Mother Lucker | ✔

Chapter 4

sorry, not sorry | 04

HARRIET WAS HAVING some trouble processing everything that had happened. Her book was perched on her knees, and she was safely placed in a warm nook that consisted of blankets and pillows.

But she was feeling uncomfortable.

She scoffed. She was feeling uncomfortable, in her own home. It had been two days since the dreadful offer (or command) had taken place, and Harriet wanted nothing more than to sink into oblivion.

To hell with her future.

Harriet was just feeling better when the doorbell let out a loud, tinkling ring.

"Mom!" Harriet screamed. "The door!"

No answer.

"Fuck," Harriet muttered, regretfully inching out if her spot and clambering down her staircase. She opened the door, trying to smother her annoyed face.

"Hi, sorry for the-"

Harriet stopped. She stared.

"What are you doing in front of my house?"

Daniel scowled back at her astonished face. "It's raining out here stupid. I don't think you want me to get pneumonia."

"Oh, sorry. I meant, what the fuck are you doing in front of my house."

"I'm waiting to be let in," Daniel said nonchalantly, rubbing his shoulders. Goosebumps had eroded everywhere on his pale skin. He didn't even wear a jacket.

"I think I'd rather watch you," Harriet smirked, and was about to close the door when his hand shot out and stopped her. Before she could blink, he was squirming through the door and dripping water everywhere on her floor.

"I think I'll just come in. Thanks for the invite Harriet."

Harriet could only gawk. Gawk at the audacity of Daniel's actions. Mentally gawk at her inability to move.

"Wha-what do you think you're do-"

"I'm saving my grades of course!" Daniel exclaimed, "Let's go to the living room. It's more spacious there anyway."

Harriet gawked.

Before she could say anything, he was taking off his shoes and walking into her house, like it was no big deal. No big deal!

"You know this counts as breaking and enteri-"

"So the competition only allows partner dances, quite unfortunate I know, so I was thinking maybe waltz, or salsa."

"You basically are committing a crim-"

"No, we shouldn't do the waltz. Too many emotions, am I right?"

Harriet stopped trying to butt in. In fact, to her horror, she felt a smile creeping onto her perfectly schooled features.

"Salsa it is! Man, I didn't know you're so picky." He froze after glancing at her. "And I did not know you were capable of smiling".

Harriet immediately wiped the slight turning of her lips and schooled her face into stone once more.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Salsa? What, do I need to get some high heels to go with that?"

Daniel glared at her. "Fine! It doesn't even matter, the dance is going to hell no matter what we do."

Harriet nodded in agreement. "You are absolutely right."

Daniel gave an annoyed look, but stayed quiet, as if waiting for her to say more. Rolling her eyes, Harriet slumped onto her sofa and started to play with her fingers.

"That's it? 'You're absolutely right'" Daniel said with a terribly high-pitched imitation of her voice.

"Yep," Harriet replied, popping the 'p'.
By that point, Harriet was hoping that her sofa would swallow her whole so she wouldn't have to deal with him, but she was having no such luck. She also knew there was no way she was going to get him to leave her house, unless she was strong enough to physically push him. Last time she checked, her gym membership had been voided for three months and she did not like to benchpress on a daily basis.

Silence.

"I don't know, salsa is pretty fast." She reluctantly stated, wrapping a stray blanket around her body. Daniel smiled. The act made her strangely breathless.

"We can do fast."

Harriet grimaced. "Calm down there, Usain Bolt. Let's just do some normal hiphop stuff. Maybe some good ol'Cupid Shuffle." Daniel raised a perfectly scultped eyebrow, hiding another growing smile. Her breath left her lungs for the second time. Damn, that's going to be a problem. She cleared her throat. It wasn't her fault that they weren't on smiling basis. She didn't know that he was even capable of smiling like that. "The macarena sounds tight."

Daniel shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat, milady." Another glare. "But there's something we need to settle."

Now it was her turn to raise an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

Daniel shrugged. Looked her in the eye.

"I don't care about what happens after this stupid competition. I don't care if we get last place, or if afterwards we never look at eachother again. Honestly, I really don't care if this whole dance fiasco thing fails at the end, but that's all when it's over. We're doing this right now, and it doesn't matter if you don't like me, and I don't like you, because this is happening. And we are doing this. So I'm gonna need you to set aside our differences for however fucking long this takes, because I do not want to end up failing just because you can't keep your snarky remarks to yourself."

Silence.

Slowly, Harriet started to clap. "Wow. Just... Wow." She put an exaggerated hand to her heart. "The emotion, the candor." She grinned, and Daniel halted in place, a surprised look on his face. "I think I feel a tear coming on."

Daniel rolled his eyes to the sky, unfreezing. "Shut up and let's get this over with."

* * * * *

Daniel frowned into his AP Calculus textbook, replaying his meeting with Harriet in his head.

Huh.

She had a nice smile.

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EDITED...