Note To Self (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Thirty Three.

"Harry?" she repeated, before another round of knocks on the door were heard.

His heart felt like it would leap out of his chest as he hurried to pick the bottles back up, his voice cracking when he called back, "Yes, mom?" He felt guilty now. Now it felt like what he did was wrong. Now he worried.

"Hurry up, I need to get in there,"

Oh no. Oh no. She knows.

He swore she knew. "I'll be out in a second," he answered, holding his hands in front of the bottles he'd just picked up as a silent request for them to stay where they were on the shelf before he turned the water off and the room fell silent.

He opened up the glass shower door and grabbed the towel hung on the rack to dry himself off quickly, hoping to get out of the bathroom in as little time as possible. His mother never used that bathroom, the one he and his sister had fought over for years before she went away to college. Now it was his bathroom, there was no reason for her to use it. She and his father shared the one attached to the master bedroom. It was cluttered with her beauty products, covering the sink and filling the cabinets. His father always complained of there being no room for his own things, much like Harry had when Gemma was still living at home and she left dozens of hair products and moisturizers all over the place.

Harry wrapped the towel around his hips and hesitantly opened up the door. He knew she'd be waiting there, he just couldn't bring himself to look up from the floor to see. "What are you doing up so early?" she questioned.

He stepped out of the door frame, the cool air of the hallway raising goosebumps on his damp skin. He lied. "I couldn't sleep so I decided to get up." She accepted his lie as the truth and moved toward the steamy bathroom. "What did you need?"

"I need a shower and your father beat me to it," she explained. "Hopefully there's enough hot water left."

"Oh," he mumbled. He'd just been in the shower for what felt like an eternity, there wasn't much hot water left and he knew it. "I'm gonna go get dressed, it's cold."

She nodded her head before he headed back to his bedroom, not bothering with turning the lights on. The sun was just barely beginning to rise, leaving the sky a dark navy color that provided just enough light for Harry to guide himself back to bed. He dropped the towel to the floor and crawled under the covers, shielding himself from the cold and welcoming the soft feel of his bed. He was tired. He thought he'd been wide awake earlier, but that had worn off and left him feeling drowsy enough to allow his eyelids to flutter closed to rest until it was time for him to get up for school.

The bed was warm, so warm that his eyes didn't open back up until the sun was shining brightly on his face through the spaces between the blinds on his window. He groaned, rolling his naked body to lay on his other side away from the blinding light, where he was greeted with the view of Winnie asleep next to him.

He gave a lazy lopsided grin, poking his arm out from underneath the covers to pet her. Her eyes opened, but she didn't move. Neither did he. It was soothingly silent, only the hardly audible sounds of the birds chirping outside in the daylight. It felt like a Saturday morning, when he was well rested and got the opportunity to sleep in. That's when he realized it was far too bright in his room for it to still be early morning.

He shot up out of bed, startling the dog in the process, as he frantically wiggled out from under the covers and went on a pursuit for his phone. He checked everywhere. On the nightstand, in the sheets, threw his pillows across the room hoping the device was hidden beneath them. It wasn't, and it also couldn't be seen when he knelt down on the floor to check under the bed. It was nowhere to be found.