Intent [Wattys 2017]

Chapter 32

Emma

"Morning–"

"Hey Emma, is everything ok? I heard a lot of banging and thought I should check up on you" my friend Sophia asks.

"Oh hahaha" I nervously chuckle when I hear Harry do the same quietly behind me. "Don't worry, everythings fine."

"You sure? Cause I saw your fiends and then–" Oh god, course she saw Harry acting like a wild child when he came in.

"No no no" I say waving my hands " that was really nothing Sophia, but thanks for checking, that was so sweet but all's fine." I just want to get back to bed and Harry's sweet kisses all over my skin, I get goosebumps at the mere thought, hope she doesn't notice.

"Ok ,I'll leave you to it than" she says before turning away slowly when I notice the bags under her eyes, has she been crying?

"Soph, wait" stepping out into the hallway, closing the door almost all the way behind me as I hear Harry groan a little but she's upset and my friend and my job to make sure everything is ok, and at the very least she did the same for me. "Is everything ok? You look upset."

"No I'm fine" she says pulling on the sleeve of her sweatshirt, not making eye contact with me.

"Come on you're obviously not, why don't we go downstairs and have a cuppa."

"Thanks Emma but I don't want to keep you" motioning towards my bedroom door.

"Sophia, what do you think you're keeping me from at this early hour of the morning?" I ask playfully crossing my arms over my chest.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" She smiles at me. Sophia knows me too well. We haven't been friends for a long while. I met her last year when she joined the school's polo team I'm a part of, captain of it actually but I would never be one to toot my own horn. She's a fantastic player and we get along really well. So well in fact that I promoted her to under captain at the end of last season. Finding people I get along with so well is rare for me. That's not to say I'm not friendly, course I am but when it comes to true friends, like people I want to share things with is a rare occasion but Sophia is one of those occasions. We've bonded over our love of the game, our intensity over academics, and the fact that we had the same type of crass humor that normal people thought was a bit much.

"Alright Soph," knowing her joke is an unmistakable sign that we will be having tea in the next few minutes. "I'll start the water and you come down whenever you're ready."

I quickly make myself downstairs to the kitchen. These moments are some of my favorite in the house. I just love the times when no one else is up and about. This place is always so full of students and residents and just people in general that it's hard to get a time to myself in such a beautiful house.

I love it here. This place is home, more so than any other place I've lived in my whole life. My friends are here, they're my family really. It's safe here and homely here and to put the cherry on top of the cake that is my life, Harry is upstairs waiting in bed for me to return.

Making my way through to the kitchen I pull two mugs from the cupboard, tea bags and sugar from the pantry, and the milk from the refrigerator and place them on the kitchen island before I move to turn on the hot water.

It's silly how happy I am right now. Almost giddy really. I hear Sophia enter the kitchen just as I'm pouring the hot water into our mugs.

"Wanna stay in here or head into the den?" I ask dunking the tea bags into their respective cups.

"Here's good, the kitchen is actually my favorite room if I'm honest."

"Thats to funny, it's mine too." I say throwing out the teabags and handing one over to her. We both sit down on stools around the kitchen island but she doesn't say anything. Sophia's quiet, hugging her cuppa and taking small sips.