Ready To Run // h.s

twenty six

mia

  Throughout the entire night, all I did was toss and turn. There were periods of time that I would go up and use the bathroom, but after a while Harry's grip on my waist grew too tight for me to even move around.

  "Harry," I whispered around four in the morning. "You gotta let go, I have to pee."

  "Mmmph." Harry mumbled. "No."

  I huffed and pried his hands off me, despite the burning desire to stay and let him hold me. I felt antsy; I needed to get up and move around or else I would just lie here thinking about all the different outcomes of the current situation.

  On my trial was Cat, who pawed at my fuzzy socks and rolled on the ground; wanting to play. I threw her one of her small toys before proceeding into the kitchen to grab a glass of pulp free orange juice. In the pantry I found an oatmeal cream pie, which I nervously scarfed down in three bites.

  "Mia?" A deep, sleepy voice said from behind me. I spun around on my heel, oatmeal cream pie still stuffed in my cheeks. "What are you doing awake at this hour?"

  "Uhh.." I finished chewing my food. "Couldn't sleep. Go to bed, I'll join you soon."

  "No." Harry frowned sleepily. "I need you with me to sleep." 

  "So the twenty years that you have lived without knowing me you haven't been able to sleep?" I retorted. "I promise, I'll come back to bed soon. I just have... a lot on my mind. I'm gonna take a Benadryl, or something."

  Harry closed the space between us, tugging on my arm while rubbing his sleepy eyes. Although he looked incredibly adorable when he was sleepy, I couldn't give in. When I hesitated, he sighed and cupped my face with his large hands, forcing me to look up into his eyes. 

  "It may be four in the morning, but something is clearly bothering you." Harry said. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

  "It can wait 'till morning." I said. "Really, it's okay." 

  "Come back to bed and we'll talk. I'm not going back to bed until you're feeling better about whatever it is, okay?" Harry tried. I nodded, letting him guide me back into bed, with Cat trailing along behind us as always. I didn't know how to tell Harry; I had planned on coming up with an elaborate speech but he had caught me off guard and I was going to have to spill at least some of the truth to him. I would spare details, of course, for the sake of us both. 

  The covers were still warm and Harry's body was incredibly comfy. He turned on the lamp that was perched on the desk on his side of the bed and looked at me, as if he was awaiting some explanation from me. I exhaled loudly, eyes wandering around the room as I tried to figure out the right words to say. 

  "So... this was going to wait until morning, because I didn't want to worry you or anything before bed." I rambled. "Uh, okay. When you got in the shower, I was reading through work emails- because I still own a branch of the family company and wanted to see if there was anything urgent that I was missing out on."

  "Oh no." Harry groaned.

  "It gets worse." I assured him. "There was a message from Matthew, and from colleagues that were sort of all the same, and one from my dad. He basically made threats to me that eventually I'll have to come back home or else something bad will happen, but for now he said that you and I both have to stay out of the tabloids or something... really, really bad will happen... to us both." 

  "Wow," Harry scoffed. "Well, alright."

  "I never wanted to get you involved in this mess." I said honestly. "My family situation.. it's pretty messed up, and my intention was never to get you added into it. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that you some how wound up in the mix of this."