regrets ⇝ hs

xvi. pancakes

BROOKLYN'S POV

I blinked my eyes open with a yawn, letting my eyes adjust to the light for a moment before I noticed a slight pressure on my arm.

I looked down to find Harry's arm laid over mine, and looked at him to see he was still fast asleep, his chest rising and falling slowly, small snores escaping his lips. They were not loud or obnoxious, but quiet and gentle, his breath fanning over my skin through his parted lips.

Though it was quite strange, I did not mind Harry's arm being on me as much as I thought I would. It was a simple thing, just a small touch, but I figured that I would have pushed his arm off by now. However, not wanting to wake him, I stayed still, listening to him breathing for a few moments before his soft snores came to a halt and his eyes began to open slowly. I could not bring myself to look away as he came through, his cheeks slightly red as he blinked his eyes open.

His bright green eyes trailed from my face, where they had remained for a moment, to where his arm was now almost draped across my body. His cheeks turned a deeper shade of red as he quickly moved it away, pulling his arm to his chest. I half expected him to retreat to his own bed as hurriedly as possible, but that was the second thing to oppose my expectations, for he remained where he was, beneath the comforter of my bed. His arm was no longer over me, but his shoulder was pressed against mine.

"You could have moved my arm," were the first words Harry spoke. No good morning, or questioning me on how I slept, just an irritable comment about his limb.

"Good morning to you too," I mumbled and moved away from Harry a bit, playing it off as if I had shifted to grab my phone when, in reality, I had just wanted to get away from the boy with the grumpy morning attitude.

I heard a huff come from Harry as I pushed myself up, leaning back against my pillow and opening my phone. I did the usual deed of deleting the entire bulk of my aunt's and my uncle's text messages, which were beginning to lessen more and more each day. I wasn't sure if I should be glad about that, because the constant messages had been getting quite annoying, or disappointed, because their care for me was slowly dwindling down to merely nothing. Their texts not only lessened in amount, but in capacity. They were usually now very short, meaningless messages such as 'Come home please' or 'We miss you', one thing I would never do, and the other something they would never do.

"Sorry," Harry said, taking my phone from my hands and humming softly as he examined it. "Your phone sucks. You need an iPhone."

I crossed my arms over my chest, quirking my eyebrow up at Harry as I decided making a sarcastic remark was definitely justified. "Well, aren't you just a ray of sunshine this fine morning?"

Harry gently tossed my phone into my lap where the comforter was laying over me. "Oh, absolutely. Always a bundle of joy in the mornings."

I slapped his arm gently before picking up my phone and shrugging. "I'm used to my phone. I don't want a new one."

I received nothing but a laugh in response before I sighed and laid my head back on my pillow. I closed my eyes and yawned, drumming my fingers on the mattress of the bed.

"What's the plan for today?" I mumbled, wetting my lips with my tongue.

"I don't know," I heard Harry reply. His shoulders rubbed against the pillow as he shrugged, making a rough sounding noise, letting me know that he had done the action. "Anything, really."

I sighed and balled my hands into fists, using them to gently rub my eyes before opening them. "There's nothing to do."

Harry rolled his eyes at my whiny voice, looking down at me as if I was a little kid who was bothering him. He lay down next to me on the bed with his hands under his cheek. "I know there isn't, babe."

HARRY'S POV

"I know there isn't, babe," I mumbled as I lied beside her, chuckling softly and sliding my hands under my cheek, against the pillow. I stared into her eyes, the eyes that I had recorded as 'creepy' the first time I had really spent time with her. However, that was only before I realized who she was.

Brooklyn huffed and pouted her lips a bit; looking directly at me and making me smirk slightly in amusement. I do not know if she was trying to look angry or defiant, or something of the sort, but she was failing miserably. Instead, she looked like an innocent little puppy dog that just wanted some love.

"Well, figure something out!" she whined.

I snickered and shook my head, pulling my hand out from between my face and the pillow to poke her nose. "Why don't you figure something out, missy?"

Brooklyn groaned in response, swatting my hand away and making me laugh. "I have no clue what to do. We're broke and jobless as of right now. We can't do much."

I nodded and hummed softly. "There is always the beautiful form of entertainment that is the television."

Brooklyn giggled quietly, probably at my choice of words, and tucked her hair behind her ear. "That works. Can we order some breakfast? I'm starving."

I nodded and dialed room service, reciting her order just as she spoke it to me and then ordering my own pancakes with bacon on the side. The two of us sat back against the bed as Brooklyn turned on the television, neither of us getting too comfortable; we knew someone would be getting up to answer to door for our food in a matter of minutes.

Much channel surfing later, we had settled on watching reruns of The Fosters on ABC Family. Brooklyn went on about how it had always been one of her favorite shows, and she had stayed up until ridiculous hours of the morning just to watch episodes on Netflix and get herself caught up to what was being shown on the TV show currently.

Inevitably, I had been the one who had to get up to retrieve our food, but I hadn't minded much seeing as I was closest to the door anyway. I brought the food into the room and set Brooklyn's tray on her lap, climbing into the bed while balancing my own in one hand and using the other hand to pull the blanket up for me to shift my legs under. Once settled, I set my tray on my lap as well and began eating, drizzling the little pack of syrup the hotel had provided me with all over the stack of three buttermilk pancakes.

As we ate, we ate in silence until we had finished, still not uttering a word.

I could not help but glance over at her in the midst of the fifth episode of The Fosters that we were watching, taking in every aspect of her that I could from the side. Her eyelashes were quite long, and her jaw line was not very sharp. Her hair never stayed in place, and I held myself back from tucking it behind her ear rather than letting her do it every time it fell beside her cheek. She had faint, unnoticeable from a distance, freckles on her cheeks that went across one cheek, around her nose, and, by assumption, probably sprawled out across her other cheek that I could not see.

"Why are you staring?" Her words broke my thoughts, making my heart jump slightly as her head turned to look at me. I had been correct; the freckles went across to her other cheek.

The piercing gaze of those grey-blue eyes put me in a frozen state when they looked into mine, but I kept my cool and spoke calmly. "Why not, babe?" A grin spread across my lips as she rolled her eyes, her lips pursing in response.

"Well, stop it. You're making me uncomfortable."

That was definitely not my intention; therefore I nodded and redirected my attention to the television. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

I'm sure my response had shocked her, because I could see her lips parted as if she was about to say something through my peripheral vision. I couldn't help but snicker a bit as she turned back to the TV, probably confused to say the least.

Little did she know, I did not hate her, as she probably thought I did. I was not as bitter of a person as I came across as to her. And I certainly did not mean to abandon her back in 2006.

(SORRY THIS IS SHORT AND BORING ITS A FILLER I KNOW BUT ITS GONNA GET BETTER I PROMISE. PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT YOU GUYS IM SO DISCOURAGED AT THIS POINT I REALLY DON'T WANNA POST ANYMORE...)