SHE (bk 1)

TWENTY-SIX

Harry was practically breathing down Clementine's neck lately.

It had been almost a week since she was injured from her incident with Max and every time the floor boards in her room creaked under her weight he was at her side. He wanted her feet to heal the correct way and the doctor had told her to stay in bed, but Clementine had a hard time keeping still. She was driving Harry mad with all her walking, yelling at her from his piano as she turned up in the living room. 

Clementine tip toed into the kitchen without Harry saying a word, the piano he was playing must have drowned out the sound of her feet on the tile. She grabbed the carton of juice from the top shelf of the refrigerator and poured a glass, Clementine was just happy he had finally gotten groceries. Harry was actually a really talented cook she had learned, but he never had anyone to cook for...until now. 

Every night he would prepare a delicious meal that surprised her each time, there were so many things she had yet to learn about him. It was exhilarating to learn new, little details about his life that she hadn't known, she longed to know everything. 

 "I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm falling," her head perked up at the sound of his light singing, a long sigh following the lines he had just beautifully sung out. She took a couple of light steps forward and peered around the corner of the wall, Harry's forehead was laying on the top of the wooden instrument. 

Clementine frowned deeply as he picked himself back up and continued to play, 

"You said you cared
and you missed me, too
and i'm well aware I write too many songs about you
and the coffee's out
at the beachwood cafe
and it kills me 'cause I know we've run out of things to say,"

Harry's fingers halted playing and wrote something down on the sheets sitting up in front of him. The look on his face was distraught and she could see the pain crossing his expression as he read what he had written. 

Stepping forward into the room she speaks quietly, "Are you okay?," her voice seems to startle him and a look of annoyance crosses his features as she makes her way toward the piano. 

He moves over slightly so she can sit beside him but she stands instead, "I told you to let me know if you needed anything Clementine...you're not supposed to be out of bed on your feet," he complains and she lets a smile grace her lips at his words. 

A phrase she had heard at least one hundred times over the past week. 

Harry was beyond caring in every way and it sent a shock wave through her whenever he gave her that look. His head was tilted down while he looked up at her from under his dark lashes, a small frowns pulling at his cupid bow lips. The green of his eyes was light and engaging as he waited for her response but she simply grinned at him. 

She was just happy someone cared for her well-being like he did. 

"Well here," she slides slowly onto the bench next to him and looked over the papers sitting in front of them on the wooden landing. "Now I am sitting on my feet...next to you," her eyes connect with his as she gingerly pushes her body into his playfully. He noticed how close they were, just a couple inches separating their lips as they held eye contact. 

Her lips start to quirk up into a smile as he stares deeply at her, "What?," the breath from her question pushes onto his face and makes his heart do somersaults in his chest. He always longed for her to be this close to him and to be looking at him the way she was looking at him. 

Her light gray eyes warm with kindness as she regarded the man before her. 

"You're just really beautiful," her mouth parts and she forgets how to breathe for a second as he tilts his head to really look at her. Her blonde locks in a low messy bun and her face clear of any make-up, even so she was the most gorgeous woman he had ever laid eyes on. 

She had never really been called beautiful and hearing the words fall from his lips made her extremely self conscious. Looking away from him she felt the tips of her ears heat and surely enough her face must have looked like a tomato. 

"What are you writing?," she turns the subject and decides to look back at him, the smirk covering his lips made her blush once more. He must know what he was doing to her when he says those things. 

He tears his eyes away from her no matter how hard it was not to stare, "Uh a song called falling," he frowns just thinking about the meaning of the song. 

"It's about her isn't it?," she inquires and he knows she talking about Camille but it takes him a minute to answer her because he wasn't sure why he was writing it anymore. 

He was drowning and he was gasping for air but ever since Clementine he was breathing easy, and laughing every single day which was rare for him. She was changing the way he was living his daily life and it was the most beautiful thing he had come to know, he normally didn't like change but this was amazing. Clementine was single handedly pulling him from the depths of despair, and she didn't even know it yet. 

"Uh yeah I guess...it's getting hard to write because i'm not in that place of complete distraught sadness now. She made it feel like I was unable to pull myself out of my anxiety, like I was drowning every day I was with her," he frowned and shuffled through the papers sitting in front of him. He was nervous under he thoughtful stare. 

She smiled suddenly, "Well isn't that amazing?," her words cause him to chuckle gently but she wasn't joking, "What? You're not distraught and drowning by yourself so if you can't finish this sing who cares, leave it with the bad parts of that relationship. Bury it," Clementine was always wise but this time he thought she was wrong. 

"I want to finish it mostly because I feel like it is a revenge song for me to begin with but I want to end it on a note that i'm not drowning anymore...like I found my way. I want people to know that I was hurt to a point of an emotional breakdown."

Clementine frowns and plays with her fingers, "You want her to know." She didn't care that he still thought about her but it was a little unsettling that he wanted to put out a song that made her think of her actions. She seemed remorseless .

Harry sighed, "No because I have a new happiness that I've never had before," he reaches out while taking a deep intake of air. His hand rests on top of her and she looks up quickly at the new warmth. 

Her lips part once more in surprise and she looks down at his lips while he does the same.