Keeper

Chapter 35

The discrete clicking of my father's car locking and the obnoxious yet subtle clacking of his tailored shoes filled the now silenced room. One of Harry's hands tore through his hair as he rooted through every creative crevice of his brain; his hopes set unrealistically high on conjuring up a plausible excuse for him being here or any successful way to avoid my father at all costs.


"Couldn't I just run out the back door real quick? I can go now and he won't even know I was any where near this freaking neighborhood.

Harrys words were rushed, and between his accent and run-on words I could hardly make out what it was that he was actually saying. All I knew was that any of the ideas that he might've had were without a doubt impossible to go through with.



"Don't you get it? My god, you don't do you? Your car is parked in front of the house, Harry. Your car. My dad has seen your car before, hell he probably has your license plate memorized knowing him."



Instead of spitting out repetitive curse words and hopelessly pacing back and forth across my carpeted flooring like I had first anticipated, Harry just stood there in an unrequited silence. His focus wasn't set on anything in particular, his eyes traveling to numerous empty spaces around my sparse baby blue walls. His thumb nail was held in between his teeth as he thought to himself; his eyes narrowly squinted in deep concentration.


"Do you hear that?" He finally asked after a brief moment of complete silence. His eyes met mine and stayed there as he waited for my response.


"Hear what exactly?" I asked.


"Anything? Do you here anything?" He asked again, raising one of his currently frowned eyebrows.



I shook my head that was becoming mixed with bitter confusion as well as frustration,


"I don't hear anything, sorry."



"Then I'm right," Harry spoke with a small nod.

"It's silent."



"So-"


"So where'd he go?" Harry interjected, his quick instincts coming into action as they quickly carried his lanky body to my far window.


His eyes raked the street below, a small, reassuring smile spreading across his lips.


"He's on the phone." He mumbled.


"So-"



"So that gives us more time to think. Think, think, think. Think of a plan, think of a- do you think you could call him?"


"Call him?" I persisted, unsure of what he was exactly getting at.


"Yeah. Yeah, call right now. Interject on his conversation. Tell him you need something at the store or some shit. That way he'll leave."


"But either way, he will still know your car was here."


"Maybe he'll forget, or maybe he didn't even notice? I don't know-shit that's the best I can come up with right now, okay? How about you try something? He's your dad for fuck's sake."


"Fine, no, no your right I'll call him." I mumbled, quickly pulling my phone off of the small bedside table. I scrolled through my contacts until I came upon his name. I hit dial and held it up to my ear in anticipation, the sound of the rapid beating of my heart combing with that of the obnoxious ringing of the phone itself.


All of a sudden it all stopped when my fathers voice boomed through the other end.

"Harley? I'm sorry but I'm in the middle of an important call at the moment, I'll need you to call me ba-"


"No, dad this seriously can't wait." I pleaded, the over exaggerated whine in my voice getting a huge kick out of Harry. " He was leaning against my wall with both his arms and legs crossed nonchalantly. The huge smile on my face told me I'd never hear the end of this.

My acting skills were not very up to par I must admit, but the improved idea in my head was sure to be golden.



My father let out a small sigh before dcontinuing,

"And what might that be, sweetheart?"


I glanced up at Harry and one of his hands raised, jokingly shooing me off as if silently telling me to continue.


"Tampons dad, I need tampons."


"Right this moment?" He asked, the exasperation in his voice easy to decipher.


"Yes, right now."


"Can't you just wait for your mother? I-I don't know anything about-"


"No, no I really can't. I'm all out. I need you to go to the store right now and buy me some."


"Can't it wait just a little bit?"


"No." I answered simply.


He sighed once again into the receiver,

"Fine. Do you prefer any specific...brand?"


"No, well um- whatever is cheapest is fine with me."


"Alright. Well I'll be right back with that." He mumbled.


"Thank you." I hummed before ending the call, the sigh escaping my lips causing Harry to break out into a laugh.


"You've got yourself a pretty good dad." He joked.


"Yeah he is...well, most times of course."


Harry stepped away from the wall and came closer to me. His hand wrapped itself around mine and with one small movement he had effortlessly pulled me into his side.



"You should get out of here." I spoke with a laugh, my head tilting towards the direction of my bedroom door. I looked back up at him, my head having to tilt upward in order to look him directly in the eyes. The forest green of his irises shown bright in the sunlight which was seeping through the numerous windows that adorned the walls of my room. His black pupils held an almost unrealistic shine, the way he slowly began to bat his eyelashes both childlike and charismatic.


"Well your dad won't be back for at least another five minutes, I figured I could stay for a little longer, yeah?"


"Good bye, Harry." I mumbled, doing my best to squirm out of his delicate yet secure grip.


"You at least need to tell me what you thought about today. Give me that."


I nodded and subconsciously bit my bottom lip,

"It was pretty great for a Monday if I'm honest. Got a candy bracelet out of the whole deal."

"So you had fun?" He asked, the small smile on his face making my heart melt.

"Yes," I laughed. "Now please, do both of us a favor and get out."




~




"For the next half of this semester we will be working solely in the dark room," My photography teacher, Miss Cole spoke in her fairly nimble voice. Her glasses were perched on the thin bridge of her Roman nose, her salt and pepper hair strewn back in a bun.

