it with me for ever," he said, studying her face as he let the words spill from his mouth. His lips were covered in a thin layer of red, the colour staining his skin from his mouth to his cheekbone. It felt greasy, unnatural against his skin. He hoped it would was away easily.

"Why would you do that?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she looked at the black ink.

"Because it felt right, it felt like I was finally making a decision," He said, brushing a piece of dark hair out of her face. She immediately moved her head away, shying away from his touch. 

"I wish you wouldn't make that kind of decisions without me." She said, leaning back, her eyes boring into his.

"Why would I have to ask you? It my body" He said, his eyebrows mirroring hers as they knitted together.

"No its not" She said. As the words travelled from her mouth and to his ear, they blew across his skin, fragments of snow falling to rest on him.

"Excuse me? Yes it is, my body is mine, you do not own it." He said. "Would you like it if I claimed to own your body, to tell you what you could and could not do with it?"

"Of course I wouldn't, I would never let you." She said.

"But you still expect me to let you own my body?" She didn't answer. His words hung in the air, and he felt the snow on his skin melt as a small fire lit inside of him. 

"That's because you aren't in a position to own anyone." She eventually said, her weight on his suddenly feeling like a thousand ton.

"And you are?" Flames licked his words, and she could feel the heat on her face.

"Yes, yes I am. Is that what you want me to say?" She stood up, the couch rising as her weight left it.

"No, that is not what I want you to say. I want you to understand that no one can own another human being, that no one has the right to tell you what you can and cannot do." The words shot from his mouth like bullets from a gun, the gunpowder sticking to his lips, and the flashes lighting up his eyes as he spoke.

"You think like a child sometimes Harry, of course some people have to be in charge, or else society would fall apart." Abigail said, buttoning her shirt and wiping away her ruined lipstick.

"I am not talking about society, you know that. I am talking about basic respect and the foundations of human relationships. You cannot own someone's body, just like you cannot own someone's mind. People can give you parts of their body, or give you glimpses of their minds, but you can never own someone fully, just like you can never know someone fully." He drew his breath, the words streaming from his lips so fast he couldn't breathe. "And how can you expect someone to give you parts of them if you never give them parts of yourself."

"I don't have time for this Harry, I have to get back to work, because that is what real adults do." She said, her words ringing in his ears long after she left the room. 

The flames that had started licking up his throat, spread across his skin, licked up his jaw and suddenly his chest caught fire. Embers glowed in his lungs, and head radiated from his eyes. He wiped away the lipstick on his cheek, the stark, red colour being reduced to a soft, pink glow as the fire inside of him rose to an inferno that swallowed everything in his wake.

Then suddenly the backyard door opened, and as he turned around, he found himself standing face to face with the light summer breeze.