bedfellow | harry styles au

thirty six

arabella woke up in a empty bed putting her in a anxious mood, her stomach doing somersaults  at what might be happening next door with harry and his father. she rubbed her eyes hoping it would relieve some of the burning but found it in fact didn't help at all only making it worse.

a hand knocking against the door made her roll over. she didn't know if she could deal with her mother at the moment. 

"arabella? can we please talk?" her mother pleaded softly from the other side of the door after her knocking ceased so she could be heard.

"go away!" arabella yelled in response. 

her head suddenly hurt from trying so hard not to cry, she didn't want to start her day off by crying. using her two pointer fingers she rubbed her temples hoping  it would subdue. the ache that began in her temples traveled to her chest where it constricted unhealthy.

she suddenly began to let the knowledge of last night hit her again full force, causing her to bring her knees up to her chest. 

she wanted to scream, and cry, and yell, and laugh at the absurdity of it all.  

arabella had a special bond with her mother where she was in retrospect her only friend. she had laughed with her while watching movies when she was home, also making a point to do face masks while sipping smoothies to act as if some rich girls in a movie.

now it's all shattered, laid to ruin as the truth surfaced. all those happy times arabella now saw tainted by her  mother's lie, what else had she lied about?  arabella couldn't help but wonder.

arablella scrambled out of bed trying not to trip over her feet as she jogged to the bathroom suddenly overtaken with the need to take a extremely hot shower. 

under the stream of hot water, arabella began to feel her tense muscles begin to relax.  when the water coming from the shower head became cold, she decided it was time to get out. with a towel wrapped  her body she paused to stare at her reflection in the fogged mirror. 

even with her reflection distorted by the steam she could see how knotted her hair was, despite just getting out of the shower. she could also see the dark bags under her eyes at the late night she had, and how emotionally exhausting it was.

she sighed and walked out of her bathroom disappointed in her appearance to freeze at the sight of harry. a quick scan over harry  to see no new bruises that she could see other than the nasty bruise his father created last night.

she then became very aware of  harry's eyes traveling up and down her almost naked body, her cheeks flushing a bright red. 

"uh, um how did it go?" arabella sputtered trying divert the attention so it wasn't solely on her.

" at first he wasn't very happy with me," harry started scratching the back of his neck his eyes shifting from the floor to hers.

"but, i argued and told him that i wasn't going to let you go. you are the one good g.oddamn thing in my life, that i'm in love with you and nothing was going to stop that," harry rambled staring into arabella's tearing eyes.

"and  how dare he thinks you are terrible just because your mother has made mistakes and you were her kid does not automatically make you a bad person like he sees your mother as, because that is not fair," harry continues to go on as arabella officially starts crying.

harry steps closer to her, "and i told him if he ever lays a hand on you in any way, shape, or form i would kill him. and do you know what he said? he said he was proud of me." harry let's out a laugh.

arabella had one arm holding her towel up the other one she brought up to wipe the tears from her cheeks, "i was really trying hard not to cry today." 

"happy tears though right?" harry said cautiously making arabella laugh.

"yes happy tears."

"good," harry mumbled pressing a kiss to her forehead " now go get dressed, so i can kiss you properly."

{ hi! the amount of attention this novel is astounding. thank you all so much for being apart of it, it means the world. thoughts on the chapter? there is a decent chance of an update later this week!}