"You will be shooting, developing and printing your own black and white prints. Now, you will be using the classic method, the one that I and many great photographers have used. By December twenty-third-the day before you go on your long break for the holiday season-I will need five of your best prints to grade. These prints will be worth one hundred points if not more, so make they are your best."



As I lazily rested my head on my hand I glanced around the room. Most of the class was half asleep, discerning that it had not even reached nine o'clock in the morning. As time went by, my eyes floated towards the window facing the bountiful trees aligning our football and track field. The trees were now a perfect gold and crimson color, the sky somewhat dark and grey in color. An overcast had been predicted earlier this morning on the news, and it seemed to be coming into play.


I had channeled out the teachers explanation of our assignment lists and our paper and camera distribution process; my mind traveling back to the day before. Surprisingly enough, my father had dismissed the topic of Harry all together at the dinner table, his part of our daily dining room conversation about how he had seen an owl on his way to work this morning. He didn't appear angered nor skeptical when he returned back with my 'lady products', and he dared not question the disappearance of the car which was sat in front of our house minutes before he had left.



After the teacher had finished talking she had asked all of us to stand up, the groans and annoyed huffs coming from students making her frown.


"We're going into the dark room." She spoke simply, the clicking of her heels against the tiles echoing throughout the somewhat large room.


Everyone followed in her footsteps, their bodies moving like snails as we filed into the ironically dark room one by one. My eyes took several only mere seconds to adjust to the change in lighting, other students complaining to their friends that 'they still couldn't see shit.' after a good minute. I will admit it was much bigger than I had first expected, the proximity of the room almost the same as a normal sized classroom. Th walls were lined with machines the teacher had dismissed as 'projectors', the long table in the middle lined with different square containers that held various chemicals.


After Miss Cole's ongoing banter about the equipment and incredibly specific chemical process, she lead us back out of the room; my eyes squinting against my will as they fought and strained against the piercing, bright light overhead. Once my vision was back to normal I rubbed by eyes and took a seat, only to stand back up once against once the bell sounded off, marking the end of class.


I hadn't seen Harry since earlier this morning after he had picked me up and once the homeroom bell had rung. We didn't have P.E. together first period since it was an off day and nor did we share any other classes. He did give me a kiss on the cheek before we went our separate ways though; the gesture was small yet as I walked down the hallway I could still feel when his lips connected with the surface of my cheek, along with the way they seemed to linger before finally pulling away.


Three more classes went by and before I knew it my feet were carrying me in the familiar direction of the cafeteria. My eyes searched the growing crowd of people around me for both Harry and my friends, but nonetheless I came up short. Both tables were still empty as I walked into the loud room; the obnoxious chatter of teenage boys and the pretentious gossip of overly dramatic girls filling my ears. I decided to sit down at the table Harry and I had sat at days before, it was more secluded than the others as it sat further towards the darkened corner of the cafeteria. There was a light that had been blown out above, up high in the ceiling. Of course, the school didn't seem to care.


Once I took my book bag off I pulled a granola bar from out of it's front pocket. The oats inside had been beaten down to mush, but I honestly could've cared less.


The wooden bench next to me had creaked out of no where, causing me to crane my head to the side out of instinct. A dimpled smiled had greeted me along with bright eyes, and immediately I smiled back.


"Hey." Harry spoke, leaning his chin in his hand; his arm resting against the tabletop.


"Hey." I reciprocated, taking a small bite from my broken up, chocolate chip and caramel bar.


"Do anything interesting today?" He asked sarcastically with a light laugh, his lip ring catching in between his teeth as he waited for my equally sarcastic answer.


"Actually yeah," I answered in all honestly. "Well, kind of."


"Oh really?" He asked, cocking his head to the side."Like what?"


"Well in photography today we staring talking about making black and white prints. It was actually kinda cool, the teacher took us into the dark room in the far back of the room and man you should see it in there," I laughed.

"It's absolutely massive, although it does sort of take your eyes a good minute to adjust."



"You can't see anything?" Harry asked with a laugh, raising an eyebrow in question.


"What, have you never heard of a dark room before? Of course you can't see anything, it's completely dark, it's in the name for God's sake."


"No, of course I have." Harry defended, his furrowed eyebrows and devilishly narrowed eyes easily sought as a joke.


"I think it's going to be fun you know? A whole class period in the dark, nothing but the sound of the sink running and timers ticking. It'll be peaceful."

Harry nodded and took his eyes off of me, his attention occupied by the random groups of people passing by in front of us.

Without even looking back over at me his warm touch had found it's way to my jean-cladded leg. I flinched at his touch causing Harry to laugh. His hand had began to slowly tun up the length of my thigh, his fingers tracing delicate patterns here and there.


"What are you doing?" I laughed back, turning my head to look at him in the eye.


"Why don't you show me this little place of yours, yeah?" He whispered, the heat from his breath fanning out over the exposed skin on my neck.


"What? No, I can't." I stammered.


"But you said it yourself, it's peaceful. It'll just be me and you."

"There might be people working in there, Harry. An entire class could be in there for all we know." I mumbled back. One of my hands tried its best to pry Harry's hand away, only to fail miserably at absolutely no avail.


"It doesn't hurt to check," He continued to whisper, the words seeming to' rolling off of his tongue with a dreadful slowness.


"C'mon Harley."